2023-04-18 03:30:00
The philologist Dolores Corbella, who became the ninth academic number in office of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), entered with a resounding speech in which she urged all speakers to appropriate the Spanish language, arguing that “words belong to poets, novelists, playwrights and journalists, but above all the immensity of anonymous speakers who constitute the majority”.
“Language is far from being exclusivist and is perhaps the most democratic cultural asset that we have,” said the essayist and academic in her speech, entitled «A sea of words», in which he referred to the profession of the lexicographer, as well as the fundamental role of linguistic diversity within the Spanish language.
Corbella became the ninth academic in exercise, although there are two more elected pending their admission speech (Asunción Gómez Pérez and Clara Sánchez), out of a total of 46 members, in addition to four vacant seats.
Language is far from being exclusivist and is perhaps the most democratic cultural asset we have».
Dolores Corbella.
The first woman to occupy the small d chair – a seat that has only had five predecessors since 1847 – also assured that pan-Hispanism is the “knot that links the European West with the American West”, “because those thousands of voices that Spanish treasured thanks to that first Atlantic globalization of just over 500 years ago had unimaginable consequences, not only in terms of linguistic enrichment, but also due to the implicit acceptance of a cultural complexity that has contributed to shaping such an extensive and heterogeneous language”.
The Spanish language, early globalization and Hispanic Americanism
“Pan-Hispanism, recognition of diversity and respect for linguistic identity are key concepts in the training of any Romanist,” said the academic, who joined the institution after being elected by the RAE Plenary in the February 17 session. of 2022.
Corbella insisted that even if the configuration of the continent changes, the content will continue to reflect our particular image of the world. To reinforce his enunciation, he quoted Manuel Seco, the master of Spanish lexicographers: «’The dictionary is much more than the reserve where words are confined’».
And continued: “It is first of all a tool destined to make us understand the messages of those who share that language with us, and to help us better communicate with them. But much more: consulting the dictionary provides stability and precision to the concepts, almost always with vague outlines, housed in our minds.
«Spanish experienced a process of globalization at the end of the 16th century».
Dolores Corbella
The most powerful section of the speech of the new member of the RAE was generated when she alluded to the scope and sense of belonging of the Spanish language: «Words belong, as is logical, to poets, novelists, playwrights and journalists, but above all to the immensity of anonymous speakers who constitute the majority, because the language is far from being exclusivist and it is perhaps the most democratic cultural asset that we have”, he highlighted.
For the new academic, Spanish experienced “a process of globalization at the end of the 16th century”, at the same time as “the encounter with other peoples” took place.
“Along with the dialectalisms of European Spanish, the metalinguistic information about the lexical peculiarities of Spanish in America it soon began to be considered in the bilingual and monolingual lexicography of the golden age. In fact, the first vocabularies and glossaries of words and meanings dedicated exclusively to the Spanish-American lexicon inaugurated a lexicographical tradition of a differential nature that has been maintained until today”, he asserted.
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