History and latest reforms of the RAE

If you want to teach Spanish, it is essential that you understand the ins and outs of our language and that you are aware of the latest reforms.

The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) was created in Madrid in 1713, at the initiative of Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco y Zúñiga (1650-1725), the eighth Marquis of Villena, who was also its first director. With its motto ” Clean, fix and give splendor “, the RAE set itself as an essential objective since its creation the development of a dictionary of the Castilian language: the Dictionary of Authorities (1726).

After the publication of the first Ortografía (1726) and the first Grammar (1771), the RAE has carried out many reforms. The latest spelling reform includes the following new features:

• Exclusion of digraphs ch and ll from the alphabet.
• Proposal of a single name for each of the letters of the alphabet. Thus , it is recommended to call “ye” to the “Greek i”, for example.
• Substitution, by spellings typical of Spanish, of the etymological q with independent phonic value in those foreign words and Latinisms fully adapted to Spanish (quorum> quorum; Iraq> Iraq).
• Elimination of the accent in words with orthographic diphthongs or triphthongs: hyphen, truhan, fie, liais , etc.
• Elimination of the diacritical mark in the adverb only and the demonstrative pronouns even in cases of possible ambiguity (ese, este, that with its feminine and plurals).
• Removal of the diacritical tilde in the disjunctive or written conjunction between figures (120 or 130 is no longer written, but 120 or 130).
• It will be written “ex-boyfriend,” “ex-minister,” and so on. The prefix ex will be separated if the lexical base that follows consists of more than one word, as in “former captain general”.
• The extranjerismos and latinisms adapted should not be written in italics or quotes ( software ). On the other hand, adapted foreign words and latinisms are written without any type of highlighting and are subject to the rules of graphic accentuation of Spanish (paddle tennis).
• The institutional positions , like the king and the pope, should always be lowercase, regardless of whether they are named after.

This latest edition of the Spanish spelling has caused much controversy among Spaniards, above all due to the fact that the «y Grecia» is now called «ye» and because of the deletion of the accent in diphthongs and triphthongs ( script, lieis , etc.) and in the adverb alone .

However, these reforms must be taken into account when teaching Spanish to provide quality school support . History and latest reforms of the RAE