Argentina and rebel tradition in front of the Royal Spanish Academy

Since yesterday, we have seen many people greet the kings of Spain, lamenting that we speak badly here, but they did it well, saying that young people use fewer words and things of the same kind. The truth is that in Argentina, we will continue to speak and write in our own way because we have a long tradition of rebellion to those who tell us what we need to do, especially with regard to language.

It is perhaps for this reason that, while the International Congress of the Spanish Language, sponsored by the Cervantes Institute, the Royal Academy of Spain (RAE) and other privateers, will meet another International Congress, alternative, in order to take a critical look at what they do and propose other actions on the language, not as an economic resource, but as a human right.

Intellectuals against the academy

It all started with the rejection of a chair at the Royal Academy. In 1875, Juan María Gutiérrez, then rector of the University of Buenos Aires, did not accept his appointment as a corresponding member of the RAE. refusing to "fix with academic and peninsular screws the development of a living body", as he wrote in "Letters of a porteño".

After this declaration of linguistic independence, several attempts to create a national academy were held, albeit without much success. It was the first military dictatorship of our country, that of José F. Uriburu, who had the dubious honor of creating the Argentine Academy of Letters, the same one that co-organizes today the Congress of Córdoba and supports any proposed initiative by the RAE.

Two of the most important Argentine writers of our literary history, Jorge Luis Borges and Roberto Arlt, they also criticized the RAE, its purisms and its dictionary. Already in 1928, Borges pointed out that his dictionary was filled with "dead": an "infinite number of voices that are in him and that are in no mouth". Two years later, Arlt mocked writers who, using a pure academic Castilian, professed a spawn of the type "he took them a ham sandwich", instead of the most nutritious "he ate a sandwich". But Now, 90 years later, the RAE wants us to send a "tweet"Take us out" to selfish"(Without" e "and in male) or send a"guasap".

Counter-Congress

They do not want us to call them "anti-congress" because they are not just "anti-academies", but they have their own ideas and programs. But they are celebrated at the same time as congresses, and they say the opposite, so …

At the Rosario language congress in 2004 (that of Fontanarrosa and the new pan-Spanish language policy), meeting on I Congress of Languages. It emphasized not only that other languages ​​were spoken than Spanish, but that Linguistic self-determination has been claimed according to the transparent argument that the only owners of the language are those who speak it.. And that, therefore, we do not need any academy to tell us whether we speak well or badly.

Following this tradition of idiomatic rebellion, in these days of the International Congress of the Spanish Language, a group of linguists, researchers, artists and writers meets in an alternative forum. The first international meeting: Language rights as human rights is more diverse and plural and represents the marginalized sectors of the official meeting. The process began with the dissemination of a manifesto for the respect of linguistic diversity and was completed this week by holding the meeting at the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities of the National University of Córdoba.

Unlike the Congress of Academies, this "congress without crowned"Brings together linguists, indigenous activists and LGBTQI activists They will discuss and organize a series of activities on languages, the policies applied to them, the human right to linguistic diversity and the risks of the commodification of the language.

You will find the complete list of activities here and participation is free.

* Linguist Professor at the National University of San Martín, researcher CONICET.

** linguist. Professor at the National University of Buenos Aires, researcher at CONICET.