Royal Spanish Academy Explained

Logo Alt:	Arms of the Royal Spanish Academy
Purpose:	Linguistic prescription and research
Headquarters:	Madrid, Spain
Language:	Spanish
Leader Title:	Director
Leader Name:	Santiago Muñoz Machado
Main Organ:	Junta de Gobierno
Affiliations:	Association of Spanish Language Academies
Native Name:	Real Academia Española
Native Name Lang:	es
Size:	160px
Abbreviation:	RAE
Region Served:	Hispanophone regions and populations
Founder:	The Duke of Escalona

The Royal Spanish Academy (Spanish; Castilian: '''Real Academia Española''' pronounced as /es/, generally abbreviated as RAE) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with national language academies in 22 other Hispanophone nations through the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language.^[1]

The RAE dedicates itself to language planning by applying linguistic prescription aimed at promoting linguistic unity within and between various territories, to ensure a common standard. The proposed language guidelines are shown in a number of works.

Motto

In the awareness, according to the vision of the time that the Spanish language had reached a moment of utmost perfection, the purpose of the Royal Academy was "to establish the voices and words of the Castilian language in their greatest propriety, elegance and purity." . This purpose was represented with an emblem formed by a fiery crucible placed on the fire, with the legend Spanish; Castilian: Limpia, fija y da esplendor ("cleans, fixes and gives splendor").^{[2] [3]} Therefore, the institution was born as an effective work center, as the founders said, "at the service of the honor of the nation."

This vocation for collective utility became the main hallmark of the Spanish Academy, differentiating itself from other academies that had proliferated in the golden centuries and that were conceived as mere occasional literary gatherings.

History

In 1711, Spain, unlike France, Italy and Portugal, did not have a large dictionary with a comprehensive and collegially elaborated lexicographical repertoire. The initial nucleus of the future Academy was formed that same year by the eight novatores who met in the library of the palace of Spanish; Castilian: italic=no|[[Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco]], Duke of Escalona and Marquess of Villena, located in the Plaza de las Descalzas Reales in Madrid.^[4]

The Spanish Academy was founded in 3 August 1713 on the initiative of Pacheco, with the purpose of "fixing the voices and words of the Castilian language in their greatest propriety, elegance and purity".^[5] The objective was to fix the language in the state of fullness that it had reached during the 16th century and that had been consolidated in the 17th century. The Italian Accademia della Crusca founded in 1582 and the Académie Française founded in 1635 were taken as models for its creation.^[6] The first official session of the new corporation was held at the residence of Pacheco on 6 July 1713, an event that is recorded in the book of minutes, begun on 3 August 1713.^[7] Its creation, with twenty-four elected members^[8] was approved on 3 October 1714 by Royal Decree of Philip V, that gave the academy the right to be called the "Royal Spanish Academy".^[9] This meant that the academicians enjoyed the preeminences and exemptions granted to the servants of the Royal Household.^[5] It had its first seat at number 26 Valverde Street, from where it moved to Alarcón Street, corner of Felipe IV, its definitive seat.^[10]

The RAE began establishing rules for the orthography of Spanish beginning in 1741 with the first edition of the Spanish; Castilian: Ortographía (spelled Spanish; Castilian: Ortografía from the second edition onwards). The proposals of the Academy became the official norm in Spain by royal decree in 1844, and they were also gradually adopted by the Spanish-speaking countries in the Americas.Several reforms were introduced in the Spanish; Castilian: Nuevas Normas de Prosodia y Ortografía (1959, New Norms of Prosody and Orthography). Since the establishment of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language in 1951, the Spanish academy works in close consultation with the other Spanish language academies in its various works and projects. The 1999 Orthography was the first to be edited by the twenty two academies together.^[11] The current rules and practical recommendations on spelling are presented in the latest edition of the Spanish; Castilian: Ortografía (2010).

The headquarters, opened in 1894, is located at Calle Felipe IV, 4, in the ward of Jerónimos, next to the Spanish; Castilian: [[Museo del Prado]]. The Center for the Studies of the Royal Spanish Academy, opened in 2007, is located at Calle Serrano 187–189.

