Castilian language
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Spanish () or Castilian () is a
Romance language The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
of the
Indo-European language family The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
that evolved from the
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...
spoken on the
Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...
of
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
. Today, it is a
global language A world language (sometimes called a global language or, rarely, an international language) is a language that is geographically widespread and makes it possible for members of different language communities to communicate. The term may also be use ...
with 483 million native speakers, mainly in the
Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...
and
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
, and about 558 million speakers total, including second-language speakers. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries, as well as one of the six official languages of the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
. Spanish is the world's second-most spoken native language after
Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...
; the world's fourth-most spoken language overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani (
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
-
Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
); and the world's most widely spoken Romance language. The country with the largest population of native speakers is
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
. Spanish is part of the Ibero-Romance language group, in which the language is also known as ''Castilian'' (). The group evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century, and the first systematic written use of the language happened in Toledo, a prominent city of the
Kingdom of Castile The Kingdom of Castile (; : ) was a polity in the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. It traces its origins to the 9th-century County of Castile (, ), as an eastern frontier lordship of the Kingdom of León. During the 10th century, the Ca ...
, in the 13th century. Spanish colonialism in the
early modern period The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...
spurred the introduction of the language to overseas locations, most notably to the Americas. As a Romance language, Spanish is a descendant of Latin. Around 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is Latin in origin, including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek. Alongside English and French, it is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world. Spanish is well represented in the
humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...
and
social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...
s. Spanish is also the third most used language on the internet by number of users after English and Chinese and the second most used language by number of websites after English. Spanish is used as an official language by many international organizations, including the United Nations,
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
,
Organization of American States The Organization of American States (OAS or OEA; ; ; ) is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, the OAS is ...
,
Union of South American Nations The Union of South American Nations (USAN), sometimes also referred to as the South American Union, abbreviated in Spanish as UNASUR and in Portuguese as UNASUL, is an intergovernmental regional organization. It was set up by Hugo Chavez to ...
,
Community of Latin American and Caribbean States The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is a bloc of Latin American and Caribbean states, consisting of 33 countries, and has five official working languages. It is seen as an alternative to the Organization of American Stat ...
,
African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The b ...
, and others.


Name of the language and etymology


Name of the language

In Spain and some other parts of the Spanish-speaking world, Spanish is called not only but also (Castilian), the language from the
Kingdom of Castile The Kingdom of Castile (; : ) was a polity in the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. It traces its origins to the 9th-century County of Castile (, ), as an eastern frontier lordship of the Kingdom of León. During the 10th century, the Ca ...
, contrasting it with other languages spoken in Spain such as Galician,
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
, Asturian, Catalan/Valencian, Aragonese,
Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...
and other minor languages. The
Spanish Constitution of 1978 The Spanish Constitution () is the supreme law of the Kingdom of Spain. It was enacted after its approval in 1978 in a constitutional referendum; it represents the culmination of the Spanish transition to democracy. The current version was a ...
uses the term to define the
official language An official language is defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as, "the language or one of the languages that is accepted by a country's government, is taught in schools, used in the courts of law, etc." Depending on the decree, establishmen ...
of the whole of Spain, in contrast to (). Article III reads as follows: The
Royal Spanish Academy The Royal Spanish Academy (, ; ) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with national language academies in 22 other Hispanophon ...
(), on the other hand, currently uses the term in its publications. However, from 1713 to 1923, it called the language . The (a language guide published by the Royal Spanish Academy) states that, although the Royal Spanish Academy prefers to use the term in its publications when referring to the Spanish language, both terms— and —are regarded as synonymous and equally valid.


Etymology

The term is related to Castile ( or archaically ), the kingdom where the language was originally spoken. The name ''Castile'', in turn, is usually assumed to be derived from ('castle'). In the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
, the language spoken in Castile was generically referred to as and later also as . Later in the period, it gained geographical specification as (, ), , and ultimately simply as (noun). Different etymologies have been suggested for the term (Spanish). According to the Royal Spanish Academy, derives from the
Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...
word and that, in turn, derives from the
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...
* ('of Hispania').
Hispania Hispania was the Ancient Rome, Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two Roman province, provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divide ...
was the Roman name for the entire
Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...
. There are other hypotheses apart from the one suggested by the Royal Spanish Academy. Spanish philologist
Ramón Menéndez Pidal Ramón Menéndez Pidal (; 13 March 1869 – 14 November 1968) was a Spanish philologist and historian."Ramon Menendez Pidal", ''Almanac of Famous People'' (2011) ''Biography in Context'', Gale, Detroit He worked extensively on the history of t ...
suggested that the classic or took the suffix from
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...
, as happened with other words such as (Breton) or (Saxon).


