Spanish language: Difference between revisions
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'''Spanish''' (español) sometimes called '''Castilian''' (''castellano'') is a [[Romance languages|Romance language]] that originated in northern [[Spain]], and gradually spread in the [[Kingdom of Castile]] and evolved into the principal language of government and trade. It was taken most notably to the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Americas]], and also to [[Spanish Empire#small Territories in Africa (1898–1975)|Africa]] and [[Spanish East Indies|Asia Pacific]] with the expansion of the [[Spanish Empire]] between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. |
'''Spanish''' (español), sometimes called '''Castilian''' (''castellano''), is a [[Romance languages|Romance language]] that originated in northern [[Spain]], and gradually spread in the [[Kingdom of Castile]] and evolved into the principal language of government and trade. It was taken most notably to the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Americas]], and also to [[Spanish Empire#small Territories in Africa (1898–1975)|Africa]] and [[Spanish East Indies|Asia Pacific]] with the expansion of the [[Spanish Empire]] between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. |
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Today, about 350 million people speak Spanish as a native language, making it the world's second most spoken language in terms of native speakers but fourth in terms of total speakers. [[Mexico]] contains the largest population of Spanish speakers. |
Today, about 350 million people speak Spanish as a native language, making it the world's second most spoken language in terms of native speakers but fourth in terms of total speakers. [[Mexico]] contains the largest population of Spanish speakers. |
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Revision as of 07:01, 30 June 2009
 | This article appears to contradict the article Spanish in the United States. (April 2009) |
Spanish (español), sometimes called Castilian (castellano), is a Romance language that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade. It was taken most notably to the Americas, and also to Africa and Asia Pacific with the expansion of the Spanish Empire between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Today, about 350 million people speak Spanish as a native language, making it the world's second most spoken language in terms of native speakers but fourth in terms of total speakers. Mexico contains the largest population of Spanish speakers.
Spanish is growing increasingly popular as a second or third language in a number of countries due to logistical, economic, and touristic interest towards the many nations which chiefly use Spanish as the primary language. This phenomenon is most notable in Brazil, the United States, Italy, France, Portugal, and much of the Anglosphere in general.
Naming and origin
Spanish people tend to call this language español (Spanish) when contrasting it with languages such as French and English, but call it castellano (Castilian), that is, the language of the Castile region, when contrasting it with other languages spoken in Spain such as Galician, Basque, and Catalan. This reasoning also holds true for the language's preferred name in some Latin American countries. In this manner, the Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term [castellano] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) to define the official language of the whole Spanish State, as opposed to [las demás lenguas españolas] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (lit. the other Spanish languages). Article III reads as follows:
[El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. (…) Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas…] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)
Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. (…) The other Spanish languages shall also be official in their respective Autonomous Communities…
However, to some in other linguistic regions, this is considered as demeaning to them and they will therefore use the term castellano exclusively.
The name castellano (Castilian), which refers directly to the origins of the language and the sociopolitical context in which it was introduced in the Americas, is preferred in Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Chile, instead of español, which is more commonly used to refer to the language as a whole in the rest of Latin America.
Some Spanish speakers consider castellano a generic term with no political or ideological links, much as "Spanish" is in English.
