Spanish and English both come from the Indo-European language family, whose roots are still a source of speculation, but the majority view is that it originated in present day Ukraine around 6,000 years ago. In simple terms, this split off into various phylogenetic categories, with Germanic and Italic being amongst these. Germanic splintered into North, West and East Germanic groups, of which West Germanic languages are most prominently considered English and Dutch. Similarly, as Latin was the Italic language, after the fall of the Roman Empire, Castilian came into play. English has been established as a global lingua franca, whilst Spanish has cultivated more than 360 million speakers of it as a first language worldwide. The history of the linguistics of these two languages has resulted in varied characteristics of phonetics, grammar, semantics, and pragmatics. Each of these aspects can be explored for their similarities and differences, as aside from the obvious, there are many word patterns in the cognates between English and Spanish. Although they are distantly related, at times they can seem closer due to the English adoption of many French words, which was another language derived from Latin. However, with the evolution of language we can see word meanings modify, becoming known as ‘false friends’ such as ‘discutir’ translating to ‘to argue’ rather than ‘to discuss’. These can be some of the most constant and repetitive mistakes a new language learner will make.
Phonemic differences are those which affect the pronunciation of a word, whilst phonology refers more so to spelling. The most evident distinction between Spanish and English is the fact that Spanish has only five vowel sounds, whilst English has over fourteen. This means in Spanish each vowel always sounds the same, explaining part of the reason as to why it is a vocalic language. Apart from this simplicity, Spanish also has diphthongs, in which the combination of two vowels creates a different sound, such as ‘tiempo’. In contrast, English vowels tend to be obscured by a phrase in which they are weakly stressed. Considering another sound difference, in Spanish, the ‘z’ sound in ‘desde’ is audible, however the meaning does not change if it is pronounced with a ‘s’ sound. In English, this contrast is far more conspicuous, for instance if you examine the change in semantics between ‘sip’ and ‘zip’. Therefore, there is a phonemic difference in English as you can distinguish between the two words, but a sub-phonemic one in Spanish as the change of sound does not affect the meaning. This can create problems when a native speaker of each language transfers their sound system to the other language, as they will be using uncharacteristic syllabic and intonation patterns for that language. The consonant systems for these two languages also greatly vary, as Spanish has consonants such as ‘ñ’ which do not exist in English. Sometimes it is arduous for English speakers to adapt their pronunciations to differentiate between ‘ñ’ and ‘n’, and the same can be said for ‘rr’ and ‘r’ with words such as ‘pero’ and ‘perro’. Although it is possible for other language speakers to overcome such hurdles, the problem lies deeply rooted in a habitual practice of one language for a lifetime, making it demanding to expect to acquire effective pronunciation with such immediacy.
Spanish and English both follow the same sentence structure of subject, object, verb, however more flexibility is allowed in Spanish. For example, in Spanish in would make sense to say ‘la gente camina’ or ‘camina la gente’, depending on what you are emphasising, however in English you would not be able to place the verb first. Similarly, English adjectives must go before the noun such as ‘the green grass’ whereas in Spanish you could either say ‘la hierba verde’ or ‘la verde hierba’. These are minor syntactical differences, yet they can easily create problems when translating text from Spanish to English. Concerning the third person possessive, Spanish is far more ambiguous with only ‘su’, whilst English has ‘his’, ‘her’, and ‘their’. On the other hand, Spanish still allows distinction between the informal ‘tú’ and the formal or plural ‘vos’, and also ‘usted’. English has lost this formal treatment, and instead requires extra words such as ‘Sir’ or ‘Ma’am’ to express this dignity, whilst in Spanish these are optional because that treatment is already implied in ‘vos’ and ‘usted’. In Spanish, the system of cases has been completely abandoned apart from the changing of adjective endings to agree with the noun. Nouns are still identified by either masculine or feminine, and then plurals which cause the addition of an ‘s’ or ‘es’. English is the only European language with employs uninflected adjectives, meaning that the adjective ‘tall’ would stay the same whether referring to a man or a woman, whereas in Spanish it would change between ‘alto’ and ‘alta’. Both languages frequently take scientific terms from Classical Greek words, such as ‘geography’, ‘encyclopaedia’ and relevantly, ‘grammar’. Despite being a Germanic language, this is why English and Spanish converge so often, as a mass of the English vernacular is taken from Romance origins.
