The Hunter contest is usually a conflict-free space, however, in the last few hours a small controversy has broken out. Last Friday, December 29, a profound linguistic debate broke out, without anyone predicting or realizing it. The protagonist is José Manuel Leiva, a man from Malaga who was close to winning and who did not do so due to the construction of the plural of ‘Santa Claus’, and expressed his displeasure through his social networks.
The contestant created a thread on his official X profile, formerly Twitter, in which he explained the complexity of his case, making use of the language regulations and alluding to the geographical factors that influence it. Based on all this, he asked for a review of the verdict. “In compliance with the contract, I cannot reveal any internal issues of the program, and logically I will do so,” said Leiva, at the beginning of her thread in X.
“You will have seen that, when responding to the question ‘plural in Spanish of Santa Claus’, as spokesperson for two other contestants, I said ‘the Santa Clauses’. The presenter considered it incorrect and clarified that the correct plurals are ‘Santa Clauses’. ‘ or ‘papanoeles'”, the Andalusian continued saying. This meant that they were hunted with two seconds left. “If the plural ‘the Santa Clauses’ had been considered correct, we would have won, since in two seconds it is materially impossible to read and answer one more question from the hunter,” he continued lamenting.
Not content with the explanation given by the contest presenter, Rodrigo Vázquez, José Manuel presented “a written challenge” to that question, as allowed by the contract he signed, and the organization responded based on an article in Fundéu. “Here the legal advice of Mediacrest comes into play,” the company responsible for the contest, explained the contestant.
“In response to my complaint and from Barcelona, ??they confirm that ‘the Santa Clauses’ is not a correct plural, that the only correct ones are ‘Santa Clauses’ or ‘papaoneles’ and that they are based on everything the RAE says,” keep saying. As he explained, the participant went to said institution and was assured that his response was “more uncommon and, therefore, less advisable, but in no case incorrect.”
The truth is that in the case of the RAE, the academy distinguishes between correct use, this being more or less recommended, and incorrect, so “‘the Santa Clauses’ would be a correct and less recommended plural.” The contestant assured that this expression “is common in part of Andalusia, the Canary Islands and Latin America.”
“Just as it is sensitive to the reality of the language variety of Spain, being a national level program, and I think it is great that it greets Galician, Catalan, Basque or Valencian contestants in their native languages, on the other hand it does not recognize Andalusian varieties like this one from ‘the Santa Clauses’, as the RAE has demonstrated,” Leiva complained. The Andalusian regrets “this terrible policy financed with public money from RTVE.”
In addition, he admits to feeling disappointed with the way the case of said program was resolved. “They have even refused to clarify the issue with a simple phone call, acknowledging the error. Therefore, I have reported this grievance against Andalusian speech and, therefore, Andalusia, through three channels,” he stated.
Not happy with what happened, José Manuel has taken the case to the RTVE Hearing Defender, María Escario; to the Spanish Ombudsman and the Andalusian Ombudsman. “In all of them I emphasize the recognition of ‘the Santa Clauses’ as a correct and less recommendable expression, but not incorrect. As the question did not qualify plural recommendable or not, we are faced with an ambiguous question resulting from a quick reading of the Fundéu headline , since in the development of that article expressions such as ‘the Child Jesus’ are recognized, similar to the other in structure,” he stated, visibly annoyed.
