Review of History of the Spanish Language

Speaking as a lay reader, I found this article to be quite simply excellent. My main topic of interest is the History of Catalonia, which means that, although I am unlikely to need a complete book on the Spanish language, I do need a concise and authoritative reference on the subject, and this short article is an ideal for my purposes. 

 

Furthermore, as I live in Barcelona, along with Catalan, I speak Speak on a daily basis and so am able to observe the truth of some of Professor Pharies' observations. For example, the fact that cuyo is disappearing and being replaced by a passive phrase based around que is a something, which although, it had not crossed my mind before, is easily observable.

 

The section on myths is also very interesting. The myth about the lisping king is one I'd not heard before as perhaps it's origin is South American, and is way of justifying the lack of lisp in the dialects in the Americas. As I teach English to Spanish students, I have urgent need to dispell some of the myths my students believe to be true about their own language. That Spanish is phonetic, for example, is an argument they often use to explain why they have such problems with English pronunciation. Armed with this article, I will now be able to back up my own opinions wthe the phrase 'As David A. Pharies says . . .'

 

Although as a language teacher I have a good working knowledge linguistics, I was pleased that Professor Pharies made the technical language clear and accessible. This made for an easy and enjoyable read, and I'm sure I shall be coming back to this article again and again.

 

 

 

 

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