Spanish language

“ Capmany, probably our best living philologist and prose writer, insists upon our borrowing every word and phrase from the authors of the sixteenth century, the golden age (as it is called) of our literature; while the Madrid translators seem determined to make the Spanish language a dialect of the French—a sort of Patois, unintelligible to either nation. The true path certainly lies between [Pg 343] both. The greatest part of our language has been allowed to become vulgar or obsolete. ”

“ You are letting yourselves be deceived by big words and never go to the bottom of things to examine the results in their final analysis. Spanish will never be the general language of the country, the people will never talk it, because the conceptions of their brains and the feelings of their hearts cannot be expressed in that language—each people has its own tongue, as it has its own way of thinking! ”

“ Respecting native writers following the conquest, they were men who acquired the Spanish language and wrote on the history of their people either in Spanish, or, if in their own language they employed the Spanish alphabet—of them it is said, and one may readily admit the reasonableness of the statement—"most of them were thoroughly imbued with the spirit of their converters, and their writings as a class are subject to the same criticism." ”

“ One can find something like a palliation for people making themselves somewhat foolish about particular languages, literatures, and people. The Spanish certainly is a noble language, and there is something wild and captivating in the Spanish character, and its literature contains the grand book of the world. ”

“ They have points of marked resemblance, in their picturesqueness, their treasures of art, their associations of history and romance; but, just as the physical aspect of Spain and its shape upon the map are broader, more thick-set and rugged than the slender form and flowing curves of Italy, so the Spanish language—with its Arabic gutturals interspersed among melodious linguals and vowel sounds—has been called the masculine development of that Southern speech of which the Italian presents the feminine side. ”

“ There is surely no people in the world who can take a longer time to explain a little matter than the South American, and I have often thought that the volume of the Spanish language, which frequently calls for three or four times the number of words that would be used in English to express a simple idea, must have had some influence in producing this strange habit of repetition, in order to fix in the mind precisely what is wanted and the condition under which it is to be secured. ”

“ The people speak as the scholars write: the differences in the pronunciation of the cultured classes and the people of the town are very slight.
And, even leaving these four cities out of the question, the Spanish language is much more used and much more common, and consequently much more vigorous and forcible, in the daily press, on the stage, and in the popular literature than is the case with the Italian language. There are in Spain the Valencian, the Catalan, the Galician, and the Murcian dialects and the very ancient language of the Basque provinces. ”

“ Their language (if one may call such jargon language) is very poor, seeing one word signifies abundance of things. There are none but those born in the country that can understand it; and I am told that to the end it may be more particularly theirs they make no use of it in writing: they make their children learn to read and write French and Spanish according to which King’s subjects they are. ”

“ The cares of life apparently rest very lightly on them, while their clothing is more airy than all—the little baby-girls with only a pair of ear-rings, the boys dressed in the shadow of the nurse, or night falling softly on them. What a multitude of unformed thoughts enter our minds as we look at the novel sights appearing before us, where only a foreign language is sounding in our ears! They all speak the Spanish, which is derived mostly from the Latin, and resembles it, except some words from the Arabic, which came into use with them after Spain was conquered by the Moors. ”

“ The whole Spanish People are to be treated not as a mighty multitude with feeling, will, and judgment; not as rational creatures;—but as objects without reason; in the language of human law, insuperably laid down not as Persons but as Things. ”

“ The great achievements of Spanish genius in the era of its intellectual efflorescence have compelled the intellectual world to study its language and familiarize itself with its literature. And not only have the great works of Cervantes and Calderon and Lope de Yega been studied and criticised, and reproduced in all the cultivated languages of Europe, but the treasures of popular Spanish poetry, with their rich elements of chivalry and romantic passion, have been carefully studied and exemplified by foreign scholars, and been the inspiration of foreign poets and translators. ”

“ Spanish is no doubt what the Germans call a "World Speech." It is now used by sixty millions of people in the New World as well as by twenty millions in Old Spain. But Old Spain never supplied to her colonies through books anything approaching the volume of that perennial stream of instruction and stimulation which English-speaking writers have for nearly four centuries supplied to those who can read English all over the world, and which France has likewise supplied to all who can read her language. ”

“ It is notorious that many English critics seem to believe it possible to pass a verdict upon works written in Spanish without possessing more than a nodding acquaintance with the language, and the absurd idea obtains among many men of letters, who ought to know better, that, given a knowledge of Latin and French, the acquisition of the Castilian tongue is merely a matter of a little reading. ”

“ But a science which has fairly definite limits established and which is closely related to folklore is linguistics. This science has divided the Spanish peninsula into four generally accepted language groups: Portuguese-Galician, Spanish, Bask and Catalan-Valencian. I shall adopt the linguistic definition of Spanish. Hence Spanish folktales, in this index, are tales from the Spanish linguistic area, that is, from the regions of Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, Extremadura, Leon, Mursia, New Castile and Old Castile. ”

“ Raynouard, Troubadours, Tom. I. pp. 76-85.
[427] See, on the whole of this subject,—the formation of the modern dialects of the South of Europe,—the excellent “Grammatik der Romanischen Sprachen von Fried. Diez,” Bonn, 1836-38, 2 vols. 8vo. For examples of corruptions of the Spanish language, such as are above referred to, take the following:—Frates, orate pro nos, instead of Fratres, orate pro nobis;—Sedeat segregatus a corpus et sanguis Domini, instead of corpore et sanguine. ”