History

Like the other
Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
, the Spanish language evolved from
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...
, which was brought to the
Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...
by the Romans during the
Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of Punic Wars, three wars fought between Ancient Carthage, Carthage and Roman Republic, Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean Basin, Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For ...
, beginning in 210 BC. Several pre-Roman languages (also called
Paleohispanic languages The Paleo-Hispanic or Paleo-Iberian languages are the languages of the Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, excluding languages of foreign colonies, such as Greek in Emporion and Phoenician in Qart Hadast. After the Roman conquest of H ...
)—some distantly related to Latin as
Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
, and some that are not related at all—were previously spoken in the Iberian Peninsula. These languages included
Proto-Basque Proto-Basque (; ; ) is a reconstructed ancient stage of the Basque language. It preceded another reconstructed stage, Common Basque, which is derived by comparing dialects of modern Basque. Common Basque is their reconstructed common ancestor. Pr ...
, Iberian, Lusitanian, Celtiberian and
Gallaecian Gallaecian or Northwestern Hispano-Celtic is an extinct Celtic language of the Hispano-Celtic group. It was spoken by the Gallaeci in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula around the start of the 1st millennium. The region became the Roman p ...
. The first documents to show traces of what is today regarded as the precursor of modern Spanish are from the 9th century. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the
modern era The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500 ...
, the most important influences on the Spanish lexicon came from neighboring
Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
Mozarabic (
Andalusi Romance Andalusi Romance, also called Mozarabic, refers to the varieties of Ibero-Romance that were spoken in Al-Andalus, the parts of the medieval Iberian Peninsula under Islamic control. Romance, or vernacular Late Latin, was the common tongue for th ...
),
Navarro-Aragonese Navarro-Aragonese was a Romance language once spoken in a large part of the Ebro River basin, south of the middle Pyrenees; the dialects of the modern Aragonese language, spoken in a small portion of that territory, can be seen as its last remain ...
, Leonese, Catalan/Valencian, Portuguese, Galician,
Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...
, and later, French and
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
. Spanish also borrowed a considerable number of words from
Andalusi Arabic Andalusi Arabic or Andalusian Arabic () was a variety or varieties of Arabic spoken mainly from the 8th to the 15th century in Al-Andalus, the regions of the Iberian Peninsula under the Muslim rule. Arabic spread gradually over the centuries ...
, as well as smaller amounts from
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
and the Germanic
Gothic language Gothic is an extinct language, extinct East Germanic languages, East Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the ''Codex Argenteus'', a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only Ea ...
through the period of
Visigoth The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied barbarian military group united under the comman ...
rule in Iberia. In addition, many more words were borrowed from
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church. The loanwords were taken from both
Classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a Literary language, literary standard language, standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It formed parallel to Vulgar Latin around 75 BC out of Old Latin ...
and
Renaissance Latin Renaissance Latin is a name given to the distinctive form of Literary Latin style developed during the European Renaissance of the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries, particularly by the Renaissance humanism movement. This style of Latin is reg ...
, the form of Latin in use at that time. According to the theories of
Ramón Menéndez Pidal Ramón Menéndez Pidal (; 13 March 1869 – 14 November 1968) was a Spanish philologist and historian."Ramon Menendez Pidal", ''Almanac of Famous People'' (2011) ''Biography in Context'', Gale, Detroit He worked extensively on the history of t ...
, local
sociolect In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, age group, or other social group. Sociolects involve both passive acquisit ...
s of Vulgar Latin evolved into Spanish, in the north of Iberia, in an area centered in the city of
Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...
, and this dialect was later brought to the city of Toledo, where the written standard of Spanish was first developed, in the 13th century. In this formative stage, Spanish developed a strongly differing variant from its close cousin, Leonese, and, according to some authors, was distinguished by a heavy Basque influence (see
Iberian Romance languages The Iberian Romance, Ibero-Romance or sometimes Iberian languages Iberian languages is also used as a more inclusive term for all languages spoken on the Iberian Peninsula, which in antiquity included the non-Indo-European Iberian language. are ...
). This distinctive dialect spread to southern Spain with the advance of the , and meanwhile gathered a sizable lexical influence from the
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
of
Al-Andalus Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...
, much of it indirectly, through the Romance Mozarabic dialects (some 4,000
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
-derived words, make up around 8% of the language today). The written standard for this new language was developed in the cities of Toledo, in the 13th to 16th centuries, and
Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...
, from the 1570s. The development of the Spanish sound system from that of
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...
exhibits most of the changes that are typical of
Western Romance languages Western Romance languages are one of the two subdivisions of a proposed subdivision of the Romance languages based on the La Spezia–Rimini Line. They include the Ibero-Romance and Gallo-Romance. Gallo-Italic may also be included. The subdivi ...
, including
lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language ...
of intervocalic consonants (thus Latin > Spanish ). The
diphthongization In historical linguistics, vowel breaking, vowel fracture, or diphthongization is the sound change of a monophthong into a diphthong or triphthong. Types Vowel breaking may be unconditioned or conditioned. It may be triggered by the presence of ...
of Latin stressed short and —which occurred in open syllables in French and Italian, but not at all in Catalan or Portuguese—is found in both open and closed syllables in Spanish, as shown in the following table:
Spanish is marked by palatalization of the Latin double consonants (
geminate In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
s) and (thus Latin > Spanish , and Latin > Spanish ). The consonant written or in Latin and pronounced in Classical Latin had probably " fortified" to a bilabial fricative in Vulgar Latin. In early Spanish (but not in Catalan or Portuguese) it merged with the consonant written ''b'' (a bilabial with plosive and fricative allophones). In modern Spanish, there is no difference between the pronunciation of orthographic and . Typical of Spanish (as also of neighboring Gascon extending as far north as the
Gironde estuary The Gironde estuary ( , US usually ; , ; , ) is a navigable estuary (though often referred to as a river) in southwest France and is formed from the meeting of the rivers Dordogne and Garonne just downstream of the centre of Bordeaux. Coverin ...
, and found in a small area of
Calabria Calabria is a Regions of Italy, region in Southern Italy. It is a peninsula bordered by the region Basilicata to the north, the Ionian Sea to the east, the Strait of Messina to the southwest, which separates it from Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian S ...
), attributed by some scholars to a Basque
substratum Substrata, plural of substratum, may refer to: *Earth's substrata, the geologic layering of the Earth *''Hypokeimenon'', sometimes translated as ''substratum'', a concept in metaphysics *Substrata (album), a 1997 ambient music album by Biosphere * ...
was the mutation of Latin initial into whenever it was followed by a vowel that did not diphthongize. The , still preserved in spelling, is now silent in most varieties of the language, although in some Andalusian and Caribbean dialects, it is still aspirated in some words. Because of borrowings from Latin and neighboring Romance languages, there are many -/- doublets in modern Spanish: and (both Spanish for "Ferdinand"), and (both Spanish for "smith"), and (both Spanish for "iron"), and and (both words pertaining to depth in Spanish, though means "bottom", while means "deep"); additionally, ("to make") is
cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...
to the root word of ("to satisfy"), and ("made") is similarly cognate to the root word of ("satisfied"). Compare the examples in the following table:
Some
consonant cluster In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
s of Latin also produced characteristically different results in these languages, as shown in the examples in the following table:
In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish underwent a dramatic change in the pronunciation of its
sibilant consonants Sibilants (from 'hissing') are fricative and affricate consonants of higher amplitude and Fundamental frequency, pitch, made by manner of articulation, directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the con ...
, known in Spanish as the , which resulted in the distinctive velar pronunciation of the letter and—in a large part of Spain—the characteristic
interdental Interdental consonants are produced by placing the tip of the tongue between the upper and lower front teeth. That differs from typical dental consonants, which are articulated with the tongue against the ''back'' of the upper incisors. No langu ...
("th-sound") for the letter (and for before or ). See History of Spanish (Modern development of the Old Spanish sibilants) for details. The , written in
Salamanca Salamanca () is a Municipality of Spain, municipality and city in Spain, capital of the Province of Salamanca, province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is located in the Campo Charro comarca, in the ...
in 1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija, was the first grammar written for a modern European language. According to a popular anecdote, when Nebrija presented it to Queen Isabella I, she asked him what was the use of such a work, and he answered that language is the instrument of empire. In his introduction to the grammar, dated 18 August 1492, Nebrija wrote that "... language was always the companion of empire." From the 16th century onwards, the language was taken to the Spanish-discovered
America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
and the
Spanish East Indies The Spanish East Indies were the colonies of the Spanish Empire in Asia-Pacific, Asia and Oceania from 1565 to 1901, governed through the Captaincy General of the Philippines, captaincy general in Manila for the Monarchy of Spain, Spanish Crown, i ...
via Spanish colonization of America.
Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelist ...
, author of ''
Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...
'', is such a well-known reference in the world that Spanish is often called ("the language of Cervantes"). In the 20th century, Spanish was introduced to
Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. It has an area of . Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post-independence name refers to its location both near the Equ ...
and the
Western Sahara Western Sahara is a territorial dispute, disputed territory in Maghreb, North-western Africa. It has a surface area of . Approximately 30% of the territory () is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 70% is ...
, and to areas of the United States that had not been part of the Spanish Empire, such as
Spanish Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem, or , is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City, north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, Fifth Avenue to the west, and the East and Harlem Rivers to the east ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. For details on borrowed words and other external influences upon Spanish, see Influences on the Spanish language.


Geographical distribution

Spanish is the primary language in 20 countries worldwide. As of 2023, it is estimated that about 486 million people speak Spanish as a
native language A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...
, making it the second most spoken language by number of native speakers. An additional 75 million speak Spanish as a second or
foreign language A foreign language is a language that is not an official language of, nor typically spoken in, a specific country. Native speakers from that country usually need to acquire it through conscious learning, such as through language lessons at schoo ...
, making it the fourth most spoken language in the world overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi with a total number of 538 million speakers. Spanish is also the third most used language on the Internet, after English and Chinese.


Europe

Spanish is the official language of
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
. Upon the emergence of the Castilian Crown as the dominant power in the Iberian Peninsula by the end of the Middle Ages, the Romance vernacular associated with this polity became increasingly used in instances of prestige and influence, and the distinction between "Castilian" and "Spanish" started to become blurred. Hard policies imposing the language's hegemony in an intensely centralising Spanish state were established from the 18th century onward. Other European territories in which it is also widely spoken include
Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...
and
Andorra Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a Sovereignty, sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, Andorra–France border, bordered by France to the north and Spain to A ...
. Spanish is also spoken by immigrant communities in other European countries, such as the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
,
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
,
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
, and
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. Spanish is an official language of the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
.


