Dec
13
Everything you ever wanted to know about Spanish grammar
The Real Academia Española has finally published the definitive manual of Spanish grammar – “Nueva gramática de la lengua española: El español de todo el mundo”
This volume examines, for the first time under one roof, so to speak, the similarites and differences that exist between the varieties of the Spanish language as it is spoken in Spain and Latin America. The series of books, more than a decade in the making, are a massive collaboration between the 22 Academias de la Lengua Española. As a result special attention will be paid, for the first time by the RAE, to specific terms and usages of the Spanish language in the Americas.
If you’re a die-hard lover of Spanish and linguistics, you may be tempted to buy these books now. I’d caution you to wait and see because there are other versions of the books coming out next year.
The initial two-volume set is HUGE (almost 4,000 pages) and the price tag is 120 euros. A third volume will be released in the coming months. After browsing through the first two volumes it was clear to me that this initial set of books is a scholarly work suited to language/linguistics professors and other academics. It’s not geared to people learning Spanish.
The good news is that the RAE is releasing its nueva gramática in three distinct versions.
The first, the only one currently available, is the complete, unabridged version. The target market for this would be university libraries or Spanish professors and doctoral language students.
Called simply Manual, Version 2.0 of la nueva gramática will be a 750-page tome. It will contain more concise descriptions and succinct explanations than Version 1.0, according to the RAE. It will be published in March 2010.
Target market: Spanish professors and students of Spanish at the university level.
Version 3.0 is entitled “Gramática básica.” This book won’t be released until a year from now, at the end of 2010. It will be a 250-page paperback designed for the general public.
Target market: Spanish teachers at the primary and secondary school level, as well as non-university-level students of Spanish.
If you’d like to get a taste of what Version 1.0, (the unabridged version pictured below), is like, click here for a PDF that contains a sample of the text, as well as other details about the book series.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Eleena , Hayley . Hayley said: RT @VoicesEnEspanol: New Blog Post: Everything you ever wanted to know about Spanish grammar http://bit.ly/8pNKgX [...]
hey nice post i also bookmarked your site and look for more updates thanks.
Interesting books. I might buy the manual version next year, not the least for the price tag it possibly gets
.
Now I’m wondering, does this work only cover the grammar side of everything, like the use of different verbs and such, or also certain expressions that are different?
I spoke too soon. After seeing some parts of the PDF you posted I see it does feature differences in expressions
.
Ramses,
Yes, I’m with you. I’m going to wait until next year to see what the abridged versions are like.
I found a news report about the current books that gives more helpful details about what the books are like:
“In Puerto Rico, for example, it acknowledges the fact that subject and verb in a question are often switched around to an order resembling that of English. So the question “Adonde vas tu?” — where are you going? — becomes “Adonde tu vas?” in the U.S. territory.
The new grammar shies from setting cut-and-dry dogma on what is correct and what is not, making instead recommendations as to what the language gurus generally accept to be proper Spanish. The Puerto Rican twist, for instance, is respected as a localism but not something textbook traditional.”
Full article: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121280479
Interesting books.Very good post