Which is your favorite word in Spanish?

An initiative lead by Cervantes Institute allows people to vote for their favorite word in Spanish on the internet. “It is important to remember that Spanish is the second most important language worldwide, this brings huge economic benefits”, stated a spokesman of the institution. Argentines take the lead in crosswords.

Which is your favorite word in Spanish and why? This is the exercise that Cervantes Institute suggests the world on the Day of the Spanish Language. This is the second edition of this initiative which started in 2009 when the most chosen words were "malevo", "chapuza" and "albricias".

Through the website www.eldiae.es anyone can vote for their favorite word and explain with their own words or video the reason why they voted for it.

During the Day of the Spanish Language, which will be celebrated this year on June 19th, the most voted word will be revealed. Some words have already been chosen on the website. Up to now, the top word of the ranking is “libertad” followed by “"cachivache", "chulo", "copón", "sabroso" and "tiquismiquis".

“This is about organizing a holiday which can be used to realize the importance of the Spanish language. There are 450 million people that speak the language and this contributes with benefits and competitive advantages for cultural industries, businesses and means of communication”, said the director of communications of the Cervantes Institute, José María Martínez.

The spokesman specified that Spanish is the second language worldwide regarding communication, and the second native language, after Chinese.

An innovation this year is that the website includes “The Spanish game”, which allows an individual to measure their level of knowledge of the language in a recreational way and which the users may play individually or connected to other players around the world.

Up to now, two Argentines have won the first and second place. While Spain is ranked at the third place, it is interesting to see many participants from Romania, a country where the study of the Spanish Language is increasing.

“Many non-Spanish speakers participate because there are lots of Spanish students” said Martinez while explaining that this occurs mostly in countries where languages are less spread and speakers are almost obliged to learn languages.

The game has been design by the Cervantes Institute, which will celebrate the Day of the Spanish Language worldwide with the launch of a wide program of cultural activities.

This celebration is expected to have the same success than last year, when 73.000 users of 123 countries visited the website and configured a dictionary of favorite words.

“We observe that the Argentines were the most active ones. As a matter of fact, the winning word was malevo”, stated Martinez.

According to the information provided by the second report “The Spanish language: a live language”, which will be published on June 19th, Spanish is the second, most-spoken native language worldwide. It is also the second international language of communication and the third most used on the Internet, where the use of this language has increased in the last decade by 651%.

Published by La Nacion, March 25, 2010