The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) and the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language (ASALE) presented their first Spanish style manual on Monday.

This unprecedented publication aims to serve as a practical guide to solve all the uncertainties arising from the evolution that has occurred in recent years regarding certain orthographic, phonetic, or grammatical issues and that today continue to cause confusion or controversy over its use. Under the title “The Style Book of the Spanish Language” and the tagline “In accordance to the Pan-Hispanic Standard”, the manual focuses on the spelling of digital writing, which "must not abandon but instead accept all existing linguistic norms," Víctor García de la Concha, honorary director of the RAE, explained. In its first chapter, this new manual insists on the institution's opinion to reject the use of inclusive language and thus deem all variables of inclusion of double gender unnecessary (such as " todos y todas", "todxs", "todes" or "tod@s"). In addition, it clearly lays out that the masculine gender, "because it is unmarked, may include the feminine in certain contexts." The debate on inclusive language was reopened last July when the Vice President of the Government, Carmen Calvo, made the RAE responsible for a report on the modification of the text of the Constitution so that, in her opinion, it would reflect greater equality between men and women.

Read more: El Mundo Cultura