Virtues of the Language II

Beyond the realm of pronunciation, the virtues of which are unmistakeable in contrast to other modern languages, the system of syntax in Spanish likewise follows a most precise and logical order. In the simple declaritive sentence "El muchacho grande" we begin with a definite article that immidiately identifies the gender of the subject in question. Next we have the noun which by its ending in this case confirms the gender of the preceding article and clearly establishes the subject. We finish the sentence with an adjective that serves to qualify the noun. By contrast in English, the article in the sentence "The big boy" does nothing to identify the subject's gender since it is always neutral and said subject remains unknown until the end because the adjective is placed before the noun. If we make the sentence more descriptive by adding a verb, the Spanish version would say "El muchacho es grande". We notice that the order of the words is unchanged while the English version changes its sintactical pattern and now "The boy is big" follows more closely the word order found in Spanish although not with the same precision. So why is this of any great importance? Well, it's not, unless you deem it important to learn another language and then of course the logical choice in this hemisphere would be Spanish not just because it's the most spoken language after English but because of its unique euphonic development and its grammatical completeness. Spanish also has a long and very rich literary tradition which has sustained a body of work of unusual artistic and thematic significance contributing in no small measure to the enrichment of western culture. Now the question may arise, if the Spanish language enjoys such a high level of sophistication why is it that North Americans have traditionally been so reluctant to learn it? The answer is somewhat complex and involves historical and sociological issues which I will deal with in my next post.
Hasta pronto,
Ed