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Golden Age Spanish (Castellano del Siglo de Oro, ~1500-1681) is the Castilian of the Spanish literary Golden Age: Cervantes's Don Quijote (1605/1615), Lope de Vega's comedias (Fuenteovejuna, El caballero de Olmedo), Calderón de la Barca (La vida es sueño, El gran teatro del mundo), Quevedo's satirical prose and conceptismo poetry, Góngora's culteranismo, Santa Teresa de Jesús and San Juan de la Cruz's mystic poetry. Distinct from Old Spanish (osp, 12-15c.) and Modern Spanish (es_eu) by: pre-merger 4-way sibilant system (s vs ç /t͡s/ vs z /d͡z/ vs ss /s/, all collapsing to /s θ/ by ~1650); distinct b vs v phonemes; preserved /ʃ/ in <x>/<j> before its shift to velar /x/ (Cervantes' name was pronounced /miˈɣel de θeɾˈβantes saaˈβeðɾa/ with /ʃ/ for j/x); transitional "vuestra merced" → modern "usted"; active "vosotros" 2pl distinct from "ustedes". The pedagogical canon for reading 17th-century Spanish literature in modern Spanish-medium education.