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RSA makes dramatic changes in the language
Posted On 09 Apr 2014
In late 2014 the Royal Spanish Academy (RSA) will publish the new edition of Spelling, which makes drastic changes in the alphabet.
Among the most striking changes is the elimination of some letters of the alphabet such as the “ch” and “ll.” However, the letters will continue to be used as before in the writing of Spanish words such as “boy” and “street,” the letters will just cease to be among the alphabet.
More changes:
- The “greek i” will be called “ye” . With this, the “latin i” will be simply called “i.”
- The “b” will just be called “be” and “v” as “uve” and not “high be,” “long be,” “down ve” or “short ve.” In the case of the “w,” it will be called “double v.”
- The use of accents in words is deleted in “solo,” “guion,” “huir” or “truhan” because those words are “monosyllabic to spelling purposes.”
- The accent on the letter “o” when it is between two numbers, eg 4 or 5, is eliminated.
- Some words will change the “q” with the letter “c” or “k,” depending on the case. Thus, “Iraq” is “Irak,” “Qatar” is “Catar,” “quasar” will be “cuasar” and “quorum” will now be “cuorum.”
- The “ex” prefix will be attached to the lexical base, if it affects a single word. For example, “exhusband,” “exminister” and “exdirector,” but will continue to be written separately in the case of compound words, such as “ex general director.”