Caramba!!. Wow, how many million speakers and words

“Caramba, caramba”, José María Merino repeats at the other end of the phone line, as if those syllables called to the timbre of his voice every few seconds.

‘Caramba’, was what they used to call a ‘tonadilla’ singer from Motril in the 18th century. ‘Caramba’ is also what they call the ‘quijongo’ in Honduras today, which looks like an Amazonian bow but it’s a stringed instrument. "Caramba, there are almost 600 million Spanish speakers and there is no book that brings together the diversity of Spanish from various perspectives," the academic begins.

He talks about the genesis of his latest book, which is not his own, but one that belongs to many, one that was born quite spontaneously, developed after many years of touring Latin America with a well-tuned ear. “You cannot say that the best Spanish is spoken in a specific place. It is an incomprehensible language from a lexical viewpoint. It's a language full of melodies, I love it,” he continues. A while ago, he went with those arguments to Álex Grijelmo, another writer passionate about words, to say that they had to do something. They started thinking about issues and making calls, until they found the right signatures to turn that into a reality on paper. Now they present ‘More than 555 million of us can read this book without translation’ (Taurus), a compilation of essays by different experts that orbit around a paradox: that the Spanish language is one and many at the same time.

Read more here: ABC CULTURA

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