gerry reinhart-waller <
walu-@...> wrote:
> And I absolutely am not interested in instigating a flame war -- but
> from what you say then can I conclude that YOU view Castillian to mean
> Spanish and that this flame war would be between Castillian (Spanish)
> and Catalan? Why do you view Castillian to be more Spanish than
> Catalan? Do folks from Catalan find themselves to be less Spanish?
> Somehow, I doubt it.
I view them as two different languages - one's common name in English
usage is Spanish, the other's - Catalonian. There's no question about
which one of them is "more" or "less" Spanish, because they are not 2
dialects of the same language, they are two quite different languages
(no nitpicking, please, sure there are transitional dialects, but the
fact is, Standard Catalonian and Standard Spanish easily qualify as 2
distinct languages). When people around the world say "Spanish" they
mean what we referred to as "Castilian" earlier in this thread. Now,
Castillian is not the word that people _use_ when they refer to the
language that people from Mexico, Argentina or Colombia speak.
Castillian is just the most standard of dialects of the Spanish
language as defined by the Royal Spanish Academy.
I'm only explaining this to show that I don't consider either one
superior or inferior to the other. And neither one is a vulgar version
of the other - they are both different developments of the Vulgar
Latin.
I still find the way you put your questions potentially offensive and I
will leave the rest of it to be answered by other members of this forum.
GK