Will Spanish break up into sub-languages like Latin did?

Peter   Wed Apr 11, 2007 10:46 pm GMT
It seems that when a major language spreads itself too far, it starts to be influenced by other languages, depending on the location of the country. History tends to repeat itself. If Latin broke up into the various Romance Languages, don't you think the same will happen to Spanish in the future?
Franco   Wed Apr 11, 2007 11:39 pm GMT
Creo que es más probable que algo así ocurra con inglés, ya que se habla por todo el mundo.
Manolo   Thu Apr 12, 2007 1:52 pm GMT
Frankly Brennus, do you think a language breaks up because of synonyms? Which is your linguistic studies background?

A study of Spanish varieties, as they are spoken today, will show you that most of these forms are used in different places. Being as I am from Spain out of a "big list" of 9 words (and therefore 9x2 synonyms) i recognise as my own 14 out of 18 words: 7 out of 9 in boths lists! I happen to be an ocean away!
Some of them aren't in fact real synonyms and most of them belong to "different levels of languages".

I very well know in which contexts I would use "chingar" and "joder" ("to screw" or "to fuck"). bobo/estúpido. Bobo would be a kind and informal way to say someone is stupid (which is the difference between being "simple" and "stupid"?) and so on and so on.

Not only Spanish and English but all languages have a potential for breaking up. Nevertheless, any amateur linguistic will tell you there is more regional variation within Great Britain or Spain itself than between Great Britain and the USA or Spain and Mexico. It's quite easy to explain and it's a well known phenomenon.

Languages break up when their morpho-syntax breaks up. That isn't the case at all neither in English and certainly not Spanish. Furthermore, the great advantage of Spanish is its extremely poor vowel phonetic system, which gives little way to misunderstandings or not-understanding at all.
How many native English speakers really understand the words in pop songs not to say country songs or others?
mmm.. no   Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:02 pm GMT
The simple answer is no. As the good Manolo was kind to point out, Spanish has the poorest (not deragatory, au contraire) phonetic system out of all the world languages. Due to this fact alone, Spanish has the SMALLEST chance of breaking up into regional variations. Think about something real quick.. South American topography is notorious around the world for making it an innacesable maze of a continent.. that is to say, Spanish has existed in ISOLATED pockets throught the new continent for most of its history.. just about 500 years, you do the math. And guess what? Despite what all the haters (mostly ignorant, misinformed folk) like to point out, Spanish has survived and will continue to survive (hello..? information age) as a unified and cohesive whole because of its phonetic system. Differences in vocabulary? please.. hehe. Buenos Dias!
Kelly   Thu Apr 12, 2007 5:02 pm GMT
Spanish has unified grammar and spelling. Brazilian and Continental Portuguese are more likely to become separated languages than Spanish varieties...The writers of Brazilian modernism fought for a language independent from Portugal...The situation today: the language is still named Portuguese, but Brazilian grammar is very different from the Portuguese one: pronunciation and rhythm, clitics and pronouns usage, prepositions usage...it's practically a new Romance language...it's better to think of Galician - POrtuguese - Brazilian as three languages under one language system....after all Brazilians understand spoken Galician better than Continental Portuguese, so if Galician is independent, Brazilian should be independent too...I support the idea of their being 3 languages under one system: Galician/Portuguese/Brazilian.
Marc   Thu Apr 12, 2007 7:21 pm GMT
>>I have certainly noticed that Puerto Ricans show a preference for words words like rojo / rojito, bobo / bobito, mono, grama, chiringa, carro, guagua, guiar, joder for "red, stupid, monkey, lawn, kite, car, bus, to drive, to f**k," as opposed to Mexicans who prefer colorado, estupido, chango, zacate, papalote, coche, autobus, manejar, chingar etc. instead. <<<

About Mexican words:

Coche and Carro are interchangeable.
Colorado tends to be used in the North-Mexico.
Rojo is the norm and used MORE then Colorado.
Zacate / Yarda are used in the North-Mexico.
Pasto / Cesped are used in Central-Mexico
Autobus is used mostly in Central-Mexico, while, Camion is still said.
Chingar and Joder are interchangeable.


