LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

  It is commonly estimated that about 45 percent of English vocabulary is Latin in origin. This makes the Romance languages, in a manner of speaking, second cousins to English, and an advantage for understanding more formal or learned registers. There is, however, a caveat, and we must tread carefully before rushing into translation or interpretation. Consider two examples. The Latin appositus gives English apposite , meaning ‘fit’ or ‘suitable’, while in Spanish the same root yields apósito , ‘dressing’ or ‘bandage’. Likewise, Latin nescius (‘ignorant’) eventually became English nice , whereas in Spanish it retains its original sense in necio , ‘silly’ or ‘foolish’. These may seem quaint developments, but they are worth bearing in mind—especially for the more pedantic among bilingual students of communication. 

    In a previous post, I chose corrupción as the word of the year in Peninsular Spanish. As I anticipated, FUNDEU RAE (Fundación del Español Urgente, Real Academia Española) has opted instead for arancel , apparently on the grounds of frequency, in keeping with a posture of political neutrality that has little to do with the study of language as social practice or lived experience.   I have conducted a modest, admittedly unscientific poll among acquaintances, students, friends, and family. All of them know perfectly well what corrupción means, whereas several hesitated or faltered when asked about arancel . I am well aware that anecdotal evidence does not compete methodologically with corpus data, and I stand ready to be corrected on scientific grounds; still, I stick to my guns and proclaim corrupción the word of the year for 2025. One can only hope that it will lose currency in 2026—and perhaps even disappear from our vocabulary altogether.

When higher stages of language learning are reached, we encounter hurdles we never foresaw at the beginning, when we were dealing with grammatical nuances and syntactical riddles. The lexical uses in the two languages differ at times, and we apply the solutions given by our first language. However, bilinguals have the challenge of managing the uses of Spanish and English. No small feat. Let me give you an example: Pull, "tirar, jalar" in Spanish, as in He pulled the trigger . In Spanish, however, the verb "apretar" to tighten, or press, is used: apretó el gatillo . Squeeze is also used, although much less. I have found 10,354 examples of pulled the trigger and only 229 of squeezed the trigger .      

  READING will always be the only way to add words to your vocabulary. In everyday life, speakers of a language commonly employ the same terminology and phraseology. In contrast, writers try to improve the way they express their ideas by choosing the right word or turn of phrase. In a newspaper or novel, the learner will find more new words to add to his trove. Remember that the more vocabulary and phraseology you own, the better you can express yourself.  

  We all know that "salado" is salty. "La sopa está muy salada". The soup is very salty. "Salado" is also funny, charming, cute: "Tu hijo es un niño muy salado."  In Colombia, Venezuela, Central America, the meaning changes to unlucky, unfortunate. "David está muy salado" meaning that he is very unlucky.  However, in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay the meaning changes to expensive."  All these different meanings do not alter the fact that the core of the language, the grammatical structure of the language, is the same. This occurs in all languages.  

Sólo permanece y dura el mudar, el cambio, y no hay nada estático. Por eso la palabra "lapso" que significaba tiempo entre dos límites, ahora es "lapso de tiempo" y no se considera redundante. Se acepta: ya ha pasado un largo lapso de tiempo.  "Tématico" era sólo adjetivo, ahora es también sustantivo: la temática del empleo, de la inmigración, como conjunto de temas parciales. El que llegaba a su hora era "puntual" y ahora significa también "concreto": un problema puntual. Y "remarcar" significaba volver a marcar, pero ha adquirido la idea de poner de relieve: Quiero remarcar lo bien que me trataron en Londres. Y si "tesitura" era disposición de ánimo, ahora también es circunstancia o situación: En esta tesitura, lo mejor es no actuar. (Continuará...)