Next Monday, March 27, the IX International Congress of the Spanish Language (CILE) begins in Cádiz. These four days of debates and presentations around Spanish had to be held in the Peruvian city of Arequipa, but the political situation in Peru made it advisable to change the venue. With post-pandemic normality restored, the Cervantes Institute, the Royal Spanish Academy and the Association of Spanish Language Academies (Asale) are preparing to experience this congress. Santiago Muñoz Machado, director of the RAE and president of Asale, answers questions from La Vanguardia.
The RAE experienced the controversy over the tilde of the adverb alone a few days ago. Discussion closed?
It’s a canceled issue. It has been a debate that has motivated citizens a lot and has served us to verify that language is an argument that is of great interest. In general it has been fun, with little significance, but it has helped us to solve a spelling problem that had been dragging on for a long time, both internal and external. It seems that the solution has liked everyone.
What novelties does the new congress bring?
The novelty is the congress itself, since we recover the periodicity of a very important event for the Spanish language and culture. We not only talk about language, but about the cultures of Hispanicity.
How many experts participate?
We have 300 speakers and more than a thousand registered attendees, although with the complementary activities there are several thousand people who participate in the congress. It is an important occasion because it allows us to discuss with experts about the problems that arise in the language due to its proximity to others, the variety of accents and the risks that the growth of the language has in terms of its unity in the diversity framework.
What are the academic news?
We will present a new digital edition of the Diccionario de la lengua española (DLE) and a new edition of the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts (DPD), which is widely handled, and which tries to resolve the doubts of Spanish-speakers.
Is a new paper edition of the DPD published?
We will present the new edition, indeed, but the printing will arrive later this year. We will continue to produce academic works on paper, even if they are limited editions, without prejudice to the fact that their usual support is electronic.
Is there more news?
We also published a new edition of the Pan-Hispanic Legal Dictionary; We are going to report on a gastronomy dictionary that the Peruvian Academy of Language is directing; We will refer to the situation of our increasingly important corpora; and also to language and artificial intelligence projects, in collaboration not only with academies but also with big technology companies.
You have been a great promoter of these projects with artificial intelligence.
For a few years I have been committed to promoting the language and artificial intelligence program. We want the Spanish used by proofreaders, translators and voice assistants to conform to the pan-Hispanic norm, that is, to the rules that all academies have established in common. Humans already apply it and we are working so that machines also apply it, to avoid the creation of digital dialects that are beginning to be misunderstood.
Before, he pointed out the problem that the excessive plurality of Spanish could entail.
I like to distinguish between the work of the academies and that of other institutions, such as the Cervantes Institute in Spain and similar ones in other countries, which deal with the teaching and dissemination of our language. Our objective as an academy is to maintain the unity of the language. That means that we all understand each other and use the same basic grammar and spelling rules, and that we have a common vocabulary.
And the diversity?
Its promotion is also part of our work, since variety is a wealth. The accents and sounds of America are very different and very beautiful and we have no interest in them disappearing, rather the opposite. And the same with the American vocabulary, with different words, which have been born from contact with Amerindian languages ??and from the need to designate elements of nature that do not exist in the Iberian Peninsula.
The balance between unity and diversity should not be easy.
It is an enormous wealth and that is why in the congress we are going to deal a lot with linguistic miscegenation. There are many papers that will analyze these influences, geographic area by geographic area. And also see the multiple languages ??spoken in America, with a very varied number of speakers. Our interest is that they do not disappear, since they imply a cultural richness that deserves to be protected and conserved. We will also study what happens with the neighborhood of Spanish with English in the United States and with Portuguese in Brazil. As well as the appearance of mixed languages, such as Spanglish and Portiñol, which even generate literary forms: there are already books written in Spanglish.
How are the relations with the other academies, specifically with the Mexican one, which due to its demographic weight sometimes shows discrepancies?
This I do not know. The Mexican Academy of Language is a great academy, due to the great academics that make it up and because it is the country with the most Spanish speakers in the world. But relations and collaboration between academies are excellent.
Has the fact that CILE has moved to Cádiz meant any change?
The most important consequence has been in the organization, because taking on a congress, keeping the date and preparing it in just three months, has required a highly commendable effort on the part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has put its own equipment and services at the service of the congress. the necessary financing. And also by the Cádiz City Council.
Is the same program maintained?
The miscegenation and intercultural program has been substantially maintained, and we have added some presentations related to Andalusia and Cádiz, which were pertinent. For example, the repercussions of the Constitution of Cádiz on American constitutionalism, the influence of Andalusian and Canarian languages ??on American languages, the singularity of poetry and of the Cadiz poets who emigrated… There will also be the opportunity to hold a table with the directors of the Spanish academies: the RAE, the Institut d’Estudis Catalans and the Basque and Galician academies, to discuss the coexistence of the official languages ??in Spain.
Will Arequipa have a new opportunity?
The political circumstances of Peru are what have determined that we had to give up doing it there. But Arequipa maintains its candidacy. When the Cádiz congress ends, we will have to decide whether the next one will be held there.
