Is there a language other than Spanish spoken in Spain?
Autonomous communities of Spain
Spanish legislation, most notably in the Statutes of Autonomy of the bilingual communities, use the term "own language", or "language proper to a community", to refer to a language other than Spanish that originated or had historical roots in that particular territory. The Statutes of Autonomy of the respective autonomous communities have declared Basque the language proper to the Basque Country and Navarre, Catalan the language proper to Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community—where it is historically, traditionally and officially known as Valencian—and Galician to be the language proper to Galicia. There are other protected regional languages in other autonomous communities. As a percentage of total population in Spain, Basque is spoken by 2%, Catalan/Valencian by 17%, and Galician by 7% of all Spaniards. A 2016 Basque Government census revealed 700,000 fluent speakers in Spain (51,000 in Basque counties in France) and 1,185.000 total when passive speakers are included.
Burgos
Spanish, also called Castilian, originated in Castile and spread throughout the Crown of Castile's possessions following the reconquista. It was eventually dispersed throughout the Spanish empire following the conquest and colonization of the Americas, and Spain after the union of the Catholic Monarchs's kingdoms being co-spoken with other languages. Of the many different variations and dialects found throughout the world, it's argued that the purest Spanish can be found in the region of Burgos due to the fact that the language first developed here in the 10th-century.
Standard Spanish
Given that a neutral Spanish for all Spanish-speakers is impossible, there are four established standardized "Spanishes" used in translations and, more recently, in film-dubbing by some companies: (1) Castilian or Peninsular Spanish for Spain; (2) River Plate Spanish for Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina (using "voseo"); (3) Mexican Spanish for the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America (even though this last region is largely "voseante"), and the rest of Spanish-speaking America); (4) the Spanish of international organisations like the United Nations, the Organisation of American States and their respective specialised bodies. Naturally UN Spanish differs from OAS Spanish, because Spain is not a full member of the latter organisation, and thus its influence is weak. But Spain was refused membership in the UN when it was founded in 1945, since Spain was a dictatorship. Although it remained a dictatorship, it was eventually admitted in 1956. However, by then UN Spanish had already been established by Spanish-American diplomats and translators.
Spaniards
Spaniards are a Romance ethnic group and nation. They are indigenous to Spain and share a common Spanish culture, history, ancestry, and language. Within Spain, there are a number of nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history and diverse culture. Although the official language of Spain is commonly known as "Spanish", it is only one of the national languages of Spain, and is less ambiguously known as Castilian, a standard language based on the medieval romance speech of the early Kingdom of Castile in north-central Spain and the Mozarabic dialect of the Taifa of Toledo which was incorporated by the former in the 11th century. There are several commonly spoken regional languages, most notably Basque (a Paleohispanic language), Catalan and Galician (both Romance languages like Castilian). There are many populations outside Spain with ancestors who emigrated from Spain and who share a Hispanic culture; most notably in Hispanic America.
The Story of Spanish
The Story of Spanish is a non-fiction book written by Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow that charts the origins of the Spanish language. The 496-page book published by St. Martin’s Press (May 7, 2013), explains how the Spanish language evolved from a tongue spoken by a remote tribe of farmers in northern Spain to become one of the world’s most spoken languages.
Castilians
Castilian ("castellano"), that is, Spanish, is the native language of the Castilians. Its origin is traditionally ascribed to an area south of the Cordillera Cantábrica, including the upper Ebro valley, in northern Spain, around the 8th and 9th centuries; however the first written standard was developed in the 13th century in the southern city of Toledo. It is descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, with Arabic influences, and perhaps Basque as well. During the Reconquista in the Middle Ages, it was brought to the south of Spain where it replaced the languages that were spoken in the former Moorish controlled zones, such as the local form of related Latin dialects now referred to as Mozarabic, and the Arabic that had been introduced by the Muslims. In this process Castilian absorbed many traits from these languages, some of which continue to be used today. Outside of Spain and a few Latin American countries, Castilian is now usually referred to as "Spanish".
Basque language
The Spanish Constitution of 1978 states in Article 3 that the Spanish language is the official language of the nation, but allows autonomous communities to provide a co-official language status for the other languages of Spain. Consequently, the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Autonomous Community establishes Basque as the co-official language of the autonomous community. The Statute of Navarre establishes Spanish as the official language of Navarre, but grants co-official status to the Basque language in the Basque-speaking areas of northern Navarre. Basque has no official status in the French Basque Country and French citizens are barred from officially using Basque in a French court of law. However, the use of Basque by Spanish nationals in French courts is permitted (with translation), as Basque is officially recognised on the other side of the border.
Names given to the Spanish language
In the regions where regional languages are spoken, there is obviously a daily need to make the contrast between the national language and the regional language and so the national language is most often referred to as Castilian, particularly in the regional languages themselves (for example, "espanyol" is virtually never used to refer to the language in Catalan: "castellà" is used instead; in Basque, the name of the language is "gaztelania" or "gaztelera", never "espainiera"; and in Galician, the most commonly used term is "castelán" rather than "español"). That is often mirrored by educated English-speakers to refer to the linguistic situation in Spain.
Spanish language
Spanish is closely related to the other West Iberian Romance languages, including Asturian, Aragonese, Galician, Ladino, Leonese, Mirandese and Portuguese.
Languages in censuses
The other official languages of Spain, co-official with Spanish are:
Names given to the Spanish language
During the presence of Moors in Hispania, Spanish was sometimes given the name "cristiano" ("Christian") to distinguish it from the Arabic and Hebrew languages. This term is still used occasionally today to refer to the language, in a jocular tone.
The expression "Hábleme en cristiano" "talk to me in Christian", uttered to people not speaking Spanish at the moment, is used in opposition of the other languages of Spain, which is felt as annoying by them (Catalonia, Galicia and the Basque Country, but not in the Americas). "Háblame en cristiano" is also a phrase used to ask for clarification in a conversation, when the topic of the discussion is not clear or is vaguely hinted at by one of the speakers.
