|
 |
"Standard" Spanish at the United Nations? | ||
Tags: Spanish | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4766 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes  Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 4 15 June 2014 at 5:18pm | IP Logged |
|
Ïs there a standard Spanish used at the U.N., especially by simultaneous translators?
I just read a wikipedia article, where they claimed that the U.N. translators use a "Latin American" standard, because Spain was so late to join the U.N. (1956, a decade after most of Latin America). The article is well written and sounds authoritative, but it does not cite sources. I assume also, that by Latin American standard he means seseo and, I suppose, yeismo, avoiding vos and vosotros. I hunted around, and I didn't find a document that refers to a standard of pronunciation for translators at the U.N., and a quick check of U.N. radio shows a variety of pronunciations including Castilian. Has anybody ever heard a U.N. simultaneous translator at work? Are regional pronunciation variations acceptable? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4669 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 2 of 4 15 June 2014 at 5:53pm | IP Logged |
|
UN does not use vos, but I doubt it use tú either, since its style is formal more often than not, so they use Vd in their publications, as expected.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Gallo1801 Diglot Senior Member Spain Joined 4903 days ago 164 posts - 248 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Arabic (Written), Croatian, German, French | Message 3 of 4 18 June 2014 at 3:37pm | IP Logged |
|
Spanish is not as divided as Arabic, so it's closer to the varieties of English: ie just
as most educated Americans can recognize that recognise is just as correct, and biscuit means different things to a Londoner than it does to a Atlantan, most Argentine diplomats can understand their peer from Zaragoza without great problem. I use y'all personally but would not use it while giving a speech on the floor of the UN haha. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| nicozerpa Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 4327 days ago 182 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Portuguese, English Studies: Italian, German | Message 4 of 4 18 June 2014 at 4:51pm | IP Logged |
|
Possibly, Spanish natives working there use a "polished" version of their own accent, trying to avoid consonant elision, softening the intonation a little bit, etc.
It's worth noting that in formal registers, the differences among the different varieties of Spanish become less apparent. That's why this isn't really a big issue as it could be, for example, in Arabic. The UN has a page about Spanish translation: http://www.un.org/depts/DGACM/sts.shtml According to that site, they use a location-neutral Spanish. 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