Geographic distribution
Spanish is recognized as one of the official languages of the United Nations, the European Union, the Organization of American States, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the African Union, the Union of South American Nations, the Latin Union, and the Caricom and has legal status in the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Hispanosphere
It is estimated that the combined total of native and non-native Spanish speakers is approximately 350 million, likely making it the fourth most spoken language by total number of speakers (after Chinese, English and Hindi).[2] Global internet usage statistics for 2007 show Spanish as the third most commonly used language on the Internet, after English and Chinese. [3]
Europe
In Europe, Spanish is an official language of Spain, the country after which it is named and from which it originated. It is also spoken in Gibraltar, though English is the official language.[4] Likewise, it is the most spoken language in Andorra though Catalan is the official language.[5][6] It is also spoken by small communities in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.[7] Spanish is an official language of the European Union. In Switzerland, Spanish is the mother tongue of 1.7% of the population, representing the largest minority after the 4 official languages of the country.[8]
Americas
Latin America
Most Spanish speakers are in Latin America; of all countries with a majority of Spanish speakers, only Spain and Equatorial Guinea are outside of the Americas. Mexico has the most native speakers of any country. Nationally, Spanish is the official language—either de facto or de jure—of Argentina, Bolivia (co-official with Quechua and Aymara), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico , Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay (co-official with Guaraní[9]), Peru (co-official with Quechua and, in some regions, Aymara), Uruguay, and Venezuela. Spanish is also the official language (co-official with English) in the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico.[10]
Spanish has no official recognition in the former British colony of Belize; however, per the 2000 census, it is spoken by 43% of the population.[11][12] Mainly, it is spoken by Hispanic descendants who remained in the region since the 17th century; however, English is the official language.[13]
Spain colonized Trinidad and Tobago first in 1498, introducing the Spanish language to the Carib people. Also the Cocoa Panyols, laborers from Venezuela, took their culture and language with them; they are accredited with the music of "Parang" ("Parranda") on the island. Because of Trinidad's location on the South American coast, the country is greatly influenced by its Spanish-speaking neighbors. A recent census shows that more than 1,500 inhabitants speak Spanish.[14] In 2004, the government launched the Spanish as a First Foreign Language (SAFFL) initiative in March 2005.[15] Government regulations require Spanish to be taught, beginning in primary school, while thirty percent of public employees are to be linguistically competent within five years.[14]
Spanish is important in Brazil because of its proximity to and increased trade with its Spanish-speaking neighbors; for example, as a member of the Mercosur trading bloc.[16] In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President, making Spanish language teaching mandatory in both public and private secondary schools.[17] In many border towns and villages (especially in the Uruguayan-Brazilian and Paraguayan-Brazilian border areas), a mixed language known as Portuñol is spoken.[18]
United States
In the 2006 census, 44.3 million people of the U.S. population were Hispanic or Latino by origin;[19] 34 million people, 12.2 percent, of the population older than 5 years old speak Spanish at home.[20] Spanish has a long history in the United States because many south-western states and Florida were part of Mexico and Spain, and it recently has been revitalized by Hispanic immigrants. Spanish is the most widely taught foreign language in the country.[21] Although the United States has no formally designated "official languages," Spanish is formally recognized at the state level in various states besides English; in the U.S. state of New Mexico for instance, 30% of the population speaks the language. It also has strong influence in metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, Miami, San Antonio, New York City, and in the last decade, the language has rapidly expanded in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Washington, DC, Houston, Phoenix and other major Sun-Belt cities. Spanish is the dominant spoken language in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory. In total, the U.S. has the world's fourth-largest Spanish-speaking population.[22] Spanish is the most popular studied foreign language in U.S. schools and universities.[23][24]
Africa
In Africa, Spanish is official in Equatorial Guinea (co-official with French and Portuguese), as well as an official language of the African Union. Today, in Western Sahara, it is a de facto official language and nearly 200,000 refugee Sahrawis are able to read and write in Spanish,[25] and several thousands have received university education in foreign countries as part of aid packages (mainly Cuba and Spain). In Equatorial Guinea, Spanish is the predominant language when counting native and non-native speakers (around 500,000 people), while Fang is the most spoken language by a number of native speakers.[26][27] It is also spoken in the Spanish cities in continental North Africa (Ceuta and Melilla) and in the autonomous community of Canary Islands (143,000 and 1,995,833 people, respectively). Within Northern Morocco, a former Franco-Spanish protectorate that is also geographically close to Spain, approximately 20,000 people speak Spanish as a second language.[28] It is spoken by some communities of Angola, because of the Cuban influence from the Cold War, and in Nigeria by the descendants of Afro-Cuban ex-slaves.