Catalan Countries
Catalan and its variants are spoken in:Catalan is the official language of Andorra, co-official with Spanish and Occitan in Catalonia, co-official with Spanish in the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community—with the denomination of "Valencian" in the latter—and co-official with Italian in the city of Alghero. It is also part of the recognized minority languages of Italy along with Sardinian, also spoken in Alghero.
Political divisions of Spain
The official names of the autonomous communities can be in Spanish only (which applies to the majority of them), in the co-official language in the community only (as in the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands), or in both Spanish and the co-official language (as in the Basque Country, Navarre and Galicia). Since 2006, Occitan—in its Aranese dialect—is also a co-official language in Catalonia, making it the only autonomous community whose name has three official variants (Spanish: "Cataluña", Catalan: "Catalunya", Occitan: "Catalonha").
History of the Spanish language
The standard Spanish language is also called Castilian in its original variant, and in order to distinguish it from other languages native to parts of Spain, such as Galician, Catalan, Basque, etc. In its earliest documented form, and up through approximately the 15th century, the language is customarily called Old Spanish. From approximately the 16th century on, it is called Modern Spanish. Spanish of the 16th and 17th centuries is sometimes called "classical" Spanish, referring to the literary accomplishments of that period. Unlike English and French, it is not customary to speak of a "middle" stage in the development of Spanish.
Andalusian Spanish
The Andalusian varieties of Spanish (Spanish: "andaluz" ; Andalusian: "andalú" ) are spoken in Andalusia, Ceuta, Melilla, and Gibraltar. They include perhaps the most distinct of the southern variants of peninsular Spanish, differing in many respects from northern varieties, and also from Standard Spanish. Due to the large population of Andalusia, the Andalusian dialects are among the ones with more speakers in Spain. Within Spain, other southern dialects of Spanish share some core elements of Andalusian, mainly in terms of phonetics notably Canarian Spanish, Extremaduran Spanish and Murcian Spanish as well as, to a lesser degree, Manchegan Spanish.
Castilians
Castilian (or Spanish) is the dominant language in Spain, and therefore was the language that was imposed in the New World by the Conquistadores during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Due to this gradual process, the Hispanophone world was created. As Castilian was the language of the Crown, it became the official language of all Spain, used side by side with other languages in their regions for centuries. During the years of the Francoist State (1939 to 1975) there was an attempt to suppress the regional languages in favour of Castilian as the sole official language, causing a backlash against the use of Castilian in some regions after his death.
History of the Spanish language
The language known today as Spanish is derived from a dialect of spoken Latin that evolved in the north-central part of the Iberian Peninsula after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century. A written standard was developed in the cities of Toledo (13th to 16th centuries) and Madrid (from the 1560s). Over the past 1,000 years, the language expanded south to the Mediterranean Sea, and was later transferred to the Spanish colonial empire, most notably to the Americas. Today it is the official language of 20 countries, as well as an official language of numerous international organizations, including the United Nations.
Erromintxela language
There are currently an estimated 500 speakers in the Southern Basque Country in Spain, approximately 2% of a population of 21,000 Romanis, and another estimated 500 in France. In Spain the remaining fluent speakers are elderly people mostly over the age of 80; some are equally fluent in Spanish, Basque, or Caló. Middle-aged Erromintxela are mostly passive bilinguals, and the youngest speak only Basque or Spanish. In the Northern Basque Country, however, the language is still being passed on to children. The percentage of speakers among Spanish Erromintxela are higher than 2%, as large numbers of Caló-speaking Romanis moved to the Basque Country in the intense period of industrialisation in the 20th century.
Caratachea
Basque (/bæsk/ or /bɑːsk/; Basque: Euskara, IPA: [eus̺ˈkaɾa]) is the language spoken by the Basques. Linguistically, Basque is unrelated to the other languages of Europe and indeed, as a language isolate, to any other known language. The Basques are indigenous to, and primarily inhabit, the Basque Country, a region that straddles the westernmost Pyrenees in adjacent parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. The Basque language is spoken by 27% of Basques in all territories (714,135 out of 2,648,998).[2] Of these, 93% (663,035) are in the Spanish area of the Basque Country and the remaining 7% (51,100) are in the French portion.[2]
Native speakers live in a contiguous area that includes parts of four Spanish territories and the three "ancient provinces" in France. Gipuzkoa, most of Biscay, a few municipalities of Álava, and the northern area of Navarre formed the core of the remaining Basque-speaking area before measures were introduced in the 1980s to strengthen the language. By contrast, most of Álava, the western part of Biscay and central and southern areas of Navarre are predominantly populated by native speakers of Spanish, either because Basque was replaced by Spanish over the centuries, in some areas (most of Álava and central Navarre), or because it was possibly never spoken there, in other areas (Enkarterri and southeastern Navarre).
Spain
Spanish ("español")— recognised in the constitution as Castilian ("castellano")—is the official language of the entire country, and it is the right and duty of every Spaniard to know the language. The constitution also establishes that "the other Spanish languages"—that is, the other languages of Spain—will also be official in their respective autonomous communities in accordance to their Statutes, their organic regional legislations, and that the "richness of the distinct linguistic modalities of Spain represents a patrimony which will be the object of special respect and protection."
List of countries where Spanish is an official language
The Spanish language is not official but also holds a special status (in the education system, the media, and some official documents) in the Principality of Andorra which shares land borders with Spain.
Caribbean Spanish
Caribbean Spanish (Spanish: "español caribeño") is the general name of the Spanish dialects spoken in the Caribbean region. It resembles the Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands and more distantly the one spoken in western Andalusia.