Fundamentals

According to Salvador Gutiérrez, an academic numerary of the institution, the Academy does not dictate the rules but studies the language, collects information and presents it. The rules of the language are simply the continued use of expressions, some of which are collected by the Academy. Although he also says that it is important to read and write correctly.^[12] Article 1 of the statutes of the Royal Spanish Academy, translated from Spanish, says the following:^[13]

Composition

See main article: article and List of members of the Real Academia Española.

Members of the Academy are known as Spanish; Castilian: Académicos de número (English: Academic Numerary), chosen from among prestigious people within the arts and sciences, including several Spanish-language authors, known as The Immortals (Spanish: Spanish; Castilian: Los Inmortales), similarly to their French Academy counterparts. The numeraries (Spanish: Números) are elected for life by the other academicians. Each academician holds a seat labeled with a letter from the Spanish alphabet, with upper and lower case letters denoting separate seats. Only eight letters of the alphabet do not have—nor have they had in the past—representation in the seats of the RAE: v, w, x, y, z, Ñ, W, Y.^[14] The Academy has included Latin American members from the time of Rafael María Baralt, although some Spanish-speaking countries have their own academies of the language.

Current members

Seat	Member	Year
O	Pere Gimferrer Torrens	1985
p	Francisco Rico Manrique (pending renewal)^[15]	1987
c	Víctor García de la Concha	1992
l	Emilio Lledó Íñigo	1994
C	Luis Goytisolo Gay	1995
L	Mario Vargas Llosa	1996
u	Antonio Muñoz Molina	1996
V	Juan Luis Cebrián Echarri	1997
t	Ignacio Bosque Muñoz	1997
ñ		1998
I	Luis Mateo Díez Rodríguez	2001
N		2001
k	José Antonio Pascual Rodríguez	2002
E	Carmen Iglesias Cano	2002
T	Arturo Pérez-Reverte Gutiérrez	2003
G		2003
j	Álvaro Pombo García de los Ríos	2004
o	(pending renewal)^[16]	2006
h		2006
a		2006
S		2008
D	Darío Villanueva Prieto	2008
m	José María Merino Sánchez	2009
g	Soledad Puértolas Villanueva	2010
P		2011
Q		2011
e	Juan Gil Fernández	2011
f		2012
r	Santiago Muñoz Machado	2013
b	Miguel Sáenz Sagaseta de Ilúrdoz	2013
n	Carme Riera Guilera	2013
Z	José Luis Gómez García	2014
B		2014
F	Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón	2016
H	Félix de Azúa Comella	2016
U	Clara Janés Nadal	2016
s	María Paz Battaner Arias	2017
J		2019
M	Juan Antonio Mayorga Ruano	2019
K	José María Bermúdez de Castro Risueño	2022
i	Paloma Díaz-Mas	2022
d		2023
q	Asunción Gómez Pérez	2023
X	Clara Sánchez	2023
A		TBA
R	Javier Cercas	TBA

Notable past academicians

• Niceto Alcalá-Zamora
• Vicente Aleixandre
• Dámaso Alonso
• José "Azorín" Martínez Ruiz
• Vicente Bacallar y Sanna
• Pío Baroja
• Jacinto Benavente
• Carlos Bousoño
• Manuel Bretón de los Herreros
• Camilo José Cela
• Miguel Delibes
• José Echegaray
• Fernando Fernán Gómez
• Wenceslao Fernández Flórez
• Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos
• Alicia Jurado
• Antonio Machado
• Salvador de Madariaga
• Julián Marías
• Francisco Martínez de la Rosa
• Ramón Menéndez Pidal
• Armando Palacio Valdés
• José María de Pereda
• Benito Pérez Galdós
• Manuel José Quintana
• Gonzalo Torrente Ballester
• Leonardo Torres Quevedo
• Juan Valera
• José Zorrilla

Publications

Joint publications of the RAE and the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language

