Spanish schools
Spanish language
Spanish (español) or Castilian (castellano) is an Iberian Romance language. It was spoken by roughly 364 million people in year 2000. Current estimation accounts up to 410 million, making Spanish the most widely spoken Romance language.
Spanish originated as an obscure dialect in Cantabria region of Spain; from that region, its use gradually spread to the kingdom of Castille, where it became the principal language of government and trade. It was later brought to the Western Hemisphere and other parts of the world in the last five centuries by Spanish explorers, colonists and empire-builders. Spanish is one of six official working languages of the United Nations and one of the most used global languages, along with English. It is spoken on all continents, most extensively in North and South America, Europe, and certain parts of Africa, Asia and Oceania. Within the globalised market, there is currently an international expansion and recognition of the Spanish language in literature, the film industry, television (notably telenovelas) and music.
Spanish Language is spoken now all over the World; it’s the second most important language and the third most spoken according to some sources, with 400 million of native speakers, and by a total of 500 million including non-native speakers. The Castilian, as today we know it, is the result of a process of movement of more of a millenium, throughout as the diverse languages of the inhabitants of The Iberian Peninsula went modifying by influence of the roman invaders, godos and Arabs. Towards the end of century XV, with the union of the kingdoms of Castile and Aragón, that extended their dominion on most of the Peninsula, the Castile language – the Castilian – went away imposing on other languages and dialects and crossed the Atlantic with the discoverers, conquerors and missionaries.
History
The Spanish language developed from vulgar Latin, with influence from Celtiberian, Basque and Arabic, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula (see Iberian Romance languages). Typical features of Spanish diachronical phonology include lenition (Latin vita, Spanish vida), palatalization (Latin annum, Spanish año) and diphthongation (stem-changing) of short e and o from Vulgar Latin (Latin terra, Spanish tierra; Latin novus, Spanish nuevo). Similar phenomena can be found in most other Romance languages as well.
During the Reconquista, this northern dialect was carried south, and indeed is still a minority language in northern Morocco.
The first Latin to Spanish dictionary (Gramática de la Lengua Castellana) was written in Salamanca, Spain, in 1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija. When Isabella of Castile was presented with the book, she asked, What do I want a work like this for, if I already know the language?, to which he replied, Ma'am, the language is the instrument of the Empire.
From the 16th century on, the language was brought to the Americas, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Marianas, Palau and the Philippines by Spanish colonization. Also in this epoch, Spanish became the main language of Politics and Art across the major part of Europe. In the 18th century, French took its place.
In the 20th century, Spanish was introduced in Equatorial Guinea and Western Sahara and parts of the United States, such as Spanish Harlem in New York City, that had not been part of the Spanish Empire.
Castilian or Spanish?
This language also is called Castilian, being the name of the linguistic community that spoke this románica modality in medieval times: Castile. Some controversy around the denomination of the language exists; the Spanish term is relatively recent and it is not admitted by the many bilingual speakers of the Spanish State, because they understand that Spanish it includes the terms Valencian, Galician, Catalan and Basque, languages as well of official consideration within the territory of his respective independent communities.they are those bilingual speakers that propose to return to the denomination older than it had the language, Castilian understood like 'language of Castilla'.
In first documents after the foundation of the Real Spanish Academy, their members used by agreement the denomination of Spanish language.To resign to the Spanish term would create the difficulty to recognize the official character of a language that so opened has been to welcome in its sine influences and tolerances that have contributed to their condition.
Spanish Language Regulator
Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española. Real Academia Española. The Association of Spanish Language Academies (Spanish: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española) was created in Mexico in 1951 and represents the union of all the separate academies in the Spanish speaking world. The Real Academia Española (Spanish for "Royal Spanish Academy", RAE) is the institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in 21 Spanish-speaking nations.
Geographic distribution
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Country
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Number of speakers
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Argentina
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(39,248,000)
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Bolivia
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(7,010,000)
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Chile
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(15,795,000)
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Colombia
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(44,531,434)
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Costa Rica
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(4,220,000)
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Cuba
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(11,285,000)
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Ecuador
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(10,946,000)
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El Salvador
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(6,859,000)
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Spain
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(45,061,274)
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Guatemala
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(8,163,000)
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Equatorial Guinea
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(447,000)
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Honduras
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(7,267,000)
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Mexico
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(102,255,000)
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Nicaragua
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(5,503,000)
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Panama
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(3,108,000)
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Paraguay
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(4,737,000)
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Peru
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(23,191,000)
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Puerto Rico
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(4,017,000)
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Dominican Republic
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(8,850,000)
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Uruguay
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(3,442,000)
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United States of America
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(41,285,345)
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Venezuela
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(26,021,000)
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Language schools