Standard Spanish or neutral Spanish is a linguistic variety, or lect, that is considered a correct educated standard for the Spanish language. Standard Spanish is not merely Spanish adjusted to fit in prescriptive molds dictated by a linguistic overseeing authority, but also a form of language that conforms to the literary canon and cultural tradition. Most aspects of this standard variety, from grammar and prosody to phonetics and lexicon, are therefore different, to some degree, from everyday common usage.
Read more about Standard Spanish: Introduction, Origins, The Old Colonies and The Real Academia Española, Cultural Colonialism, Present-day Issues
Famous quotes containing the words standard and/or spanish:
“There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nature, such as it is, weak or strong, and the thing which pleases us. Whatever is formed according to this standard pleases us, be it house, song, discourse, verse, prose, woman, birds, rivers, trees, room, dress, and so on. Whatever is not made according to this standard displeases those who have good taste.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“I have known a German Prince with more titles than subjects, and a Spanish nobleman with more names than shirts.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774)