Internet: Integrity and the borders of the spanish language

Although the title of this post may sound very ambitious, the result won’t be that. In reality I’ll just make some notes with respect to this to gather information and to not forget some ideas.

First some facts: Spanish, or Castilian, is currently the world’s second most spoken language, with about 495 million speakers. Spanish is also the third most used language on the Internet, and the second most used language on Twitter.

Spanish is the official and most important language by the number of people who speak it, for 21 countries (19 in the Americas, plus Spain and Equatorial Guinea) and it is widely spoken in other countries such as the U.S.

However, the «Spanish» spoken in these different countries can diverge much or a little depending on the degree of influence they have from another language, or even of its isolation (retaining archaisms).

One of the main threats, according to some, to the integrity of the Spanish language are anglicisms as gallicisms were previously. Anglicisms in modern times are disseminated by television and the Internet. Obviously it is not that the survival of the language we use is threatened, as many other languages are​​, but that some purists tend to be shocked with the sometimes perpetual borrowing of words from English.

Occasionally the RAE (Spanish Royal Academy) accepts the words as they are, and one that is computerized and has always had trouble explaining certain things in Spanish, remains with a quieter conscience but other times, words proposed by the regulatory body of the language fall into the laughable realm, as bluyín for blue jeans, or güisqui for whiskey. And while I suppose phonetically they are a good solution, come on, who uses them?

And it is sometimes forgotten that the language is alive and constantly evolving. And as much as the academy can regulate something, if the people do not want to use it, nothing can be done.

Until a few years ago, before the Internet and television, there were not so many opportunities for the common mortal to hear ways of speaking outside his environment. In the same way, travel was an expensive thing and not so popular. So most people were hardly ever leaving their town or region. It has therefore been this context of geographic and cultural isolation that gave rise to the different regional varieties of Spanish that I mentioned before.

It’s not that a Mexican can not be understood by an Argentine, of course they can, beyond some local, regional idiomatic turns, accents or intonations, there is a basic Spanish we all understand, which is sometimes called neutral Spanish, not to be confused with the standard Spanish. However, we must recognize that if not for the work of the Spanish Royal Academy and the creation of the Academy counterparts in America’s countries, linguistic differences in our countries would be greater, despite  having been at the time en example of a certain cultural colonialism.

The contemporary: radio, records, movies, television, helped to bring the language varieties closer in favor of countries with strong production in these areas and to the detriment of those who do not, as in the case of Mexico and Argentina for the former. But this brought some unexpected consequences, like having almost all children from one generation of the hemisphere saying Mexican words and turns after seeing  «El Chavo del ocho» (a mexican sitcom), which some describe as a form of cultural imperialism.

With modernity and globalizing processes undereway, this tendency to disappearing regional boundaries for the Spanish language has increased, and the Internet plays an important role here. Although, again, not everything is positive, if you have any doubts just take a look at the controversy that triggers things like SMS language, which is the use (and need) of deleting letters, shrinking words and other  things to communicate what is needed in a limited number of characters.

Things get to such a point that people sometimes speak of the Internet as a threat to the integrity of the Spanish, arguing that encouraging the use of anglicisms and contributing to the impoverishment of language serve as a mean of spreading typing errors, thus minimizing the importance of spelling and even grammar.

But perhaps this is not entirely true, languages evolve and the Internet is the field where all this is enhanced. It is likely that this development will not please everyone, but it is the future, and it will come regardless of our preferences and the «official» opinion. In fact, it is because of the Internet that the academy has been forced to react much faster than before to changes in the language.

Personally on this topic I see the Internet as a powerful tool for the equalization and standardization of language. Despite the great digital divide that exists in our corner of the world, people are increasingly using the Internet, whether by public hotspots, home or via cell phones. And our circles expand exposing us to the various ways of speaking Spanish. Over the years this process will end, I think, by disappearing or at least minimizing these differences and popularizing others, mutating them from being differences to be the norm.

So the risk that Spanish fragments itself into different languages, as it happened with Latin after the disappearance of the Roman Empire, giving rise to the romance languages, one ​​of which is Spanish, is increasingly distant, among other things thanks to the internet, which as explained above is helping to preserve its homogeneity, blurring geographical and cultural borders between all countries where it is spoken.

This post is for: Future Challenges Blog Carnival: Does the Internet Create a New Supranational, Borderless Culture?

Thanks to Marianna Breytman for proofreading this post.

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