“ Their manners and customs are peculiar to themselves and make an interesting study. Their civilization is entirely original, though modified to some extent by centuries of contact with the whites. They understand the Spanish language, but have not forgotten their mother tongue. They hold tenaciously to their old customs and have not changed materially during the past four hundred years. ”

“ Hear Spanish spoken; have a master who speaks to you in Spanish—very slowly at first, and then more quickly,—on subjects which are familiar to you.Oír hablar español; tener un profesor que le hable en español—muy lentamente al principio, y después más de prisa,—sobre asuntos que le sean a V. familiares. Is it then more useful to listen, and to try to understand what is said in a language, than to try to speak it one's self?¿Es, pues, más útil oír y tratar de comprender lo que se dice en una lengua, que tratar de hablarla por sí mismo? ”

“ Spanish idiom not being yet finished in its formation, gave occasion and opportunity for these licenses,—licenses which would have been converted into privileges of poetic language, if the talents of this writer had been greater, and his reputation more permanent. The poets of the following age, whilst polishing the harshnesses of diction, and making an innovation in the metres and subjects of their compositions, did not preserve the noble freedom and acquisitions which their predecessors had gained in favour of the tongue. ”

“ In the other Spanish-American countries the Spanish-speakers are confined to the upper ruling class, there being practically no lower class with Spanish as its mother-tongue, except in a couple of big cities. ”

“ He had a glib tongue, and spoke Spanish admirably, with the language having picked up something of the flowery politeness, though not the dignity, of the better class of native. It is odd how often good linguists lack common sense and stability. ”

“ It has been observed that no European language possesses a true equivalent for your English word comfort; and, considering the state of this country, Spanish would have little chance of producing a similar substantive, were it not for some of our nuns, who, as they make a constant practical study of the subject, may, at length, enrich our dictionary with a name for what they know so well without it. Their comforts, however, poor souls! ”

“ Never fear; the Spanish language No hay nada que temer; la is not hard. lengua España no es dificil. I know it; and that it has abundance Lo sé; y que tiene tambien abundancia of graces. de gracias. Application is the only way La aplicasion es el solo modo of learning it. de aprenderla. How long have you been learning? ¿Cuanto tiempo ha, que V. la está aprendiendo? Scarcely two months. A pénas dos meses. Does not your master tell you, ¿No dice su maestro de V. siempre you must always speak Spanish? ”

“ It's just because I have mastered one language besides my own. I've spoken Spanish ever since I can remember, first with the little Mexican children around the ranch, and later I learned it properly with a teacher who wanted to pick it up. ”

“ Spanish is the language spoken in Trinidad, and even if the dying man were a Frenchman or an Englishman, the notary would probably translate what he said into Spanish. Still, the first name, and probably the last, indicate Spanish birth. ”

“ Perhaps no other language is so easily acquired by foreigners, and none is more beautiful and attractive when correctly spoken and properly enunciated than Spanish. There are no silent letters, and each word is pronounced as it is spelled. ”

“ Unfortunately for the development of Spanish countries the mental activity of the people is principally manifested in an exuberant imagination which finds expression in superlative and poetical language. ”

“ Spanish is not under any circumstances a difficult language to learn. It has in its construction and pronunciation an encouraging directness very unlike the grammatical involutions of German and the delicate sound-shadings of French. Working in accordance with the rules of almost any ‘system,’ a diligent student can in a very little while acquire a fair mastery of the language; though it is true that some of the ‘systems’ are much more difficult than others. ”

“ Spanish in its verb are at least as synthetic as Latin, spite of an evolution longer by two thousand years. That these languages with their rich flexional systems and their concords for gender, number and. case are instruments more difficult in the use or less apt in the expression of the thought of Germans and Spaniards than English is for us is sheer assumption; and it were a peculiarly chauvinistic obsession to call German or Spanish languages of a lower type than English. ”

“ Those who wish to make themselves understood by a foreigner in his own language, should speak with much noise and vociferation, opening their mouths wide. Is it surprising that the English are, in general, the worst linguists in the world, seeing that they pursue a system diametrically opposite? For example, when they attempt to speak Spanish, the most sonorous tongue in existence, they scarcely open their lips, and putting their hands in their pockets, fumble lazily, instead of applying them to the indispensable office of gesticulation. ”

“ Let us all make the most of our time before we start. In the first place, the language of the people among whom we are going is Spanish, and we must all learn to speak it well before we leave. For the next three months we will work together at grammar and exercises, and then I will try and get some Spanish teacher to live in the house, and speak the language with us until we go. ”

“ I determined to merge my ideas, my sentiments, and my interests, in those of the nation who elected me as its head, and whose independent character would never submit to foreign and illegitimate intrigues. My sons will have the good fortune to receive their first impressions of life here; their first language will be Spanish; their education will be in accordance with the customs of the nation; they will learn to think and feel as you think and feel ”

“ About twenty titles in Italian make us reasonably sure that he read that language also. And since he had in Spanish only a Spanish-English dictionary and two Spanish books (for each of which he had a translation in another language) , we may assume that his knowledge of Spanish must have been slight indeed. ”

“ The charm of the Spanish poetry consists, generally speaking, in the union of a sublime and enthusiastic earnestness of feeling, which peculiarly descends from the North, with the lovely breath of the South, and the dazzling pomp of the East. ”

“ The clear atmosphere of Spain, in which distant mountains seem to be close at hand, is also the atmosphere of Spanish literature. The Spaniard may have little subtlety of insight or critical judgment, but he has a directness of vision that has manifested itself in bigotry, brutality, and cynical satire, as well as in keen humour, straight-forwardness, and dignity of character. ”