West Iberian is a branch of the

Ibero-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 a ...

that includes the Castilian languages ( Spanish,

Judaeo-Spanish Judaeo-Spanish or Judeo-Spanish (autonym , Hebrew script: ), also known as Ladino or Judezmo or Spaniolit, is a Romance language derived from Castilian Old Spanish. Originally spoken in Spain, and then after the Edict of Expulsion spreading ...

), Astur-Leonese ( Asturian, Leonese, Mirandese, Extremaduran (sometimes), Cantabrian),UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger
where Cantabrian is listed in the Astur-Leonese linguistic group.

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 ...

and the descendants of Galician-Portuguese. Until a few centuries ago, they formed a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

covering the western, central and southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula—excepting the

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 Catalan-speaking territories. This is still the situation in a few regions, particularly in the northern part of the peninsula, but due to the differing sociopolitical histories of these languages (independence of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

since the early 12th century, unification 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 ...

in the late 15th century under the

Catholic Monarchs The Catholic Monarchs were Isabella I of Castile, Queen Isabella I of Crown of Castile, Castile () and Ferdinand II of Aragon, King Ferdinand II of Crown of Aragón, Aragon (), whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of ...

, who privileged Castilian Spanish over the other Iberian languages), Spanish and Portuguese have tended to overtake and to a large extent absorb their sister languages while they kept diverging from each other. There is controversy over whether the members of the modern Galician-Portuguese and Astur-Leonese sub-groups are languages or dialects. A common, though disputed, classification is to state that Portuguese and Galician are separate languages, as are Asturian, Leonese, and Mirandese. Cantabrian and Extremaduran are considered codialects of the Leonese language for UNESCO, whereas the latter is a Castilian dialect in the ISO codes.

Papiamento Papiamento () or Papiamentu (; ) is a Portuguese-based creole language spoken in the Dutch Caribbean. It is the most widely spoken language on Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao ( ABC Islands). The language, spelled in Aruba and in Bonaire and ...

is a West Iberian creole language spoken in the

Dutch West Indies The Dutch Caribbean (historically known as the Dutch West Indies) are the New World territories, colonies, and countries (former and current) of the Dutch Empire and the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea, mainly the norther ...

and believed to be derived from Portuguese,

Judaeo-Portuguese Judaeo-Portuguese, Jewish-Portuguese or Judaeo-Lusitanic, is an extinct Jewish language or a dialect of Galician-Portuguese written in the Hebrew alphabet that was used by the Portuguese Jews, Jews of Portugal. Description It was the vernacula ...

and Spanish.

Classification

Bold indicates

language families A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ana ...

. Daggers indicate extinct languages. *West Iberian ** Asturleonese *** Asturian *** Leonese *** Mirandese *** Extremaduran *** Cantabrian **Castilian *** Extremaduran ***

*** Spanish **** Loreto-Ucayali ** Galician-Portuguese *** Galician **** Galician-Asturian *** Portuguese *** Fala ***

**Pyrenean–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 ...

***

**** Aragonese ***** Judaeo-Aragonese **** Navarrese ****

Old Riojan Old Riojan is an extinct variety of Navarro-Aragonese which was spoken in northeastern medieval La Rioja. This variety went extinct due to a rapid mixture with Castilian following La Rioja falling into the control of Crown of Castile. Latin had be ...

Classification

Notes and references

Notes

References