Asia
Spanish was an official language of the Philippines since the early days of Spanish colonization in the 16th century, until the change of Constitution in 1973. During most of the colonial period it was the language of government, trade and education, and spoken mainly by Spaniards living in the islands and educated Filipinos. However, by the mid 19th century a free public school system in Spanish was established throughout the islands, which increased the numbers of Spanish speakers rapidly. Following the U.S. occupation and administration of the islands, the importance of Spanish fell, especially after the 1920s. The US authorities' imposition of English as the medium of instruction in schools and universities coupled with the prohibition of Spanish in media and educational institutions gradually reduced the importance of the language. After the country became independent in 1946, Spanish remained an official language along with English and Tagalog-based Filipino. However, the language lost its official status in 1973 during the Ferdinand Marcos administration. Under the Corazon Aquino administration which took office in 1986, the mandatory teaching of Spanish in colleges and universities was also stopped, and thus, younger generations of Filipinos have little or no knowledge of Spanish as compared to the older generations. However, the Spanish language retains a large influence in local languages, with many words coming from or being derived from Spanish.[29]
Oceania
Among the countries and territories in Oceania, Spanish is also spoken in Easter Island, a territorial possession of Chile. According to the 2001 census, there are approximately 95,000 speakers of Spanish in Australia, 44,000 of which live in Greater Sydney [citation needed], where the older Mexican, Colombian, Spanish, and Chilean populations and newer Argentine, Salvadoran and Uruguayan communities live.[citation needed]
The U.S. Territories of Guam, Palau, Northern Marianas, and the independent associated U.S. Territory of Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia all once had Spanish speakers, since Marianas and Caroline Islands were Spanish colonial possessions until late 19th century (see Spanish-American War), but Spanish has since been forgotten. It now only exists as an influence on the local native languages and spoken by Hispanic American resident populations.
Dialectal variation
While all Spanish dialects use the same written standard, there are important variations among the regions of Spain and throughout Spanish-speaking America spoken. One major phonological difference between Castilian and Latin American dialects is the presence of a voiceless dental fricative (/θ/ as in English thing) in the former.[30] In Spain, the Castilian dialect is commonly regarded as the standard variety.used on radio and television,[31][32][33][34] In addition to pronunciation, lexical and grammatical differences exist. For example, [[[Loísmo|loísmo]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) or the use of slightly different pronouns differs from the standard.
The variety with the most number of speakers is Mexican Spanish, making up nearly a third of Spanish speakers.[citation needed]
Voseo
Spanish has three second-person singular pronouns: [tú] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [usted] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), and [vos] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help). The use of the pronoun [vos] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) and/or its verb forms is called [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help).
Grammar
[Vos] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is the subject form [(vos decís)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) [you say] and the term of preposition (a vos digo) [to you I say], while "os" is the form of the direct complement [(os vi)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) [I saw you (all)] and of the indirect complement without the preposition [(os digo)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) [I say to you (all)].[35]
The verb always goes in the second-person plural even though we addressed only one speaker:
«Han luchado, añadió dirigiéndose a Tarradellas, [...] por mantenerse fieles a las instituciones que vos representáis» (GaCandau Madrid-Barça [Esp. 1996]).
Like the possessive employs the form [vuestro] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help): [Admiro vuestra valentía, señora] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help). The adjectives referred to the person or people to whom we address have established the correspondent agreement in gender and number: [Vos, don Pedro, sois caritativo; Vos, bellas damas, sois ingeniosas] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help).[35]
The more commonly known American dialectal form of voseo uses the pronominal or verbal forms of the second-person plural (or derivatives of these) to address only one speaker. This [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is appropriate to distinct regional or social varieties of American Spanish and on the contrary the reverential [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), which implies closeness and familiarity.[35]
The [pronominal voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) employs the use of [vos] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) as a pronoun to replace [tú] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) and [de ti] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), which are second-person singular informal.
[35]
- As a subject [vos] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) employs: [«Puede que vos tengás razón» (Herrera Casa [Ven. 1985])] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) instead of [«Puede que tú tengas razón»] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)
- As a vocative: [«¿Por qué vos la tenés contra Alvaro Arzú ?» (Prensa [Guat.] 3.4.97)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) instead of [«¿Por qué tú la tienes contra Alvaro Arzú?»] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)
- As a term of preposition: [«Cada vez que sale con vos, se enferma» (Penerini Aventura [Arg. 1999])] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) instead of [«Cada vez que sale contigo, se enferma»] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)
- And as a term of comparison: [«Es por lo menos tan actor como vos» (Cuzzani Cortés [Arg. 1988])] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) instead of [«Es por lo menos tan actor como tú»] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)
[35]
However, for the [pronombre átono ] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)(that which uses the pronominal verbs and its complements without preposition) and for the possessive, they employ the forms of [tuteo (te, tu, and tuyo)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), respectively: [«Vos te acostaste con el tuerto» (Gené Ulf [Arg. 1988]); «Lugar que odio [...] como te odio a vos» (Rossi María [C. Rica 1985]); «No cerrés tus ojos» (Flores Siguamonta [Guat. 1993]).] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) In other words, in the previous examples the authors conjugate the pronoun subject [vos] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) with the pronominal verbs and its complements of [tú] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help).[35]
The verbal [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) consists of the use of the second person plural, more or less modified, for the conjugated forms of the second person singular: [tú vivís, vos comés] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help). The verbal paradigm of [voseante] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is characterized by its complexity. On the one hand, it affects, to a distinct extent, each verbal tense. On the other hand, it varies in functions of geographic and social factors and not all the forms are accepted in cultured norms.[35]
Extension of Voseo in Latin America
[Vos] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is used extensively as the primary spoken form of the second-person singular pronoun, although with wide differences in social consideration. Generally, it can be said that there are zones of exclusive use of [tuteo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in the following areas: almost all of Mexico, the West Indies, Panama, the majority of Peru and Venezuela, and; the Atlantic coast of Colombia.
