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"Can I challenge you a bit, Lumia, on the idea that the use of "y" as a vowel or double ss's are a "misspelling" in Latin America? Why do Spanish speakers in the Western hemisphere have to abide by the spelling conventions of Spain any more than English speakers have to abide by the spelling conventions of England? As an American, I would find it quite humorous to be told by someone from England that I was "misspelling" words like color, dialog, criticize, and center. It seems to me that England and Spain both gave up the right to control how the rest of the world uses their language when they became colonial powers. :)"

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Because Spanish is regulated by RAE rules, accepted by the rest of Spanish Academies. You can agree with this system or not, but that is how it runs in Spanish (and in other languages as French, Catalan, Basque...). English is an exception because it has not a Language Academy as most of the languages have.

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Thanks God, Spanish (and the rest of Romanic languages and Basque language) has an Academy (Association of Academies). This way, for example, it is very simple to know how to correctly pronounce/write a thing and to know when there is a mistake.

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In Spanish, mostly, misspellings indicate parents' low class/illiteracy and, as you can see by Samper's articles or by Universidad de los Andes's study, are rejected by educated speakers and/or higher classes. There are exceptions (princess Letizia has her name misspelled in Spanish or mispronounced in Italian), but the general rule works.

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And a lot of educated Spanish speakers, even writers, make grammatical mistakes (you can visit http://cvc.cervantes.es/alhabla/museo_horrores/, e.g.) or write with mispellings, but these still be mistakes.

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Side note: Academies from the "Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española" and date:

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Real Academia Española (RAE) (Spain) (initial Academy)
Academia Colombiana de la Lengua (Colombia) (1871)
Academia Ecuatoriana de la Lengua (Equador) (1874)
Academia Mexicana de la Lengua (Mexico) (1875)
Academia Salvadoreña de la Lengua (El Salvador) (1876)
Academia Venezolana de la Lengua (Venezuela) (1883)
Academia Chilena de la Lengua (Chile) (1885)
Academia Peruana de la Lengua (Peru) (1887)
Academia Guatemalteca de la Lengua (Guatemala) (1887)
Academia Costarricense de la Lengua (Costa Rica) (1923)
Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española (Philippines) (1924)
Academia Panameña de la Lengua (Panama) (1926)
Academia Cubana de la Lengua (Cuba) (1926)
Academia Paraguaya de la Lengua Española (Paraguay) (1927)
Academia Boliviana de la Lengua (Bolivia) (1927)
Academia Dominicana de la Lengua (Dominican Republic) (1927)
Academia Nicaragüense de la Lengua (Nicaragua) (1928)
Academia Argentina de Letras (Argentina) (1931)
Academia Nacional de Letras del Uruguay (Uruguay) (1943)
Academia Hondureña de la Lengua (Honduras) (1949)
Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española (Puerto Rico) (1955)
Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (USA) (1973)

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You can find more information about the accords of the Association of Academies at http://asale.org/ASALE/ConAALEBD?IDDOC=2&menu=2.

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Lumia
http://onomastica.mailcatala.com