Why won't the Iberian Peninsula give up the preterite tense?

Question

I've noticed that most modern Romance languages have nearly eliminated the use of the preterite (passato remoto, passé simple, etc.) and switched to a compound past (passato prossimo, passé composé) EXCEPT on the Iberian Peninsula. Both Portuguese and Spanish have maintained the usage of a preterite, while in languages like French and Italian they've merged their preterites with their compound pasts, which are now only used in very formal speech and in writing. I guess I really have two questions: one, why did French and Italian stop using their preterites, and two, why didn't Spanish and Portuguese?
PS - Sorry if there are non-Iberian Romance languages that still use a preterite in regular speech; I know the names and locations of many other Romance languages, but not much more about them.

Mike in California · Accepted Answer

When I did my masters in Spanish my linguistics professor (himself from Spain, a catalán) doesn't agree exactly with what you're saying, but rather that...

The stuff going on with using simple past versus a compound tense past is more of an American continent versus European continent phenomenon...That many languages are affected incljuding English.  In the Americas the simple past is alive and well in both English and Spanish.  But on the European continent Spain and the UK favor the compound tense more and more.

In the US:  I went to dinner with friends last night.
In the UKI: I had gone to dinner with friends last night.

mmqb · Answer

Having diferents past terms simple and compounds enrich our language and let us to get a lot of multiple nuances that I'm unable to translate to your language. 
I'm from Spain but I am not an expert in Spanish grammar,i thought in your question and this is my opinion. I don't know if it is valid for you.

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Why won't the Iberian Peninsula give up the preterite tense?

2 Answers