Curiosities such as the fact that “e” and not “a” is the most used letter, that “oía” is the only word that forms three syllables with three letters and that “murciélago” is also one of the few that doing this collects the five vowels before “murciégalo” are some of the “mysteries” of the Spanish language that a book summarizes.
“I would never have said so” is the title of this book published by Taurus featuring some of the “best kept secrets, or not so much, of the Spanish language”, a volume that begins the Speakers collection, a new line of circulation sponsored by the Royal Spanish Academy and the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language and chaired by academic Soledad Puértolas.
Among these curiosities, the letters that we use the most are a classification that starts with the “e”, followed by the “a”, and thirdly also a vowel, the “o”. The first five digits are supplemented by the consonants “s” and “r”. And at the opposite extreme, the “x”, the “k” and the “w” are used the least.
And it is that, according to some studies, 45 percent of the letters of a Spanish text are usually vowels, so in some words they all appear: in addition to the recurring “bat” there are others such as “authentic”, “stimulating” or “euphoric” , the latter needs the least consonants, only two.
THE LONGEST AND MOST USED WORD
And what is the longest word in the dictionary of the Spanish language?: It consists of the 23 letters of “electroencelalografista”, explains this book of linguistic curiosities, which offers two others: that of “railway worker”, which groups five rs, and the two , which we use most often as placeholders, namely “thing” and “perform”, terms that could be described as the most “multi-employees” in the Spanish language.
In addition to containing the five vowels, “Murciélago” also represents another curiosity, such as metathesis, that phenomenon consisting in changing the position of certain letters in a word. But unlike the case of “cocrete” vulgarism, which the RAE has clarified on many occasions as never being accepted, “bat,” now perceived as vulgar, was originally the correct word.
It derives from the Latin words “mus, muris” (mouse) and “caeculos”, a diminutive of “caecus” (blind), but the letter change has been documented since the 13th century and it wasn’t long before it The learned language was introduced, so that the first academic dictionary from 1734 already contains both variants, but the etymological term “bat” was lost and is no longer accepted.
Another similar case is that of “crocodile”, which was originally “crocodile”, from the Latin voice “crocodilus”, derived from the Greek “krokodeilos”.
A CHAPTER FOR THE “Ñ”
The book dedicates one of its chapters to the letter that represents Spanish internationally, the “ñ”, the fifteenth of the alphabet, whose existence was threatened and had to wage a political and legal struggle for survival.
It was 1991 when the European Community denounced the Spanish laws that guaranteed the presence of the letter on keyboards sold in Spain. Two years later, the Spanish government confirmed its presence in a Royal Decree based on the exception of a cultural nature, together with the introductory question and exclamation mark.
A letter that arose when medieval copyists used abbreviations to save time and space on words with a double “n” and simplify the consonant with a dash above it. A trend reinforced by the spelling of King Alfonso X El Sabio and Antonio de Nebrija, author of the first Castilian grammar, which they were already incorporating as a letter in their own right.
The last letter to be added to the Spanish alphabet was the double V, which was not included until 1969, and as a foreign word as it entered the Spanish language through loanword. It sometimes functions as a vowel in many English and Eastern language words, but it also behaves as a consonant in German terms such as “Wolfram”.
AN INFORMED PUBLIC
BETTER DECISIONS.
THEREFORE, INFORM
A LAND SERVICE.
CITIZENS SUPPORT THE
YOU BELIEVE IN DEMOCRACY
AND LET’S MAKE ONE COUNTRY.
We’ve been doing journalism for 106 years. And today, as in other eras of El Salvador’s history, journalism is essential to bolster public opinion.
BECOME A MEMBER AND ENJOY EXCLUSIVE BENEFITS
Join Now