They alternate [tuteo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) as a cultured form and [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) as a popular or rural form in: Bolivia, north and south of Peru, Ecuador, small zones of the Venezuelan Andes, a great part of Colombia, and the oriental border of Cuba.
[Tuteo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) exists as an intermediate formality of treatment and [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) as a familiar treatment in: Chile, the Venezuelan state of Zulia, the Pacific coast of Colombia, Central America, and; the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas.
Areas of generalized [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) include Argentina, Costa Rica, Bolivia (east), El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay and the Colombian region of Antioquia.
[35]
Ustedes
Spanish forms also differ regarding second-person plural pronouns. "Usted" (Ud.) were initially the written abbreviation of "vuestra merced" (your mercy). The Spanish dialects of Latin America have only one form of the second-person plural for daily use, [ustedes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (formal or familiar, as the case may be, though [vosotros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) non-formal usage can sometimes appear in poetry and rhetorical or literary style). In Spain there are two forms — [ustedes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (formal) and [vosotros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (familiar). The pronoun [vosotros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is the plural form of [tú] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in most of Spain, but in the Americas (and certain southern Spanish cities such as Cádiz and in the Canary Islands) it is replaced with [ustedes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help). It is notable that the use of [ustedes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) for the informal plural "you" in southern Spain does not follow the usual rule for pronoun–verb agreement; e.g., while the formal form for "you go", [ustedes van] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), uses the third-person plural form of the verb, in Cádiz or Seville the informal form is constructed as [ustedes vais] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), using the second-person plural of the verb. In the Canary Islands, though, the usual pronoun–verb agreement is preserved in most cases.
Vocabulary
Some words can be different, even significantly so, 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 recognise specifically American usages. For example, Spanish mantequilla, aguacate and albaricoque (respectively, 'butter', 'avocado', 'apricot') correspond to manteca, palta, and damasco, respectively, in Peru (except manteca), Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. The everyday Spanish words coger ('to catch'), pisar ('to step on') and concha ('seashell') are considered extremely rude in parts of Latin America, where the meaning of coger and pisar is also "to have sex" and concha means "vulva". The Puerto Rican word for "bobby pin" (pinche) is an obscenity in Mexico, and in Nicaragua simply means "stingy". Other examples include taco, which means "swearword" (among other meanings) in Spain but is known to the rest of the world as a Mexican dish. Pija in many countries of Latin America and Spain itself is an obscene slang word for "penis", while in Spain the word also signifies "posh girl" or "snobby". Coche, which means "car" in Spain and central Mexico, for the vast majority of Spanish-speakers actually means "baby-stroller", in Guatemala it means "pig", [citation needed] while carro means "car" in some Latin American countries and "cart" in others, as well as in Spain. Papaya is the slang term in Cuba for "vagina" therefore in Cuba when referring to the actual fruit Cubans call it fruta bomba instead.[36][37]
Real Academia
The [Real Academia Española] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (Royal Spanish Academy), 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.[citation needed] Due to this 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. [citation needed]
Spanish is closely related to the other West Iberian Romance languages: Asturian, Galician, Ladino, Leonese and Portuguese. Catalan, an East Iberian language which exhibits many Gallo-Romance traits, is more similar to the neighboring Occitan language than to Spanish, or indeed than Spanish and Portuguese are to each other.