Languages of Catalonia
The main cause of Spanish and Catalan social bilingualism in modern Catalonia was large-scale migration from the rest of Spain during the 20th century, as Catalonia started a significant industrialization which demanded an increased workforce from elsewhere. Spanish has historically been spoken among a minority of civil servants born in other regions in Spain and among segments of the wealthiest bourgeoisie. Spanish has also been spoken as a second language by most Catalans, as it has been the only official language over long periods since the eighteenth century.
Languages of Spain
The languages of Spain (), or Spanish languages (), are the languages spoken or once spoken in Spain. Romance languages are the most widely spoken in Spain; of which Spanish, or Castilian, is the only language which has official status for the whole country. Various other languages have co-official or recognised status in specific territories, and a number of unofficial languages and dialects are spoken in certain localities.
History of the Spanish language
Language politics in Francoist Spain declared Spanish as the only official language in Spain, and to this day it is the most widely used language in government, business, public education, the workplace, cultural arts, and the media. But in the 1960s and 1970s, the Spanish parliament agreed to allow provinces to use, speak, and print official documents in three other languages: Catalan for Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Valencia; Basque for the
Basque provinces and Navarre, and Galician for Galicia. Since 1975, following the death of Franco, Spain has become a multi-party democracy and decentralized country, constituted in autonomous communities. Under this system, some languages of Spain—such as Aranese (an Occitan language of northwestern Catalonia), Basque, Catalan/Valencian, and Galician—have gained co-official status in their respective geographical areas. Others—such as Aragonese, Asturian and Leonese—have been recognized by regional governments.
Linguistic rights
Spanish language is the stated to be the official language of Spain in Article 3 of the Spanish constitution, being the learning of this language compulsory by this same article. However, the constitution makes provisions for other languages of Spain to be official in their respective communities. An example would be the use of the Basque language in the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC). Apart from Spanish, the other co-official languages are Basque, Catalan and Galician.
Spanish language
Spanish is the official or national language in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, and 19 countries in the Americas. Speakers in the Americas total some 418 million. It is also an optional language in the Philippines as it was a Spanish colony from 1569 to 1899. In the European Union, Spanish is the mother tongue of 8% of the population, with an additional 7% speaking it as a second language. Spanish is the most popular second language learned in the United States. In 2011 it was estimated by the American Community Survey that of the 55 million Hispanic United States residents who are five years of age and over, 38 million speak Spanish at home.
Spanish language
functions as formal and informal second person plural in over 90% of the Spanish-speaking world, including all of Hispanic America, the Canary Islands, and some regions of Andalusia. In Seville, Huelva, Cadiz, and other parts of western Andalusia, the familiar form is constructed as , using the traditional second-person plural form of the verb. Most of Spain maintains the formal/familiar distinction with and respectively.
List of revived languages
The Aranese language, a standardized form of the Pyrenean Gascon variety of the Occitan language spoken in the Aran Valley, in northwestern Catalonia is still spoken. Once considered to be an endangered language, spoken mainly by older people, it is now experiencing a renaissance; it enjoys co-official status with Catalan and Castilian (Spanish) in Catalonia, and since 1984 has been taught in schools.
Names given to the Spanish language
However, the term "Spanish" ("español") is a more recent term that first referred to Spain as a country, and then to the predominant language spoken in that country. Spain as a truly unified nation appeared centuries later than the language and the Kingdom of Castile; in fact, it was only in the late 15th century that the personal union between the Crowns of Castile and Aragon unified Spain. The actual legal unification date is disputed, but commonly agreed to have occurred not earlier than the eighteenth century at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession. Only then did the Castilian language begin to be commonly called Spanish.
Hispanic and Latino Americans
Hispanics have revived the Spanish language in the United States. First brought to North America by the Spanish during the Spanish colonial period in the 16th century, Spanish was the first European language spoken in the Americas. Spanish is the oldest European language in the United States, spoken uninterruptedly for four and a half centuries, since the founding of Saint Augustine, Florida in 1565. Today, 90% of all Hispanics and Latinos speak English, and at least 78% speak fluent Spanish. Additionally, 2.8 million non-Hispanic Americans also speak Spanish at home for a total of 41.1 million.
Spanish language
Most Spanish speakers are in Hispanic America; of all countries with a majority of Spanish speakers, only Spain and Equatorial Guinea are outside the Americas. Nationally, Spanish is the official language—either "de facto" or "de jure"—of Argentina, Bolivia (co-official with Quechua, Aymara, Guarani, and 34 other languages), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico (co-official with 63 indigenous languages), Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay (co-official with Guaraní), Peru (co-official with Quechua, Aymara, and "the other indigenous languages"), Puerto Rico (co-official with English), Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Spanish has no official recognition in the former British colony of Belize; however, per the 2000 census, it is spoken by 43% of the population. Mainly, it is spoken by the descendants of Hispanics who have been in the region since the seventeenth century; however, English is the official language.
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire left a huge linguistic, religious, political, cultural, and urban architectural legacy in the Western Hemisphere. With over 470 million native speakers today, Spanish is the second most spoken native language in the world, as result of the introduction of the language of Castile—Castilian, ""Castellano"" —from Iberia to Spanish America, later expanded by the governments of successor independent republics. In the Philippines, the Spanish–American War (1898) brought the islands under U.S. jurisdiction, with English being imposed in schools and Spanish becoming a secondary official language.
Languages in censuses
Spanish ("español")—officially recognized in the constitution as Castilian ("castellano")—is the official language of the entire country, and it is the right and duty of every Spaniard to know the language. The constitution also establishes that "all other Spanish languages"—that is, all other languages of Spain—will also be official in their respective autonomous communities in accordance to their Statutes, their organic regional legislations, and that the "richness of the distinct linguistic modalities of Spain represents a patrimony which will be the object of special respect and protection."
