Dear Language/Market Strategist:

Let me address the questions you never dared ask about the Spanish language and its many variants…

Is Spanish a Strategic Language?

Ethnologue.com points out that there are 322 to 358 million first language users of Spanish, versus 341 million first language users of English. In addition to the sheer size of the Spanish-speaking population, its aggregated GDP is 3.6 trillion dollars. To relieve you from any heavy number crunching, I will refrain from including a table (though I can send it to you if you wish) that compares this GDP with the 1.96 trillion dollars generated by French-speakers. So, it’s obvious that you will want to include this language on your localization shopping list.

And All These People Speak Just Two Dialects of Spanish?

You already know that Spanish is the official language in more than twenty countries, from Spain to Latin America. You also know that it has a strong presence in other places, such as the Philippines and the United States (the latter with 35.3 million speakers, according to the 2000 U.S. census).

Maybe you’ve heard about two variants or dialects of Spanish, i.e., the European variant or Castilian spoken in Spain, and the Latin American variant spoken in the Americas. Well, that’s totally incorrect: there’s no such thing as two variants. For example, Argentineans perceive a pure Mexican translation as distant as a pure Castilian one, even though both countries are in Latin America.

So, How Many Variants Are There?

There can be one, or there can be five or there can be thirty… but - again - not two.

The Case for One Variant

You can make the case for one single standard – let’s call it neutral, mid-Atlantic, international or universal Spanish (more about this later on).

The Case for Five Variants

Another approach is to consider four to six major groupings:

1. European Spanish or Castilian (for Spain)
2. Mexican (for Mexico)
3. Central American (for Guatemala south through Colombia)
4. Latin American (for Argentina, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, etc.)
5. that found in the U.S. Southwest

However, borderlines are blurry. For example, you could split Central and Southern each in two. You could claim that the language usage in Miami is different than in the Southwest (due to the different influences from Cuba and Mexico). And the variants march on and on…

The Case for Thirty Variants

You could also consider one - perhaps even more - variants per country, up to as many as thirty. Maybe you remember from your last trip to Spain that the Spanish spoken in Seville had nothing to do with the one you were hearing in Madrid, so that’s already a minimum of two variants in Spain alone.

Don’t worry, however. This is far from being a tower of Babel. It is actually very much like English. Normally, we talk about the differences between British and U.S. English - remember that there are also subtle differences when you take into account Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc. And people from Glasgow certainly don’t use the English language in the same way as the people from Exeter – in the same way that someone from Texas doesn’t use the language as someone from Maine.

Are the Differences Considerable, as in Portuguese, or Slight, as in English?

Both the Portuguese and Spanish languages arrived some 500 years ago to the region that we now refer to as Latin America. That’s a long time, in fact longer than English or French in North America. Therefore, both languages have been exposed to many linguistic phenomena over the centuries.

First, the variants on both sides of the Atlantic digested different influences. Initially there was the contact with the languages indigenous to the Americas, some four or five centuries ago. This was followed by that of the immigrants’ languages, such as Italian and Galician, one century ago. Then, during the 20th century, the influence of the Neighbor to the North, the United States became increasingly important. (For a concise explanation of the U.S. variants and why you should care, please read ¿Latino? ¿Europeo? ¿Americano? ¡No, Spanglish! in this issue.)

Second, different cultural and social conditions promoted different evolutions of the language, so words now in disuse in Europe are still used in Latin America, or the other way round.

Third, with today’s technology dominated by English, other languages tend to borrow from it for that domain. In some cases, it is easier to borrow a word from a neighboring country, so Mexicans borrowed computer from their English-speaking neighbor and turned it into computadora. The Spaniards, however, chose to convert the French term ordinateur into ordenador.

These three phenomena explain lexical differences, i.e., terminology (glossary) issues. These lexical differences happen both in Spanish and Portuguese, very much like the lexical differences between British and U.S. English standards (truck/lorry, motorway/freeway, etc.).

These terminology differences are particularly obvious in topics related to humans and our relation to earth and society. Here are some English examples to provide an idea of the nature of the differences between Spanish variants:

1. Social status, professions, offices, etc.

Consider the differences in U.S. vs. U.K. usage in expressions such as, Hey, man!, my lad, babe, child/baby, Sorry, madam, porter/gatekeeper, sheriff.

2. Habitat

Again, think about the distinction between the U.K./U.S. meanings of county or villa. And lift vs. elevator. You would normally use room rather than habitation (which is a perfectly good English word).

3. Articles of clothing

Panty/panties/knickers, overall/coverall, etc.

4. Forms of addressing

James/Jim/Jimmy/Mr. Brown, Hi/Hello, etc.

