What a father, how cool, how cool, how cool… we all speak Spanish!

Some ideas are expressed with different words depending on the country or region in which we live, but they are all part of the same language and allow us to understand each other and build communication bridges, that is, there is unity in the diversity of the language.

Some 500 million people speak Spanish as their mother tongue in the world, 90% originating from the American continent. Our language has been changing with geography and time. Each community, region or country may have developed its own codes and use different words and expressions to communicate the same message; however, we all start from the same base, we understand each other and we know that we speak the same language.

Diversity has enriched the language and is cause for celebration this April 23, Spanish Language Day at the United Nations.

The journey seeks raise awareness about the history, culture and use of Spanish as the official language of the UN every anniversary of the death of Miguel de Cervantes, the writer of the emblematic Spanish work “Don Quixote de la Mancha” and, coincidentally, also the day of the death of the writer Garcilaso Inca de la Vega, considered one of the first mestizos in Peru.

This year, in addition to diversity, Spanish Day highlights the language as a language spoken in 22 countries, including the United States, where more than 42 million people speak it.

Official and founding language of the UN

Adrián Delgado, head of the Spanish Interpretation Service at the UN, explains that the purpose of the Day is to contribute to the growth of the language and to publicize its importance as the founding language of the United Nations.

“It was one of the first four official languages of the United Nations and it is important that in an event like this its historical importance is remembered, but also that its importance in the contemporary world is recognized, its importance from the point of view of the geographical extension covered by the peoples who speak this language “, says.

The 500 million Spanish speakers constitute about 6.5% of the world population and some sources give figures up to 80 million higher. 90% of those speakers live in America, 82% in Latin America and the Caribbean. Of these, more than a quarter is concentrated in Mexico, followed by Colombia and Argentina. Spain, the birthplace of the Spanish language, ranks fourth in number of native speakers with more than 43 million. Spanish is the second mother tongue by number of speakers, behind Mandarin Chinese.

Miscegenation and interculturality

The linguists and other students and language workers who met in Cádiz this year during the International Congress of the Spanish Language focused their discussions on the miscegenation and interculturality of the language.

The head of the Spanish interpreters emphasized in an interview with UN News that the choice of this topic was a very important step and “necessary for recognize that the language is alive”.

“And it is alive thanks to the fact that it has continued to be nourished by how its speakers speak it, not only in one region, but in all regions where Spanish is spoken. In Congress and from the United Nations, we want to recognize this miscegenation that comes hand in hand with many cultures”.

Adrián Delgado adds that this miscegenation is “like a breeding ground.”

“A cauldron where Castilian ingredients have been poured, which later passed through the funnel that was Seville, and there everything was mixed and it was the point of departure towards the Canary Islands, towards the Antilles, and then, little by little, towards America continental. And so it spread. And in that spill they go contributing new forms in the syntax, in the lexicon, and all this has been mixed to create what Spanish is throughout history and up to the present. And it will continue like this in the future, because it is a very alive, very dynamic language”.

The interpreter is convinced that we currently speak Spanish, varieties of Spanish that change depending on history, time and space, although this does not mean that they are different languages, but rather different forms of the same language.

“It’s like a paradox where you have unity defined by diversity”.

In diversity is the taste

When asked about the difficulty that this diversity entails when performing as an interpreter, Delgado replies: “The difficulty is more than anything to make sure that they understand me. I believe that all of us who speak Spanish as our mother tongue can understand a high percentage of what a Spanish-speaking person who comes from another region would tell us. My challenge from the interpreting booth is not to express myself in such a way that only one region understands me, that of my national language. But even if I erred as a regionalist and used expressions from my region, communication would hardly be cut off”.

In addition, he considers that as long as communication is not broken, it is good to remind those who listen that this diversity exists, and that “in diversity is taste.”

The coexistence of Spanish with Amerindian languages It has been part of the evolution of our language.

Adrián Delgado points out that the contribution of indigenous languages ​​to Spanish has not only been lexicographical, as might be thought at first glance, but has also influenced syntax.

As an example, he cites the way Mexicans communicate with each other to establish ties of respect and cordiality.

“If we’re in a restaurant and we want to order a beer, we usually say to the waiter: ‘young man, please bother you with a beer when you have time, if you’d be so kind. Thank you so much’. We have a series of periphrases that we use to create communication with others. This periphrasis, this tendency to elaborate something that we are going to ask for so that it does not clash, that it is not going to be taken as something abusive, is an Amerindian tradition”.

rosy future

Among the many data that show the importance of Spanish as one of the main languages ​​of human communication, is the one that indicates that the potential users of the language -that is, the native speakers plus those with limited competence and those who are learning it- would represent the 7.5% of the world population.

In addition, It is the third most used language on the internet and the second most used on social networks and other digital platforms.

In this sense, and as a professional who constantly works with the language, Delgado foresees a very rosy future for Spanish.

“Because a language that changes is an indication that it continues to exist and Spanish is changing and has always been in evolution. Change is constant and as long as it continues to change it will continue to evolve and grow. I think that now the border Where we see that growth is in the United States. And I am not referring to a mixture of English and Spanish, no, I am referring to the Spanish that is spoken in the United States, where there are Spanish-speaking communities and it is not only spoken by generations of immigrants, I am referring to the Spanish that is spoken by people whose mother tongue is Spanish. That for me is an indication of a future of great vigor and great growth”.

On the other hand, there are more and more bilingual schools in the United States, as are universities that study Spanish as a language, he adds.

Adrián Delgado, head of the UN Spanish Interpretation Service

various poles

Delgado remembers that in today’s world there is not a single center of irradiation of Spanish, rather, there are several poles, among which American cities such as Miami, Los Angeles or New York will soon be counted.

According to the Cervantes Institute, The United States will be the second largest Spanish-speaking country in the world by 2060, after Mexico. Projections indicate that by then 28% of the US population would be of Hispanic origin.

For Adrián Delgado, the best of the current moment in Spanish is acceptance and growing respect for language diversity.

“I don’t think that everyone continues to read only the Dictionary of the Royal Academy as a reference source for the correct spelling of this or that word. No, we already have our own dictionaries.”

This variety of options reflects the search for efficiency to communicate better than is observed in the evolution of languages.

“Sometimes academic institutions try to stop this evolution and the brake lasts them, but in the end, boom! They have to let it go and let words like implementation, for example, be accepted because that’s how the people speak, who own the language.”

Diplomacy in Spanish

At the UN, as a founding language, Spanish is also one of the six official languages ​​-along with English, French, Russian, Chinese and Arabic-, thanks to the Linguistic proselytizing work of Latin American countries during the creation of the Organization.

Adrián Delgado stresses once again the importance of representing at the UN the richness that an entire continent gives to the language.

“You can walk from the Canadian border to Patagonia without interruption and speak Spanish continuously. This geographical breadth is represented in the United Nations and we also have to represent it from the linguistic positions”.

The Spanish contributes to multilingualism in diplomacyabounds.

“You have to continue speaking Spanish as long as the United Nations exists, which is the forum for diplomacy par excellence. AND you have to do diplomacy in Spanish and in the other five official languages ​​of the United Nations. That is the fundamental importance of a language like ours, which is spoken in so many countries.”