I knew the TikTok comment was wrong the moment I read it, but not because it offended me. I have a pretty high tolerance for internet nonsense. I knew it was wrong because it collapsed under the same basic logic I navigate every time I work with editors on my books.

The commenter’s argument was this: Spain-Spanish is Latin American Spanish. Therefore, if I was asking for a Latin American Spanish word for pie, I must be asking for slang.

That statement is not just incorrect. It is linguistically incoherent, historically ignorant, and rooted in a colonial framework that people keep recycling without realizing how much harm it does.

Let me explain why.

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How I Know This Is a Fallacy Before We Even Get Academic

Before an editor ever touches one of my manuscripts, I give them a language brief. I tell them exactly what they will encounter: American English, Caribbean Spanish, specifically Dominican Spanish, and the lived blend of the two, Spanglish.

This is not me being extra. This is industry standard practice when you are writing authentically across languages and dialects.

By doing this, I am not asking the editor to convert my work into Spain-Spanish or Spanish-Spanish. I am telling them what rules apply and what rules do not. Editors understand this immediately because language professionals understand that Spanish is not a single monolithic entity.

If Spain-Spanish were simply Latin American Spanish, this clarification would not be necessary. The fact that it is necessary proves the argument wrong on its face.

Spain-Spanish Is Not Latin American Spanish

Spain-Spanish is a regional variety of Spanish. Latin American Spanish is not a single thing, but a broad category that includes multiple regional standards shaped over centuries.

Spanish did not arrive in the Americas and freeze in time. It collided with Indigenous languages, African languages, migration patterns, and regional cultures. What emerged were new, legitimate, standardized varieties of Spanish that evolved independently of Spain.

To say that Spain-Spanish is Latin American Spanish is equivalent to saying British English is American English. They share roots, not identity.

This is not a semantic disagreement. It is a factual one.

Spanish is a pluricentric language. That means it has multiple centers of standardization. Spain is one of them. Mexico is another. The Caribbean has its own. The Southern Cone has its own. No single region owns the language.

Even institutions people love to invoke when policing language, like Real Academia Española (REA), and Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (ASALE) acknowledge this reality. The RAE collaborates with language academies across Latin America because Spanish is shaped collectively, not dictated from a single country. Both of these institutions acknowledge “unity in Diversity” and work under a pan-Hispanic norm to recognize this unity within the various forms of Spanish.

Why Calling Latin American Spanish “Slang” Is Dangerous

This is where the conversation stops being annoying and starts being harmful.

When someone claims that Spain-Spanish is the real Spanish and everything else is slang, they are repeating a colonial hierarchy. Europe becomes the authority. The colonies become deviations.

That logic suggests that anything produced outside the imperial center is automatically less refined, less correct, and less legitimate. This is not a neutral linguistic position. It is an ideological one.

We have already seen this play out in English. For a long time, the Queen’s English was treated as the only proper English, while American English, Caribbean English, and other varieties were dismissed as broken or informal. We now understand that argument was rooted in power, not grammar.

Applying the same logic to Spanish does not suddenly make it valid.

It makes it recycled colonial thinking with better branding.

Slang Exists Everywhere. That Is Not the Point.

Yes, slang exists in every language variety. Dominican Spanish has slang. Spain-Spanish has slang. American English has slang. British English has slang.

Slang refers to informal, often temporary expressions within a language. It does not refer to entire regional vocabularies or grammatical systems.

Calling all of Latin American Spanish slang is like calling all American English slang because it differs from British norms. It misunderstands what slang actually is.

Language Evolves Because People Move

Language evolves through migration, resistance, survival, and adaptation. Spanish in the Caribbean carries African linguistic influences because of the transatlantic slave trade. Spanish across Latin America carries Indigenous influences because those languages never disappeared.

This evolution does not weaken a language. It enriches it.

To argue that Spain-Spanish is the original and therefore superior form ignores the reality that languages are living systems. They change because people do.

Why This Matters in Publishing and Storytelling

For writers like me, this is not theoretical. It affects how stories are edited, marketed, and received.

When regional language is erased in favor of a so-called neutral standard, stories lose their cultural grounding. Characters become flatter. Voices become generic. Authenticity disappears.

This is why editors ask what language varieties are present. This is why translators specialize in regions. This is why serious publishing professionals do not treat Spain-Spanish as interchangeable with Dominican Spanish.

The Real Issue Is Power, Not Correctness

At the core of this argument is not grammar. It is power.

Who gets to define correctness. Who gets to sound educated. Whose language is treated as legitimate.

Spain-Spanish is often treated as default not because it is linguistically superior, but because colonial power made it visible first.

Language does not belong to empires. It belongs to the people who speak it.

Final Thoughts

Spain-Spanish is not Latin American Spanish. Latin American Spanish is not slang. Caribbean Spanish is not broken. Dominican Spanish is not informal by default.

They are standardized, living language varieties shaped by history, culture, and survival.

As a Dominican American writer, I will continue to write in the language that reflects my reality, not someone else’s hierarchy.

And I will continue to challenge bad linguistic takes when they show up pretending to be facts.