¿Qué español debo aprender para saber castellano? La unidad en la variedad y la variedad de la unidad

ABSTRACT: This chapter – dedicated, on the one hand, to the diatopic varieties of Spanish and, on the other hand, to the evident unity of the language – is organized in six main sectors. The first section is briefly focused on the denominations of the language, on its unity and on the general concept of diatopic variety. The second section examines diatopic varieties, introduces the concept of norm and criticizes certain perspectives that are not very appropriate for dialectological studies today. The third sector includes key concepts necessary to interpret the diatopic variety of Spanish today (Spain and America, pan-Hispanisms, (pan-)Americanisms and Spanishisms, archaisms) and the Italian point of view (Spanish-Italian contrastivity and interference). Section 4 is devoted to examples of the dialectal varieties of Spanish at different levels: pronunciation, morphology, spelling, lexicon, syntax, (semi)fixed structures, taboos and forms of treatment and politeness. The chapter closes with three very brief sections: one (the fifth) dedicated to the general attitude most suitable for an interpreter or translator when faced with the question of diatopic divergences, the next (the sixth) to a model of practice and the last (the seventh) to a commentary on the bibliography.