Spanish and Portuguese share similar grammars and vocabulary as well as a common history of Arabic influence while a great part of the peninsula was under Islamic rule (both languages expanded over Islamic territories). Their lexical similarity has been estimated as 89%.[38] See Differences between Spanish and Portuguese for further information.
Judaeo-Spanish
Judaeo-Spanish (also known as Ladino), which is essentially medieval Spanish and closer to modern Spanish than any other language, is spoken by many descendants of the Sephardi Jews who were expelled from Spain in the 15th century. Ladino speakers are currently almost exclusively Sephardi Jews, with family roots in Turkey, Greece or the Balkans: current speakers mostly live in Israel and Turkey, with a few pockets in Latin America. It lacks the Native American vocabulary which was influential during the 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 Castilian, including vocabulary from Hebrew, some French, Greek and 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 the case of the Latin American communities, the danger of extinction is also due to the risk of assimilation by modern Castilian.
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.
Vocabulary comparison
Spanish and Italian share a very similar phonological system. At present, the lexical similarity with Italian is estimated at 82%.[38] As a result, Spanish and Italian are mutually intelligible to various degrees. The lexical similarity with Portuguese is greater, 89%, but the vagaries of Portuguese pronunciation make it less easily understood by Hispanophones than Italian is. Mutual intelligibility between Spanish and French or Romanian is even lower (lexical similarity being respectively 75% and 71%[38]): comprehension of Spanish by French speakers who have not studied the language is as low as an estimated 45% – the same as English. The common features of the writing systems of the Romance languages allow for a greater amount of interlingual reading comprehension than oral communication would.
| Latin | Spanish | Galician | Portuguese | Leonese | Catalan | Italian | French | Romanian | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [nos] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [nosotros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [nós] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [nós] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)¹ | [nós] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [nosaltres] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [noi] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)² | [nous] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)³ | [noi] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | we |
| [fratrem germānum (acc.)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (lit. "true brother", i.e. not a cousin) | [hermano] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [irmán] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [irmão] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [harmanu] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [germà] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [fratello] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [frère] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [frate] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | brother |
| [dies Martis] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (Classical) [feria tertia] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
[martes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [martes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [terça-feira] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [martes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [dimarts] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [martedì] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [mardi] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [marţi] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | Tuesday |
| [cantiō (nem, acc.), canticum] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [canción] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [canción] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [canção] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [cantar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [cançó] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [canzone] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [chanson] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [cântec] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | song |
| [magis] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) or [plus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [más] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (archaically also [plus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) |
[máis] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [mais] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (archaically also [chus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) |
[más] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [més] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (archaically also [pus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) |
[più] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [plus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [mai/plus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | more |
| [manum sinistram (acc.)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [mano izquierda] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)
also ([mano siniestra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) |
[man esquerda] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [mão esquerda] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) also (sinistra)(archaically also [sẽestra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) |
[manu esquierda] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [mà esquerra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [mano sinistra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [main gauche] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [mâna stângă] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | left hand |
| [nihil] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) or [nullam rem natam (acc.)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (lit. "no thing born") |
[nada] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [nada] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)/[ren] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [nada] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (archaically also [rem] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) |
[nada] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [res] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [niente] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)/[nulla] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [rien] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)/[nul] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | [nimic/nul] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | nothing |
1. also [nós outros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in early modern Portuguese (e.g. The Lusiads)
2. [noi altri] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in Southern Italian dialects and languages
3. Alternatively [nous autres] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)
History
Spanish evolved from Vulgar Latin, with influences from Arabic in vocabulary during the Andalusian period[39] and other surviving influences from Basque and Celtiberian, as well as Germanic languages via the Visigoths. Spanish developed along the remote cross road strips among the Alava, Cantabria, Burgos, Soria and La Rioja provinces of Northern Spain (see Glosas Emilianenses), as a strongly innovative and differing variant from its nearest cousin, Leonese, with a higher degree of Basque influence in these regions (see Iberian Romance languages). Typical features of Spanish diachronical phonology include lenition (Latin [vita] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Spanish [vida] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)), palatalization (Latin [annum] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Spanish [año] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), and Latin [anellum] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Spanish [anillo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) and diphthongation (stem-changing) of short e and o from Vulgar Latin (Latin [terra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Spanish [tierra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Latin [novus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Spanish [nuevo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)). Similar phenomena can be found in other Romance languages as well.
