The economic and commercial influence of Spanish-based languages Madrid, 2019 The economic and commercial influence of Spanish-based languages Catalogue of publications of the Administración General del Estado http://publicacionesoficiales.boe.es General Deputy Direction of Surveys, Information and Publications Ministerio de Economía y Empresa http://www.mineco.gob.es/portal/site/mineco/publicaciones © First edition, 2018: Ministry of Economy and Business (Ministerio de Economía y Empresa) NIPO: 102-19-195-9 With the cooperation of: English translation: Language Interpreting Office of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation Layout and cover design: Rosa Chumillas Cover image: Mapamundi antiguo (1700 A.D.). Source: www.etapainfantil.com Printed in Spain The opinions given in this publication are of exclusive liability of the authors. The exploitation rights of this work are protected by the Laws on Intellectual Property and none of its parts shall be reproduced, stored or transferred by any mean, either mechanical or via recording, without prior written and express permission of the holders of the © Copyright. Index Introduction …………………………………………………….…………………..… 5 Foreword. José Luis GARCÍA DELGADO …………………………..……………...…………… 6 The Judaeo-Spanish language. Aitor GARCÍA MORENO ……………………………………………………………10 Haketia, Spanish, and Spanish-Moroccan Commercial Relations. Jacobo ISRAEL GARZÓN …………………………………………………….……. 26 The endurance of Spanish in the Maghreb. David FERNÁNDEZ VÍTORES ……………………………………………………...32 Equatorial Guinea: “A Hispanic country with Bantu roots”. Javier MORILLAS …………………………………………………………………47 Spanish on the language map of the Lesser Antilles. María Asunción GÓMEZ …………………………………………………………..62 Spanish in the Philippines. María Dolores ELIZALDE …………………………………………………………75 Spanish in the Philippines: A state language. Carlos MADRID ÁLVAREZ-PIÑER ………………………………………………... 89 The Chavacano language of the Philippines: Facing the challenges st of the 21 century. Carlos MADRID ÁLVAREZ-PIÑER …………………………………………….… 102 The economic value of a minority language: Chamorro in the Mariana Islands. Rafael RODRÍGUEZ-PONGA SALAMANCA ……………………………………… 107 Illustrations.………………………………………………………………...………... 127 Introduction Publishing this monograph, the aim of the Ministerio de Economía y Empresa (Ministry of Economy and Businesses) is to remind us of the importance of our language in the economic field, as element to make the commercial relations between the twenty countries where it is official language easier. It is, doubtlessly, an intangible asset. At the same time, this book digs on the survival of the Spanish language in countries where it means a minoritarian language, such as Philippines and some areas of the Maghreb. Changing subject, it is important to underline a less known aspect for the main public, such as the reference to languages based on Spanish that is spoken in different parts of the world, far away ones from others. This way, there are articles focused on Papiamento, a language spoken in some of the Lesser Antilles that were Dutch and English colonies, to Chabacano of the Philippines and to Chamorro from Guam, in Micronesia. We could not leave aside from this work the Sephardic languages, specifically Ladino and Haketia. The survival in these languages of Spanish words, mixed with other native languages or terms coming from other powers that had influence in the area before the Independence of these territories calls our attention. In that relate to Sephardic languages, the Spanish pillars of the language are full of Slavic and Turkish words in Ladino, because of the presence of the Sephardic communities in the Ottoman Empire, and of Arab words in the case of Haketia, which come from the language being spoken in some communities of Morocco. The survival of these Creole and Sephardic languages is explained by the feeling of belonging to a certain community, sometimes extremely closed, in an atmosphere dominated by other languages. And it is this feeling of belonging provided by a language in common which builds a relation of trust that fosters commercial exchanges and business initiatives between the members of the group: a collective that keeps the same language in the core of a society that works with another language as lingua franca. I would like to highlight the work performed by the authors participating in the project, as well as the support of the Office of Language Interpretation of the Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Ministry (Oficina de Interpretación de Lenguas del Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores y Cooperación), the European Union, Instituto Cervantes, Casa Asia and Centro Sefarad. My deepest thanks to all of them for the help provided. Santiago ASENSIO MERINO Deputy General Director of Studies, Information and Publications Foreword José Luis GARCÍA DELGADO Emeritus Professor of Applied Economics, Complutense University of Madrid Co-director of the research project “Economic Value of Spanish” Economics is a key reason for the leading role that history, demolinguistics, and culture have rightly awarded to the Spanish language. Today, moreover, there are new reasons for paying special attention to the economic dimension of Spanish. Obviously, the reasons traditionally cited are still valid; namely, the great cultural universe it has created—the immense collective heritage consolidated and continually renewed over time—and the vast proportions of the demographics of Spanish as a mother tongue: nearly 450 million speakers in more than 20 countries and 12 million square kilometres. But now, in addition to these well-known reasons, we can find others that are, to a certain extent, new. In brief, we can point out four of them. Firstly—and crucially for a language like Spanish, which is a language of international communication—the fact that the economies of Spain and of the Latin American region are opening up and becoming increasingly international, in a process in line with the advances in the globalisation of production processes and of markets for goods and services. All of this expands the economic dimension of Spanish, as well as its horizon of possibilities. Spain’s economy, in particular, has for decades been immersed in the dynamic process of opening its borders; the internationalisation of its major corporations in barely 20 years is simply extraordinary in its depth, ambition, and, in most cases, management. Secondly, Spanish is playing a revitalised role as the backbone of the Hispanic community of nations. A renovated role in which a determining factor is the work of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language —under the unquestioned leadership of Spain’s Royal Academy— to provide language cohesion. This Association is responsible for a multinational language which, despite its polycentric nature, boasts a degree of standardisation that is much higher than any other major language of international communication, with all of the advantages inherent to the cohesion achieved—based on the shared production of the three major references: dictionary, grammar and spelling rules—and which lead to a major impact on the economy and on strategic relations of all kinds. This “Pan-Hispanic language policy” designed and implemented by the Academies also serves as a fresh stimulus for learning Spanish as a second or third language. Indeed, the rapid rise in the number of people acquiring Spanish as a second or third language today is striking, and comparable to no other language: In Europe, Spanish is the second foreign language; in the United States, Spanish has surpassed French as a second language, and English-Spanish bilingualism is starting to be reflected in salaries and in job opportunities; in Brazil, thanks to the recently approved laws establishing Spanish as a second language to be studied in schools; and in Asia—not only in China—where requests to learn Spanish are multiplying rapidly, in line with trade exchanges with Ibero-America, on the other shore of the Pacific. The fourth of these new reasons, which may sound paradoxical, is that the glaring shortcomings of Spanish as a language of science, technology, and digital communications require priority attention in terms of the economic aspects relating to Spanish. But only by drawing attention to the need for a substantial and lasting increase in its role as a vehicular language for research, and in its relevance on the internet, will Spanish be able to expand its scope in these our modern times. * * * In any case, studying the economics of Spanish will require agreeing upon the economic nature of a language. A language is an intangible asset that may be considered a public good, with unique features: It is not the exclusive property of those who use it; it may be consumed without reducing its availability to others; it is not depreciated— quite the opposite—when its use becomes massive; it has no manufacturing costs; and it generates quantifiable economic benefits, most particularly in the sphere of commercial and financial transactions, because the shared language is equivalent to a single currency that diminishes the cost of almost any exchange, facilitating cultural familiarity that bridges the psychological distance between the parties. This dimension is especially relevant to languages of international communication, such as Spanish, because it has intense multiplier effects for commercial exchanges and investment flows. Indeed, the outcomes of a recent wide-ranging study (Valor económico del español [Economic Value