New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-11-08
MEMORANDA.
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF NEW
GRANADA

GRANADA.
Correspondence Of The ~ Y. Tribune
La PAYTA, JAN, 1854.
With the exception of the ruins of the ancient
Greek language, the Spanish Is, concelVe, the
most beautiful spoken in Europe. 1t is Latin
smootbed BY use and seasoned with Arabic.
Withal it ia far from being cOpious. They have,
for instance no word for the verbs ride and walk.
They say 90 in each, on foot, &c, as the case
may be. 4, Its richness is an equal plague when
they have even names in common use tor the four
points of the compass. Much is due to custom.
In English we find no Inconvenience in not having
a name for dipterOus and bymenopterous insects;
but deprive the coleOptera of their name, bug, and
we would complain just as Spanard would of
being compelled to call some lepdOptera butterflies
and others moths 1t is rash, therefore, to pro-
nOunce foreign language poor because we are
incommOded for words corresponding to some OF
ours
The Spanish has real and unquestionable
superiority in its dminutive and augmentative
words. These are found 10 COMMON use in every
possible sense, applied not only by nouns but by
adiectiyes and even adverbs. In inviting per-
son t6 take a thing at the table or asking for
thing the Spaniard could not dispense with his
dminutves. Sophia, pedacita de par poquita de
aqua may be heard whenever soup, bread or
water are offered or asked Actuallto, absolutely
now; solito, all alone; puntico the very end; are
Of affection you hear papitO mamta for father
and mother. Que tiene mi negrltal what as my
little negro girl J. exclaims a tender mother when
her dusky daughter is sick.
Withal the Spanish ia a doomed language. 1t
follows the fate of the low Dutch, with more or
less reason. With less-for the low Dutch is not
a very beautiful language. With more-for the
Hoanders are an industrious, energetic nation
and ought to perpstuate their language; ascien-
tifc and studious people, and ought to enrich it,
But no. it is doomed. At home, the French
crowds il and will make of Belgium its last con-
quest. The English crowds it at the Cape and
in the East India Islands. In New York 1t is ex-
terminated. | may say so, when IN all the city is
not for sale a single Dutch English Dictionary,
new OF second hand, if indeed there be one in all
our public libraries The Dutch dies cursed
DEATH / do not know that it carries down to OBJ
liyion with it single poem, single literary
treasure. Those who at Leyden learned to pen
the electric fire within vessels of glass, never
thought of charging paper with fire that should
electrify to all ages.
The ancient OppressOrs of the low countries
were of different stamp. Theirs is land of
love and lazihess and song. OF works Of the first
magnitude she has but her Don QuixOte it is true,
but the second rank is full of little gems. Even
Irving did not dsdan to surprise sleeping loafer
in the glens of Apugarras, transport him to those
of Kaatskill, and baptse him in Low Dutch Rip
Van Wrinkle. To say nothing of Spanish COMEDY,
Spain has produced more poets than England. At
this very hour, New Grenada with population
less than London, and not third of them able TO
read, contains perhaps many poets as the
United States. Observe, / say nothing here OF
the magnitude of these stars. / admit, too, that
the acquisitions of Spanish verse are more easy
than ours as TO accent and the number of syables.
Hence tLeir blank verse differs little from prose,
except its dctiOn aud that each line begins with
capitol. But am saying too much and too little
on this topic and must stop.
Before speaking of the literature of New
Grenada in particular pardon one or two words
about the Latin not as the basis of the Spanish,
but as means of communication. No man who
understands Latin, can travel without having &C.
casion to use il more or less not SO much in SEN
fences as in detached words. Now the whole
world is crying out against our absurd English
Latin, which gives to every syllable sound We
knoto TO be wrong. At home he makes the for
egners Latin useless; abroad, he recOnstructs
his own as best he he may. 1t is very probable
that better series of Latin books than Billions
may be constructed in time, but / doubt if such
exist at present or are soon to be expected. But
Of one thing am certain, that the pronunciation
he recommends is infinitely better than any in use
in our schools. 1t is noticeable here that boys in
declining and conjugatng give the accent not on the
last syllable as we do but where il belongs. Thus
We say, amo, amas, amat; here they say amo,
amas, amat.
At the surface of the literature Of nation lie
the periodicals. Here we have neither maya
zines nor newspapers but only magazines in news
paper form. Unfortunately these hybrids are not
very attractive, being filed with discussions o
constitutional questions theories Of education
speculations on the use of the army, and worst
OF all, acrimonious attacks or defenses OF the
Administration, much in the style of BOsapartes
presentations. daily of this class would be
worse than the nightmare; accordingly they gen.
eiaiiy allow you fortnight to digest one of their
pun oefs, and short enough the time is. The num-
. .er OF papers in Bogota is very considerable but
we issue Of each is very small Possibly not one
., mem has over 500 subscribers. You cannot
ICY On SUBSCRIBERS In arrears here as with us
Sou,1 give S4OO OF Arrearages here for 500 in
'ne nni'ed States They all fold their papers into
sIah pages, quarto or octave size so that those
WIG cannot read can tell foreign paper az a
lnere are TWO papers printed in Paris for Span.
lsb AneriCs' Wh! these papers should be com.
posed under tue restraint of French liberty of
press and have to traverse England hefor" 80
ling on their Atlantic voyage, / cannot nd
stand. One thing do know, they are Zoo aT roo,
archical for this country. So, too is the C,a.,.
of New-York. Here are ten Spanish renuhT.s
that need foreign newspaper. The proper placs
t. publish il is kew-YOrk. But the task of estab
hstirg il is beset with almost insupeabie diff.
culties Almost all the book trade with these re-
pubcs is in Paris. The C0rrco de UAramar has