During the [Reconquista] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), this northern dialect from Cantabria was carried south, and remains a minority language in the northern coastal Morocco.
The first Latin-to-Spanish grammar ([Gramática de la lengua castellana] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) was written in Salamanca, Spain, in 1492, by Elio Antonio de Nebrija. When it was presented to Isabel de Castilla, she asked, "¿Para qué querría yo un trabajo como éste, si ya conozco la lengua?" ("What do I want a work like this for, if I already know the language?"), to which he replied, "Su alteza, la lengua es el instrumento del Imperio" ("Your highness, the language is the instrument of the Empire.") [citation needed]
From the 16th century onwards, the language was taken to the Americas and the Spanish East Indies via Spanish colonization.
In the 20th century, Spanish was introduced to Equatorial Guinea and the Western Sahara, and in areas of the United States that had not been part of the Spanish Empire, such as in Spanish Harlem, in New York City. For details on borrowed words and other external influences upon Spanish, see Influences on the Spanish language.
Characterization
A defining feature of Spanish was the diphthongization of the Latin short vowels e and o into ie and ue, respectively, when they were stressed. Similar sound changes are found in other Romance languages, but in Spanish, they were significant. Some examples:
- Lat. [petra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) > Sp. [piedra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), It. [pietra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Fr. [pierre] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Rom. [piatrǎ] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Port./Gal. [pedra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Cat. [pedra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "stone".
- Lat. [moritur] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) > Sp. [muere] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), It. [muore] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Fr. [meurt] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) / [muert] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Rom. [moare] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Port./Gal. [morre] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Cat. [mor] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "die".
Peculiar to early Spanish (as in the Gascon dialect of Occitan, and possibly due to a Basque substratum) was the mutation of Latin initial f- into h- whenever it was followed by a vowel that did not diphthongate. Compare for instance:
- Lat. [filium] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) > It. [figlio] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Port. [filho] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Gal. [fillo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Fr. [fils] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Cat. [fill] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Occitan [filh] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (but Gascon [hilh] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) Sp. [hijo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (but Ladino [fijo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help));
- Lat. [fabulari] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) > Lad. [favlar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Port./Gal. [falar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Sp. [hablar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help);
- but Lat. [focum] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) > It. [fuoco] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Port./Gal. [fogo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Cat. [foc] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Sp./Lad. [fuego] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help).
Some consonant clusters of Latin also produced characteristically different results in these languages, for example:
- Lat. [clamare] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), acc. [flammam] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [plenum] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) > Lad. [lyamar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [flama] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [pleno] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Sp. [llamar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [llama] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [lleno] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help). However, in Spanish there are also the forms [clamar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [flama] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [pleno] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Port. [chamar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [chama] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [cheio] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Gal. [chamar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [chama] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [cheo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help).
- Lat. acc. [octo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [noctem] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [multum] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) > Lad. [ocho] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [noche] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [muncho] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Sp. [ocho] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [noche] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [mucho] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Port. [oito] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [noite] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [muito] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Gal. [oito] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [noite] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [moito] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help).
By the 16th century, the consonant system of Spanish underwent the following important changes that differentiated it from neighboring Romance languages such as Portuguese and Catalan:
- Initial /f/, when it had evolved into a vacillating /h/, was lost in most words (although this etymological h- is preserved in spelling and in some Andalusian and Caribbean dialects it is still aspirated in some words).
- The bilabial approximant /β̞/ (which was written u or v) merged with the bilabial occlusive /b/ (written b). In Spain and other countries there is no difference between the pronunciation of orthographic b and v in contemporary Spanish, excepting emphatic pronunciations that cannot be considered standard or natural. While in Spain the sound is always b for both, in other countries like Chile the sound is always v for uneducated people, but varies between b and v for the educated.
- The voiced alveolar fricative /z/ which existed as a separate phoneme in medieval Spanish merged with its voiceless counterpart /s/. The phoneme which resulted from this merger is currently spelled s.
- The voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/ merged with its voiceless counterpart /ʃ/, which evolved into the modern velar sound /x/ by the 17th century, now written with j, or g before e, i. Nevertheless, in most parts of Argentina and in Uruguay, y and ll have both evolved to /ʒ/ or /ʃ/.