Americas


Hispanic America

Today, the majority of the Spanish speakers live in
Hispanic America Hispanic America ( or ), historically known as Spanish America () or Castile (historical region), Castilian America (), is the Spanish-speaking countries and territories of the Americas. In all of these countries, Spanish language, Spanish is th ...
. Nationally, Spanish is the official language—either '' de facto'' or ''
de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' (; ; ) describes practices that are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. The phrase is often used in contrast with '' de facto'' ('from fa ...
''—of
Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
,
Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
(co-official with 36 indigenous languages),
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
,
Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
,
Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...
,
Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
(co-official with 63 indigenous languages), Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay (co-official with Guarani language, Guaraní), Peru (co-official with Quechua language, Quechua, Aymara language, Aymara, and "the other indigenous languages"), Puerto Rico (co-official with English), Uruguay, and Venezuela.


United States

Spanish language has a long history in the territory of the current-day United States dating back to the 16th century. In the wake of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848 Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty, hundreds of thousands of Spanish speakers became a minoritized community in the United States. The 20th century saw further massive growth of Spanish speakers in areas where they had been hitherto scarce. According to the 2020 census, over 60 million people of the U.S. population were of Hispanic or
Hispanic America Hispanic America ( or ), historically known as Spanish America () or Castile (historical region), Castilian America (), is the Spanish-speaking countries and territories of the Americas. In all of these countries, Spanish language, Spanish is th ...
n by origin. In turn, 41.8 million people in the United States aged five or older speak Spanish at home, or about 13% of the population. Spanish predominates in the unincorporated territory of Puerto Rico, where it is also an official language along with English. Spanish is by far the most common second language in the country, 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 has a strong influence in major metropolitan areas such as those of Greater Los Angeles area, Los Angeles, Miami metropolitan area, Miami, San Antonio metropolitan area, San Antonio, New York metropolitan area, New York, San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco, Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Dallas, Greater Tucson, Tucson and Phoenix metropolitan area, Phoenix of the Arizona Sun Corridor, as well as more recently, Chicago metropolitan area, Chicago, Las Vegas Valley, Las Vegas, Greater Boston, Boston, Greater Denver, Denver, Greater Houston, Houston, Greater Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Greater Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Greater Cleveland, Cleveland, Greater Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City, Greater Atlanta, Atlanta, Greater Nashville, Nashville, Greater Orlando, Orlando, Greater Tampa, Tampa, Greater Raleigh, Raleigh and Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area, Baltimore-Washington, D.C. due to 20th- and 21st-century immigration.


Rest of the Americas

Although Spanish has no official recognition in the former British overseas territories, British colony of Belize (known until 1973 as British Honduras) where English is the sole official language, according to the 2022 census, 54% of the total population are able to speak the language. Due to its proximity to Spanish-speaking countries and small existing Trinidadian Spanish, native Spanish speaking minority, Trinidad and Tobago has implemented Spanish language teaching into its education system. The Trinidadian and Tobagonian government launched the ''Spanish as a First Foreign Language'' (SAFFL) initiative in March 2005. Spanish has historically had a significant presence on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao (ABC islands (Leeward Antilles), ABC Islands) throughout the centuries and in present times. The majority of the populations of each island (especially Aruba) speaking Spanish at varying although often high degrees of fluency. The local language Papiamento, Papiamentu (Papiamento on Aruba) is heavily influenced by Venezuelan Spanish. In addition to sharing most of its borders with Spanish-speaking countries, the creation of Mercosur in the early 1990s induced a favorable situation for the promotion of Spanish language teaching in Brazil. In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President of Brazil, President, making it mandatory for schools to offer Spanish as an alternative foreign language course in both public and private secondary schools in Brazil. In September 2016 this law was revoked by Michel Temer after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff. In many border towns and villages along Paraguay and Uruguay, a mixed language known as Riverense Portuñol, Portuñol is spoken.


Africa


Sub-Saharan Africa

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. It has an area of . Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post-independence name refers to its location both near the Equ ...
is the only Spanish-speaking country located entirely in Africa, with the language introduced during the Spanish Guinea, Spanish colonial period. Enshrined in the constitution as an official language (alongside French and Portuguese), Spanish features prominently in the Equatoguinean education system and is the primary language used in government and business. Whereas it is not the mother tongue of virtually any of its speakers, the vast majority of the population is proficient in Spanish. The Instituto Cervantes estimates that 87.7% of the population is fluent in Spanish. The proportion of proficient Spanish speakers in Equatorial Guinea exceeds the proportion of proficient speakers in other West and Central African nations of their respective colonial languages. Spanish is spoken by very small communities in Angola due to Cuban influence from the Cold War and in South Sudan among South Sudanese natives that relocated to Cuba during the Sudanese wars and returned for their country's independence.


North Africa and Macaronesia

Spanish is also spoken in the integral territories of Spain in Africa, namely the cities of Ceuta and Melilla and the Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean some off the northwest of the African mainland. The Canarian Spanish, Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands traces its origins back to the Conquest of the Canary Islands, Castilian conquest in the 15th century, and, in addition to a resemblance to Western Andalusian speech patterns, it also features strong influence from the Spanish varieties spoken in the Americas, which in turn have also been influenced historically by Canarian Spanish. The Spanish spoken in North Africa by native bilingual speakers of Arabic or Berber who also speak Spanish as a second language features characteristics involving the variability of the vowel system. While far from its heyday during the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, the Spanish language has some presence in northern Morocco, stemming for example from the availability of certain Spanish-language media. According to a 2012 survey by Morocco's Royal Institute for Strategic Studies (IRES), penetration of Spanish in Morocco reaches 4.6% of the population. Many northern Moroccans have rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, with Spanish being particularly significant in areas adjacent to Ceuta and Melilla. Spanish also has a presence in the education system of the country (through either selected education centers implementing Spain's education system, primarily located in the North, or the availability of Spanish as foreign language subject in secondary education). In
Western Sahara Western Sahara is a territorial dispute, disputed territory in Maghreb, North-western Africa. It has a surface area of . Approximately 30% of the territory () is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 70% is ...
, formerly Spanish Sahara, a primarily Hassaniya Arabic-speaking territory, Spanish was officially spoken as the language of the colonial administration during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Today, Spanish is present in the partially-recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as its secondary official language, and in the Sahrawi refugee camps, Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf (Algeria), where the Spanish language is still taught as a second language, largely by Cuban educators. Spanish is also an official language of the
African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The b ...
.


