jody Senior Member United States Joined 6239 days ago 242 posts - 252 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Bulgarian
| Message 1 of 21 23 May 2011 at 3:07pm | IP Logged |
I just opened up the Pimsleur Spanish course again. I made it about halfway through a few years ago when I quit for a while.
My first question is this: I have always thought of the Spanish language as Espanol. However, the Pimsleur CD's refer to it as Castellano. I understand what this means, but what to Spanish speakers truly call their language? I'm mostly interested in Latin American Spanish, especially Mexico and Puerto Rico, since these are the folks I'll be conversing with.
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getreallanguage Diglot Senior Member Argentina youtube.com/getreall Joined 5472 days ago 240 posts - 371 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Italian, Dutch
| Message 3 of 21 23 May 2011 at 4:05pm | IP Logged |
I wrote a post about this on this thread. I know that Mexicans call the language 'Español'. Not sure about Puerto Rico. In Uruguay and Argentina we call it 'castellano'.
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tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin
| Message 4 of 21 23 May 2011 at 4:40pm | IP Logged |
Both castellano and español are used, but as others have already said, it varies from country to country
and from region to region. Some people, at least in Spain, have strong opinions about it. I wouldn't worry too much
about it, though. If you want to adapt to those you speak with, just listen to what they say, and use the same word.
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alang Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7222 days ago 563 posts - 757 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish
| Message 5 of 21 23 May 2011 at 5:10pm | IP Logged |
jody,
You are apparently using the first part of Pimsleur. If you are in the later units of the comprehensive course it will switch to español.
Just like a reference for Americans. I have heard Norte Americanos or just Americanos are used. Which made no sense to me, as geographically Canadians would have to there for Norte Americanos. Pimsleur teaches Americanos can be viewed as anybody in the Americas, so Norte Americanos is used. A course like LSLC teaches Americans are Americanos.
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getreallanguage Diglot Senior Member Argentina youtube.com/getreall Joined 5472 days ago 240 posts - 371 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Italian, Dutch
| Message 6 of 21 23 May 2011 at 6:05pm | IP Logged |
In Spanish 'norteamericano' and 'estadounidense' are synonyms. 'Americano' can be used with the same meaning but it's ambiguous, as it can refer to anyone from the Americas, and it can have political overtones related to that very ambiguity. Suffice to say, if you use 'americano', you should make sure you know enough Spanish to be ready to follow the animated geopolitical discussion that might follow.
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patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map
| Message 7 of 21 23 May 2011 at 10:25pm | IP Logged |
getreallanguage wrote:
Suffice to say, if you use 'americano', you should make sure you know enough Spanish to be ready to follow the animated geopolitical discussion that might follow. |
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...depending on who you're talking to.
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getreallanguage Diglot Senior Member Argentina youtube.com/getreall Joined 5472 days ago 240 posts - 371 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Italian, Dutch
| Message 8 of 21 23 May 2011 at 10:36pm | IP Logged |
patuco wrote:
getreallanguage wrote:
Suffice to say, if you use 'americano', you should make sure you know enough Spanish to be ready to follow the animated geopolitical discussion that might follow. |
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...depending on who you're talking to. |
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Of course. Hence my use of 'might'.
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