- The voiced alveolar affricate /dz/ merged with its voiceless counterpart /ts/, which then developed into the interdental /θ/, now written z, or c before e, i. But in Andalusia, the Canary Islands and the Americas this sound merged with /s/ as well. See Ceceo, for further information.
The consonant system of Medieval Spanish has been better preserved in Ladino and in Portuguese, neither of which underwent these shifts
Writing system
Spanish is written using the Latin alphabet, with the addition of the character ‹ñ› ([eñe] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), representing the phoneme /ɲ/, a letter distinct from ‹n›, although typographically composed of an ‹n› with a tilde) and the digraphs ‹ch› ([che] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), representing the phoneme /tʃ/) and ‹ll› ([elle] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), representing the phoneme /ʎ/). However, the digraph ‹rr› ([erre fuerte] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), 'strong r", [erre doble] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), 'double r', or simply [erre] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)), which also represents a distinct phoneme /r/, is not similarly regarded as a single letter. Since 1994 ‹ch› and ‹ll› have been treated as letter pairs for collation purposes, though they remain a part of the alphabet. Words with ‹ch› are now alphabetically sorted between those with ‹ce› and ‹ci› , instead of following ‹cz› as they used to. The situation is similar for ‹ll›.[40][41]
Thus, the Spanish alphabet has the following 29 letters:
- a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll, m, n, ñ, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z.[42]
The letters "k" and "w" are used only in words and names coming from foreign languages (kilo, folklore, whiskey, William, etc).
With the exclusion of a very small number of regional terms such as México (see 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 ‹y›) or with a vowel followed by ‹n› or ‹s›; it is stressed on the last syllable otherwise. Exceptions to this rule are indicated by placing an acute accent on the 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 [el] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ('the', masculine singular definite article) with [él] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ('he' or 'it'), or [te] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ('you', object pronoun), [de] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (preposition 'of'), and [se] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (reflexive pronoun) with [té] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ('tea'), [dé] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ('give' [formal imperative/third-person present subjunctive]) and [sé] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ('I know' or imperative 'be').
The interrogative pronouns ([qué] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [cuál] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [dónde] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [quién] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), etc.) also receive accents in direct or indirect questions, and some demonstratives ([ése] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [éste] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [aquél] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), etc.) can be accented when used as pronouns. The conjunction [o] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ('or') is written with an accent between numerals so as not to be confused with a zero: e.g., [10 ó 20] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) should be read as [diez o veinte] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) rather than [diez mil veinte] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ('10,020'). Accent marks are frequently omitted in capital letters (a widespread practice in the days of typewriters and the early days of computers where only lowercase vowels were available with accents), although the RAE advises against this.
When ‹u› is written between ‹g› and a front vowel (‹e i›), it indicates a "hard g" pronunciation. A diaeresis (‹ü›) indicates that it is not silent as it normally would be (e.g., cigüeña, 'stork', is pronounced [θiˈɣweɲa]; if it were written cigueña, it would be pronounced [θiˈɣeɲa].
Interrogative and exclamatory clauses are introduced with Inverted question and exclamation marks (‹¿› and ‹¡›, respectively).
Phonology
The phonemic inventory listed in the following table includes phonemes that are preserved only in some dialects, other dialects having merged them (such as yeísmo); these are marked with an asterisk (*). Sounds in parentheses are allophones. Where symbols appear in pairs, the symbol to the right represents a voiced consonant.
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||
| Stop | p b | t d | tʃ (ɟʝ) | k g | ||
| Fricative | f (v) | *θ (ð) | s (z) | ʝ | x | |
| Approximant | (β̞) | (ð̞) | (ɣ˕) | |||
| Trill | r | |||||
| Tap | ɾ | |||||
| Lateral | l | *ʎ | ||||
Lexical stress
Spanish is a syllable-timed language, so each syllable has the same duration regardless of stress.[44][45] Stress most often occurs on any of the last three syllables of a word, with some rare exceptions at the fourth last or earlier syllables. The tendencies of stress assignment are as follows:[46]
- In words ending in vowels and /s/, stress most often falls on the penultimate syllable.
- In words ending in all other consonants, the stress more often falls on the last syllable.
- Preantepenultimate stress occurs rarely and only in words like guardándoselos ('saving them for him/her') where a clitic follows certain verbal forms.