Asia

Spanish was an official language of the Philippines from the beginning of Spanish administration in 1565 to a constitutional change in 1973. During History of the Philippines (1521–1898), Spanish colonization, it was the language of government, trade, and education, and was spoken as a first language by Spaniards and educated Filipinos (''Ilustrados''). Despite a public education system set up by the colonial government, by the end of Spanish rule in 1898, only about 10% of the population had knowledge of Spanish, mostly those of Spanish descent or elite standing. Spanish continued to be official and used in Philippine literature and press during the early years of Insular Government of the Philippine Islands, American administration after the Spanish–American War but was eventually replaced by English as the primary language of administration and education by the 1920s. Nevertheless, despite a significant decrease in influence and speakers, Spanish remained an official language of the Philippines upon independence in 1946, alongside English and Filipino language, Filipino, a standardized version of Tagalog language, Tagalog. Spanish was briefly removed from official status in 1973 but reimplemented under the administration of Ferdinand Marcos two months later. It remained an official language until the ratification of the present constitution in 1987, in which it was re-designated as a voluntary and optional auxiliary language. Additionally, the constitution, in its Article XIV, stipulates that Government of the Philippines, the government shall provide the people of the Philippines with a Spanish-language translation of the country's constitution. In recent years changing attitudes among non-Spanish speaking Filipinos have helped spur a revival of the language, and starting in 2009 Spanish was reintroduced as part of the basic education curriculum in a number of public high schools, becoming the largest foreign language program offered by the public school system, with over 7,000 students studying the language in the 2021–2022 school year alone. The business process outsourcing in the Philippines, local business process outsourcing industry has also helped boost the language's economic prospects. Today, while the actual number of proficient Spanish speakers is around 400,000, or under 0.5% of the population, a new generation of Spanish speakers in the Philippines has likewise emerged, though speaker estimates vary widely. Aside from standard Spanish, a Spanish-based creole language called Chavacano developed in the southern Philippines. However, it is not mutually intelligible with Spanish. The number of Chavacano-speakers was estimated at 1.2 million in 1996. The local languages of the Philippines also retain significant Spanish influence, with many words derived from Mexican Spanish, owing to the administration of the islands by Spain through New Spain until 1821, until direct governance from Madrid afterwards to 1898.


Oceania

Spanish is the official and most spoken language on Easter Island, which is geographically part of Polynesia in Oceania and politically part of
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
. However, Easter Island's traditional language is Rapa Nui language, Rapa Nui, an Polynesian languages, Eastern Polynesian language. As a legacy of comprising the former
Spanish East Indies The Spanish East Indies were the colonies of the Spanish Empire in Asia-Pacific, Asia and Oceania from 1565 to 1901, governed through the Captaincy General of the Philippines, captaincy general in Manila for the Monarchy of Spain, Spanish Crown, i ...
, Spanish loan words are present in the local languages of Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia, Micronesia. In addition, in Australia and New Zealand, there are native Spanish communities, resulting from emigration from Spanish-speaking countries (mainly from the Southern Cone).


Spanish speakers by country

20 countries and one United States territory speak Spanish officially, and the language has a significant unofficial presence in the rest of the United States along with Andorra, Belize and the territory of Gibraltar. }.
, colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , , , - style="background:#fff;" , China , , colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , , (53,898 students) , - style="background:#fff;" , New Zealand , , colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , , (36,373 students) , - style="background:#fff;" , Slovenia , , , (2% of 1,759,701Eurobarometr 2012
(page TS2): Population older than 15. (age scale used for the Eurobarometer survey)
)
, (3% of 1,759,701) , - style="background:#fff;" , India , , colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , , (46,249 students) , - style="background:#fff;" , Guam , , colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , , , - style="background:#fff;" ,
Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...
, , (77.3%) , , , - style="background:#fff;" , Lithuania , , , , (1% of 2,829,740) , - style="background:#fff;" , Turkey , , colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" , , , - style="background:#fff;" , Egypt , , , , , - style="background:#fff;" , US Virgin Islands , , , , , - style="background:#fff;" , Latvia , , , , (1% of 1,447,866) , - style="background:#fff;" , Cyprus , , , , 2% of 660,400 , - style="background:#fff;" , Estonia , , , , (1% of 945,733) , - style="background:#fff;" , Jamaica , , , , , - style="background:#fff;" , Namibia , , , , , - style="background:#fff;" , Malta , , , , (1% of 335,476) , - style="background:#efff;" , class=sortbottom , Total , (total world population) , (%)According to the CIA Factbook, Spanish is the second most spoken language at 6%, and the fourth most spoken language overall at 6.9%. , (%) , (%)www.ethnologue.com
Spanish is the fourth most spoken language with 558.5 million speakers.


Grammar

Most of the grammatical and Linguistic typology, typological features of Spanish are shared with the other
Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
. Spanish is a fusional language. The Spanish nouns, noun and Spanish adjectives, adjective systems exhibit two Grammatical gender, genders and two Grammatical number, numbers. In addition, articles and some Spanish pronouns, pronouns and Spanish determiners, determiners have a neuter gender in their singular form. There are about fifty Grammatical conjugation, conjugated forms per verb, with 3 tenses: past, present, future; 2 Grammatical aspect, aspects for past: Perfective aspect, perfective, Imperfective aspect, imperfective; 4 Grammatical mood, moods: indicative, subjunctive, conditional, imperative; 3 persons: first, second, third; 2 numbers: singular, plural; 3 verboid forms: infinitive, gerund, and past participle. The indicative mood is the Markedness, unmarked one, while the subjunctive mood Subjunctive mood in Spanish, expresses uncertainty or indetermination, and is commonly paired with the conditional, which is a mood used to express "would" (as in, "I would eat if I had food"); the imperative is a mood to express a command, commonly a one word phrase – "¡Di!" ("Talk!"). Verbs express T–V distinction by using different persons for formal and informal addresses. (For a detailed overview of verbs, see Spanish verbs and Spanish irregular verbs.) Spanish syntax is considered Branching (linguistics), right-branching, meaning that subordinate or Grammatical modifier, modifying Constituent (linguistics), constituents tend to be placed after head words. The language uses Preposition and postposition, prepositions (rather than postpositions or inflection of nouns for Grammatical case, case), and usually—though not always—places adjectives after nouns, as do most other Romance languages. Spanish is classified as a subject–verb–object language; however, as in most Romance languages, constituent order is highly variable and governed mainly by topicalization and Focus (linguistics), focus. It is a "Pro-drop language, pro-drop", or "Null-subject language, null-subject" language—that is, it allows the deletion of subject pronouns when they are Pragmatics, pragmatically unnecessary. Spanish is described as a "Verb framing, verb-framed" language, meaning that the ''direction'' of motion is expressed in the verb while the ''mode'' of locomotion is expressed adverbially (e.g. ''subir corriendo'' or ''salir volando''; the respective English equivalents of these examples—'to run up' and 'to fly out'—show that English is, by contrast, "satellite-framed", with mode of locomotion expressed in the verb and direction in an adverbial modifier).


Phonology

The Spanish phonological system evolved from that of
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...
. Its development exhibits some traits in common with other
Western Romance languages Western Romance languages are one of the two subdivisions of a proposed subdivision of the Romance languages based on the La Spezia–Rimini Line. They include the Ibero-Romance and Gallo-Romance. Gallo-Italic may also be included. The subdivi ...
, others with the neighboring Hispanic varieties—especially Leonese dialect, Leonese and Aragonese—as well as other features unique to Spanish. Spanish is alone among its immediate neighbors in having undergone frequent aspiration and eventual loss of the Latin initial sound (e.g. Cast. vs. Leon. and Arag. ). The Latin initial consonant sequences , , and in Spanish typically merge as (originally pronounced ), while in Aragonese they are preserved in most dialects, and in Leonese they present a variety of outcomes, including , , and . Where Latin had before a vowel (e.g. ) or the ending , (e.g. ), Old Spanish produced , that in Modern Spanish became the velar fricative (, ), whereas neighboring languages have the palatal lateral (e.g. Portuguese , ; Catalan , ).


