LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

I am always doing linguistic fieldwork. It means my ears are pricked up when I venture out, outdoors. In coffee shops, public transportation, and sauntering, I catch snatches of conversations from people from all walks of life. Mind you, I am not eavesdropping, just taking in what I hear, helter-skelter. You probably know that I make my home in Madrid where, albeit comfortable and at ease, I do not consider "home." But I digress. The other day I heard an elderly lady say "dar sopas con honda" (give soup with a sling.) "Yo les daba sopas con honda a todos mis condiscípulos" she was saying... meaning, of course, that she ran rings around them, outsmarted her classmates. It got me thinking about how many speakers of Spanish and English would understand either "dar sopas con honda" or "run rings around someone"? I can find plenty of literary citations for both... but, how about the run-of-the-mill native speaker? I will ask relatives, acqua...

Ya saben ustedes que me quedo perplejo cada vez que que alguien me dice, pontificando, sobre una palabra o frase, ¡eso no se dice! O en inglés, we don´t say that! Pero, ¿quién decide si un vocablo o giro está o no vigente, si se dice o no se dice? Pues el nativo de a pie, que para eso es nativo. Y por eso digo que el nativo es el enemigo número uno del idioma que maneja.  Ayer estaba viendo las noticias en televisión cuando dijeron "de tres al cuarto", que es modismo que expresa poca calidad, mediocridad, vulgaridad, poco valor, poca estima. La persona con la que estaba, nativa del castellano, soltó una carcajada y espetó: "¿Quién dice eso de tres al cuarto?" El banco de datos de la RAE CORDE, recoge 46 ejemplos de uso de la expresión, comenzando en el año 1605, en La Pícara Justina , de López de Úbeda. El CREA, 54 ejemplos nos da. Si ya no se emplea, ¿cómo podemos expresar la idea de manera más contemporánea? Porque si la expresión está caduca según mi interlocutor...

An acquaintance of mine´s wife is in the hospital. I recently inquired about her health and got back the following text message in Spanish: "todo sigue igual le pusieron catéter y el riñón a mejorado y siguen haciéndola análisis empezará comer y haber que tal le sienta gracias." I am not trying to make fun in any way. I aim to warn about the linguistic abilities of the average native speaker and that being monolingual, 80 years old, and even well-read, means little about the command one might have of his language. Being a native speaker does not mean having a good language knowledge.    

I believe that the native speaker, the one who has been using a language since birth, and normally speaks no other, is the genuine representative of that language. She is subject to linguistic, grammatical, sociological, phonetical studies. The native speaker is grouped, divided geographically, tested and analized by experts. Native speakers set the standard by which we judge a language socientifically. Nevertheless, foreigners who wish to acquire the native´s idiomatic skills must demand certain qualifications. Any native won´t do as a teacher. 1. "The native speaker must be literate." An illiterate native has a handicup as a teacher. 2. "The native must have an educational background, especially literary." A person who knows the literature, the history, geography, customs, etc. of her country, where the language is spoken, will be more suitable. A background in chemistry won´t do. 3. "The native who acts as a teacher must be certified." His word wil...