• Diccionario de la lengua española (Spanish Language Dictionary). The 1st edition was published in 1780, and the 23rd edition in 2014.^[17] It can be consulted for free online as of October 2017^[18] and was published in Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries to mark the tricentennial of the founding of the RAE.
  • The Diccionario esencial de la lengua española (Essential Dictionary of the Spanish Language) was published in 2006 as a compendium of the 22nd edition of the Dictionary of the Spanish Language.^[19]
• Ortografía de la lengua española (Spanish Language Orthography). The 1st edition was published in 1741 and the latest edition in 2010. The edition of 1999 was the first spelling book to cover the whole Hispanic world, replacing the Nuevas normas de prosodia y ortografía (New Rules for Prosody and Spelling) of 1959.
• Nueva gramática de la lengua española (New Spanish Language Grammar, 1st edition: 1771, latest edition: 2009).^{[20] [21]} The latest edition is the first grammar to cover the whole Hispanic world, replacing the prior Gramática de la lengua española (Grammar of the Spanish Language, 1931) and the Esbozo de una Nueva gramática de la lengua española (Outline of a New Grammar of the Spanish Language, 1973). The Nueva gramática de la lengua española is available in 3 different versions: The Edición completa (Complete Edition) includes 3,800 pages in two volumes to describe morphology and syntax (published December 4, 2009) plus a third volume of phonetics and phonology and a DVD (early 2010).
  • The Manual edition is a single 750-page volume, which was presented at the 5th Congress of the Spanish Language which convened virtually in Valparaíso, Chile, due to the earthquake, and was released on April 23, 2010.
  • The Gramática básica (Basic Grammar) is a 305-page volume directed to people who received secondary education, and which can be adaptable for school use; it was first published in 2011.^{[22] [23]}
  • The RAE has also published two other works by individual editors: Gramática de la lengua española (Grammar of the Spanish Language, by Emilio Alarcos Llorach, 1994) and Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española (Descriptive Grammar of the Spanish Language, 3 volumes, directed by Ignacio Bosque and Violeta Demonte, 1999).
• Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts, 1st edition: 2005). Resolves doubts related to the use of the Spanish language. Can be consulted online since 2006.^[24]
• Diccionario del estudiante (Student's Dictionary, 1st edition: 2005). Directed to students in secondary education between 12 and 18 years-old.^[25]
  • Diccionario práctico del estudiante (Student's Practical Dictionary, 1st edition: 2007) is an adapted version for Latin America of the Student's Dictionary.^[26]
• Diccionario de americanismos (Dictionary of Americanisms) is a listing of Spanish language terms of the Americas and their meaning. First edition published in 2010.^[27]

See also

• List of language regulators

Bibliography

• Sánchez . José . Sanchez . Jose . Evolution of the Spanish Dictionary . Hispania . May 1944 . 27 . 2 . 131 . 10.2307/334365.

