Nov
6
Ch-ch-changes: Spanish spelling rules get updated
The Real Academia Española has announced that in December it will publish a new volume of spelling rules for the Spanish language. It’s the first spelling update the RAE has done since 1999, which was the same year that the ll and ch were officially dropped as individual characters in the Spanish alphabet. Among the new spelling changes are the following:
- The letter Y, formerly called “i griega,” will now be called “ye.”
- The letters B and V will be called by their formal names “be” and “uve” and not “b alta, b larga, b corta or b chica, all common ways of referring to those letters in Latin America.
- The prefix “ex” will be attached to words without a hyphen. For example: exnovio, exmarido, exdirector, etc.
- The words guión, truhán and sólo will no longer have an accent mark (la tilde).
- The letter Q will only appear in Spanish when it is paired with the letter U and followed by either the vowels E or I. (For example: quiosco, querer, etc.). In all other cases, the letters C or K will be used instead of Q. Iraq becomes Irak, Qatar becomes Catar, quorum becomes cuórum.
November 10th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Oooh, nice! I agree with all of these, but renaming the letter Y is going to take years to adopt. Is ye to be pronounced like the English yea vote, or like the individual vowel sounds, as in the Spanish word pie?
I’ve never liked (not even one iota, ha ha) calling it it a “Greek I”, mainly because a letter that takes four syllables to pronounce seems a bit ridiculous.
November 23rd, 2010 at 9:37 am
As most of us know, Spanish spelling is pretty straightforward because it is nearly perfect phonetically. This makes it easy to write words if you know how to pronounce them, or for that matter to pronounce them if you read them first.
However there are some spelling (or “orthographic”) rules for certain tricky letters such as H (which is mute) or B and V, as well as for the use of accent marks.
Some rules are as easy-to-remember as “M goes before P and B”, however that’s not usually the case. So, we’ll take a look at the rules of one letter at a time for you to digest them better.
November 29th, 2010 at 11:03 pm
[...] (instead of i griega) and dropping the accent marks from various Spanish words. (Click here for more details about the previously proposed [...]
November 30th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
No to strict grammar fascism!
My native tongue (Dutch) is one which has suffered, these last 70 years, from umptheen spelling and other grammatical changes, some profound, others superficial. Many of these alterations have been otorgated (what? – I mean granted) the temporarily immutable status of “compulsory”, meaning that if you don’t follow suit, you’re an ingnoramus or, at best, an old fart. Herewith I would like to express appreciation to those languages which never (or “hardly ever”) implement official spelling reforms: it strongly encourages the stability of a language to keep it unaltered. In this respect, the English language, with a -in my view, correct me if I’m wrong- supple grammatical format, open to American, Australian, Indian…Nigerian expressions, has the immense advantage of not requiring any “officialized” anything, or nearly. French, a true “spelling fascist” language has had little reforms. German and Spanish, likewise. I hope they keep it that way! My present knowledge of the Dutch language, whilst (probably) very good or even excellent in way of vocabulary, is pitiful in grammar: I have, quite simply, lost track of the reforms-counterreforms-reinstitution reform, to the point of … not giving a damn any more about proper spelling of the Dutch/Flemish language.
February 27th, 2011 at 11:26 pm
I am in agreement with Paul. It is difficult enought for new learners of any foreign language to learn that “official” language, then to constantly have the language undergo reforms is crazy. You lost the power and beauty of the language and many persons stop paying attention after a number of changes. Think about it!