Creen Uds. que el castellano, tiene el "derecho" por decirlo asi, de llamarse "espanol" mientras los otros idiomas que se hallan en la peninsula se indetifican por las regiones donde se hablan respectivamente, el catalan, valenciano, gallego, aragones, etc, etc.? Pregunto esto porque aqui en las Americas, los hispanohablantes con algunas excepciones llamamos a nuestro idioma, "espanol", mientras que en Espana algunos dicen que el castellano no es que una de las lenguas que se podrian llamar espanol. Que opinan Uds?

Do you all think that Castillian has the "right" in a manner of speaking to be called "Spanish" while the other languages found on the pennisula are named after the regions where they are spoken respectively, Catalan, Valencian, Gallician, Aragonese, etc, etc.?
I ask this because here in the Americas, we Spanish speakers, with some exceptions, usually call our language "Spanish", while in Spain some say that Castillian is but one of the languages that could be called Spanish. What is your opinion on this?

Wow, that IS a good question. I think Spanish is a good generic term for: Castillian and all of the "colonial" versions thereof, just as "English" is generic for the language spoken in the mother country of the US, Canada(je m'excuse, les quebecois)Australia, New Zealand, Ireland (England's oldest colony, apart from parts of France?) In "Great" Britain or "the British Isles", as in Spain, there are or were several other languages spoken, somewhat analogous to the situation in Spain: Scots Gaelic, Cornish, Welsh, Manx and Irish. "English" is mutually comprehensible between speakers from the countries I mentioned earlier,just as "Spanish" is in most of Spain and her former colonies. An Irish speaker from the Aran Islands who'd never learned English could understand in no better than a Catal�n under the same circumstances could Spanish(and the Basques? Nobody understands them! But they are cool.) So my call is that "castellano" is the equivalent of "Oxford English" more honored in the breach than in the observance. Anybody else want to weigh in?

Actually, this is a controversial topic in many countries but as a Spanish teacher (ex) I used to teach my students to use the term "Espa�ol" for the language that they were learning. In this way, noone would be too offended unless they ran across some seriously nationalist person from cuba let's say who may consider their language "Cuban". This is NO exageration, I have met Argentinians here in Madrid (the Argentinians are famed for being very proud of their homeland) who told me they spoke "Argentino" and not jokingly.

Good point on that "English" comparison Sue. I guess those from the U.S.A. could go around saying they speak "American" or "United States". I have done this here when talking to my British, Irish, Aussie and Kiwi (New Zeal.) friends but they know I am just kidding

Saludos,
jer...

Hello.

In my opinion, Spain is a little country but is divided in independent regions, and in each region, the inhabitants has a hard nationalist sense.

Galicians feel more Galicians than Spaniard.
Catalans feel more Catalans than Spaniard, and the same with Basque and valencian and mallorcan.
Only in Andalusia, Madrid and Castilla feel totally spanish.

This is the main point why, the 50% of spanish people prefer to say "castellano" than "espa�ol". I love Spain but, I don't know why, me and almost all my friends in Spain say always "castellano" instead of "espa�ol". It sounds less hard.

Bye.

I agree, this is a great question! I have a dual interest here, being that I'm a Spanish Linguist [note I'm not a Hispanic Linguist--to me, there's a difference, which resembles the degree of separation mentioned] and that I learned Spanish here in the United States.

The answer that a student gets, at least in the South of the US, is that "espa�ol" refers to Spanish, regardless of where it's spoken. Spanish is also considered a bastardized adjective refering to people from Spain, ie Spaniards. On the other hand, "castellano" refers to the dialect of Spanish spoken in the Castilla area, after the unification of Ferdinand e Isabel.

It seems to me that many of my spanish-speaking friends here in the US vary with regards to this subject. Some say that they speak Spanish; others say that they speak Mexicano, Cubano and Argentino. They are some of the more outspoken, altruistic of my friends; yet the one common ground they often find is that they do not speak Spanish.

Also, to offer an academic viewpoint, Spanish is the name by which all the dialects are called in the literature. Typically, when a linguistic speaks of Spanish that is spoken, say, in Argentina, they will call it EspRP or SpanRP = Espanol RioPlatense. This is to signify that the dialect RP, which comes from the superlanguage Spanish, is spoken in the area.

I find it very interesting to see how other Spanish speaking people identify themselves through their language and/or national identity.

This is only my two cents worth, but I would love to see this topic expand, if anyone else is interested in taking it further!

Cheers,
Michael

Hello.

I just want to stress what I said last month. I'm from the Basque Country and I don't say "Espa�ol" due to the nationalist environment in wich I've lived, despite I am not nationalist.