Spanish language
The Spanish language evolved from Vulgar Latin, which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans during the Second Punic War, beginning in 210 BC. Previously, several pre-Roman languages (also called Paleohispanic languages)—unrelated to Latin, and some of them unrelated even to Indo-European—were spoken in the Iberian Peninsula. These languages included Basque (still spoken today), Iberian, Celtiberian and Gallaecian.
Language code
For example, most people in Central America and South America speak Spanish. Spanish spoken in Mexico will be slightly different from Spanish spoken in Peru. Different regions of Mexico will have slightly different dialects and accents of Spanish. A language code scheme might group these all as "Spanish" for choosing a keyboard layout, most as "Spanish" for general usage, or separate each dialect to allow region-specific idioms.
Guatemalan Spanish
Guatemalan Spanish () is the national variant of Spanish spoken in the Central American country of Guatemala. About 13.7 million of the 16 million population speak Spanish. It includes the use of the second-person singular personal pronoun "vos" alongside the standard Spanish second-person singular pronouns "tú" and "usted" to form a three-level system of second-person singular address.A number of words widely used in Guatemala which have Mayan or other native origins, in particular names for flora, fauna and toponyms. Some of these words are used in most, or all, Spanish-speaking countries, like "chocolate" and "aguacate" ("avocado"), and some are only used in Mexico and most Central American countries, like Guatemala and El Salvador. The latter include "guajolote" "turkey" < Nahuatl "huaxōlōtl" (although "chompipe" is also used; "pavo" is also used, as in other Spanish-speaking countries); "papalote" "kite" < Nahuatl "pāpālōtl" "butterfly"; and "jitomate" "tomato" < Nahuatl "xītomatl" . For a more complete list see List of Spanish words of Nahuatl origin. Local words include There are also many words unique to Central America, for example, "chunche" or "chochadas" or "babosadas" means "thing" or "stuff" in some places. The words used to describe children (or kids) vary among the countries in Central America; in Guatemala they are often called "patojos". Cipotes is also used in Guatemala in the eastern departments. In the western and northern departments of Guatemala "chamacos" is used to say children or kids. In Guatemala and Honduras the word "güiros" is also used. In Guatemala (also in Honduras and El Salvador) people with money are said to have "pisto", a term originally used by Maya peoples in Guatemala.
Ghosts in Spanish-speaking cultures
There are many stories of ghosts in Spanish-speaking cultures. The Spanish language is second only in number of native speakers to Mandarin Chinese, the tongue of over 360 million people. Ghost stories exist throughout Spanish-speaking America and in Spain.
Languages of Spain
In addition to the languages which continue to be spoken in Spain to the present day, other languages which have been spoken within what are now the borders of Spain include:
Galician language
Galician (, ; ) is an Indo-European language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch. It is spoken by some 2.4 million people, mainly in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it is official along with Spanish. The language is also spoken in some border zones of the neighbouring Spanish regions of Asturias and Castile and León, as well as by Galician migrant communities in the rest of Spain, in Latin America, the United States, Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe.
Castilian Spanish
The term "Castilian Spanish" can be used in English for the specific varieties of Spanish spoken in north and central Spain. Sometimes it is more loosely used to denote the Spanish spoken in all of Spain as compared to Spanish spoken in Latin America. There are several different varieties of Spanish, which should not be confused with the other official and non-official languages in Spain, of which Castilian is only the most prominent because it is the only one that is official throughout the whole national territory.
Castile and León
In addition to the Castilian language, in Castile and León two other languages or linguistic varieties are spoken in small areas of the community: the Leonese language, that "will be subject to specific protection [...] because of its particular value within the Community's linguistic heritage" (This dialect is only spoken for less than 2000 people, what means this "will be subject to specific protection [...] because of its particular value within the Community's linguistic heritage" is not accomplished) and Galician language, which, according to the Statute of Autonomy, "will enjoy respect and protection in the places where it is usually used" (fundamentally, in the border areas with Galicia of the comarcas of El Bierzo and Sanabria). In the Salamancan comarca of El Rebollar, a modality of Extremaduran language is spoken (of the Asturian-Leonese branch) known as Palra d'El Rebollal. In Merindad de Sotoscueva (province of Burgos) a Castilian is spoken with some dialectal features of the Asturian-Leonese.
Spanish language
The following table shows the number of Spanish speakers in some 79 countries.
There are important variations (phonological, grammatical, and lexical) in the spoken Spanish of the various regions of Spain and throughout the Spanish-speaking areas of the Americas.
Saharan Spanish
Saharan Spanish () is the variety of the Spanish language spoken in Western Sahara and adjacent regions. This non-native variety is heavily influenced by both Spanish colonialism and a strong expatriate community who live in Spain and Latin America, particularly Cuba.
History of the Spanish language
A similar situation occurred in the American Southwest, including California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, where Spaniards, then "criollos" (Tejanos, Californios, etc.) followed by Chicanos (Mexican Americans) and later Mexican immigrants, kept the Spanish language alive before, during and after the American appropriation of those territories following the Mexican–American War. Spanish continues to be used by millions of citizens and immigrants to the United States from Spanish-speaking countries of the Americas (for example, many Cubans arrived in Miami, Florida, beginning with the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and followed by other Latin American groups; the local majority is now Spanish-speaking). Spanish is now treated as the country's "second language," and over 5 percent of the U.S. population are Spanish-speaking, but most Latino/Hispanic Americans are bilingual or also regularly speak English.
Spanish Sign Language
From a strictly linguistic point of view, Spanish Sign Language refers to a sign language variety employed in an extensive central-interior area of the Iberian Peninsula, having Madrid as a cultural and linguistic epicenter, with other varieties used in regions such as Asturias, Aragon, Murcia, parts of western Andalusia and near the Province of Burgos.
