Argentine writer and journalist Martin Caparros has become involved with the also Spanish writer and journalist Arturo Perez-Revertean academic from the RAE, as a result of the proposal he made at the IX International Congress of Language held in Cádiz and that he proposes to change the name of our language.

In Caparrós’ opinion, calling Spanish a language in which a fifth of its speakers are Mexican is “an archaism“. For him, the language, “strictly speaking”, should be called “Hispanic American”, although he proposed the “American” as a new name for our language.

The idea, however, did not please Pérez-Reverte, who responded through Twitter by the Argentine to make a counterproposal: “asshole“. A word that defines, in the purest style of the RAE dictionary, like this: “Asshole, the. 1. adj. Belonging or relating to gilipañol. 2. m. Artificial language, but in notable expansion, that unites the asshole Spanish-speakers of Spain, a large part of America, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea and other parts of the world.

Obviously, Caparrós has responded through the same social network: “That’s the language you write in, isn’t it?“.

Should we rename Spanish?

Caparrós spoke at the table “Spanish, common language. Mestizaje and interculturality in the Spanish-speaking community” and proposed “finding a common name” for this language, so that it is not that of one of the twenty countries in which it is spoken. The “ñamericano”, in his opinion, retains the originality of the tilde of the ñ, a result, he has recounted, of the “laziness” of the monks in writing the n twice.

“Saying Spanish would have sounded like the product of a country called Spain”, he commented and reasoned that, in his opinion, “it would be logical that 450 million do not want to think that they speak the language of another”. For Martín Caparros, looking for another name would be enriching a language that has been formed “with the breath of many languages ​​and that is not attributed to any kingdom”.