Spanish language

Lore & Background

After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, several dialects of Vulgar Latin developed in Iberia. 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 occurred in Toledo in the 13th century. The dialect centered on Burgos later spread to Toledo, where the written standard was first developed, and then to Madrid from the 1570s. Spanish colonialism in the early modern period introduced the language to overseas locations, most notably the Americas. The language borrowed heavily from Andalusi Arabic (about 4,000 words, roughly 8% of the language today) and from neighboring Romance languages such as Mozarabic, Navarro-Aragonese, Leonese, Catalan, Portuguese, Galician, Occitan, French, and Italian. About 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is Latin in origin, including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek. In Spain, the language is called both español and castellano. The etymology of español likely derives from the Occitan word espaignol, from Vulgar Latin *hispaniolus ('of Hispania').

Reader's Guide

Spanish is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese, the fourth-most spoken overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu), and the most widely spoken Romance language. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations and is used as an official language by many international organizations, including the European Union, Organization of Ibero-American States, Organization of American States, Union of South American Nations, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, and the African Union. Alongside English and French, Spanish is one of the most taught foreign languages worldwide and is well represented in the humanities and social sciences. It is 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. The language's development from Vulgar Latin shows typical Western Romance changes, including lenition of intervocalic consonants and diphthongization of Latin stressed short e and o in both open and closed syllables. A notable feature attributed by some scholars to a Basque substratum is the mutation of Latin initial f into h- (now silent in most varieties) when followed by a vowel that did not diphthongize.

Did You Know?

• Spanish is the world's most widely spoken Romance language.
• The country with the largest population of native Spanish speakers is Mexico.
• About 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is Latin in origin.
• The term 'castellano' derives from Castile, whose name is usually assumed to come from 'castillo' ('castle').