Segmental phonology

The Spanish Phoneme, phonemic inventory consists of five vowel phonemes (, , , , ) and 17 to 19 consonant phonemes (the exact number depending on the dialect). The main Allophone, allophonic variation among vowels is the reduction of the high vowels and to glides— and respectively—when unstressed and adjacent to another vowel. Some instances of the mid vowels and , determined lexically, alternate with the diphthongs and respectively when stressed, in a process that is better described as Morphophonology, morphophonemic rather than phonological, as it is not predictable from phonology alone. The Spanish consonant system is characterized by (1) three nasal stop, nasal phonemes, and one or two (depending on the dialect) lateral consonant, lateral phoneme(s), which in syllable-final position Archiphonemic, lose their contrast and are subject to Assimilation (linguistics), assimilation to a following consonant; (2) three Voicelessness, voiceless Plosive, stops and the Affricate consonant, affricate ; (3) three or four (depending on the dialect) Voicelessness, voiceless Fricative consonant, fricatives; (4) a set of voiced obstruents—, , , and sometimes —which alternate between Approximant consonant, approximant and plosive allophones depending on the environment; and (5) a phonemic distinction between the "Flap consonant, tapped" and "Trill consonant, trilled" ''r''-sounds (single and double in orthography). In the following table of consonant phonemes, is marked with an asterisk (*) to indicate that it is preserved only in some dialects. In most dialects it has been merged with in the merger called . Similarly, is also marked with an asterisk to indicate that most dialects do not distinguish it from (see ), although this is not a true merger but an outcome of different evolution of sibilants in southern Spain. The phoneme is in parentheses () to indicate that it appears only in loanwords. Each of the voiced obstruent phonemes , , , and appears to the right of a ''pair'' of voiceless phonemes, to indicate that, while the ''voiceless'' phonemes maintain a phonemic contrast between plosive (or affricate) and fricative, the ''voiced'' ones alternate Allophone, allophonically (i.e. without phonemic contrast) between plosive and approximant pronunciations.


Prosody

Spanish is classified by its Isochrony, rhythm as a isochrony#syllable timing, syllable-timed language: each syllable has approximately the same duration regardless of stress. Spanish intonation (linguistics), intonation varies significantly according to dialect but generally conforms to a pattern of falling tone for declarative sentences and wh-questions (who, what, why, etc.) and rising tone for Yes–no question, yes/no questions. There are no syntactic markers to distinguish between questions and statements and thus, the recognition of declarative or interrogative depends entirely on intonation. Stress most often occurs on any of the last three syllables of a word, with some rare exceptions at the fourth-to-last or earlier syllables. Stress tends to occur as follows: * in words that end with a monophthong, on the penultimate syllable * when the word ends in a diphthong, on the final syllable. * in words that end with a consonant, on the last syllable, with the exception of two grammatical endings: , for third-person-plural of verbs, and , for plural of nouns and adjectives or for second-person-singular of verbs. However, even though a significant number of nouns and adjectives ending with are also stressed on the penult (, , ), the great majority of nouns and adjectives ending with are stressed on their last syllable (, , , ). * Preantepenultimate stress (stress on the fourth-to-last syllable) occurs rarely, only on verbs with clitic pronouns attached (e.g. 'saving them for him/her/them/you'). In addition to the many exceptions to these tendencies, there are numerous minimal pairs that contrast solely on stress such as ('sheet') and ('savannah'); ('boundary'), ('he/she limits') and ('I limited'); ('liquid'), ('I sell off') and ('he/she sold off'). The orthographic system unambiguously reflects where the stress occurs: in the absence of an accent mark, the stress falls on the last syllable unless the last letter is , , or a vowel, in which cases the stress falls on the next-to-last (penultimate) syllable. Exceptions to those rules are indicated by an acute accent mark over the vowel of the stressed syllable. (See Spanish orthography.)


Speaker population

Spanish is the official, or national language in Hispanic America, 18 countries and one territory in the Americas,
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
, and
Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. It has an area of . Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post-independence name refers to its location both near the Equ ...
. With a population of over 410 million, Spanish language in the Americas, Hispanophone America accounts for the vast majority of Spanish speakers, of which
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
is the most populous Spanish-speaking country. In the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
, Spanish is the First language, mother tongue of 8% of the population, with an additional 7% speaking it as a second language. Additionally, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States and is by far the most popular foreign language among students. In 2015, it was estimated that over 50 million Americans spoke Spanish, about 41 million of whom were native speakers. With continued immigration and increased use of the language domestically in public spheres and media, the number of Spanish speakers in the United States is expected to continue growing over the forthcoming decades.


Dialectal variation

While being mutually intelligible, there are important variations (Phonology, phonological, Grammar, grammatical, and Lexicon, lexical) in the spoken Spanish of the various regions of Spain and throughout the Spanish-speaking areas of the Americas. The national variety with the most speakers is Mexican Spanish. It is spoken by more than twenty percent of the world's Spanish speakers (more than 112 million of the total of more than 500 million, according to the table above). One of its main features is the vowel reduction, reduction or loss of unstressed vowels, mainly when they are in contact with the sound /s/. In Spain, northern dialects are popularly thought of as closer to the standard, although positive attitudes toward southern dialects have increased significantly in the last 50 years. The speech from the educated classes of Madrid is the standard variety for use on radio and television in Spain and it is indicated by many as the one that has most influenced the written standard for Spanish. Central (European) Spanish speech patterns have been noted to be in the process of merging with more innovative southern varieties (including Eastern Andalusian and Murcian), as an emerging interdialectal levelled ''koine'' buffered between the Madrid's traditional national standard and the Seville speech trends.


Phonology

The four main phonological divisions are based respectively on (1) the phoneme , (2) the debuccalization of syllable-final , (3) the sound of the spelled , (4) and the phoneme . * The phoneme (spelled before or and spelled elsewhere), a voiceless dental fricative as in English ''thing'', is maintained by a majority of Spain's population, especially in the northern and central parts of the country. In other areas (some parts of southern Spain, the Canary Islands, and the Americas), does not exist and occurs instead. The maintenance of phonemic contrast is called in Spanish, while the merger is generally called (in reference to the usual realization of the merged phoneme as ) or, occasionally, (referring to its interdental realization, , in some parts of southern Spain). In most of Hispanic America, the spelled before or , and spelled is always pronounced as a Voiceless alveolar sibilant#Dentalized laminal alveolar, voiceless dental sibilant. * The debuccalization (pronunciation as , or loss) of syllable-final is associated with the southern half of Spain and lowland Americas: Central America (except central Costa Rica and Guatemala), the Caribbean, coastal areas of southern Mexico, and South America except Andean highlands. Debuccalization is frequently called "aspiration" in English, and in Spanish. When there is no debuccalization, the syllable-final is pronounced as Voiceless alveolar sibilant#Retracted alveolar, voiceless "apico-alveolar" sibilant or as a Voiceless alveolar sibilant#Dentalized laminal alveolar, voiceless dental sibilant in the same fashion as in the next paragraph. * The sound that corresponds to the letter is pronounced in northern and central Spain as a Voiceless alveolar sibilant#Retracted alveolar, voiceless "apico-alveolar" sibilant (also described acoustically as "Grave and acute, grave" and articulatorily as "retracted"), with a weak "hushing" sound reminiscent of fricatives. In Andalusia, Canary Islands and most of Hispanic America (except in the Colombian Spanish#Paisa dialect, Paisa region of Colombia) it is pronounced as a Voiceless alveolar sibilant#Dentalized laminal alveolar, voiceless dental sibilant , much like the most frequent pronunciation of the /s/ of English. * The phoneme , spelled , a Palatal lateral approximant, palatal lateral consonant that can be approximated by the sound of the of English ''million'', tends to be maintained in less-urbanized areas of northern Spain and in the Andean Spanish, highland areas of South America, as well as in Paraguayan Spanish, Paraguay and Bolivian Spanish#Dialects, lowland Bolivia. Meanwhile, in the speech of most other Spanish speakers, it is merged with ("curly-tail ''j''"), a non-lateral, usually voiced, usually fricative, palatal consonant, sometimes compared to English (''yod'') as in ''yacht'' and spelled in Spanish. As with other forms of allophony across world languages, the small difference of the spelled and the spelled is usually not perceived (the difference is not heard) by people who do not produce them as different phonemes. Such a phonemic merger is called in Spanish. In Rioplatense Spanish, the merged phoneme is generally pronounced as a postalveolar fricative, either voiced (as in English ''measure'' or the French ) in the central and western parts of the dialectal region (), or voiceless (as in the French or Portuguese ) in and around Buenos Aires and Montevideo ().