*Colorado I have heard it used often in Northern-Mexico or used amongst Chicanos of Northern descent. It depends on the certain Region Brennus. Nothing is ever black and white in Spanish, remember that.


>>>Spanish has unified grammar and spelling. Brazilian and Continental Portuguese are more likely to become separated languages than Spanish varieties...The writers of Brazilian modernism fought for a language independent from Portugal...The situation today: the language is still named Portuguese, but Brazilian grammar is very different from the Portuguese one: pronunciation and rhythm, clitics and pronouns usage, prepositions usage...it's practically a new Romance language...it's better to think of Galician - POrtuguese - Brazilian as three languages under one language system....after all Brazilians understand spoken Galician better than Continental Portuguese, so if Galician is independent, Brazilian should be independent too...I support the idea of their being 3 languages under one system: Galician/Portuguese/Brazilian.<<<


I agree. Spain was fortunately enough in the past to produced a Royal Academy (R.A.E) of Preserving Spanish. That is why, variants of Spanish are still intelligible to eachother.
Guest   Fri Apr 13, 2007 10:03 am GMT
Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia whose Spanish are the closest to standard written Castillan. So there is no danger that the Spanish of these countries would break up from Castillan.

All the rest speak Spanish versions that somewhat in the process of evolving into distinct languages. Yes they speak the standard form. But the features that are inherent in their local speeches always show up.
Guest   Sun Jun 03, 2007 3:24 pm GMT
Yeah, Spanish will break up into numerous languages known as Neo-Spanish. You can tell by asking Puerto Rican, Cuban, Chilean, and Venezuelan toddlers to communicate with each other using their respective local Spanish and I assure you that they wouldn't understand each other. They would find Italian or Portuguese for them to communicate with.
greg   Sun Jun 03, 2007 3:41 pm GMT
Manolo : « Not only Spanish and English but all languages have a potential for breaking up. Nevertheless, any amateur linguistic will tell you there is more regional variation within Great Britain or Spain itself than between Great Britain and the USA or Spain and Mexico. »

D'accord à 100 %.
Guest   Sun Jun 03, 2007 3:45 pm GMT
Well, I undestand quite well Hugo Chaves when he speaks. He speaks a standard Spanish, more or less.
Guest   Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:24 pm GMT
<< the great advantage of Spanish is its extremely poor vowel phonetic system, which gives little way to misunderstandings or not-understanding at all. >>

So that's why I hear folks in Hispanic America and even in Canary Islands and Andalucia pronounce Españoles as Ehpañoleh, Yolanda as Jolanda, llegar as yegar, central(thentral) as sentral, todo as too in Colombia(the LatAm country where Spanish is said to be pure), comunicacion as comunicaciong in Venezuela, and lot's more.
elbarto   Sun Jun 03, 2007 4:47 pm GMT
The country with the most neutral Spanish of all is Mexico, and that's helpful since it has the largest Spanish-speaking population of all Latin America.

BTW, not the Mexicans in the States, the talk like shit, they're a disgrace for Mexico, real Mexicans in Mexico have a neutral accent.
Guest   Sun Jun 03, 2007 6:34 pm GMT
What do you think of this spanish accent: it's a song titled: Fox of Office Shark of Shell Pricks: http://www.sonidoteca.com/mp3/zorrodeoficina.mp3
It's a guy who is not known and his music is a bit subversive but i'm interested in your opinion:
For mexicans, south americans,etc. do you understand what he's saying?
if you understand it i don't know why people is saying spanish will break into sub-languages. After all, we can understand each other more or less(some words mean different,..) even though the accents are differents. am i wrong?
you can here this one if you like: You save the Planet (Combative Ecological song) http://www.sonidoteca.com/mp3/salvadplaneta.mp3
Guest   Sun Jun 03, 2007 7:31 pm GMT
I understand all perfectly. Spanish is phonetically very easy to understand. We use several words like coche/carro (car) but if you know both is not a problem.

I think is similar to British English and American English: truck-lorry, elevator-lift, garbage-rubbish, torch-flashlight, etc.
Franco   Sun Jun 03, 2007 10:43 pm GMT
Tu culo requiere un pene dentro de él.