When ch stopped being a letter
In 1994 the Spanish academies changed dictionary order, and in 2010 ch and ll ceased to be letters. Who decides Spanish spelling, and where the mark on the ñ came from. A C1 reading.
Cuando la ch dejó de ser una letra
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An article about the two rulings that took ch and ll out of the Spanish alphabet: the 1994 change to alphabetical order and their reclassification as digraphs in 2010. It explains that the norms are agreed among more than twenty academies, recalls the proposal García Márquez made in Zacatecas, and traces the mark on the ñ back to medieval copyists. It closes with questions addressed to the reader.
En 1994, las academias de la lengua acordaron que las palabras con ch y ll se ordenaran dentro de la c y de la l. La decisión no tocaba la pronunciación: pedía que los diccionarios siguieran el alfabeto latino universal, tal como reclamaban varios organismos internacionales.
Dieciséis años después, la Ortografía de 2010 fue más lejos y dejó de considerar letras la ch y la ll: pasaron a ser dígrafos, es decir, combinaciones de dos signos que representan un solo sonido. Fue entonces cuando el abecedario español quedó fijado en veintisiete letras.
Cabe recordar que estas decisiones no las toma una sola institución. Las normas se acuerdan entre más de veinte academias de España, América, Filipinas y Guinea Ecuatorial, y se procura que cada novedad cuente con el respaldo de todas. No basta con que una academia lo proponga: hace falta que la propuesta se debata entre todas, aunque el acuerdo final no siempre sea unánime.
La misma Ortografía estableció que «guion» se escribiera sin tilde, porque se considera monosílabo, y suprimió la opción de acentuarlo que admitía la edición de 1999. Resulta llamativo que la discusión sobre la tilde de «sólo» haya durado décadas y que la norma haya cambiado más de una vez.
El cambio de 1994 debió de sorprender a más de un maestro, pero no obligaba a nadie a escribir de otro modo: alteraba el orden del diccionario, no la escritura de las palabras.
No todas las propuestas prosperan. En 1997, en el Congreso de la Lengua celebrado en Zacatecas, Gabriel García Márquez pidió que se jubilara la ortografía; propuso que se enterraran las «haches rupestres» y que se firmara un tratado de límites entre la ge y la jota. Ninguna de esas ideas llegó a la norma, aunque la propuesta se discutió mucho a los dos lados del Atlántico.
Un detalle que casi nadie recuerda: la tilde de la ñ nació como una n pequeña que los copistas medievales escribían encima de otra para no repetir la letra y ahorrar pergamino.
¿Y usted? ¿Aprendió la ch como una letra o como dos? ¿Le parece razonable que un dígrafo pierda su sitio en el abecedario, o preferiría que las academias no tocaran lo que ya se enseñó en la escuela? Si dependiera de usted, ¿qué palabra escribiría de otra manera?
About this article
What you'll learn
The subjunctive in normative and substantive clauses, with sequence of tenses (acordaron que se ordenaran), impersonal assessments (no basta con que, resulta llamativo que), nuanced modality (cabe recordar, debió de) and cleft and fronted structures.
An article about the two rulings that took ch and ll out of the Spanish alphabet: the 1994 change to alphabetical order and their reclassification as digraphs in 2010. It explains that the norms are agreed among more than twenty academies, recalls the proposal García Márquez made in Zacatecas, and traces the mark on the ñ back to medieval copyists. It closes with questions addressed to the reader.
After reading
Article learning block
Phrases, words, grammar, and quick practice from this text.
Phrases for training
Add useful phrases to SRS or mark them as already known.
Cabe recordar que
newit is worth recalling that
Cabe plus an infinitive is an impersonal formula meaning that something is fitting or warranted. Caber here has nothing to do with fitting into a space.
One of the standard paragraph openers in academic and editorial prose: cabe señalar, cabe preguntarse, cabe destacar.
pasar de largo
newto walk on by
To pass something without stopping. It works literally, about a door, and figuratively, about a topic you skip over.
A very live phrase: pasó de largo sin saludar.
fue más lejos
newwent further still
Ir más lejos in a figurative sense: to take a bolder step than the previous one.
A neat bridge between two stages of a reform, a decision or an argument.
más de un maestro
newquite a few teachers
Más de uno means quite a few, even though it stays singular. The verb stays singular too: más de uno se sorprendió.
An understated way of saying many without naming a figure.
a los dos lados del Atlántico
newon both sides of the Atlantic
A common expression for the two sides of the ocean; in writing about Spanish it points to Spain and the Americas.
It recurs in writing about the language, music and politics of Spanish-speaking countries.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
Alphabet (ABC)
abecedario
the ABC
The word is built from the names of the first letters: a, be, ce, de. Its synonym alfabeto comes from the Greek alpha and beta.
Abecedario sounds more like the classroom, alfabeto more technical; both are correct.
Accent mark
tilde
written accent
Spanish calls the written mark tilde, while acento is mainly the stress itself, though acento gráfico also works as a synonym of tilde. The same word names the squiggle over the ñ.
To talk about a correction you need tilde: te falta una tilde.
Digraphs
dígrafos
digraphs
Two letters standing for a single sound. Spanish has ch, ll, rr, qu and gu before e and i.
The term explains why the dictionary files chico under c and not in a section of its own.
Scribes, copyists
copistas
scribes
The people who copied books by hand before printing. It is a common-gender noun: el copista and la copista, with no change to the word itself.
It belongs to the -ista family where only the article marks gender: el copista, la copista.
Backing, support
respaldo
backing
Literally the back of a chair; figuratively the support somebody leans on. The verb is respaldar.
A key formal collocation: contar con el respaldo de means to have the backing of.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
Sequence of tenses
acordaron que las palabras con ch y ll se ordenaran
agreed that words should be filed
The main verb is in the past (acordaron), so the subordinate clause takes the imperfect subjunctive (se ordenaran) rather than the present. This is the sequence-of-tenses rule.
In formal writing the imperfect is what you expect here, though acordaron que se ordenen also fits if the rule is presented as still in force today.
Impersonal assessment: bastar, hacer falta
No basta con que una academia lo proponga
it is not enough for one academy to propose it
Bastar con que and hacer falta que are impersonal assessment formulas, and both are always followed by the subjunctive. The pronoun lo stands in for the whole preceding idea.
The pair no basta con que..., hace falta que... is a ready-made frame for an argument.
Resultar plus adjective plus que
Resulta llamativo que la discusión sobre la tilde de «sólo» haya durado décadas
it is striking that the argument has lasted decades
Resultar plus an evaluative adjective introduces an assessment and requires the subjunctive, but adjectives of certainty (resulta evidente que...) keep the indicative. Since the action is completed but still relevant, it takes the perfect subjunctive haya durado.
A softer, more elegant alternative to es sorprendente que.
Cleft sentence with lo que
lo que cambió no fue la lengua, sino la manera de ordenarla
what changed was not the language but the way it is ordered
The frame lo que plus verb plus ser throws the emphasis onto one part of the sentence. Together with no..., sino... it denies the wrong candidate and asserts the right one in a single move.
The main device for correcting somebody else claim in argumentative writing.
Deber de for supposition
debió de sorprender
it must have surprised
Deber de plus an infinitive expresses a guess, while deber plus an infinitive expresses obligation. Here the preposition de turns a claim into a careful supposition.
One small particle separates it must have surprised from it had to surprise.
Fronting the object
estas decisiones no las toma una sola institución
these decisions are not taken by a single institution
The direct object is moved to the front, and Spanish then obliges you to echo it with the pronoun las. Without that las the sentence would be ungrammatical.
It lets you open a paragraph with known information and save the new information for the end.
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