Monday 27 December 2010
Wednesday 1 December 2010
Kings of Leon (and Castile)
Kings of Leon do not sing in Spanish. Do they sing in Castilian?
Well, in English there is no problem at all. The language spoken in Spain and the Americas is called 'Spanish'. Spain was the name of the empire (The Spanish Crown) and Spanish its language. In Spanish, however, the term 'Spanish' is quite recent since its speakers made the historical distinction about the exact extraction of that language: the Kingdom of Castile. Until the 1920s the most common term to refer to the Spanish language was castellano, that is, Castilian. In the 2009 January-June issue of the Bulletin of The Royal Spanish Academy Julio Arenas argues that the noun 'Spanish' was directly and indirectly coined by Menéndez Pidal, who tried to be more specific about the Spanish language as a philological subject. The term Castilian was wrongly used to name the language that absorbed other romance languages such as the Leonese and the Navarro-Aragonese, argued Menéndez Pidal. In other words, Castilian was the historical root of a language that incorporated other languages. Spanish is the teleological noun, that is, the noun that explains the language's purposes or objectives (its present and future), no longer its craddle (its past), which arguably is to give the language unity and identity. Following that argument, we should no longer use the noun English since that language absorbed many other languages spoken in the British isles (and many more abroad). How about the British language? No, thank you very much.
Fortunately, the speakers of English do not have a Royal Academy full of nonsense-prone gaga academics who try (to not avail of course) to rule the Castilian spoken world. If we stick to Arena's teleological argument, the language spoken in Spain and the Americas should be called the Spanish-American language. But is not called that way (I would rather call it Spanish-Columbian, since Americo Vespuci had nothing to do with the spreading of Castilian. Spanish-Macondo would do it as well). The teleological argument would imply that we should add every corner of the world where the language is being spoken or is being ferociously sold as a cultural product, the ultimate teleology of the Spanish Government and its Instituto Cervantes as far a s the Spanish language is concerned. Now let us examine the term as an adjective. What do we understand by Spanish literature? Does Spanish literature comprise the literature written in Catalan or Galician? Does it comprise the literature in Spanish written in the Americas? To be specific we have to use the term Spanish-language, that is, the literature in 'lengua española'. More inadequate nonsense. Castilian would have sufficed. Castilian literature, period. Nobody would think that it refers only to the literature written in the old Kingdom of Castile as noboby thinks that English literature refers only to the literature written in England. The French had their French language. The English, their English language. Well, the Spaniards wanted to have their Spanish language. Biutiful.
Now, the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary meant to solve doubts about the Spanish language spoken in Spain and the Americas (Castilian in brief) says about the noun Spanish:
Well, in English there is no problem at all. The language spoken in Spain and the Americas is called 'Spanish'. Spain was the name of the empire (The Spanish Crown) and Spanish its language. In Spanish, however, the term 'Spanish' is quite recent since its speakers made the historical distinction about the exact extraction of that language: the Kingdom of Castile. Until the 1920s the most common term to refer to the Spanish language was castellano, that is, Castilian. In the 2009 January-June issue of the Bulletin of The Royal Spanish Academy Julio Arenas argues that the noun 'Spanish' was directly and indirectly coined by Menéndez Pidal, who tried to be more specific about the Spanish language as a philological subject. The term Castilian was wrongly used to name the language that absorbed other romance languages such as the Leonese and the Navarro-Aragonese, argued Menéndez Pidal. In other words, Castilian was the historical root of a language that incorporated other languages. Spanish is the teleological noun, that is, the noun that explains the language's purposes or objectives (its present and future), no longer its craddle (its past), which arguably is to give the language unity and identity. Following that argument, we should no longer use the noun English since that language absorbed many other languages spoken in the British isles (and many more abroad). How about the British language? No, thank you very much.
Fortunately, the speakers of English do not have a Royal Academy full of nonsense-prone gaga academics who try (to not avail of course) to rule the Castilian spoken world. If we stick to Arena's teleological argument, the language spoken in Spain and the Americas should be called the Spanish-American language. But is not called that way (I would rather call it Spanish-Columbian, since Americo Vespuci had nothing to do with the spreading of Castilian. Spanish-Macondo would do it as well). The teleological argument would imply that we should add every corner of the world where the language is being spoken or is being ferociously sold as a cultural product, the ultimate teleology of the Spanish Government and its Instituto Cervantes as far a s the Spanish language is concerned. Now let us examine the term as an adjective. What do we understand by Spanish literature? Does Spanish literature comprise the literature written in Catalan or Galician? Does it comprise the literature in Spanish written in the Americas? To be specific we have to use the term Spanish-language, that is, the literature in 'lengua española'. More inadequate nonsense. Castilian would have sufficed. Castilian literature, period. Nobody would think that it refers only to the literature written in the old Kingdom of Castile as noboby thinks that English literature refers only to the literature written in England. The French had their French language. The English, their English language. Well, the Spaniards wanted to have their Spanish language. Biutiful.
Now, the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary meant to solve doubts about the Spanish language spoken in Spain and the Americas (Castilian in brief) says about the noun Spanish:
When naming the common language of Spain and of many American nations, which is also spoken as a first language in other parts of the world, the terms Castilian and Spanish are [both] valid. The debate on which of these designations is more appropriate is nowadays overcome. [...] Although it is a synonym of Spanish, it is preferable to keep the term Castilian to refer to the Romance dialect born in the Kingdom of Castile during the Middle Ages, or to the dialect of Spanish currently spoken in that region.
But soon afterwards the same dictionary adds that in case of talking about the official languages of Spain, is better to use the term Castilian so as to contrast Castilian or Spanish with Catalan, Galician and Basque. These guys are real or royal schizophrenics.
I stand tall alongside the old kings of Castile and Leon who ate their turkey barehanded without cutlery and drank Castile's old wine. Their language is Castilian.
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