Whereabout F

On the terrible ear of Spanish

In Spain, those who lack musical ear — or who don’t listen, remember, or pay attention to what they’re told — are said to have one ear facing the other: ‘un oído enfrente del otro’.

Nobody knows the origin or the exact literal/visual meaning of such a magnificent expression.

The origins and current state of the Spanish language provide some depressing, shameful conclusions about the nature of its speakers: tin ear, bad taste, laziness, stinginess, negligent utilitarianism (principle of minimum effort, the path of least resistance); in a word, misery.

Suffice it to say what happened with the pronunciation of the LL (/ʎ/) [confused with and finally reduced to the Y sound (/y/)], or the existence of only 5 vowel sounds (compared with the 12 in English, for example), or the case of V and B (/w/, /v/, /b/).

Beati hispani, quibus vivere est bibere

(Fortunate are the Hispani, for whom living is drinking / Blessed are the Spanish, for whom to live is to drink / Lucky the Spaniards, for whom living is drinking.)