[Linganth] Mexican Spanish & U.S. Latina/o media

[Kristine Fitch]

Beyond regional pride, I have heard both Cubans and Spaniards describe
Colombian Spanish as the "most correct," comparing it to US national news -
speak.  I found that far more curious than everyone claiming their own as
superior.

Kristine Fitch

At 12:55 PM 8/5/2004, Alexander King wrote:
>Interesting to see these posts. When I was an exchange student to Bogota,
>many years ago, I learned that the most correct, best Spanish is spoken in
>Colombia, in Bogota, to be exact. Later when I met another American who
>had been living in Bucaramanga (sp?), she informed me that the 'best'
>Spanish was spoken there. This is an interesting pattern.
>
>Sociolinguists working in Britain will be quick to point out that
>regionalism in British English is alive and strong, not subject to the
>homogenization apparent in America, but the interesting thing there is
>that local accents are devalued vis a vis a 'standard English' which no
>one really speaks. Interesting that Spanish speakers in Mexico and
>Colombia seem to have the inverse ideology (pride in their own way of
>speaking).
>
>Alex King
>
>At 12:23 -0500 5/8/04, Christie Lopez wrote:
>>I agree, the Washington Post article was interesting.  I don't think
>>between Telemundo and Univision we're in danger of eliminating the
>>intricacies of the spoken Spanish language immediately, though.
>>
>>Hispanic people identify themselves by their dialects between countries and
>>within a country  much more so than those of us in the US.  It gives a
>>sense of culture, provides a biographical map, and is a source of pride.
>>
>>There has been the long-standing debate as to which Spanish is the most
>>correct--that of Spain or Mexico.  Ask any Mexican and they will tell you
>>it is theirs of course!  Ask any Spaniard and they will wonder why you are
>>asking such an obvious question.
>>
>>Ms. Davila's book is interesting, but I question its direction.  Within our
>>own country television personalities neutralize English accents and
>>dialects to be more easily understood.  If we're talking global
>>communications for advertising or other media, you want the largest
>>possible group to understand what you're talking about.  Segmenting by
>>special interest or dialect groups is too costly and just impractical.
>
>--
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Kristine L. Fitch, Ph.D
Associate Professor
Communication Studies, BCSB 105
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA  52242-1498
http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/faculty

Co-chair, IRB 02 (Social and Behavioral Sciences)
http://research.uiowa.edu/hso
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