Standard Spanish

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Standard Spanish or Neutral Spanish is a linguistic variety or lect that is considered a correct educated standard for the Spanish language. Standard Spanish is not merely Spanish adjusted to fit in prescriptive molds dictated by a linguistic overseeing authority, but also a form of language that respects the literary canon and cultural tradition. All aspects of this standard variety, from grammar and prosody to phonetics and lexicon, are therefore removed, to some degree, from everyday common usage.

However, Standard Spanish is not simply Spanish without local idioms or regional mannerisms. In other words, it is not a lowest common denominator of all varieties of Spanish. Indeed, Standard Spanish has many features that are absent from other lects, such as certain tenses that are obsolete in spoken dialects.

Many confuse Standard Spanish with a lowest common denominator in part because of the strong prescriptive and centralized tradition of the Real Academia Española, which has historically dominated the written language, and also because Standard Spanish is not a geographically bound dialect, but rather a register that many speakers employ in addition to their own dialects in formal contexts or in writing. Mastery of Standard Spanish is necessary in some professions and activities, such as teaching, law, and the media.

At the First International Congress of the Spanish Language (I Congreso Internacional de la Lengua Española), held in 1997 in Zacatecas, Mexico, controversy emerged around the concept of Standard Spanish. Some authors, such as José Antonio Millán, advocated the definition of a "common Spanish" composed of the lowest common denominator of most dialects; others, such as the director of Radio Exterior de España, Fermín Bocoas, denied the existence of a problem, adhering to the traditionalist idea of superiority of educated [Castillian] Spanish over influences from other languages.

Finally, American experts such as Lila Petrella stated that a neutral Spanish language could possibly be elaborated for use in purely descriptive texts; however, the strong variations between dialects in pragmatic and semantic aspects imply that it is impossible to define a single standard variety that would have the same linguistic value for all Spanish speakers. Most of all, it is impossible to form certain grammatical structures in a neutral way due to differences in verb conjugations used (e.g., in Argentina, "you" translates to vos, most other countries prefer tú, while others tend to use the formal alternative usted -- all three pronouns require different verb conjugations). At least one of the three versions will always sound very uncommon in any given Spanish speaking country.

Nowadays, successful feature films may be dubbed into Spanish in up to three different "standard" versions: Iberian (or European) Spanish for Spain (Castilian Spanish); Rio-de-la-Plata Spanish for Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina, Mexican Spanish for Mexico; and another one for the rest of Latin America. In the television market, Latin America is considered as one territory for distribution and syndication of programmes, for this reason they are dubbed into a Neutral Spanish that avoids idioms and words that may have a coarse meaning in any of the countries in which the programme will be shown. This Latin American Neutral Spanish uses ustedes instead of vosotros (you-all or youse).