One of the great things about moving your business fully online is having the freedom to travel for significant periods of time.
I have lived an unusually multicultural life that involved thirty-five years of waxing and waning conversational and work-related Spanish in South Los Angeles. I spent six months in Spain in 2022-2023. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Guatemala and Mexico over the years, too. Keep in mind I’m no linguist, but already during my time in Uruguay a few curious things have fallen into place.
First, “vos” is (as most Spanish students know) a second-person singular pronoun. Sometimes, especially in Uruguay, it is used for informal or person-to-person situations but without implying any sort of real intimacy: I see it in billboards and TV advertisements all the time, and people who don’t know me will “vos” me in conversation once we’ve broken the ice and are being friendly. But they don’t even know my last name yet, so I don’t merit “Tú”.
Contrast this with Guatemala, where people will “usted” or “tú” me, but I hadn’t heard “vos” even though my chapín friends all say they use “vos” —with lovers, close family, etc. So the intimacy rank of vos v. tu will change from country to country, and since Latinoamerica shares a metaculture (they know about one another’s songs, literature, television shows, etc.), most Latinoamericanos are familiar with how it’s used elsewhere, and will sometimes imitate “foreign” usages of vos. So the intimacy rank of vos or tu will change depending on the context, the tone of voice, and how you’re using it!
And if you are being too formal and someone wants you to use “vos” with them, they will say something like “Voséame!” which means “Use ‘vos’ with me!”
“Vosotros” really does seem to be only used in Spain, where I heard it all the time, but never in Uruguay or Guatemala. (Mexico is right out. They don’t vos or vosotros anybody)
But as I was talking about this in Spanish with an acquaintance in Uruguay, I suddenly realized something: “vosotros” is just “vos-otros”. Like, it LITERALLY means “you-others”, that’s how ‘vos’ is applied to a group!
So our sophisticated Castilian Spanish speakers have been saying the Spanish version of “y’all” for hundreds of years, and making it sound classy!
That’s my first dispatch from distant lands. Follow for more.
If these become popular, I’ll create a way for you to single them out and avoid the stuff I write about writing and publishing etc. That will have the added benefit of sparing you the “dispatches from distant lands” if you’re here to “write well and publish wisely” and nothing else. Strong reaction stirring in you, either way? Let me know!
Write well and publish wisely, no matter where you live or how you might be traveling this world!
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