Culture of Spain
"Catalan", with its "Valencian" dialect is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of The Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community, and in the city of Alghero in the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken, although with no official recognition, in the autonomous communities of Aragon (in La Franja) and Murcia (in Carche) in Spain, and in the Roussillon region of southern France, which is more or less equivalent to the "département" of the Pyrénées-Orientales.
Culture of Spain
"Spanish" () or "Castilian" (Castellano) is a Romance language originally from the central area of Spain. From there, its use gradually spread inside the Kingdom of Castile, where it evolved and eventually became the principal language of the government and trade. It was later taken to Africa, the Americas, and the Philippines when they were brought under Spanish colonial rule between the 15th and 19th centuries.
Principality of Catalonia
Today, Catalan is one of the three official languages of autonomous community of Catalonia, as stated in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy; the other two are Spanish, and Occitan in its Aranese variety. Catalan has no official recognition in "Northern Catalonia". Catalan has official status alongside Spanish in the Balearic Islands and in the Land of Valencia (where it is called "Valencian"), as well as Algherese Catalan alongside Italian in the city of Alghero and in Andorra as the sole official language.
Names given to the Spanish language
Monolingual regions outside of Castile include mainly Andalusia but also other regions where the regional languages are not developed enough to be widely spoken by the majority of the population, such as Extremadura, Cantabria or Aragon. There, "español" may be used, as in Castile, to stress the national nature of the language but with a slightly different nuance: they are accepting another region's historical language as their own.
Salvadoran Spanish
Salvadoran Spanish is geographically defined as the form of Spanish spoken in the country of El Salvador. The Spanish dialect in El Salvador shares many similarities to that of its neighbors in the region, but it has its stark differences in pronunciation and usage. Salvadoran Spanish is the only Spanish dialect in North America to be usually called "castellano", instead of "español". El Salvador, like most of Central America, uses voseo Spanish as its written and spoken form, similar to that of Argentina. Vos is used, but many Salvadorans understand tuteo. Vos can be heard in television programs and can be seen in written form in publications. "Usted" is used as a show of respect, when someone is speaking to an elderly person.
Names given to the Spanish language
Spaniards tend to call the language "español" (Spanish) to contrast it to languages of other states, such as in a list with French ("francés"), German ("alemán"), etc. "Castellano" (Castilian) by contrast, is more often used when contrasting the language with other regional languages of Spain: official languages like Basque, Catalan and Galician or unofficial ones like Aragonese, Asturian, Extremaduran and Leonese. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term "el castellano" to define the official language of the whole State, opposed to "las demás lenguas españolas" ("the other Spanish languages"). Article 3 reads in part:
National and regional identity in Spain
Among the Spanish population as a whole, Castilian Spanish is spoken by 98.9%, and 17.5% speak Catalan, 6.2% speak Galician, 5.8% speak Valencian and 3,0% speak Basque.
Language policies of Francoist Spain
Language politics in Francoist Spain centered on attempts in Spain under Franco to increase the dominance of the Spanish language (Castilian) over the other languages of Spain. The regime of Francisco Franco had Spanish nationalism as one of its bases. Under his dictatorship, the Spanish language (known in some parts of Spain as "castellano", i.e., "Castilian") was declared Spain's only official language.
List of countries where Spanish is an official language
Spanish has no official recognition in the Central American nation of Belize, a Commonwealth realm where English is the official national language. However, the country shares land borders with Spanish-speaking Mexico and Guatemala and, per the 2010 Belizean census, Spanish is spoken by a sizable portion of the population; 30% claim Spanish as a mother tongue and about 50% of the population has working knowledge of the language.
Iberian Romance languages
Originating in Iberia, the most widely spoken Iberian Romance languages are Castilian (Spanish), Portuguese, Catalan and Galician. These languages also have their own regional and local dialects. Based on mutual intelligibility, Dalby counts seven "outer" languages, or language groups: Galician-Portuguese, Spanish, Astur-Leonese, "Wider"-Aragonese, "Wider"-Catalan, Provençal+Lengadocian, and "Wider"-Gascon.
Spanish language
In Western Sahara, formerly Spanish Sahara, Spanish was officially spoken during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Today, Spanish in this disputed territory is maintained by populations of Sahrawi nomads numbering about 500,000 people, and is de facto official alongside Arabic in the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, although this entity receives limited international recognition.
Romance languages
French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Romanian are also official languages of the European Union. Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, and Catalan are the official languages of the Latin Union; and French and Spanish are two of the six official languages of the United Nations. Outside Europe, French, Portuguese and Spanish are spoken and enjoy official status in various countries that emerged from the respective colonial empires. Spanish is an official language in nine countries of South America, home to about half that continent's population; in six countries of Central America (all except Belize); and in Mexico. In the Caribbean, it is official in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. In all these countries, Latin American Spanish is the vernacular language of the majority of the population, giving Spanish the most native speakers of any Romance language. In Africa it is an official language of Equatorial Guinea.
Culture of Spain
Basque is the only non-Indo-European language in all of western Europe. The origins of this language are unknown. It is thought that the language was spoken before the Romans came to the Iberian Peninsula.
Rock music in Spain
Spanish rock is the term used for the variety of rock music produced in Spain. Most bands formed in Spain have sung in Spanish, but many others have sung in English, French and Italian, in addition to the other languages spoken in Spain, such as Catalan, Galician, Basque, Aragonese and Asturian.
Valencian
Valencian ( or ; endonym: "valencià", "llengua valenciana", or "idioma valencià") is the traditional, historical and cultural linguistic variety of Catalan spoken in the Valencian Community, Spain. It's officially recognised as a language in the Statute of Autonomy of the Valencian Community signed in 1982 and approved by the Valencian regional government and the Spanish government. In the Valencian Community, Valencian is the traditional language and is co-official with Spanish. A standardized form exists, based on the Southern Valencian dialect.
