Names Given To The Spanish Language - Academic Choice of Words

Academic Choice of Words

In Spain, the Royal Spanish Academy is recognized as a normative body that rules on the orthography and general usage rules of the language. The Academy used el castellano from the 18th century, but since 1923 its dictionary and grammar are de la lengua española ("of the Spanish language"). The Academy's usage of one term is not necessarily a condemnation of the other.

There are many other Academies (grouped under the Association of Spanish Language Academies) that may or may not have an official normative recognition, but nevertheless cooperate in the creation of the Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas (a compendium of corrected typical mistakes and doubts). In this dictionary, whose production was agreed upon by the 22 different Spanish Language Academies, we are told:

Para designar la lengua común de España y de muchas naciones de América, y que también se habla como propia en otras partes del mundo, son válidos los términos castellano y español. La polémica sobre cuál de estas denominaciones resulta más apropiada está hoy superada. Aun siendo sinónimo de español, resulta preferible reservar el término castellano para referirse al dialecto románico nacido en el Reino de Castilla durante la Edad Media, o al dialecto del español que se habla actualmente en esa región.


When naming the common language of Spain and of many American nations, which is also spoken as a first language in other parts of the world, the terms Castilian and Spanish are valid. The debate on which of these designations is more appropriate is nowadays overcome. Although it is a synonym of Spanish, it is preferable to keep the term Castilian to refer to the Romance dialect born in the Kingdom of Castile during the Middle Ages, or to the dialect of Spanish currently spoken in that region. —Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas, 2005

Thus, even if both terms are allowed in Spanish, the usage of el español is recommended for the language as a whole. However, popular choice of terms is not so clear, with other factors such as customs or geographical location coming in.

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