On Thursday, June 13, 2013 Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoît Nadeau presented their book The Story of Spanish at Paragraphe bookstore.

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Jean-Benoît Nadeau & Julie Barlow

Julie Barlow, Javier Dago Elorza: Spanish Consul in Montreal, Jean-Benoît Nadeau

By Jean-Benoît Nadeau & Julie Barlow

Photo: Manuel González Olaechea

There has been some confusion as to whether or not the word toro (bull) originates from Latin. Toro is commonly believed to have come from the Latin taurus. However this is a general misconception. Like we explain in our book, The Story of Spanish (on page 10), the word toro comes from a pre-Roman language of Spain.

The Spanish philologist Rafael Lapesa writes, on page 47 of Historia de la lengua española that “The list of words of Celtic or pre-Celtic origin includes substantives that refer to the land.” He then presents a long list of words that includes puerco (pig) and toro. He explains that the two terms appear in an inscription engraved in the religious site of Cabeço das Fraguas, in Portugal, where they are written as porcom and taurom which “anticipates the latin porcus and taurus.”  

Simply put, Latin, like Greek, Celtic, Germanic and Sanskrit languages, belongs to a family of languages called Indo-European. The source of these five languages is a hypothetical culture that is thought to have existed in 8000 BC in Turkey, and then fanned out in many different directions spawning many tongues. That explains why a number of words used in domestic life and agriculture in these languages bear uncanny resemblances. The Spanish toro resembles the Latin taurus, as well as the Greek tauros and the Celtic tarvos.

There is no doubt that it is a pre-Roman term. It is also worth mentioning that languages like Basque, Finnish and Hungarian are regarded as pre-Indo-European because their roots predate the Indo-European phenomenon. However, the word toro is not pre-Indo-European, it is simply pre-Roman.

More information about the origins of Spanish words can be found in our book, The Story of Spanish.

By Hector Tobar, Los Angeles Times: ’The Story of Spanish’ offers a rich history of the language. Read the whole article »

Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoît Nadeau follow up their exploration of French with The Story of Spanish

By Marian Scott, The Gazette

The Story of Spanish

By Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow, St. Martin’s Press, 496 pages, $31.99

Photo: Pierre Obendrauf, The Gazette

Montreal journalists Julie Barlow and Jean-Benoît Nadeau are the husband-and-wife team who authored The Story of French (St. Martin’s Press, 2006), an award-winning biography of the language of Molière. Now they are back with The Story of Spanish, a popular history that recounts how an obscure dialect of Latin spoken in northern Spain crossed the sea to become the world’s third most spoken language.

The couple’s six books also include the best-selling Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong, which explains the French penchant for everything from street protests to five-course meals.

As part of their three years of research for The Story of Spanish, Barlow and Nadeau moved with their twin daughters, then 6 years old, to a suburb of Phoenix, Ariz., at the height of debate over a 2010 state law that gave police unprecedented powers to track down and detain undocumented immigrants.

The authors are already planning upcoming books on Arabic and Mandarin, as well as a travel book focusing on French conversation.

The Gazette sat down with Barlow and Nadeau to explore The Story of Spanish. Read the whole article »

Recently, The Story of Spanish was featured in The Economist’s Books and Arts section.

The Story of Spanish. By Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow. St Martin’s Press; 496 pages; $27.99. Buy from Amazon.com

THE Iberian peninsula was conquered and settled many times, but only one of those conquests was a long-term linguistic success. The languages of the Celts and the Iberians left little mark on Spain. The Phoenicians were no more successful, although they bequeathed a memorable nickname to posterity: I-shepan-ha, “land of hyraxes” (more familiar as Hispania). The Romans had better luck. Their soldiers’ and settlers’ vulgar Latin (always distinct from the written, classical kind) spread to the masses. Read the whole article » 

From The Economist’s Books and Arts section:

The Rise of Spanish: Hats off
Spanish has more native speakers than any language other than Mandarin. Yet its success could not have been foreseen… Read the whole article » 

“We know that Spanish has given us “gringo“, “macho“, and “marijuana”, but it’s also given us the terms for filibuster, concentration camp, and the dollar as well as the $ sign, according to the new book “The Story of Spanish” by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow.”  - Marsha Dubrow, Examiner.com. Read the article »

In Maclean’s magazine, Brian Bethune writes about The Story of Spanish: “Nadeau and Barlow present a multi-layered history of the language.” Read the article »

Nuevo Mundo Television host Ginella Díaz interviewed Julie and Jean-Benoît in Spanish about the making of The Story of Spanish for the show La Voz Latina.
Watch the interview with Julie »

Wednesday, May 22, 2013. Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow launched their latest book The Story of Spanish with the help of the Embassy of Spain in Washington. The sold-out event was a success and Nadeau & Barlow were joined by Felix Sánchez (left), Chairman and Co-founder of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, as well as Guillermo Corral (right), the embassy’s Cultural Attaché, for a lively discussion on the new book.

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