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Spanish
is, after Mandarin Chinese and English, the third most spoken
language in the world, with an estimated 400.000.000 of native
speakers throughout the planet. Its origins, however, are much
more reduced, both geographically and numerically.
Together with other initially European languages such as Portuguese,
French or Italian, the linguistic roots of Spanish make it a Romance
language. This means that Latin, or more specifically, Vulgar Latin,
constitutes its most important linguistic base.
The constant contact and mutual influence of the
Latin basis with other linguistic traditions and cultures has led
to the formation of the different Romance languages as we know
them today. In the case of Spanish, there are, for example, characteristics
that come from the Iberian and Celtic traditions.
There is also a great amount of Greek vocabulary
that was first adopted by Latin speakers and then brought into
Spanish. Words such as “escuela” (school) or “huérfano” (orphan)
all belong to this tradition. And we should not forget the seven
centuries of Arab domination of the peninsula. This has left, among
other things, an important legacy of lexical elements that have
been incorporated into the Spanish language. A surname you probably
know which exemplifies this is “Almodóvar”.
Spanish is, especially in the bilingual territories of Spain, also known as
castellano (Castilian), because of its origins in the region of Castilla.
Castilla is situated in the north-central part of Spain, and it was once
the neuralgic center of the Spanish empire that would take the Spanish language
to more than twenty other countries.
The establishment of a linguistic unity of Spanish as a common language for
the state of Spain was parallel to its territorial unity. This union was
only possible after the Reconquest of the peninsula from the Arab settlers,
at the end of the 15th century. The kingdom of Castilla, and also its linguistic
variety, expanded to the practical totality of the Iberian Peninsula. After
the marriage of Isabel I of Castilla and Fernando II of Aragón, the
Spanish state was born, and Castilian language and culture became its most
dominant identity. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, through
a series of linguistic evolutions and normalizing changes, the language of
the Spanish state became what is nowadays known as Modern Spanish.
It is important to remember, however, that spoken Spanish is not identical
in the different regions of the Spanish state. In fact, its pronunciation
and lexical characteristics can vary to a very significant extent from one
place to another. However, the maintenance of a unified, standard, version
of the Spanish language and of its written form is guaranteed by the Real
Academia de la Lengua Española. The Academia sets the rules to follow
in order to speak and write in a way that is accepted by all the different
Spanish speakers.
>> Learn more about a Spanish language course in Spain |
