Conosca > Conozca

This is an advertisement I came across recently in the streets of Los Angeles which serves as an example of two things:
1) The prevalent use of the Spanish language in this city, in many settings acting as an unofficially official second language, as is the case throughout California, and other states in the Union.
2) A spelling problem that seseante communities are faced with, at times: writing <s> when the norm calls for <z> (or <c> before e and i). Here, we see conosca instead of the correct conozca.

The correct form should be conozca
As a side note, in other Romance languages, the same verb forms are indeed spelled with <s>: Italian conosca, Romanian cunoască vs. Spanish conozca. The change from s to z was a Spanish development, as can be seen from the original Latin form COGNOSCAT.

6 comments:

John Cowan said...

At least you are not seeing "fabol" for "[por] favor", as I often do on signs in NYC.

Filius Lunae said...

Oh, John, I've seen many things; this is one example. Haha.

What is done in an informal setting, I can forgive. But, anything that is supposed to come from a professional organization, either a company advertising their business, or a government office sharing information, that's when you may see me go "mmhhh".

Hopefully, I can bring more.

Filius Lunae said...

Addendum: notice I said nothing about the lack of accents.

Anonymous said...

Bine că am găsit la tine cum e corect să scriu în spaniolă, pentru că deși eram curioasă de ”conosca” sau ”conozca”, niciodată nu mi-am făcut timp să caut. Așa că mersi, am învățat ceva astăzi ! :D

Filius Lunae said...

¡Un placer!

Se entiende por qué un rumano o un italiano tendría dificultad con este verbo.

(Da, ți-am scris ceva în spaniolă. :) )

Anonymous said...

Gracias :P

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