this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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agree, except "doesn't exist in the language" - if people are saying it, it exists in the language, there's no committee deciding what's "in" or "out" of Spanish (or English, for that matter).
Yes there is a committee for Spanish. It’s called the Real Academia Española. Their official mission is to ensure the stability of the Spanish language across 22 hispanophone countries. I reference them daily because I don’t speak Spanish fluently yet I live in a Spanish speaking country.
I believe that English is the largest language without any sort of "official body." In France, the Académie Française has the authority to decide what is and isn't French. I believe that similar bodies exist for German and Mandarin, as well.
Right, but as all similar such committees eventually learn, there's a pretty strict limit to what they can actually control or regulate. Mostly it's just formal written usage that can be regulated. Spoken language doesn't give a shit about anyone's notions of what's considered correct or incorrect. This is one of the foundational principles of linguistics.
They've been at it since 1713 so I think they'll be ok.
This isn't correct, actually. English is the only major language that has no formal regulators of the language, and Spanish is one of the most formally regulated.