Is Spain like the Spanish version of England?

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SOC JO! A capite ad calcem

They are just different ways of speaking,as Mexican Spanish differs from the Spanish spoken in (for instance) Venezuela.

Spanish (espaÃ±ol ) or Castilian (castellano) is an Indo-European, Romance language that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade. It was taken to Africa, the Americas, and Asia Pacific with the expansion of the Spanish Empire between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries.
There are important variations among the regions of Spain and throughout Spanish-speaking America. In countries in Hispanophone America, it is preferable to use the word castellano to distinguish their version of the language from that of Spain, thus asserting their autonomy and national identity. In Spain, the Castilian dialect's pronunciation is commonly regarded as the national standard, although a use of slightly different pronouns called laÃsmo of this dialect is deprecated. More accurately, for nearly everyone in Spain, "standard Spanish" means, "pronouncing everything exactly as it is written," an ideal which does not correspond to any real dialect, though the northern dialects are the closest to it. In practice, the standard way of speaking Spanish in the media is "written Spanish" for formal speech, "Madrid dialect" (one of the transitional variants between Castilian and Andalusian) for informal speech etc...

So it all depends on the way you look at it.But if you at the origins,Spain would be what you call "the propper language".

Mr Who

May I suggest a better question - like this, e.g:

"What's the difference between Spanish Spanish and South American Spanish?"

This or similar questions have been asked here a million times. A best answer to it would be the following:

There can be quite some differences between King's Spanish and the many variations spoken throughout South America.

Apart from accent and spelling, some words have different meanings, objects have different names. Yes one can tell more or less by how clearly a person speaks their spanish as to which part of South America a person has come. Argentines, Peruvians, Columbians, Chileans; they all have a distinctive entonation and variations in the meaning of their words.

As a simple example, a Carro in Spain is a cart, as drawn by a horse or a donkey. In South America it is a car.

Hop into http://www.rae.es/ and look around (sadly, no english version.) The Diccionario Panhispanico de Dudas covers exactly that region, the crossover between different variations of the basic Spanish.

The Real Academia EspaÃ±ola, the body that govern the Spanish language in Spain have ties with their correspondents in other spanish speaking nations.

According to their site, the 2001 edition of the Official Dictionary, the equivalent of the Oxford English Dictionary in Great Britain contains a significant increase in the usage of words from the Americas and the Philippines:

12,122 articles that have one or more usages from those regions (the previous edition had 6,141.)

18,749 usages have one or more marks corresponding to America and the Philippines. (The previous edition had 8,120.)

There are 28,171 marks corresponding to the aforementioned zones. (The previous edition contained 12,494.)

As you can see from these numbers, the original Spanish language is actually being increased as it accepts the words brought back home by the descendants of those spaniards that colonized the Americas so long ago. Stronger trade ties have a lot to do with that, but mostly it comes from the immense influx of immigrants coming "back" from the Americas to Spain. Some through immigration laws that recognize descendants of recent emigrants as citizens with a right to Spanish nationality and greater numbers of immigrants that simply hop on a plane and turn up, blending in and living and working illegally, below the radar. Recent changes in the immigration laws have allowed them to legalize their situation and all of a sudden the Social Security system has received an incredible boost in income, with every probability of helping to solve the age bubble crisis caused by an aging working population.

Alejandro B

YES, more or less.

SueP

Not exactly. You are saying that American English is more "slang" than British English.

No. Mexican Spanish is not more "slang" than Peninsular Spanish.
Nor is American English more "slang" than British English.

HOWEVER, you make a good point that Mexican Spanish IS to Peninsular Spanish EXACTLY as American English is to British English.

America is the largest country using English, and Mexico is the largest country using Spanish.

Spain is where Spanish originated. England is where English originated. The two "new world" languages are different from the "old world" languages in the same ways. Same language, slightly different slang. Slightly different grammar/spelling. Sightly different word choice.

In the same way that in Britain you would hear people talking about their autos, which roll around on Tyres, with windscreens and bonnets, and boots,(in the US, we drive cars which roll about on tires, and you look through a windshield, and check under the hood, keeping luggage in a trunk), in Spain they drive (conducir) a car (coche) whereas in Mexico they drive (manejar) a car (carro).

Also: it is NOT a dialectical difference. The definition of a dialect is that the speaker of one can understand the other, but not produce it (not without lessons). An American SPEAKS English that can be understood by any Englishman. It is merely a regional difference.

AND, it is important to note that there are many countries where Spanish is spoken, and it is mutually understood. I only use Mexico as it has more speakers than any other country, and, while, like America, Mexico has its regional differences within its borders, there is an official level to their language, besides, it was the example you gave.

Also, there is a definite difference between Latin American Spanish (which has their own Academia, governing their language - which is in Mexico) and Peninsular Spanish (which ALSO has a governing Academia - in Madrid) that keeps the Americas separate, closer to each other than to Spain in their differences. If I'm being clear enough.

chicken man

I used to think that way, especially about English. But when I lived in Spain I had a problem with people saying that Latin American Spanish was less correct than the Spanish spoken in Spain. The fact is that both versions started off as the same language, and both have evolved over time. Naturally, they've evolved slightly differently, but I don't think it's fair to say that one is more "proper" than the other.

JellyBean

I get what you're asking, and I'm not sure about the official answer, but I have heard people say Spain is a different dialect than Mexico.
I think it's a matter of opinion really.

paul r

yes. spanish is the original, and the sailors from southern spain (seville area) took their local accents with them to the americas, which is why the americas speak with a seville accent. so, for example, a c is pronounced s, whereas in the rest of spain its pronounced th.
then, the americas corrupted the language. so the spanish still speak spanish, but the americas speak their own messed up version of spanish, but they still pronounce a c as s.
its the same in america. lots of americans will tell you they are speaking "a version of english:" and that more americans speak english than english people. but, to coin an old english phrase (from before america was invented by europe) that's b*ll*cks. americans speak a corrupted version of english, which they call american english.

sits back and waits for american hate mail...

Math student

yes

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