Barcelona
Spanish is the most spoken language in Barcelona (according to the linguistic census held by the Government of Catalonia in 2013) and it is understood almost universally. After Spanish, the Catalan language is the second most spoken one in the city, and it is understood by 95% of the population, while 72.3% can speak it, 79% can read it, and 53% can write it, thanks to the language immersion educational system.
Valencian Community
Spanish (Castilian or "castellano") has official status in all of Spain, including the Valencian Community. Aside from it, the Statute of Autonomy recognizes Valencian as the language proper to the Valencian people ("llengua pròpia"), and commends its protection and regulation to the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua (AVL) under the Generalitat Valenciana. Valencian is also official in the autonomous communities of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, where it is called Catalan.
Spanish language
Spanish is by far the most common second language in the US, with over 50 million total speakers if non-native or second-language speakers are included. While English is the de facto national language of the country, Spanish is often used in public services and notices at the federal and state levels. Spanish is also used in administration in the state of New Mexico. The language also has a strong influence in major metropolitan areas such as those of Los Angeles, Miami, San Antonio, New York, San Francisco, Dallas, and Phoenix; as well as more recently, Chicago, Las Vegas, Boston, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Nashville, Orlando, Tampa, Raleigh and Baltimore-Washington, D.C. due to 20th- and 21st-century immigration.
Castilian Spanish
However, some traits of the Spanish spoken in Spain are exclusive to that country, and for this reason, courses of Spanish as a second language often neglect them, preferring Mexican Spanish in the United States and Canada whilst European Spanish is taught in Europe. Spanish grammar and to a lesser extent pronunciation can vary sometimes between variants.
Culture of Uruguay
Spanish is the official language of Uruguay, and is spoken by almost all of the population. The Spanish spoken in Uruguay is more commonly known as Rioplatense Spanish, the same Spanish that is spoken in parts of Argentina. Rioplatense Spanish is known by many in South America as Spanish spoken with an Italian accent, due to Italian effects on modern day Uruguayan society. Minority languages in Uruguay include Italian, French, German, Hebrew, and other European languages. English is also considered a minority language, though it is more used in the business world. Other languages include Portuguese and "Portuñol", a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese (pidgin language). Both are present in northern regions near the Brazilian border.
Spanish language
Spanish is the third most spoken language by total number of speakers (after Mandarin and English). Internet usage statistics for 2007 also show Spanish as the third most commonly used language on the Internet, after English and Mandarin.
Spaniards
Spanish was exported to the Americas due to over three centuries of Spanish colonial rule starting with the arrival of Christopher Columbus to Santo Domingo in 1492. Spanish is spoken natively by over 400 million people and spans across most countries of the Americas; from the Southwestern United States in North America down to Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost region of South America in Chile and Argentina. A variety of the language, known as Judaeo-Spanish or Ladino (or Haketia in Morocco), is still spoken by descendants of Sephardim (Spanish and Portuguese Jews) who fled Spain following a decree of expulsion of practising Jews in 1492. Also, a Spanish creole language known as Chabacano, which developed by the mixing of Spanish and native Tagalog and Cebuano languages during Spain's rule of the country through Mexico from 1565 to 1898, is spoken in the Philippines (by roughly 1 million people).
Southern Europe
The most widely spoken family of languages in Southern Europe are the Romance languages, the heirs of Latin, which have spread from the Italian peninsula, and are emblematic of Southwestern Europe. "(See the Latin Arch.)"
By far the most common Romance languages in Southern Europe are Italian (spoken by over 50 million people in Italy, Malta, San Marino, and the Vatican) and Spanish, which is spoken by over 40 million people in Spain, Andorra and Gibraltar. Other common Romance languages include Portuguese (spoken in Portugal and Andorra), Catalan (spoken in eastern Spain, Andorra and Alghero in Italy), Galician (spoken in northwestern Spain) and Occitan, which is spoken in the Val d'Aran in Catalonia, in the Occitan Valleys in Italy and in southern France.
Catalonia
Originating in the historic territory of Catalonia, Catalan has enjoyed special status since the approval of the Statute of Autonomy of 1979 which declares it to be "Catalonia's own language", a term which signifies a language given special legal status within a Spanish territory, or which is historically spoken within a given region. The other languages with official status are Spanish, which has official status throughout Spain, and Aranese Occitan, which enjoys co-official status with Catalan and Spanish in the Val d'Aran.
Andalusia
Andalusian Spanish is one of the most widely spoken forms of Spanish in Spain, and because of emigration patterns was very influential on Latin American Spanish. Rather than a single dialect, it is really a range of dialects sharing some common features; among these is the retention of more Arabic words than elsewhere in Spain, as well as some phonological differences compared with Standard Spanish. The isoglosses that mark the borders of Andalusian Spanish overlap to form a network of divergent boundaries, so there is no clear border for the linguistic region.
Bilingual education
In addition to Castilian Spanish being the primary official language of Spain, the kingdom also has several co-official regional languages which enjoy equal and unbiased constitutional protection and promotion: Catalan/Valencian (in Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands), Galician (in Galicia), Basque (in the Basque Country and the northern zone of Navarre) and Aranese (in Val d'Aran, Catalonia).
History of the Spanish language
Spanish is widely spoken in Western Sahara, which was a protectorate/colony of Spain from the 1880s to the 1970s.
Asturian language
Asturian (; "asturianu" ,Art. 1 de la Ley 1/1998, de 23 de marzo, de uso y promoción del bable/asturiano/Law 1/93, of March 23, on the Use and Promotion of the Asturian Language formerly also known as "bable" ) is a West Iberian Romance language spoken in Principality of Asturias, Spain. Asturian is part of a wider linguistic group, the Astur-Leonese languages. The number of speakers is estimated at 100,000 (native) and 450,000 (second language). There are three main variants in the Astur-Leonese language family: Western, Central, and Eastern. For historical and demographic reasons, the standard is based on Central Asturian. Asturian has a distinct grammar, dictionary, and orthography. Regulated by the Academy of the Asturian Language, although it is not an official language of Spain it is protected under the Statute of Autonomy and is an elective language in schools.