5. Nature

This is an obvious area for diversity, including plants (blueberry/bilberry), animals (jackrabbit/hare), agriculture (maize/corn, and the 2000 vs. 2240 pound ton/long-ton), etc.

6. Folklore

What's a jack-o'-lantern in the U.K.?

7. Gastronomy

Differences in food names are huge and start when we are kids (sweet/candy). How about this selection of translations for pea in different Spanish-speaking countries: arveja, alberja, alverja, chícharo, guisante, petit pois and poroto? So make sure that you bring along a big supply of food on your next trip, or you may starve, due to this Tower of Babel!

There are some other lexical differences with verbs. For example to stop = parar in European Spanish and other variants, but parar means to stand up in some Latin American countries. Also, the very common verb to take = coger in European and Mexican variants, but coger is a very rude word in Argentina.

Portuguese, however, developed orthographical and morphological (grammar) differences on top of the lexical differences. Orthography differences can become very annoying. You can easily cope with both the colour in the centre and the color in the center, but the orthography differences for Portuguese are much closer to something like dae kolor in dae thenter. So if only for the orthographical differences, you would need two versions of Portuguese.

Soooooo, Spanish Variants Are Quite Similar?

Spanish, on the other hand, remained extremely united in terms of orthography and grammar. In terms of orthography, I can only think of some accents here and there (like vídeo/video), some scarce b/v usage differences (like the above mentioned alberja/alverja). Though there may be more, the orthography differences among Spanish variants are even less significant than those between British and U.S. English (like centre/center, colour/color, analyse/analyze, etc.).

In terms of grammar, there is some morphological diversity, but mainly in conversation (and thus with little or no impact on localization). These issues frequently represent a particular bias or style, e.g., for an invitation to tea in English you might hear any one of the following phrases: do you want, will you have, do you care for, etc. followed by some tea, a tea, a cup of tea, a nice cup of tea, etc.

With regards to nouns, the diminutive form is more common in the American variants of Spanish. For example, gato pequeño is used in Castilian for little cat, while the American variants use gatito, where the suffix -ito functions as a diminutive.

In the case of verbs, the Spanish verb-tense system comprises - very much as in English - a modification mechanism (eat → ate) and a compounding mechanism (has eaten). But the Spanish compounding mechanism is more complex than in English, and some American variants of Spanish tend to prefer simpler, modified forms instead of compound forms (efficient software localizers around the world also prefer these forms since they are shorter).

With adverbs, the differences are very slight. In some American variants, there is a preference for acá/allá over aquí/allí (as in English when some people prefer come here over come over here, or go there rather than go over there).

A short explanation is in order to explain the issue of addressing, as it exists in Spanish. Spanish uses tú to address peers and usted for formal addressing, very similar to French (tu/vous) and German (du/Sie). Some Spanish variants use vos instead of tú, and this turns out to be a major morphological difference (called voseo). The voseo divides the Latin American variants in two large groups: those that use voseo and those that don’t. In Spain, there is no voseo (though in Andalusia there is a peculiar use of usted in the plural). The good news is that the style used in software products tends to be formal, and absolutely every Spanish variant uses usted for this.

Just in case you are in a hurry for lunch, I have included a sidebar that you don’t need to read now (or even ever). It contains my favorite explanation as to why Spanish has remained so uniform over time, while Portuguese has diverged to such a great degree and English to a lesser extent.

So, If the Variants Are Quite Similar, Which One(s) Do I Choose?

Your first question should actually be whether or not you are really in a position to choose. There are some software products that are targeted, by default, to one country at a time, e.g., accounting, finance/banking, insurance, the stock market, etc. With these packages, the issues include regulations and tax systems, rather than language.

If there is choice involved, you should first analyze the language issue from the economic and political perspectives. If your product will only be sold in Colombia, it probably makes sense to do a Colombian version. Also, the more populated countries will not always be the best markets for your software. For example, the Spanish-speaking population in the U.S. is smaller than in Spain, but there are more Internet users. Likewise, Spain is smaller than Mexico, but there are more Internet users in Spain (source: comScore Media Metrix on Active Internet Users – Home, Work and University locations: U.S. Hispanic population = 12.4 million, Spain = 11.1 and Mexico = 7.1).

As for the political perspective, keep in mind that a pure Mexican version can even offend Argentineans or Spaniards, or the other way round (don’t forget to take = coger). An international or neutral version is something that no particular individual will perceive as his/her own language variant, but that will surely not offend anyone.

Also, be sure that you can cope with issues that go beyond language specifics. The first area is locales, i.e., paper formats, zip/postal codes, formatting of phone numbers + dates + currencies (Euro, Peso, Sol, Sucre…), etc. etc. A neutral Spanish version of an application can be used in Mexico or Spain or wherever. However, in Mexico 3,333.33 USD is used, while 3.333,33 USD will be required in Spain. Therefore, if locales are relevant, then at least two versions are needed.

