Most of my Iberian friends (Galicians, Catalans, Basques) use 'Castellano' as they deem 'Espa�ol' too restrictive - it suggests that it is the most important language of 'Espa�a'. Using 'Castellano' gives validity to the other languages, more on the same footing, as none of them consequently uses the name of the state as the base of the language name. Others, who depreciate the other national/regional languages, tend to use 'Espa�ol'. I don't know how old this practice is. Castille was the primary founding kingsom of the current Spanish state and I believe the term 'Castellano' to be medieval at least.
Guto
"Daniel J. Milton" <dmilt1896@...> wrote:
Some of the recent postings on self-identification of language
communities bring to mind something I've long wondered about.
Argentinians, I know from my own experience, generally call their
language "Castellano". I believe (and here I could be wrong) that
the usual term in the rest of Spanish America is "Espanol".
Is there an explanation for this? Or is it one of those "just the
way things are"?
Dan
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