Mexico
Spanish is the "de facto" national language spoken by the vast majority of the population, making Mexico the world's most populous Hispanophone country. Mexican Spanish is the set of varieties of the language spoken in the country, which differs from one region to another phonetically, syntactically and lexically. In general, Mexican Spanish does not make any phonetic distinction among the letters "s" and "z", as well as "c" when preceding the vowels "e" and "i", as opposed to Peninsular Spanish. The letters "b" and "v" have the same pronunciation as well. Furthermore, the usage of "vos", the second person singular pronoun, found in several Latin American varieties, is replaced by "tú"; whereas "vosotros", the second person plural pronoun, fell out of use and was effectively replaced by "ustedes". In written form, the Spanish Royal Academy serves as the primary guideline for spelling, except for words of Amerindian origin that retain their original phonology such as "cenzontle" instead of "sinzontle" and "México" not "Méjico". Words of foreign origin also maintain their original spelling such as whisky and film, as opposed to "güisqui" and "filme" as the Royal Academy suggests. The letter "x" is distinctly used in Mexican Spanish, which may be pronounced as (as in "oxígeno" or "taxi"), as particularly in Amerindian words (e.g. "mixiote", "Xola" and "uxmal") and as the voiceless velar fricative (such as "Texas" and "Oaxaca").
Languages of Spain
Languages that are now chiefly spoken outside Spain but which have roots in Spain are:There are also variants of these languages proper to Spain, either dialect, cants or pidgins:
Autonomous communities of Spain
Article 3 of the constitution ends up declaring that the "richness of the distinct linguistic modalities of Spain represents a patrimony which will be the object of special respect and protection". Spanish remains the only official language of the state; other languages are only co-official with Spanish in the communities that have so regulated. In addition, knowledge of the Spanish language was declared a right and an obligation of all Spaniards.
Hispanic and Latino Americans
The Spanish dialects spoken in the United States differ depending on the country of origin of the person or the person's family heritage. However, generally, Spanish spoken in the Southwest is Mexican Spanish (or Chicano Spanish). An old, colonial variety of Spanish is spoken by descendants of the early Spanish colonists in New Mexico and Colorado, which is New Mexican Spanish. One of the major distinctions of New Mexican Spanish is its heavy use of colonial vocabulary and verb tenses that make New Mexican Spanish uniquely American amongst Spanish dialects. The Spanish spoken in Florida and in the Northeast is Caribbean Spanish and is heavily influenced by the Spanish of Cuba Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Canarian Spanish is the historic Spanish dialect spoken by the descendants of the earliest Spanish colonists beginning in the 18th century in Louisiana. Spanish spoken elsewhere throughout the country varies, although is generally Mexican Spanish.
Peninsular Spanish
Peninsular Spanish (), also known as Spanish of Spain () European Spanish () and Iberian Spanish (), sometimes inaccurately referred to as Castilian Spanish () refers to the varieties of the Spanish language spoken in the Iberian Peninsula, as opposed to the Spanish spoken in the Americas and in the Canary Islands. The related term Castilian Spanish is often applied to formal varieties of Spanish as spoken in Spain. According to folk tradition, the "purest" form of Peninsular Spanish is spoken in the Castilian province of Valladolid, although the concept of "pure" language has been questioned by modern linguists.
Languages in censuses
In Catalonia, Aranese ("aranés"), a local variety of the Occitan language, has been declared co-official along with Catalan and Spanish since 2006. It is spoken only in the "comarca" of "Val d'Aran" by roughly 6,700 people. Other Romance minority languages, though not official, have special recognition, such as the Astur-Leonese group (Asturian, "asturianu"; also called ""bable"", in Asturias and Leonese, "llionés", in Castile and León) and Aragonese ("aragonés") in Aragon.
Spanish grammar
Spanish grammar is the grammar of the Spanish language ("español"), which is a Romance language that originated in north central Spain and is spoken today throughout Spain, some twenty countries in the Americas, and Equatorial Guinea in Africa.
Spanish language
Spanish is also spoken by small communities in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany. Spanish is an official language of the European Union. In Switzerland, which had a massive influx of Spanish migrants in the 20th century, Spanish is the native language of 2.2% of the population.
Equatoguinean Spanish
Equatoguinean Spanish () is the variety of Spanish spoken in Equatorial Guinea. This is the only Spanish variety that holds national official status in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is regulated by the Equatoguinean Academy of the Spanish Language and is spoken by about 90% of the population, estimated at 1,170,308 for the year 2010 (though population figures for this country are highly dubious), all of them second-language speakers.
Demographics of Europe
Languages that are not official state languages are protected in many European countries by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. These can include languages spoken by relatively many people, such as Catalan and Basque in Spain, as well as languages spoken by relatively few such as Welsh, Cornish and Scottish Gaelic in the United Kingdom.
Dominican Spanish
Dominican Spanish, a subset of Caribbean Spanish, is based on the Andalusian and Canarian Spanish dialects of southern Spain, and has borrowed vocabulary from Taíno and other Arawakan languages, from West African languages, and from English. Speakers of Dominican Spanish may also use conservative words that in the upper-class speech of Spain would be considered archaisms. The variety spoken in the Cibao region is a mixture of two dialects: that of the 16th- and 17th-century Portuguese colonists in the Cibao valley, and that of the 18th-century Canarian settlers. According to the linguist John Lipski, the greatest extra-Hispanic influences on Dominican Spanish have been Haitian Creole and West African languages.
Mexican Spanish
Mexican Spanish () is a set of varieties of the Spanish language as spoken in Mexico and in some parts of the United States and Canada.