Semantics is a linguistic studies branch that relates to the meaning of words encoded in a language. Inter-language lexical correspondences can vary firstly within one language, and secondly across different languages. Some words are relatively consistent and homogenous in application, such as a square needing certain characteristics of four equal sides and 90-degree angles to be given this appellation. An example of the opposite would be a word where its central usage has been extended to see different and unconventional meanings. ‘Sister’ is generally used to refer to a female sibling, but in certain contexts it would be used to describe a nun in a convent. Such words with a radial structure are often polysemous by nature. The word ‘hermana’ in Spanish is the same as English in this instance as it can be used to describe both meanings. On the other hand, the word ‘wall’ is used for all structures, whether internal or external, but in Spanish ‘pared’ is used for walls inside a house, whereas ‘muro’ is used with reference to a garden wall. It also works the other way round where the Spanish word ‘reloj’ can refer to a ‘clock’ or a ‘watch’. However, what we can notice with both the classical and radial words, is that there is a conceptual link in the meaning of the referents. This notion is contrasted by homophones, which are two words that sound the same but share no relationship in meaning, such as ‘pair’ and ‘pear’ in English and ‘siento’ and ‘ciento’ in Spanish. They would never be considered to belong to the same category due to the disparity in meaning yet they sound the same, this is a widely used technique in literature to suggest multiple connotations. Studies have shown that radial words and homophones are less susceptible to interaction, from which we can infer that their challenges can sometimes create difficulties in communication.
This brings us to pragmatics, which relates to the context of words in active use, such as deictic words. It works in such that it analyses the speaker’s communicative intentions, as well as the interpretation of the hearer. Using Malblanc’s argument, Spanish has been seen to be more ‘intellect’ orientated, whilst English is termed as ‘reality’ orientated. This is because in translation from Spanish to English, it seems that more details modify the text. For example, “el pájaro entró en la habitación” would literally be translated as “the bird entered the room”, however it is likely that it could change in translation to “the bird flew into the room”. This explains why Spanish is seen as more ‘intellect’ orientated, because it is a given that the bird is flying, so therefore that manner information is unnecessary. It allows for a certain amount of interpretation for the receiver in the communication, in contrast to English where such information of action is usually explicitly mentioned. Slobin’s thesis on satellite versus verb framed languages is also relevant in this instance. English is a satellite-framed language in which the manner of the movement is enclosed in the satellite, in comparison to Spanish, which is a verb-framed language, so the information of the action is included in the verb. This is where translation techniques such as transposition and modulation are essential. “Te lo dejo” would directly translate to “I leave it to you”, however it would be much more naturally translated as “You can have it”. This is using modulation to change the point of view of the message without altering its meaning. Transposition is when the translator exercises their liberty of expression to attain an equivalent to their original. It can occur it several different forms, but the effective method is that parts of speech change their position in a sequence once translated.
Some would argue that English is a more difficult language to learn than Spanish is, due to its obnoxiously abnormal spellings that can even stump native speakers. This becomes even more confusing once you add pronunciation into the mix. ‘Though’, ‘through’, ‘rough’ and ‘cough’ are all pronounced differently despite their shared ‘ough’ spelling. Spanish spelling, in contradiction, in phonetic, meaning each letter matches with a sound consistently. If you hear a word, it is easier to spell it, and if you write a word, it is easier to pronounce it. English also has more words in its vocabulary. Whilst Spanish has a rich vocabulary, many of its words originate from Latin, meaning in an unabridged dictionary English would have far more entries than Spanish because it has words from Old English, Latin, French, Spanish and many more. English orthography seems highly illogical when regarded in this manner. It might be simpler for a Spanish speaker learning English to understand academic texts which contain more of these Latinisations, but colloquial English and phrasal verbs may obstruct listening confidence. Despite these obstacles, it cannot be said that English is more convoluted than Spanish in every way. For the verb ‘to be’, Spanish has two infinitives of ‘estar’ and ‘ser’ which serve divergent purposes of temporality: transitory and permanent. Grammatical structures such as this, ‘por’ versus ‘para’ and the variety of tenses are what tend to test learners in their attempts at the language. Overall, English has more arduous spelling and punctuation, but Spanish has more complicated grammar.
In conclusion, Spanish and English are two of the most widely spoken languages in the world, and of course they are vastly different in their vocabularies, sentence structures, sounds, punctuation and so forth. Whilst it is significant to note the foundations of both these languages, with Spanish, clear developments can be seen, meaning it holds little of the original characteristics of Latin. For example, the debuccalizing of initials has now resulted in the silent ‘h’ in words such as ‘hablar’ and ‘hijo’. Therefore, although we should recognise the history of language, it is not representative of its current appearance, as the chasm of time since their invention has resulted in numerous changes. It explains how a language initially evolved, but as can be seen with English, despite not having roots in many European languages, it has still adopted many of their words. English also seems far more miscellaneous than Spanish due to having at least fifteen double-letter combinations in contrast to the Spanish three combinations (cc, ll, rr). However, the irregularity of English, in a sense, is what makes it appealing, when you can discover the deep and varying history of various invaders imposing their alphabets onto it. Whilst it is inevitable for these two languages to have their dissimilarities, shockingly, they have more in common than one would presume, given their mildly distant relationship. Each language has its own unique aspects that can be celebrated without condemning the other (a surprisingly common theme in many research papers and patriotic opinions). Expression cannot be translated through any linguistical technique, which is why it will always remain important to understand the roots and differences of all languages.
By Ishyka Ahluwalia