Weekly national intelligencer., 1852-06-26


bed their horses in the where they slept with their
wves the end that when they heard the war-cry they
might find their horses and arms at hand, and mount
straghtly at its summons And it, as Martinez de Ia
Rosas observes in his graceful romance of Isabel de
Soils" this period of hard and rude training when the
forefathers of the Spanish race, weighed down with
harness. and their swords always in hand slept ut
single night for eight centuries was but the prelude
to many glores and the conquest of the world" it is
no less to be regarded the period in which the Spanish
language received its most distinctive and noble features
and indeble in fact has been the impress left upon
it by those eight centuries Of martial trial that centuries
of tmd serytude have not deaced these traces Of early
manhood:
"Sigiua.. .iupreSsa .........
Vestigo demOnsraat duritiem Altered from Aul GEL
IT. has been said "language is the outward appear
of the intellect of nations that their language is
their intellect and their intellect their language" then 1t
to that the language Of Spain should be rather
regarded the outward appearance of what
the "intellect of that renowned romantic land " for
it is undoubtedly true, has been observed that the
great which have shaped the destiny of any nation
the master minds who have infused their spirit through
the Of the people, whatever relates to the Govern
ment religion, arts arms, moral sentiments and social
life be distinctly portrayed in the language as
they be nowhere else after that nation is
extinct and the language itself numbered with the dead
We have said that the Spanish language had not dete
rorated in the proportion and to the degree
as has the progeny Of the proud and noble who first
moulded it among the mountain Businesses Of Asturia
and gave it shape and beauty in the kingdoms of Leon
and old Castillo where it is still spoken in the greatest
purity We have also alluded to the Spanish colonists
with whom countrymen brought into neighbor-
hood and commercial intercourse. The inevitable effect
Of colonization well known is always to add to the
words of language and in most cases more or less to
corrupt it, We republicans of the United States have
been frequently charged by British cousins with
spring against the Kings English and though
not inclined plead guilty to all the counts in their in
dctment yet it must be acknowledged that have in
many adopted norma loquendi of our own Cole
ridge in his " Table Talk" spoke quite angrily
about The introduction Of certain vocables into English
idom and then added cury "most Of these slang terms
come from America" The scenes, the objects
the modes of life presented to the eyes Of coonsts
must necessarily call forth expressions, and at the
same time cause words in many to deviate from
their original Specification" Thus in country
have formed such words acgoam barbecue phoys
gerymand caacus old ogy &C., and have given curren
cy to such verbs APPRECIATE eUntua eeecaate donate
&c., and have altered the original and legitimate
ing Of such words clever, anspre and many more, to
say nothing of such choice fancy phrases have been
canonzed by the Of Davy Crockett, Major JONES'
Sam Slick, and friend, Major Jack Downing, in
whose pages we meet with motley array of regular
Yankees Suckers Wolueriaes Hoosier Corncrackers Barn
burners Old Hunker and Ring-tal-roars, speaking
times in the nasal tw1ng of down East" and sometimes
in the exuberant and ALFRED dialect of the West and
sometimes in the jargon of Georgia "gander-pulng
"militia muster in the " sunny South In like
manner told by Senior Velazquez la Cadena has
those new republics and provinces which formerly
Spanish POSSESSIONS and every ro in the Spanish Ian
guage iwho has attempted to read Mexican or Cuban
newspaper become of the fact that many words
of popular currency among the residents those countries
are not recognised by the Spanish Academy even
known in the vocabulary of the Peninsula For example,
the turkey which in Spain is knownas el pavo paUto
in Mexico is called e guaolot in Cuba 81 and
in some parts of South America it is termed d champ
chngmqu The potato is called in Spain Ia pataa
dulce in Mexico l camo in Cuba 81 boniato buniato
naoniato.
Now it is evident that dictionary of the Spanish Ian
guage for the of los AmecaRos should contain the
definitions Of such words have thus become
ponen part of the language spoken by those with
whom we are on terms Of the intercourse and in
this consists enc of the principal merits Of Pf Velaz
quezs amended edition of Dr. SEoAsEs previously accu-
of NEuMAs & BARETrTs standard work in this depart
ment The preparation Of bilingua lexicon is work
Of immense labor and requires for Its approximation to
any thing like perfection the cooperation of many pa
ent and competent hands. In the work before us we
have the nett results Of many able and accomplished
scholars embodied in single volume. Besides the Die
tonaries of BARErTI NEuNAS, CoNsELLY, and particu
lary that Of Dr. Don MArEo SEoASE the eder has
fully consulted the last edition of the Dconaro de la
Academia Espdsod well the Lexicons Of SALIVA and
TERRERos the treatise Eimologias Cdstelanas by
CABRERA, and Las Voces Cu5dnas by PIcHARDo. The
Of many articles Of commerce. In which preced-
ing dictionaries remarkably defective have been
obtained from '' La Gmd Nercan de Madrid" to which,
the editor informs US, he has added long catalogue OBJ
Of Cadz, Vera Cruz, Havana, and New Orleans. The
orthography and prosody land these in q Spanish die
onary important matters have been adopted from
the Spanish Academy. Our readers are aware that the
orthography of the Spanish language has undergone
great changes within the last half century Before this
period Innovations the vulgar spelling
proposed by Antonio de Nebrija, Mateo Aeman Juan L.
de veasco, and X Patton but it is to the agency Of
Mayans and Gandara and especially the acknowledged
authority of the National Academy, formed after the
ample Of the French that the ameorations which
have contributed to render the Spanish orthography
highly Photographic.
Our readers will thus that the work before is not
0 crude and hasty compilation The long time during
which It was announced by the publishers that such
- ,ffoia