Spanish Sign Language
Spanish Sign Language () is a sign language used mainly by deaf people in Spain and the people who live with them. Although there are not many reliable statistics, it is estimated that there are over 100,000 speakers, 20-30% of whom use it as a second language.
List of countries where Spanish is an official language
Judaeo-Spanish (sometimes known as Ladino or other names) is a language derived from medieval Spanish; it is still spoken by some Sephardi Jews, mainly in Israel.
Spain
In the early modern period, Spain became the world's first global empire and the most powerful country in the world, leaving a large cultural and linguistic legacy that includes +570 million Hispanophones, making Spanish the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese. During the Golden Age there were also many advancements in the arts, with world-famous painters such as Diego Velázquez.
The most famous Spanish literary work, "Don Quixote", was also published during the Golden Age. Spain hosts the world's third-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
National language
Andorra's national language is Catalan; moreover Catalan is an official language in several territories in Spain (Catalonia, Valencian Community, Balearic Islands), and is spoken (without official recognition or status) in territories in Spain (the Catalan-Aragonese borderlands known as La Franja and the Murcian municipality of El Carche), France (Pyrénées Orientales) and in Italy (Alghero).
Spanish dialects and varieties
Judaeo-Spanish, a "Jewish language", encompasses a number of linguistic varieties based mostly on 15th-century Spanish; it is still spoken in a few small communities, mainly in Israel. As Jews have migrated since their expulsion from Iberia, the language has picked up several loan words from other languages and developed unique forms of spelling, grammar, and syntax. It can be considered either a very divergent dialect of Spanish, or a separate language.
Spanish language
According to 2006 census data, 44.3 million people of the U.S. population were Hispanic or Hispanic American by origin; 38.3 million people, 13 percent of the population over five years old speak Spanish at home. The Spanish language has a long history of presence in the United States due to early Spanish and, later, Mexican administration over territories now forming the southwestern states, also Louisiana ruled by Spain from 1762 to 1802, as well as Florida, which was Spanish territory until 1821.
Culture of Spain
Today, it is one of the official languages of Spain, most Latin American countries and Equatorial Guinea. In total, 21 nations use Spanish as their primary language. Spanish is also one of six official languages of the United Nations.
Spanish language
Spanish is the primary language of 20 countries worldwide. It is estimated that the combined total number of Spanish speakers is between 470 and 500 million, making it the second most widely spoken language in terms of native speakers.
National and regional identity in Spain
Valencian (a southern dialect of the Catalan language) is spoken alongside Spanish in around two thirds of the territory of the Valencian Community and in most of the more densely populated coastal areas. It is not commonly used in some inland areas and in the far south, and its use has declined in the two main cities of Alicante and Valencia. According to a 2010 survey 48% of respondents said they speak Valencian "perfectly" or "quite well", and for 32% it was the language most commonly used at home.
Names given to the Spanish language
Conversely, some nationalist circles prefer the term "español" because they perceive their ethnic community to be distinct from that of Spain and therefore do not object to the language of Spain being called Spanish. In Basque-speaking regions, whose language is not of Romance origin (Basque is considered by many scholars to be a language isolate), some Basque speakers also use the term "erdara" or "erdera" ("foreign") specifically for Spanish, since for them, it is the prevalent foreign language, just as in the French Basque Country, "French language" is the usual meaning of "erdara"; in fact, "erdara" is another language, different from Basque.
Spaniards
Languages spoken in Spain include Spanish ("castellano" or "español") (74%), Catalan ("català", called "valencià" in the Valencian Community) (17%), Galician ("galego") (7%), and Basque ("euskara") (2%). Other languages are Asturian ("asturianu"), Aranese Gascon ("aranés"), Aragonese ("aragonés"), and Leonese, each with their own various dialects. Spanish is the official state language, although the other languages are co-official in a number of autonomous communities.
Spanish language
In Africa, Spanish is official (along with Portuguese and French) in Equatorial Guinea, as well as an official language of the African Union. In Equatorial Guinea, Spanish is the predominant language when native and non-native speakers (around 500,000 people) are counted, while Fang is the most spoken language by number of native speakers.
Language border
For example, Spanish is spoken in most Central American and South American countries, but also in Spain. There are subtle but recognizable differences between the dialects, but there are different dialects even within the country of Spain. In many cultures there are still subtle differences between the terminology (called the register) used when talking to your boss and talking to your mother or talking to your friends. So where are the language borders?
Spanish language in the United States
The United States has forty-one million people aged five or older that speak Spanish at home, making Spanish the second most spoken language of the United States by far. Spanish is the most studied foreign language in United States, with about six million students. With over 50 million native speakers, heritage language speakers and second language speakers, the United States now has the second largest Spanish-speaking population in the world after Mexico, although it is not an official language of the country. About half of all American Spanish speakers also assessed themselves as speaking English "very well" in the 2000 U.S. Census. This percentage increased to 57% in the 2013-2017 American Community Survey. The United States is among the Spanish-speaking countries that has its own Academy of the Spanish Language.
List of countries where Spanish is an official language
Spanish has been spoken in the United States for several centuries in the Southwest and Florida, which were all once part of New Spain. However, today only a tiny minority of Spanish speakers in the US trace their language back to those times; the overwhelming majority of speakers come from recent immigration. Only in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado has Spanish maintained speaking communities uninterruptedly since colonial times. Spanish is the most studied foreign language in United States schools and is spoken as a native tongue by 41 million people, plus an additional 11 million fluent second-language speakers. Though not official, Spanish has a special status for education in the U.S. state of New Mexico. With over 50 million native speakers and second language speakers, the United States now has the second largest Spanish-speaking population in the world after Mexico. Spanish is increasingly used alongside English nationwide in business and politics. In the United States, the language is regulated by the North American Academy of the Spanish Language.