Notes and References

1. Web site: ASOCIACIÓN DE ACADEMIAS DE LA LENGUA ESPAÑOLA. Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española. https://web.archive.org/web/20170804005330/http://www.asale.org/sites/default/files/Folleto_Asale_web_ag16.pdf. August 4, 2017. October 28, 2017.
2. Book: Medina . Alberto . Valle . José Del . A Political History of Spanish: The Making of a Language . 2013 . Cambridge University Press . 978-1-107-00573-0 . 88 .
3. Web site: The feat of the Real Academia Española . Cambridge University Libraries. Language Collections Blog . 7 July 2024.
4. Book: Concha . Víctor García de la . La Real Academia Española. Vida e historia . 10 June 2014 . Grupo Planeta Spain . 978-84-670-4202-3 . es. 19.
5. Web site: Ortografía de la lengua española . Real Academia Española y Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española . Real Academia Española . 10 July 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240705124610/https://www.rae.es/ortograf%C3%ADa/origen-y-evoluci%C3%B3n-del-sistema-ortogr%C3%A1fico-del-espa%C3%B1ol . 5 July 2024 . Madrid . es.
6. Kukuk . Nick . The Real Academia Española in the Age of Social Networks . ILCEA . 12 June 2023 . 51 . 10.4000/ilcea.17329.
7. Book: Concha . Víctor García de la . La Real Academia Española. Vida e historia . 10 June 2014 . Grupo Planeta Spain . 978-84-670-4202-3 . es. 43. La Gesta Del Diccionario.
8. Book: Concha . Víctor García de la . La Real Academia Española. Vida e historia . 10 June 2014 . Grupo Planeta Spain . 978-84-670-4202-3 . es. 35. La Gesta Del Diccionario.
9. Terry . Edward Davis . The Founding Date of the Real Academia Española . Romance Notes . 1960 . 2 . 1 . 31–35 . 0035-7995. 43800040.
10. Book: Répide . Pedro . Las calles de Madrid. . 2011 . Ediciones La librería . Madrid . 9788487290909 . 751.
11. Book: Ortografía de la Lengua Española . 2009-02-07 . Real Academia Española . 1999 . PDF . es . 84-239-9250-0 . v–viii .
12. Web site: Dequeístas, leístas y compañía... hay una salida. Plaza. J. M.. 12 December 2013. El Mundo. Dequeístas, leístas, and company... there is a way out. Spain. https://archive.today/20180615201655/http://www.elmundo.es/cultura/2013/12/12/52a9d8fd63fd3d0c788b4576.html?a=e1017c79219ff622f70c967f089b38f1&t=1386869710&goback=.gde_660437_member_5817333889084985345%23. 15 June 2018. live. 15 June 2018.
13. Web site: ESTATUTOS Y REGLAMENTO DE LA REAL ACADEMIA ESPAÑOLA. 2014. Real Academia Española. https://web.archive.org/web/20170828230250/http://www.rae.es/sites/default/files/Estatutos_y_reglamento_nuevo.pdf. August 28, 2017. October 28, 2017.
14. Web site: Académicos . rae.es/ . Spanish.
15. Web site: Académico Francisco Rico Manrique .
16. Web site: Academico Antonio Fernandez de Alba .
17. Web site: Ediciones del diccionario académico. Real Academia Española. https://web.archive.org/web/20170713022405/http://www.rae.es/sites/default/files/Ediciones_DRAE_17-10-2014.pdf. July 13, 2017. October 29, 2017.
18. Web site: Diccionario de la lengua española. Real Academia Española. https://web.archive.org/web/20171025021005/http://www.rae.es/obras-academicas/diccionarios/diccionario-de-la-lengua-espanola. October 25, 2017. October 29, 2017.
19. Book: Diccionario esencial de la lengua española. 9788467023145. https://web.archive.org/web/20171025021924/http://www.rae.es/obras-academicas/diccionarios/diccionario-esencial-de-la-lengua-espanola. October 25, 2017. October 29, 2017. Real Academia Española. 2006. live.
20. Web site: Prólogo. Real Academia Española. https://web.archive.org/web/20170704130442/http://www.rae.es/sites/default/files/Prologo_Nueva_gramatica.pdf. July 4, 2017. October 29, 2017.
21. Book: Nueva gramática de la lengua española. Real Academia Española. 9788467032079. https://web.archive.org/web/20171025023217/http://www.rae.es/obras-academicas/gramatica/nueva-gramatica/nueva-gramatica-morfologia-y-sintaxis. October 25, 2017. October 29, 2017. 2009. live.
22. Web site: La Real Academia Española y la Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española presentan la Nueva gramática de la lengua española.. Real Academia Española. https://archive.today/20130213044724/http://www.rae.es/rae/gestores/gespub000016.nsf/(voAnexos)/arch81783F098CA4E696C12572C60031796A/$FILE/ngramatica.htm. February 13, 2013. dead.
23. Web site: Nueva gramática básica. Real Academia Española. https://archive.today/20150402153839/http://www.rae.es/obras-academicas/gramatica/nueva-gramatica-basica. April 2, 2015. dead. October 30, 2015.
24. Web site: Diccionario panhispánico de dudas. Real Academia Española. https://archive.today/20161023043930/http://www.rae.es/obras-academicas/diccionarios/diccionario-panhispanico-de-dudas. October 23, 2016. dead. October 30, 2017.
25. Web site: Diccionario del estudiante. Real Academia Española. https://archive.today/20150402153839/http://www.rae.es/obras-academicas/diccionarios/diccionario-del-estudiante. April 2, 2015. dead. October 30, 2017.
26. Web site: Diccionario práctico del estudiante. Real Academia Española. https://archive.today/20171031051653/http://www.rae.es/obras-academicas/diccionarios/diccionario-practico-del-estudiante. October 31, 2017. dead. October 31, 2017.
27. Web site: Diccionario de americanismos. Real Academia Española. https://archive.today/20141117004813/http://www.rae.es/obras-academicas/diccionarios/diccionario-de-americanismos. November 17, 2014. dead. October 31, 2017.