If we are in a bar talking about something and some friend says "You're talking in Spanish", everybody start laughing and a lot of jokes start about this topic. But if your friend says "You're taking in Castellano" nothing happens.

It seems to me that if you talk in "Spanish" you're a "spaniard" and this is whatever bump s with the nationalist feeling of Basques, Galicians, Catalans ...

Bye.

This is a great topic. I use Spanish every day in my work as a social worker. Living in Texas, the castellano dialect (which I speak) is almost another language for Central Americans. I think it must be like listening to BBC television for American English speakers. Since coming here to Texas, I have had to add a lot of different nouns in particular to my vocabulary. Whatever, the soft sounds and feel of Spanish call to my heart. You can say so many things in Spanish that are lovely and that sound silly in English.
My daughter, who holds a doctorate in Cultural Anthropology and studies extensively in Central America, and I speak in Spanish all the time. She teaches me the acceptable words from that region and I remind her of their roots in Spain. It truly is fascinating and another lesson to be open to learning new things.

Well, in my case, I always say "espa�ol" and never "castellano", but it's true that if you say that to a basque or to a catalan, they won't like it.
In any case, we have the Real Academia Espa�ola and the dictionaries are always of spanish, and not castillian.

I could be wrong, but I think the majority of people who emigrated from Spain to the New World(not really so new, it just seemed that way)came from regions outside of Castilla. Maybe because Castilla is land-locked? In any case the " ceceo" was never lost in the south of the country and never was a big hit in the Americas, where everyone uses the "seseo". The Rioplatense accent has always fascinated me, with the "zh" sound for "y" and "ll". Influenced by?? I don't know, except that there are more Italian surnames than SPanish in the Buenos AIres phonebook. Or could it be from catal� or gallego? I also ran across a site with some "guanche" vocabulary(Canary Islands) that sounded suspiciously like some Mexican words.

I used to speak "castellano" back in the days I was an exchange student in Madrid; now, due to colonial influences, I speak "Spanish" the way I speak "English". Both languages cover a lot of territory, but I've never heard the British say they speak British. Now the Welsh DO speak Welsh, but it's a different language entirely

Oops, P.S. The "ceceo" was never lost in the south because it never was really adopted until the Spaniards became more mobile within the country. By the way, has anyone noticed that regional accents in the U.S. are vanishing or softening, due to broadcasting and moving around?

Just another data point. I have many friends in Madrid and they all say that they are 'spanish' (actually 'espanish' ). Very few of them were born and raised in Madrid, so when I have discussed dialects with them they have mostly mentioned 'accents' - comparing it to the differnece between how I speak (born in Ohio, USA) to how people in New York speak. They all say that the basques have a different language however.

BUT, I have one amigo in Madrid who is originally from Salamanca. He is proud that he speaks 'proper Castillian'.

I'm from Madrid, and I usually say I speak "castellano", but I can't say any reason for that. Even more, my father says it too, but my mother and siblings speak "espa�ol".

I was thinking about my Catalonian friends, and I can't remember any of them saying that they spoke Castilian when they spoke in my language: they always said they spoke Spanish. And this makes me think that only mild independentist people can make a difference between Spanish and Castilian, since their language is neither Castilian nor Spanish. So, to make this point clear, say you're a Catalonian independentist: you are not Spanish, so your language is not Spanish, and there isn't any problem about giving that name to a foreign language.

Hope you can understand something!!

�Salud!

My twopence worth! My son was educated here in Lanzarote. He says he speaks Conejero, but he is taught Castillano in his lengua classes. He says he can't speak Castillano, as it sounds too "posh"! I, on the other hand, say I speak Spanish (badly!!) but am told I speak a mixture of Castillano and Conejero!!! What would you all that!!

Madsue
Here in Texas there is Spanglish, a mixture of Engllish and Spanish. What a fun time it is to listen to the radio or even have a conversation and switch without thinking (in the same sentence) from one language to another.

I know exactly what you mean. My cousins and I are all of Cuban descent, but we grew up in the US, so when we get together we irritate our older relatives to no end by speaking to each other in Spaglish and code-switching (Going from one language to the other.) I remember one aunt visiting from Miami told us to either speak English, Spanish or don't speak at all and we tried to stay in just one language, but it seemed impossible!

You hear some really crazy things in Spanglish too.

�Se me forgueti�--I forgot.

�Est� reniendo o est� snoweando--It�s raining or it�s snowing.

�Te llamo pa�atr�s�--I�ll call you back.

And so many other things. It seems to me as if someday English and Spanish will blend completely together to form a new language. I just wonder if anyone will be able to understand it!