Morphology

The main Morphology (linguistics), morphological variations between dialects of Spanish involve differing uses of pronouns, especially those of the second Grammatical person, person and, to a lesser extent, the object pronouns of the third Grammatical person, person.


Voseo

Virtually all dialects of Spanish make the T–V distinction, distinction between a formal and a familiar register (sociolinguistics), register in the Grammatical person, second-person Grammatical number, singular and thus have two different pronouns meaning "you": in the formal and either or in the familiar (and each of these three pronouns has its associated verb forms), with the choice of or varying from one dialect to another. The use of and its verb forms is called . In a few dialects, all three pronouns are used, with , , and denoting respectively formality, familiarity, and intimacy. In , is the Subject (grammar), subject form (, "you say") and the form for the object of a Preposition and postposition, preposition (, "I am going with you"), while the direct and indirect Object (grammar), object forms, and the Possessive adjective, possessives, are the same as those associated with : ("You know your friends respect you"). The verb forms of the general are the same as those used with except in the present grammatical tense, tense (indicative and imperative mood, imperative) verbs. The forms for generally can be derived from those of (the traditional second-person familiar ''plural'') by deleting the semivowel, glide , or , where it appears in the ending: > ; > , () > (), () > (). In Central American , the and forms differ in the present subjunctive as well: In Chilean , almost all forms are distinct from the corresponding standard -forms. The use of the pronoun with the verb forms of () is called "pronominal ". Conversely, the use of the verb forms of with the pronoun ( or ) is called "verbal ". In Chile, for example, verbal ''voseo'' is much more common than the actual use of the pronoun ''vos'', which is usually reserved for highly informal situations.


= Distribution in Spanish-speaking regions of the Americas

= Although is not used in Spain, it occurs in many Spanish-speaking regions of the Americas as the primary spoken form of the second-person singular familiar pronoun, with wide differences in social consideration. Generally, it can be said that there are zones of exclusive use of (the use of ) in the following areas: almost all of
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
, the West Indies, Panama, most of
Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
, Peru, Venezuela and coastal Ecuador. as a cultured form alternates with as a popular or rural form in
Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
, in the north and south of Peru, in Andean Ecuador, in small zones of the Venezuelan Andes (and most notably in the Venezuelan state of Zulia), and in a large part of Colombia. Some researchers maintain that can be heard in some parts of eastern Cuba, and others assert that it is absent from the island. exists as the second-person usage with an intermediate degree of formality alongside the more familiar in
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
, in the Venezuelan state of Zulia, on the Caribbean coast of
Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
, in the Azuero Peninsula in Panama, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, and in parts of Guatemala. Areas of generalized include
Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
, Nicaragua, eastern
Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...
, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,
Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...
, Paraguay, Uruguay and the Colombian departments of Antioquia Department, Antioquia, Caldas Department, Caldas, Risaralda Department, Risaralda, Quindio and Valle del Cauca.


Ustedes

functions as formal and informal second-person plural in all of Hispanic America, the Canary Islands, and parts of Andalusia. It agrees with verbs in the 3rd person plural. Most of Spain maintains the T-V distinction, formal/familiar distinction with and respectively. The use of with the second person plural is sometimes heard in Andalusia, but it is non-standard.


Usted

is the usual second-person singular pronoun in a formal context, but it is used jointly with the third-person singular voice of the verb. It is used to convey respect toward someone who is a generation older or is of higher authority ("you, sir"/"you, ma'am"). It is also used in a ''familiar'' context by many speakers in Colombia and Costa Rica and in parts of Ecuador and Panama, to the exclusion of or . This usage is sometimes called in Spanish. In Central America, especially in Honduras, is often used as a formal pronoun to convey respect between the members of a romantic couple. is also used that way between parents and children in the Andean regions of Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.


Third-person object pronouns

Most speakers use (and the prefers) the pronouns and for Object (grammar), direct objects (masculine and feminine respectively, regardless of animacy, meaning "him", "her", or "it"), and for Object (grammar), indirect objects (regardless of Grammatical gender, gender or animacy, meaning "to him", "to her", or "to it"). The usage is sometimes called "etymological", as these direct and indirect object pronouns are a continuation, respectively, of the Accusative case, accusative and Dative case, dative pronouns of Latin, the ancestor language of Spanish. A number of dialects (more common in Spain than in the Americas) use additional rules for the pronouns, such as animacy, or count noun vs. mass noun, rather than just direct vs. indirect object. The ways of using the pronouns in such varieties are called "", "", or "", according to which respective pronoun, , , or , covers more than just the etymological usage ( as a direct object, or or as an indirect object).


Vocabulary

Some words can be significantly different in different Hispanophone countries. Most Spanish speakers can recognize other Spanish forms even in places where they are not commonly used, but Spaniards generally do not recognize specifically American usages. For example, Spanish , and (respectively, 'butter', 'avocado', 'apricot') correspond to (word used for lard in Peninsular Spanish), , and , respectively, in Argentina, Chile (except ), Paraguay, Peru (except and ), and Uruguay. In the healthcare context, an assessment of the Spanish translation of the Quality of well-being scale, QWB-SA identified some regional vocabulary choices and US-specific concepts, which cannot be successfully implemented in Spain without adaptation.


