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Post by Consuelo on Mar 25, 2023 14:44:56 GMT
This is an interesting question...The first other language that springs to mind is Spanish. It it widely spoken, and perhaps most associated with Spain (although Spain itself had a number of other language like Basque, Catalan, Galician etc.) but despite being named for it and originating there, Spain certainly doesn't own Spanish. As we all know, the US, Mexico, Central and South America have their own numerous varieties of Spanish. In the US, there is Chicano Spanish, for instance, which is a language in its own right, owned by those who speak it (https://www.pdx.edu/multicultural-topics-communication-sciences-disorders/chicano-english). At the same time, though Spain in the only country in Europe where Spanish is spoken "natively" there are Spanish users all over the continent, and Spanish does indeed belong to them. I speak a mix of Castilian Spanish, Mexican Spanish and Colombian Spanish, so...what is that then? I suppose that would be my own Spanish, that I took from different sources and made my own, far from a "Standard" variety but given that I use it, I own it. I hope this makes sense...Does anyone have other examples? I'm Chilean, and Spanish is the official language here. I fully agree with you that even though Spanish was named after Spain, the country is not the owner of the language. It comes to my mind the Spanish of the new generations of kids here in Chile. They have access to a wide range of 'Spanishes' through the internet, and they often build their own version based on this exposure plus their own local Chilean backgrounds. For instance, it is very common to hear a mix of Mexican Spanish, Spain Spanish, and Chilean Spanish at schools. Certainly those kids have made their own Spanish version and they own it. |
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