They say that the word barbarism comes from Latin, from barbarismus which means “foreigner”, and refers to the difficulties foreigners had in speaking the language of the region they arrived at. At present, barbarisms are defined, according to the RAE, as “an inaccuracy that consists of mispronouncing or writing words, or using inappropriate words.”
Oral and informal speech, the creation of new words, the similarity of some words with others… According to the expert pedagogues of RUBIO, the publisher of didactic notebooks, there are many reasons that can cause the emergence of new barbarisms, depending on the modification Let the word suffer.
In this sense, there are four great classes of barbarisms, among which are prosodic, syntactic, orthographic and analogical. Experts divide them depending on whether the error is one of diction, agreement or construction of words, spelling errors or even if it is due to the adoption of words from other languages.
In this way, the RUBIO team has compiled a list of the most common barbarisms and they offer us their advice to try to avoid these errors in speech and writing:
1. The confusion of consonants with similar phonemes is a very common problem in both adults and children. The most notorious examples are the confusion between B and V (stava, instead of was), between J and G (foreigner, instead of foreigner) or X and S (esplanada, for esplanade).
2. Some prefixes like SUB or TRANS can lead to confusion, such as saying surrealist instead of surrealist, or deranged instead of deranged. Some examples of good use of these prefixes would be the words submarine or transatlantic.
3. The words that include the spelling XH are usually written incorrectly, given the non-sonority of the letter H. As an example of this, we have exalar, instead of exhale; exuberant, instead of exuberant; or exorbitant, instead of exorbitant.
4. Errors of agreement or construction of words are very common, especially errors related to gender or number. The plural of feet stays the same, it would be a mistake to write pieses, or the gender as la mar or la calor, instead of “el mar” or “el calor”.
5. Sometimes foreign words are also considered barbarism. Some examples of this type of word are the famous soccer, which comes from the English word football, or baguette, from the French word baguette.
Now, from RUBIO, they review the 25 barbarisms that we use the most without realizing it:
1. Idiosyncrasy – Idiosyncrasy
2. Foresee – Foresee. It may be due to confusion with the verb to provide.
3. Beneficence – Beneficence. Perhaps it is misspelled because of its resemblance to the word science.
4. Visicity – Vicissitude
5. Succinct – Succinct
6. Staunch – Staunch
7. Skeptic – Skeptic
8. Convalescence – Convalescence
9. Discretion – Discretion.
10. Esplanade – Esplanade
11. Flood – Flood
12. Faithful – Reliable
13. Dishwasher – Dishwasher
14. Inscrutable – Inscrutable
15. Misogenous – Misogynist
16. Prevadication – Prevarication
17. Surreal – Surreal
18. Clamping – Clamping
19. Deranged – Deranged
20. Exhale – Exhale
21. Lush – Lush
22. Exhume – Exhume. It comes from the Latin ex + humus (Earth)
23. Exhausted – Exhausted
24. Exhibit – Exhibit
25. Exhort – Exhort
Thus, the expert pedagogues of the firm recommend reading as the main method to avoid these confusions, since when we rest our eyes on the same word repeatedly, our brain assimilates it more quickly and is able to store it and use it properly. This exercise is especially important for children, who must work from the base to acquire good writing skills and correct use of language. The RUBIO publishing house has several tools that strengthen this learning, such as the Lengua Evolución, Initiation to Reading or Comprehensive Reading collections.
RUBIO was born more than 60 years ago by the hand of Ramón Rubio and is the editor of the famous didactic notebooks based on enhancing the plasticity of the brain, through the development of basic skills, such as writing and calculation. Since its foundation, RUBIO has sold more than 300 million copies of notebooks, which have accompanied several generations of Spaniards.
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