The second area includes cultural issues, such as the selection of examples to be used in user education materials (names of people, names of products in stock, etc.) or the sample files to be included in distribution kits (accounting practices, taxes, etc.). Remember, there are over twenty Spanish-speaking countries…

Most of the time - and once you have dealt with the above issues - the answer to your initial question on which variant to choose is simple: a well-cultivated, educated version done by a very good localizer whether Colombian, Mexican or Spaniard. If possible, ask your localizer to use an international or neutral Spanish (i.e. one in which certain words are avoided, and for which a consensus has been reached for glossary terms). Well-designed software nowadays allows for parameterization and tuning for locales. However, you should ask your localizer to provide the appropriate examples in handbooks, templates and samples, etc.

When Newsweek was about to start its Spanish edition, Mario Freude (former manager of the Spanish edition of Readers’ Digest Selections) said, El buen español escrito no tiene fronteras ni requiere adaptación a ningún área, excepto los nombres de algún alimento muy concreto (‘Well-written Spanish has no borders, nor does it require regional adaptation, except for the names of certain foods’).

There are some exceptions to my statement that one version fits all. A key word in my previous explanation is written, because accents and pronunciation do differ considerably between variants. This means that you do need a special approach for multimedia products or any material such as training, courseware, etc. that includes voice.

In the case of multimedia materials, you must also take into account the addressing issue. In general, most materials call for formal addressing, so you’re lucky. If not, then you have the options of producing (1) one version if your only market is Argentina, for example; (2) two versions (vos/tú) if the audience covers several markets; or (3) three versions (vos/tú/usted) if the market coverage is so broad that it includes countries that still prefer formal addressing.

If you are dealing with marketing materials, you will probably need several versions. The good news is that you can start out with a good, neutral translation, and then do some editing locally. (You will need some local copywriting most of the time anyway).

With regards to web site localization, you need to remember that a multi-language site (e.g., English/French/Spanish) is not exactly the same as a multi-country one (.ar .cl .es .mx … for Spanish, .be .fr for French, etc.). If it is a multi-language site, one Spanish version will normally do. If it is a multi-country one, you should adopt the approach described above for marketing materials.

In Brief

The first key to success in reaching the broad, uniform Spanish market with its enormous potential for growth is the commitment from your product strategists and the recognition of the subtle, but inherent, diversity of Spanish and the people who use it. The skills offered by the Spanish localizer you choose for the task are the second key. Whenever possible, use international Spanish, while taking into account the issues of locale and culture.

---

Why is Spanish so uniform, despite its vast geographical spread and its long exposure to other cultures and languages? The Spanish language has preserved itself incredibly well: the average, educated Spanish-speaker from anywhere in the world can read texts dating back 900 years! By the end of the 15th century, the first Spanish Grammar was published by Nebrija (while Robert Lowth's English Grammar was only published in 1762). In 1714, the Royal Academy of Spanish was founded and published its first dictionary in 1780 (the latest edition is the 22nd, published in 2001). This dictionary is called DRAE (Diccionario de la Real Academia Española). There is only one version of the DRAE for the entire world, and while it is true that most people don’t read grammar books or check the Academy’s dictionary, it is also true that all journalists and writers (who create what people read) do check the dictionary. However, no regulatory or standardization effort can go against the people’s will. Thus, the roots of uniformity have to be found in other places than the Spanish Grammar or the Royal Academy of Spanish. It has been said that a language preserves itself better when it has a simpler vowel system. Spanish is a language with a very simple vowel system (just five) that helps preserve a uniform orthography. If you imagine the different Spanish variants as houses in a city, and bricks as orthography rules, you can imagine the city would be quite uniform despite the architectural differences between houses. English has a fuzzy vowel system with some eleven sounds (seat, sit, set, sat, cut, cart, curt, full, fool, cot, caught, although many speakers do not distinguish between the last two), so maybe this is the reason why, in a short time, orthographic differences (like colour/color) have appeared between the U.K./U.S. versions of English. Though being a romance language, Portuguese also has a fuzzy and complex vowel system similar to English, and perhaps this is the reason why Brazilian and European Portuguese now differ strongly in terms of orthography (after 500 years of historic vicissitudes totally equivalent to the Spanish ones).

---

Javier Garcia founded LexiTrans, the first Spanish company dedicated to software localization, in 1983. After management positions at international localization companies, he has now returned to his Spanish roots as a consultant for Lexicals Translation. Garcia can be reached at Javier.Garcia@LexiTrans.es.