Chapter 5. Characters in Each Country

49

The n (n with tilde) is always sorted after the n and before the l. It cannot be intermixed with the

n.

Number format, date and currency symbols

The use of the dot and the comma as a thousands separator and for decimal places is usually

the opposite of US English. E.g., 1.000,00 instead of 1,000.00. Some Spanish speaking countries,

notably Mexico, follow the same standards as the US. It is desirable that programs can handle both

forms as an independent setting.

The usual date format is DD MM YYYY rather than MM DD YYYY, but again this depends on

the specific country. It is desirable to have the date format as a configurable parameter.

The currency symbol can be prepended or appended to the number and it can be one or several

characters long. E.g., 100 PTA for Spanish pesetas or N$ 100 for Mexican pesos. It is desirable that

the symbol and position can be individually defined and to allow for currency symbols longer

than 1 character.

Varieties of Spanish

Spanish is spoken by a tremendous variety of people. Academics through the different Spanish 

speaking countries realized that this could lead to a dismemberment of the language and founded

the Academy of the Spanish Language. This academy has branches in most of the Spanish 

speaking countries, there is a Royal Academy of the Spanish Language of Spain, an Academy

of the Spanish Language of Mexico, et cetera. The members of this Academy study the local evo 

lution of the languages in each country. They meet together to maintain a body of knowledge of

what should be considered the Standard Spanish Language and what should be considered local

or regional terms and slang terms.

In most cases, software can use terms that are within the Standard set by the Academy. When

new terms appear (e.g., when a new product is created that has no previous name in the Spanish

language) each region typically starts using a new word. When there is one or two terms that

become the de facto standard, the Academy would incorporate the new term into the Standard.

This is a very slow process and there will be temporary usages in different regions within the

Spanish speaking worlds that conflict with each other. Some people speak about Spain Spanish

and American Spanish but most of the time it doesn't really make sense to make this distinction.

First of all, even within America, there are differences between the local varieties that may be

greater than the differences with Spain itself. E.g., Spanish as spoken in Mexico, Colombia and

Argentina may have between them as much differences as each of them when compared to how

it is spoken in Spain. A computer user in Ecuador may feel more comfortable overall with the

terms used in Spain than with the terms used in Mexico (and of course, most comfortable with the

terms used in Ecuador itself!). The options are to either produce one Spanish version of a software