After 24 hours of comments and debate on the recovery of the accent in the adverb “solo” (which is equivalent to only), which was approved yesterday by the Royal Academy of Language (RAE), this institution qualified this Friday that Its use will only be justified when, in the opinion of the writer, there is a risk of ambiguity.
For years, the RAE recommended using the tilde when it was only used as an adverb, to distinguish it from the adjectiveuntil it was suppressed in 2010, as already happened with other words as was. However, since then many writers and academics have passionately defended its use, against others who consider that it was not necessary and they saw it as something “nostalgic”.
This debate has been lived since yesterday in different forums and for this reason, today the RAE clarified that the “only” shall be justified when usingafter yesterday the plenary session of this institution authorized the tilde when there is a risk of ambiguity in the opinion of the writer.
For example, if someone writes tilde in a sentence like “Only Ana came to the party” It will be difficult for me to explain the existence of a double interpretation,” the RAE said today on its Twitter account, in which it explained that the rule leaves open the possibility that neither the adverb “only” is ever used. nor the demonstrative pronouns “this, that and that”, with their feminine and plural.
“If the speaker perceives that there is a risk of ambiguity and writes that tilde, you will have to justify it“said the Academy.
Opinions
Salvador Gutiérrez Ordóñez, the academic director of Spelling and the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts (DPD), explained to EFE that the RAE plenary approved a clearer wording of the norm to be published in the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts, where it will be added that the tilde is “in the opinion of the writer”a “subsection” that, in his opinion, does not change the norm.
#RAEconsults What was approved in the plenary session of March 2 does not modify the doctrine of the «Spelling» of 2010. It even expresses it more clearly: 1. The obligation not to mark the adverb «only» and the prons is maintained. demonstrative when there is no risk of ambiguity. +
— RAE (@RAEinforma) March 3, 2023
However, the academic and author Arturo Pérez-Reverte, defender of the tilde, assured after the plenary session on social networks that “sometimes old battles are won”in reference to the claim in this sense that writers members of the RAE have maintained for years.
Sometimes old battles are won.
– Arturo Pérez-Reverte (@perezreverte) March 2, 2023
Likewise, the also academic and writer Luis Mateo Díez told EFE that with this agreement “the matter has been resolved”: “naturalness has solved the problem” and the tilde will be “in charge of whoever wants to use it”, stressed the author.
According to plenary sources, the norm in its previous wording did not define whose opinion the ambiguity could exist and there were cases of examinations and oppositions in which its use subtracted grade because it used to depend on the teacher’s criteria or of the examiner, whereas now it will be at the discretion of the writer.
On the contrary, for the linguist Elena Álvarez Mellado, that tilde has no linguistic justification: “There are many words and many expressions that are ambiguous in Spanish and that is not why we are putting accents”, which in Spanish are used following the rules of accentuation”, which are quite “rigid” in this sense, he indicated in statements to EFE.
#RAEconsults If the speaker perceives that there is a risk of ambiguity and writes that tilde, he will have to justify it. For example, if someone writes tilde in a sentence like “Only Ana came to the party”, it will be difficult for them to explain the existence of a double interpretation. +
— RAE (@RAEinforma) March 3, 2023
“There are some exceptions and particular cases, but the ‘only’ has no linguistic justification“said Álvarez Mellado.
The RAE, founded in 1713, has as its main mission to ensure that the changes experienced by the Spanish language in its constant adaptation to the needs of its speakers do not break the essential unity that it maintains throughout the Hispanic area, according to the institution.