In 1713 La Real Academia Española de la Lengua, RAE (The Royal Academy of Spanish Language) was founded. The academy was inspired by the French Academy (the king of Spain at that time, Charles V, was French). Since then, RAE has been serving the Spanish speakers to establish a standard.

Basically, RAE updates the three books: the dictionary, the grammar, and the orthography (the norms of spelling).

After the independence of the Hispanic nations in the 1800s, each new country founded its own academy to contribute with the Spanish standard. Currently 22 academies form the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española, ASALE, where the Spanish Academy is just one of them, but is given the honor to be chair of the Board. ASALE is currently the responsible of updating the three books.

577 million people speak Spanish, 7.6% of the world population. (2018). To keep the unity and richness of Spanish, the ASALE scholars “listen” how people speak Spanish all over the worlds and make proposals to include new words in the dictionary. If ASALE approves a new term to be included in the dictionary, they include the area were that word is spoken. Thus, words like tlacuache, that is used only in the Mexico area because of the influence of Nahuatl, appears in the dictionary with the word México in parenthesis.

So, the scholars don´t invent any words or rules, they just “listen to the voice of the people and do justice.”