Melville House Books

Spanish King Juan Carlos holds two volumes of "New Grammar of the Spanish Language"

This report by the Associated Press asks, “Can a Barcelona truck driver be expected to speak like a Buenos Aires banker? Can rules be imposed on a language spoken by 400 million people stretching from Madrid to Manila?” Apparently, yes: “The academic overseers of the language of Cervantes have taken an ambitious stab at it, unveiling their first Spanish grammar guidelines in nearly 80 years.”

And it is 4,000 pages spread over 3 volumes — the first two of which were unveiled yesterday at the Spanish Royal Academy’s headquarters in Madrid. According to the AP, “The book is billed as a sort of linguistic map that painstakingly documents today’s Spanish in all its richness “there are nearly 20 ways to say ballpoint pen, for instance” and how it varies from country to country, or within one, or from one social class to another.”

At the ceremony for the book, Victor Garcia de la Concha, president of the Spanish language academy, said,”Here are all the voices, all the ways of speaking, coming together in a grand polyphony. This book comes from the people, and it is to the people that it reaches out.”

Well, those people are going to have to be pretty strong to hold that 4,000 page tome up. Though there are two smaller versions: a 750-page manual geared toward students and teachers of Spanish, and a simplified 250-page version aimed at the general public.

But even at full length, the jumbo pack is far from exhaustive. La Concha explained to the AP that “including everything is impossible. The language does not fit in just a few pages.”

Demonstrably.

Valerie Merians is the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.