The head of Spain’s Real Academia de la Lengua (Royal Spanish Academy, or RAE) said last month that Latin American variations of Spanish in “do not endanger” the language, which is spoken equally well on both sides of the Atlantic.
Prior to giving a speech in the former capital of the Spanish Empire, Toledo. entitled “The Royal Academy and its Future,” Jose Manuel Blecua commented to the Spanish international news agency, Efe, that although some people see “a danger” in the variations of Spanish spoken across the Spanish-speaking world, “ there is no place where it is spoken better than in any other.”
“It can be (the same) in Bogota, or Mexico City as in Valladolid, Madrid or Barcelona, because there is no variation that is more pure than another,” insisted Blecua. He continued to say that such thinking began to be debunked with the publication of the “New Grammar of the Spanish Language,” the first grammar compendium reflecting all the varieties of Spanish.
When asked about the most important projects currently underway at the RAE, Blecua emphasized the celebration in 2013 of the third centennial of its creation and the publication in 2014 of the new edition of the authoritative “Dictionary of the Spanish Language,” on which work has been progressing since 2001.