Vocabulary

Around 85% of everyday Spanish vocabulary is of Latin language, Latin origin. Most of the core vocabulary and the most common words in Spanish comes from Latin. The Spanish words first learned by children as they learn to speak are mainly words of Latin origin. These words of Latin origin can be classified as heritage words, cultisms (learned borrowings) and semi-cultisms. Most of the Spanish lexicon is made up of heritage lexicon. Heritage or directly inherited words are those whose presence in the spoken language has been continued since before the differentiation of the
Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...
. Heritage words are characterized by having undergone all the phonetic changes experienced by the language. This differentiates it from the cultisms and semi-cultisms that were no longer used in the spoken language and were later reintroduced for restricted uses. Because of this, cultisms generally have not experienced some of the phonetic changes and present a different form than they would have if they had been transmitted with heritage words. In the philological tradition of Spanish, a cultism is a word whose morphology very strictly follows its Greek or Latin etymological origin, without undergoing the changes that the evolution of the Spanish language followed from its origin in
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...
. The same concept also exists in other Romance languages. Reintroduced into the language for cultural, literary or scientific considerations, cultism only adapts its form to the orthographic and phonological conventions derived from linguistic evolution, and ignores the transformations that the roots and morphemes underwent in the development of the Romance language. In some cases, cultisms are used to introduce technical or specialized terminology that, present in the classical language, did not appear in the Romance language due to lack of use; This is the case of many of the literary, legal and philosophical terms of classical culture, such as ''ataraxia'' (from the Greek ἀταραξία, "dispassion") or ''legislar'' (built from the Latin ''legislator''). In other cases, they construct neologisms, such as the name of most scientific disciplines. A semi-cultism is a word that did not evolve in the expected way, in the vernacular language (Romance language), unlike heritage words; its evolution is incomplete. Many times interrupted by cultural influences (ecclesiastical, legal, administrative, etc.). For the same reason, they maintain some features of the language of origin. ''Dios'' is a clear example of semi-cultism, where it came from the Latin ''Deus''. It is a semi-cultism, because it maintains (without fully adapting to Castilianization, in this case) some characteristics of the Latin language—the ending in -s—, but, at the same time, it undergoes slight phonetic modifications (change of eu for io). ''Deus'' > ''Dios'' (instead of remaining cultist: ''Deus'' > ''*Deus'', or becoming a heritage word: ''Deus'' > ''*Dío''). The Catholic Church influenced by stopping the natural evolution of this word, and, in this way, converted this word into a semi-cultism and unconsciously prevented it from becoming a heritage word. Spanish vocabulary has been influenced by several languages. As in other European languages, Classical Greek words (Hellenisms) are abundant in the terminologies of several fields, including art, science, politics, nature, etc. Its vocabulary has also been Arabic language influence on the Spanish language, influenced by Arabic, having developed during the
Al-Andalus Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...
era in the
Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...
, with around 8% of its vocabulary having Arabic language, Arabic lexical roots.,, It has also been influenced by
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
, Iberian, Celtiberian, Gothic language, Visigothic, and other neighboring Ibero-Romance languages. Additionally, it has absorbed vocabulary from other languages, particularly other Romance languages such as French, Mozarabic language, Mozarabic, Portuguese, Galician, Catalan language, Catalan,
Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...
, and Sardinian language, Sardinian, as well as from Quechua language, Quechua, Nahuatl language, Nahuatl, and List of Spanish words of Indigenous American Indian origin, other indigenous languages of the Americas. In the 18th century, words taken from French referring above all to fashion, cooking and bureaucracy were added to the Spanish lexicon. In the 19th century, new loanwords were incorporated, especially from English and German, but also from Italian in areas related to music, particularly opera and cooking. In the 20th century, the pressure of English in the fields of technology, computing, science and sports was greatly accentuated. In general,
Hispanic America Hispanic America ( or ), historically known as Spanish America () or Castile (historical region), Castilian America (), is the Spanish-speaking countries and territories of the Americas. In all of these countries, Spanish language, Spanish is th ...
is more susceptible to loanwords from English or Anglicisms. For example: Computer mouse, mouse (computer mouse) is used in Hispanic America, in
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
''ratón'' is used. This happens largely due to closer contact with the United States. For its part, Spain is known by the use of Gallicisms or words taken from neighboring
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
(such as the Gallicism ''ordenador'' in European Spanish, in contrast to the Anglicism ''computador'' or ''computadora'' in American Spanish).


Relation to other languages

Spanish is closely related to the other West Iberian languages, West Iberian Romance languages, including Asturian, Aragonese, Galician, Ladino language, Ladino, Leonese, Mirandese language, Mirandese and Portuguese. It is somewhat less similar, to varying degrees, from other members of the Romance language family. It is generally acknowledged that Portuguese and Spanish speakers can communicate in written form, with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility. Mutual intelligibility of the ''written'' Spanish and Portuguese languages is high, lexically and grammatically. ''Ethnologue'' gives estimates of the lexical similarity between related languages in terms of precise percentages. For Spanish and Portuguese, that figure is 89%, although phonologically the two languages are quite dissimilar. Italian on the other hand, is phonologically similar to Spanish, while sharing lower lexical and grammatical similarity of 82%. Mutual intelligibility between Spanish and French or between Spanish and Romanian language, Romanian is lower still, given lexical similarity ratings of 75% and 71% respectively. Comprehension of Spanish by French speakers who have not studied the language is much lower, at an estimated 45%. In general, thanks to the common features of the writing systems of the Romance languages, interlingual comprehension of the written word is greater than that of oral communication. The following table compares the forms of some common words in several Romance languages:
1. In Romance etymology, Latin terms are given in the Accusative since most forms derive from this case.
2. As in "us very selves", an emphatic expression.
3. Also in early modern Portuguese (e.g. ''The Lusiads''), and in Galician.
4. Alternatively in French.
5. in many Southern List of languages of Italy, Italian dialects and languages.
6. Medieval Catalan (e.g. ''Llibre dels fets'').
7. Modified with the learned suffix ''-ción''.
8. Depending on the written norm used (see Reintegrationism).
9. From
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
''esku'', "hand" + ''erdi'', "half, incomplete". This negative meaning also applies for Latin ''sinistra(m)'' ("dark, unfortunate").
10. Romanian ''caș'' (from Latin ) means a type of cheese. The universal term for cheese in Romanian is ''brânză'' (from unknown etymology).


Judaeo-Spanish

Judaeo-Spanish, also known as Ladino, is a variety of Spanish which preserves many features of medieval Spanish and some old Portuguese and is spoken by descendants of the Sephardi Jews who were Alhambra decree, expelled from Spain in the 15th century. While in Portugal the conversion of Jews occurred earlier and the assimilation of New Christians was overwhelming, in Spain the Jews kept their language and identity. The relationship of Ladino and Spanish is therefore comparable with that of the Yiddish language to German language, German. Ladino speakers today are almost exclusively Sephardim, Sephardi Jews, with family roots in Turkey, Greece, or the Balkans, and living mostly in Israel, Turkey, and the United States, with a few communities in Hispanic America. Judaeo-Spanish lacks the Amerindian languages, Native American vocabulary which was acquired by standard Spanish during the Spanish Empire, Spanish colonial period, and it retains many archaic features which have since been lost in standard Spanish. It contains, however, other vocabulary which is not found in standard Spanish, including vocabulary from Hebrew language, Hebrew, French, Greek and Turkish language, Turkish, and other languages spoken where the Sephardim settled. Judaeo-Spanish is in serious danger of extinction because many native speakers today are elderly as well as elderly ''olim'' (immigrants to Israel) who have not transmitted the language to their children or grandchildren. However, it is experiencing a minor revival among Sephardi communities, especially in music. In Hispanic American communities, the danger of extinction is also due to assimilation by modern Spanish. A related dialect is Haketia, the Judaeo-Spanish of northern Morocco. This too, tended to assimilate with modern Spanish, during the Spanish occupation of the region.


Writing system

Spanish is written in the Latin script, with the addition of the character (, representing the phoneme , a letter distinct from , although typographically composed of an with a tilde). Formerly the digraph (orthography), digraphs (, representing the phoneme ) and (, representing the phoneme or ), were also considered single letters. However, the digraph (, 'strong r', , 'double r', or simply ), which also represents a distinct phoneme , was not similarly regarded as a single letter. Since 1994 and have been treated as letter pairs for collation purposes, though they remained a part of the alphabet until 2010. Words with are now alphabetically sorted between those with and , instead of following as they used to. The situation is similar for . Thus, the Spanish alphabet has the following 27 letters: : Since 2010, none of the digraphs () are considered letters by the Royal Spanish Academy. The letters and are used only in words and names coming from foreign languages (, etc.). With the exclusion of a very small number of regional terms such as (see Toponymy of Mexico#Phonetic evolution, Toponymy of Mexico), pronunciation can be entirely determined from spelling. Under the orthographic conventions, a typical Spanish word is stressed on the syllable before the last if it ends with a vowel (not including ) or with a vowel followed by or an ; it is stressed on the last syllable otherwise. Exceptions to this rule are indicated by placing an acute accent on the stress (linguistics), stressed vowel. The acute accent is used, in addition, to distinguish between certain homophones, especially when one of them is a stressed word and the other one is a clitic: compare ('the', masculine singular definite article) with ('he' or 'it'), or ('you', object pronoun) with ('tea'), (preposition 'of') versus ('give' [formal imperative/third-person present subjunctive]), and (reflexive pronoun) versus ('I know' or imperative 'be'). The interrogative pronouns (, , , , etc.) also receive accents in direct or indirect questions, and some demonstratives (, , , etc.) can be accented when used as pronouns. Accent marks used to be omitted on capital letters (a widespread practice in the days of typewriters and the early days of computers when only lowercase vowels were available with accents), although the advises against this and the orthographic conventions taught at schools enforce the use of the accent. When is written between and a front vowel or , it indicates a "Hard and soft G, hard g" pronunciation. A Diaeresis (diacritic), diaeresis indicates that it is not silent as it normally would be (e.g., , 'stork', is pronounced ; if it were written *, it would be pronounced *). Interrogative and exclamatory clauses are introduced with inverted question and exclamation marks ( and , respectively) and closed by the usual question and exclamation marks.


