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"Clean, fixes and gives splendor" Why this theme in RAE

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Not many people ignorant of the Academy's motto: it's weird to refer to it, not octosyllable take forward this metric, according to which, the organization created by the Marquis de Villena in 1713, cleans, fixes and gives splendor language. Such

nickname (which very well seem a detergent advertising, according to the DiSTAM funny Antonio Muñoz Molina elected academic), together with the crucible fire figure since then in all academic publications.

precocupación was early founders of the emblem to add another, as befitting a corporation established by the king, and therefore, with some pretensions to nobility.

matter was urged, and for this purpose is called an internal concursillo ideas: up to twenty projects were submitted, and, finally, by unanimous vote, won the crucible.

Some history of the Corporation, that the records do not confirm, is attributed to D. José de Solís, Count de Montellano, it would presented with this another impressive motto: " With leisure, it looked dull, broken and looks " immediately replaced by approved.

And thank goodness, because the other finalist, really cute, was, according to the minutes of November 11, 1714, in " a bee flying over a field of various flowers ", with the caption " Approves and condemns . " Known

Paris school emblem, no less than the then influyentísimo Journal des savants , read throughout Europe, including English savants, violated a setback Institute sensational Madrid: did not know these gentlemen, "he was saying-that the crucible has the opposite function to fix, because it serves as cmpactos for liquid solids such as metals? Scotland

academics, and handed the daunting task of Authorities Dictionary , that objection of the arrogant French, and it was agreed to defend the Academy of the complaint through arguments in a speech printed were their story, which did not appear until 1726, forming part of the preface preceding the first volume of the Dictionary. There

, obliquely, according to the academic agreement, it is noted the obvious: that the metal represents the words, and the crucible, in work of the Academy, "that cleanses, purifies and gives splendor. As a fix, it is understood that takes place after removing the pot from the heat and examination. The French savants, poor, unaware that only by going through the hot pot or "martyrdom of the cup" minerals can be extracted from the slag. "And well understood business and mote, you can not deny that in the whole of one another, is meant to rigorous property the subject of the Academy."

This was, in fact, the issue of the Academy then, according thought shared by the worthy citizens who devised. It was an old belief (start of Alexandrian grammarians, and had left their mark on Nebrija), that languages \u200b\u200bevolve to a full time, after which, if there had not been fixed; befall them inexorable ruin and extinction. English, wanted those scholars assembled by Villena in his palace in the Plaza of the Nuns, reached its apogee in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and had to be enshrined in a dictionary comparable to those of Italy and France (later would be better).

And what language had to be fixed? Just the one used by writers such centuries, calling voices outdated already paid, adding the words "provincial" rooted in their respective provinces and foreigners resident in Spain, although they were recent, and it is careful to point out in cases like sing, dancing, jumping , from the Italian or the Gallicisms bayonet, shrapnel, cabinet ... Inventions as they are annoyed by inspect out, and the "barbarism" pontificating instead of turning sublime preside over the universal Church . Censorship and rejection of such action belonged to the clean , which, as we shall see, was working with the irregularity imposed on that task by those who have the authority to do and undo: speakers.

And there was the third mission that the Corporation was required: to give glory. Resulted from the previous two: a refined language of slang and new unjustified, and definitely fixed at the time better, would look like polished marble. Academics were not intended to be the ones who give luster to the language with his works were generally modest humanists, and only one, Gabriel Alvarez de Toledo, is known to be a poet. Well

is that the famous emblem remember much, but knowing that Europe is due to a moment convinced that everything, including some free common property such as language, could be subjected to rigorous standards. Therein, however, attention shifted once to the mission assigned to the Corporation that the Statute approved by the Government and sanctioned by the King two years ago. The first article reads: "The English Royal Academy's main mission is to ensure that the changes undergone by the English language in its constant adaptation to the needs of its speakers do not break the essential unity that keeps all the Hispanic. You should also take care that such developments preserve the genius of the language itself, as it has been consolidated with the passing of the centuries, and to establish and disseminate the standards of ownership and correction, and to contribute to its splendor. "

may be noted how nuanced Corporation today takes its motto: clean resolves to ensure that changes are necessary and consistent in the language, not unbecoming to their secular nature. Originally assumed the task of establishing and making known - later the statute says that along with the American Academies - by his Dictionary and Grammar, the marking criteria and property, that in a changing language, can never be fixed.

And, finally, is entrusted to contribute to splendor of language, it is understood that in competition with all those who, speaking and writing, contributing to the splendor.

But for this purpose was preceded by another eighteenth-century scholars could not foresee, and qualified principal by the Statute: to ensure that English can remain much longer the language that a huge part of humanity has escaped the curse of Babel. "


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• A March 4, 2004, died D. Fernando Lazaro Carreter , In whose honor transcribe this "Sting." • RAE
Spanische Realakademie . • Original article

published in ABC, August 5, 1995, p. 3. (Pdf)