Now and then I get phone calls or emails from people interested in learning ‘proper Spanish’. When I ask them what do they mean by the word ‘proper’ they give me reasons such as “I’ve heard that the Spanish from Latin America is not the same as the one from Spain” or “They say that the Spanish from Spain is very different from Latin American Spanish”. Trying to explain over the phone or email anything related to the nature of language, especially of complex topics like why language variation happens, it’s not an easy task; however, I do my best to help them with their queries.
The nature of language is to change and vary constantly. Spanish is one of the major world languages, spoken by hundreds of millions of people in many countries, most of them in the American continent. The vast amount of speakers creates a high degree of language variation. These variations are particularly evident in relation to the accents and vernacular regional vocabulary and idiomatic expressions used by people. Such variations are in many cases unique to a region or country where Spanish is the native tongue. The variations give origin to the many language varieties that exist within what is called ‘Spanish language’. Most people are acquainted with two broad varieties of this language: The ‘Latin American Spanish’ or in more proper terms - American Spanish - and the ‘Spanish from Spain’. Thus when people refer to ‘proper Spanish’ they may be referring to ‘Standard Spanish’ - the variety which is normally common to all Spanish speakers including native and non-native users.
Standard Spanish is a fully regulated form of this language. This variety is the language type promoted and accepted by the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language and The Association of Spanish Language Academies and it’s the type of Spanish generally taught and used by the school systems and the media. There is not such thing as ‘proper’ or ‘improper’ Spanish. There are only varieties of Spanish and they are all proper. Then when asking about ‘proper Spanish’ it’s better to ask for ‘Standard Spanish’.
Does proper Spanish mean something else for you?
Filed under: Foreign Language Learning, Language learning, Spanish, Spanish Language Learning
What I personaly concider proper Spanish would be Spanishfrom the main city in Spain, but the apparent Universal Spanish is from Mexico. Is this wrong? I can not say, but it is definitely different from other South American Spanish, many words are similar, but not always. But sometimes it also goes as far as to some one word may mean one thing and to another is an insult. Minor example is for Chilean Pendejo it is a way to say Pubic Hair, to Argentinian it means a Little Child. There are many other differences, but to me Span Spanish is proper, and that it has to come from the place (City) of origin. Remember Latin America was started by Spaniards.
Hola Miguel,
I didn’t know that there was a ‘Universal Spanish from Mexico’; this is the first time I hear that!
What I’ve tried to explain here, it’s to do with the nature of the Spanish language as a whole. It has nothing to do with regional or national variations, as they are too many and far too broad to be considered in a short post like this.
Standard Spanish (a regulated form of Spanish, generally the one recognized by the Spanish Language Academy) is the only ‘universal’ language type – and it doesn’t belong to anyone. This Spanish variety is a widely accepted form of Spanish. The Castilian Spanish (from Spain) and all the Spanish varieties from the American continent are all legitimate forms of modern Spanish.
There are many varieties of Spanish currently in use. They are all legitimate and from the linguistic point of view none of them is better or worse than any other. They simply are means for oral and written communication used by people that must be studied according to cultural and historic considerations.
This entry of “proper Spanish” reminds me of when people say “speak proper English.” It’s a never ending debate. Beginning students of Spanish should strive to learn grammatically correct Spanish and not obsess about whether what they’re learning is “universal”, “proper” or “standard”, since it will be all three if they do that one thing.