I dedicated my former message to the linguistic aspects of your post. There is
an additional fact that needs correcting, regarding religion. Whereas it is true
that Roman Catholic is traditionally the religion with the largest number of
followers, it must be noted that the State has no official religion (as in
Argentina, where the State is Roman Catholic). The school system is
characterized by being non-religious, i.e., laicist. No religious instruction is
imparted in state or private schools, unless they are explicitly
religious-sponsored.

Hi,

Just want to make clear, that there are some statements which are not entirely
correct.

For instance, it is not accurate to state that the Spanish of Uruguay differs
quite a bit from standard Spanish. What do you mean by "standard"
Spanish? Are you referring to Peninsular Spanish? (i.e., Spanish from Spain).
The written Spanish of Uruguay is perfectly standard, and so is the spoken
cultured Spanish, albeit the Southern Cone variety. You would never, NEVER, use
in writing "ta" (which is a slang abbreviation of "está", nor
"podrido" or "de repente" with the meanings you mention, which
are strictly of a "familiar" register.

Perhaps you should read a bit of Eugenio Cosériu's comments on the Spanish of
Spain and the Spanish of America, to understand the fine distinctions between
"variety" and "dialect". Eugenio Cosériu, deceased, is a
distinguished linguist, internationally known, whom we were honored to have as a
University professor in Montevideo. We do not speak a "dialect" in
Uruguay, we speak a "variety". As legitimate as that of Spain. With our
own trends.

For instance, for the future tense we prefer to say, instead of "vendré"
(I will come) as they do in Spain, "voy a venir", and for the past,
instead of "nunca he comido eso" (I have never eaten that), as they do
in Spain, "nunca comí eso". It is an issue of variety.

As for the term "coger", which means to grab as you rightly say, indeed
it is NEVER used as it has experienced a linguistic change in meaning and it is
indeed used for the "f" word. But, although you mention that caution
should be used, you fail to indicate what term SHOULD be used when you actually
mean "grab". In a cultured context you may use "tomar" (yes, as
in "drink"), and in common use, "agarrar" (derived from
"garra" which means "claw").

Moreover, I would not qualify the Uruguayan variety as "rioplatense"
(not with a capital "R" please) since although it is generally very
similar to the Argentinean variety, there are many distinctive features. For
instance (and without resorting to slang terms, which exist in every country,
not only in Latin America, and are particular to each region), we write
"setiembre" (September) whereas in Argentina (and most of the other
LatAm countries) it is "septiembre" (with a "p").

Thought you would like to note these comments.