Is Spanish a phonetic language?
The Spanish Royal Language Academy has the function to ensure the purity of the Spanish language. The academy was established in 1713, after the French model, and its 46 members include scholars, writers and journalists – the post is for life, but unremunerated – who occupy seats identified by a letter of the alphabet (both in upper and lower case, so there is room for everybody). The members meet regularly to discuss whether capital letters should be accented (yes) or whether such imports as “fútbol”, “trailer”, “internet”, “ketchup” or “crack” are worthy enough to be included among the 83,500 words in the official Spanish dictionary (yes to the first two; not yet for the others). Spanish (“español”, also referred to as “castellano” Castillian) is, like French, Portuguese, Italian, a Romance language, derived from Latin. Unlike English, Spanish is a phonetic language. Words are pronounced exactly as they are spelled, which is why it is somewhat harder for Spaniards to learn English th