Organizations


Royal Spanish Academy

The Royal Spanish Academy (), founded in 1713, together with the 21 other national ones (see Association of Spanish Language Academies), exercises a standardizing influence through its publication of dictionaries and widely respected grammar and style guides. Because of influence and for other sociohistorical reasons, a standardized form of the language (Standard Spanish) is widely acknowledged for use in literature, academic contexts and the media.


Association of Spanish Language Academies

The Association of Spanish Language Academies (, or ) is the entity which regulates the Spanish language. It was created in Mexico in 1951 and represents the union of all the separate academies in the Spanish-speaking world. It comprises the academies of 23 countries, ordered by date of academy foundation: Real Academia Española, Spain (1713), Academia Colombiana de la Lengua, Colombia (1871), Academia Ecuatoriana de la Lengua, Ecuador (1874), Academia Mexicana de la Lengua, Mexico (1875), Academia Salvadoreña de la Lengua, El Salvador (1876), Academia Venezolana de la Lengua, Venezuela (1883), Academia Chilena de la Lengua, Chile (1885), Academia Peruana de la Lengua, Peru (1887), Academia Guatemalteca de la Lengua, Guatemala (1887), Academia Costarricense de la Lengua, Costa Rica (1923), Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española, Philippines (1924), Academia Panameña de la Lengua, Panama (1926), Academia Cubana de la Lengua, Cuba (1926), Academia Paraguaya de la Lengua Española, Paraguay (1927), Academia Dominicana de la Lengua, Dominican Republic (1927), Academia Boliviana de la Lengua, Bolivia (1927), Academia Nicaragüense de la Lengua, Nicaragua (1928), Academia Argentina de Letras, Argentina (1931), Academia Nacional de Letras, del Uruguay, Uruguay (1943), Academia Hondureña de la Lengua, Honduras (1949), Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española, Puerto Rico (1955), North American Academy of the Spanish Language, United States (1973) and Academia Ecuatoguineana de la Lengua Española, Equatorial Guinea (2016).


Cervantes Institute

The ('Cervantes Institute') is a worldwide nonprofit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991. This organization has branches in 45 countries, with 88 centers devoted to the Spanish and Hispanic American cultures and Spanish language. The goals of the Institute are to promote universally the education, the study, and the use of Spanish as a second language, to support methods and activities that help the process of Spanish-language education, and to contribute to the advancement of the Spanish and Hispanic American cultures in non-Spanish-speaking countries. The institute's 2015 report "El español, una lengua viva" (Spanish, a living language) estimated that there were 559 million Spanish speakers worldwide. Its latest annual report "El español en el mundo 2018" (Spanish in the world 2018) counts 577 million Spanish speakers worldwide. Among the sources cited in the report is the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau, which estimates that the U.S. will have 138 million Spanish speakers by 2050, making it the biggest Spanish-speaking nation on earth, with Spanish the mother tongue of almost a third of its citizens.


Official use by international organizations

Spanish is one of the official languages of the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
, the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
, the World Trade Organization, the
Organization of American States The Organization of American States (OAS or OEA; ; ; ) is an international organization founded on 30 April 1948 to promote cooperation among its member states within the Americas. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, the OAS is ...
, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the
African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The b ...
, the
Union of South American Nations The Union of South American Nations (USAN), sometimes also referred to as the South American Union, abbreviated in Spanish as UNASUR and in Portuguese as UNASUL, is an intergovernmental regional organization. It was set up by Hugo Chavez to ...
, the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat, the Latin Union, the Caricom, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Inter-American Development Bank, and numerous other international organizations.


Sample text

Article 1 of the ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' in Spanish: : Article 1 of the ''Universal Declaration of Human Rights'' in English: :''All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.''


See also


Spanish words and phrases

* Café para todos * Cuento * List of English–Spanish interlingual homographs * Longest word in Spanish * Most common words in Spanish * Olé * Olé, Olé, Olé * Spanish profanity * Spanish proverbs * Tertulia * Vale un Perú


Spanish-speaking world

* Association of Academies of the Spanish Language * List of countries where Spanish is an official language, Countries where Spanish is an official language * Hispanic culture * Hispanicization * Hispanidad * Hispanism * Hispanophone * Fundéu BBVA * Instituto Cervantes * International Conference of the Spanish Language * List of Spanish-language poets * Panhispanism * Royal Spanish Academy * Spanish-language literature * Spanish-language music


Influences on the Spanish language

* Arabic language influence on the Spanish language * List of Spanish words of Germanic origin * List of Spanish words of Philippine origin


Dialects and languages influenced by Spanish

* Alemañol * Caló language, Caló * Chamorro language, Chamorro * Chavacano * Spanish-based creole languages, Creoles * Frespañol * Jopara * Judaeo-Spanish * List of English words of Spanish origin * Llanito * Media Lengua * Palenquero * Papiamento * Philippine languages * Portuñol * Spanglish


Spanish dialects and varieties

* Spanish dialects and varieties * European Spanish ** Peninsular Spanish *** Andalusian Spanish **** Andalusian language movement *** Castilian Spanish *** Castrapo (Galician Spanish) *** Castúo (Extremaduran Spanish) *** Murcian Spanish ** Canarian Spanish * Spanish language in the Americas ** North American Spanish *** Mexican Spanish *** Spanish language in the United States, Spanish in the United States ** Central American Spanish ** Caribbean Spanish ** Spanish language in South America, South American Spanish *** Bolivian Spanish *** Chilean Spanish *** Colombian Spanish *** Ecuadorian Spanish *** Paraguayan Spanish *** Peruvian Spanish *** Uruguayan Spanish *** Venezuelan Spanish * Spanish in Africa ** Equatoguinean Spanish ** Saharan Spanish * Spanish in Asia ** Spanish language in the Philippines, Spanish in the Philippines


References


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Notes


External links


Real Academia Española (RAE)
Royal Spanish Academy. Spain's official institution, with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language

Cervantes Institute. A Spanish government agency, responsible for promoting the study and the teaching of the Spanish language and culture.
FundéuRAE
Foundation of Emerging Spanish. A non-profit organization with collaboration of the RAE which mission is to clarify doubts and ambiguities of Spanish. {{DEFAULTSORT:Spanish Language Spanish language, Fusional languages Languages of Argentina Languages of Bolivia Languages of Chile Languages of Colombia Languages of Costa Rica Languages of Cuba Languages of the Dominican Republic Languages of Ecuador Languages of El Salvador Languages of Equatorial Guinea Languages of Guatemala Languages of Honduras Languages of Mexico Languages of Nicaragua Languages of Panama Languages of Paraguay Languages of Peru Languages of Puerto Rico Languages of Spain Languages of the United States Languages of Uruguay Languages of Venezuela Lingua francas Subject–verb–object languages Syllable-timed languages