It’s a long-held belief in Spain that the best and purest Spanish is spoken in the northern city of Valladolid. How did this claim come about and is there any truth to it?
It has long been said that that the people in the Castilla y León city of Valladolid speak the most ‘perfect’ castellano (how Spanish in the whole of Spain.
Recently, the mayor of Valladolid Francisco Javier León de la Riva reiterated this when he said that Valladolid is the place in the world where the “purest” Spanish is spoken.
The premise for this is vallisoletano Spanish is the most representative of the standard Spanish favoured by the Real Academia Española (RAE), Spain’s official language academy.
Is there any truth to this, is there such a thing as a more official Spanish?
Firstly it’s important to distinguish between language and accent. One is referring to grammar and sentence construction, as opposed to how the people pronounce certain words, but of course different regions in Spain use slightly different grammar and phrases anyway.
Often a different construction comes with a different accent, but most of the time when Spaniards refer to the best or most ‘perfect’ Spanish, they’re usually referring to the clarity and accuracy with which words are pronounced, something that’s usually determined by accent.
According to Inés Fernández Ordóñez from the RAE, if it were necessary to determine the linguistic variety that most closely approximates to standard Spanish, Valladolid would not actually be her choice, but rather Soria, also in Castilla y León or Guadalajara in Castilla–La Mancha.
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So where did the claim that Valladolid’s Spanish is the best originate?
The current director of the RAE, José Manuel Blecua, has repeatedly stated that the ‘perfect Spanish’ is a “myth” which comes from the reference made by the Frenchwoman Madame D’Aulnoy in her book Viaje por España (Journey through Spain), written in the 17th century.
The people from Madrid (Madrileños) often boast that they speak the best Spanish too.
READ ALSO: Why do people from Madrid have a reputation for being arrogant?
Other linguistic experts say that the best Spanish is spoken between La Rioja and Burgos, because it best conforms to the standards dictated by the RAE. This includes Burgos, Palencia, Salamanca, and Valladolid.
Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE) also conducted its own study and discovered that the best Spanish is spoken in Cantabria and Asturias. They claim that in Cantabria, 98.2 percent of citizens speak Spanish perfectly, while in Asturias the figure rises to 98.4 percent.
So who is correct? All of them to a degree.
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Generally, the most quintessential Spanish is considered to be from the northern and central regions. This is because Castilian, which foreigners know as Spanish, began as a dialect spoken in northern Spain.
It became language of the court of the kingdoms of Castilla y León in the 12th century and then when Spain was unified in 1479, it became the language used by the whole country.
Other areas of Spain had their own language up until that point and today they still do, such as Catalan spoken in Catalonia, Euskera in the Basque Country and Galician in Galicia. For many of these people Spanish or castellano is actually a second language or second mother tongue.
Many foreigners still choose to study Spanish in the region of Castilla y León, and there are many language schools and prestigious universities there, but you’ll find Spanish language learners all over the country.
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If there is an advantage that the northern half of Spain does have over the southern regions is that the people here have a very clear neutral accent, so it’s a lot easier for foreigners to understand.
READ ALSO: A handy guide to understanding Spain’s regional accents
They don’t have the ceceo (pronouncing a ‘th’ for an ‘s’, ‘c’ and ‘z’, which sounds like a lisp but is not) sound like some places in Andalusia, or the seseo (using the the ‘s’ sound in place of ‘z’ and ‘c’) like the in the Canaries do – similar to those from Latin American countries such as Venezuela or Cuba.
Spain’s national stats body did conclude that the two places where the ‘worst’ Spanish is spoken are Murcia (southeastern Spain) and Melilla (one of two Spanish city regions in northern Africa).
READ ALSO: The cities in Spain where the ‘worst’ Spanish is spoken
Murcianos are renowned for having the hardest accent to understand and are often mocked for it, so keeping in mind that the claim is a partly based on a survey where people were asked about their own linguistic abilities, it could be that respondents from Murcia were slightly self-deprecating.
The truth is that while those in Valladolid and the north do speak very clear and grammatically correct Spanish, there is no one correct answer of who speaks the best or the most perfect Castilian.
All the different ways of speaking Spanish in Spain and the accompanying accents are special in their own way and that’s one of the aspects that makes Spain so interesting is its linguistic variety.
Keeping in mind that the vast majority of the 600+ million Spanish speakers in the world are in Latin America, and they may also have something to say about what constitutes the ‘best’ castellano.
