010-04/2015EN. The International Importance of Languages (original) (raw)
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The International Importance of Languages
The goal is to present an update of the “international importance of language index” calculated and first proposed by Marqués de Tamarón, and applied later by Jaime Otero. This update is done first by bestowing special attention upon Spanish, and second, by applying a methodology equivalent to the one used 20 years ago by the aforementioned authors. In this way, it will be possible to appreciate how Spanish and other languages have evolved over the past two decades.
Reexamining the International Importance of Languages
HCIAS Working Papers on Ibero-America, 2022
This paper addresses the scientific and social interests in the comparative analysis of the international importance of language. In order to classify the different approaches to this analysis according to the criteria on which they are based, the following typology is proposed: the perception of importance, the estimation of importance, and the calculation of complex indexes. Secondly, the study provides an update to the international language index and its indicators for the year 2020. Finally, the results are analyzed and compared with those of the previous indexes. The analysis provides a picture of the plural and polycentric constellation of international languages including Spanish and Portuguese, defined by their areas of influence and spread.
2024
Esta conferencia propone una doble lectura historicista del paisaje lingüístico en español en Suiza (con foco principal en la ciudad de Lausana): 1) se tratará de leer la historia de la comunidad migrante hispanófona en el PL desde que, hace ya más de sesenta años, Suiza y España firmaron un tratado bilateral de inmigración; 2) se observará este PL a través de una recopilación de datos que cubre una década (desde 2013 a 2024) en cuatro momentos: 2013/14, 2016, 2019 y 2024, produciendo una visión de time lapse que muestra la evolución constante de los signos en español acorde con los cambios que va experimentando la comunidad hispanohablante en este país. Asumo, de un lado, con Blommaert (2013: 51), que "Linguistic landscaping can be all kinds of things, but not an a-historical inquiry; it is an instrument for historical research"; y, de otro, con historiadores expertos en memoria democrática, como el historiador español Sergio Molina (2024), que es necesario incluir en las iniciativas de memoria democrática la de la emigración española a Europa, para contribuir a luchar contra las actitudes xenófobas actuales en España: En el contexto actual, marcado por las batallas identitarias y por el auge de la extrema derecha, es necesario incluir las historias de la emigración española en el relato sobre nuestro pasado más reciente para así entender el movimiento de las sociedades y la permeabilidad de las fronteras. Se debe insistir, por ejemplo, en la gran importancia de la emigración española a Europa durante el franquismo y en su impacto en la economía, en la sociedad y en la política de aquellos momentos. Esta investigación comenzó en 2013 y desde entonces he publicado mis resultados en dos ocasiones (Castillo Lluch 2019 y 2022). Esta ocasión me permitirá completar una visión comparativa a lo largo de una década y comprobar si las dinámicas observadas estos últimos años-fundamentalmente el desmantelamiento de los locales del asociacionismo español del siglo pasado con la consiguiente desaparición de sus signos en el PL y la expansión de signos de la comunidad hispanoamericana-se mantienen y siguen su curso.
Spanish as a world language: Language and identity in a global era
Spanish in Context, 2004
The article traces the spread of Spanish across the globe, highlighting the changing nature of this spread, from indicator of local dominance to colonisation, and then, today, globalisation. This article focuses on the role of Spanish in an era of globalisation, raising issues about the nature of a world or global language, and noting how the emergence of such languages mirrors the decrease of a wider linguistic diversity. It seeks to answer such questions as whether Spanish can be called a global language or instead only an international one. It suggests various tests that should be applied in order to consider what constitutes a global language. I will conclude by speculating on the future spread and role of Spanish, particularly in the U.S. and in its interaction with English.
Assessing the Economic Value of the Spanish Language
Global Business Languages, 2013
Trade, migration, and the increase and mixture of population must not only have opened people's eyes, but also loosened their tongues. It was not simply that tradesmen inevitably encountered, and sometimes mastered, foreign languages during their travels, but that this must have forced them also to ponder the different connotations of key words (if only to avoid either affronting their hosts or misunderstanding the terms of agreements to exchange), and thereby come to know new and different views about the most basic matters.
Spanish: A Living Language. 2024 Report. PDF
Spanish: A Living Language. 2024 Report. PDF, 2024
Updated data on the situation of the Spanish language in the world. The report "Spanish: A Living Language 2024" analyzes the dynamism of a community of speakers that now approaches 591 million potential users. Currently, 7.3% of the world’s population can communicate in Spanish, with varying levels of proficiency in the language: nearly 500 million people speak it as their native language, and over 91 million use it as a second language or are learning it. After Mandarin Chinese, Spanish is the second most spoken native language in the world by number of speakers, and the fourth when including all levels of language knowledge, following only English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi. More than 23 million people are studying Spanish as a foreign language. The content provides a global overview of the presence of the Spanish language in the world by updating its most representative variables. With this aim, it establishes a quantitative base for Spanish from which the main challenges the language will face in the short and medium term can be anticipated. Expanding the number of speakers beyond the native language sphere, dealing with the increasingly established position of English as the international lingua franca, leveraging the strategic growth area represented by Sub-Saharan Africa, and further strengthening the privileged platform of the Spanish-speaking community in the United States as a gateway to future potential users of Spanish are just a few of these challenges. Source: https://lenguaviva.org/