In addition to the many exceptions to these tendencies, there are numerous minimal pairs which contrast solely on stress such as sábana ('sheet') and sabana ('savannah'), as well as límite ('boundary'), limite ('[that] he/she limits') and limité ('I limited').
An amusing example of the significance of intonation in Spanish is the phrase ¿Cómo, cómo como? ¡Como como como! ("What do you mean, how do I eat? I eat the way I eat!").
Grammar
Spanish is a relatively inflected language, with a two-gender system and about fifty conjugated forms per verb, but limited inflection of nouns, adjectives, and determiners. (For a detailed overview of verbs, see Spanish verbs and Spanish irregular verbs.)
It is right-branching, uses prepositions, and usually, though not always, places adjectives after nouns - as most other Romance languages. Its syntax is generally Subject Verb Object, though variations are common. It is a pro-drop language (allows the deletion of pronouns when pragmatically unnecessary) and verb-framed.
Samples
| English | Spanish | IPA phonemic transcription (abstract phonemes) 1 |
IPA phonetic transcription (actual sounds) 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spanish |
[Español] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
/es.paˈɲol/ |
[e̞s̺.päˈɲo̞l] [e̞s̻.päˈɲo̞l] |
| (Castilian) Spanish |
[castellano] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
/kas.teˈʎa.no/ /kas.teˈʝa.no/ |
[käs̪.t̪e̞ˈʎä.no̞] [käs̪.t̪e̞ˈʝ̞ä.no̞] [käh.t̪e̞ˈʒä.no̞] |
| Yes |
[Sí] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
/ˈsi/ |
[ˈs̺i] [ˈs̻i] |
| No | [No] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | /ˈno/ | [ˈno̞] |
| Hello | [Hola] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | /ˈo.la/ | [ˈo̞.lä] |
| How are you? | [¿Cómo estás (tú)?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (informal) [¿Cómo está (usted)?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (formal) |
/ˈko.mo esˈtas/ |
[ˈko̞.mo̞ e̞s̪ˈt̪äs̺] [ˈko̞.mo̞ e̞s̪ˈt̪äs̻] [ˈko̞.mo̞ ɛhˈt̪æ̞h] |
| Good morning |
[Buenos días] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
/ˈbue.nos ˈdi.as/ |
[ˈbwe̞.no̞z̪ ˈð̞i.äs̺] [ˈbwe̞.no̞z̪ ˈð̞i.äs̻] [ˈbwɛ.nɔh ˈð̞i.æ̞h] |
| Good afternoon/evening |
[Buenas tardes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
/ˈbue.nas ˈtar.des/ 3 |
[ˈbwe̞.näs̪ ˈt̪äɾ.ð̞e̞s̺] [ˈbwe̞.näs̪ ˈt̪äɾ.ð̞e̞s̻] [ˈbwɛ.næ̞h ˈt̪æ̞ɾ.ð̞ɛh] |
| Good night |
[Buenas noches] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
/ˈbue.nas ˈno.tʃes/ |
[ˈbwe̞.näs̺ ˈno̞.tʃe̞s̺] [ˈbwe̞.näs̻ ˈno̞.tʃe̞s̻] [ˈbwɛ.næ̞h ˈnɔ.tʃɛh] |
| Goodbye |
[Adiós] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
/aˈdios/ |
[äˈð̞jo̞s̺] [äˈð̞jo̞s̻] [æ̞ˈð̞jɔh] |
| Please | [Por favor] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | /por faˈbor/ 3 | [po̞r fäˈβ̞o̞r] |
| Thank you |
[Gracias] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
/ˈgra.θias/ 3 /ˈgra.sias/ 3 |
[ˈgɾä.θjäs̺] [ˈgɾä.s̻jäs̻] [ˈgɾ æ̞.s̻jæ̞h] |
| Excuse me |
[Perdón] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
/perˈdon/ 3 |
[pe̞ɾˈð̞õ̞n] [pe̞ɾˈð̞õ̞] |
| I am sorry |
[Lo siento] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
/lo ˈsien.to/ 3; |
[lo̞ ˈs̺jẽ̞n̪.t̪o̞] [lo̞ ˈs̻jẽ̞n̪.t̪o̞] |
| Hurry! (informal) |
[¡Date prisa!] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | /ˈda.te ˈpri.sa/ 3 |
[ˈd̪ä.t̪e̞ ˈpɾi.s̺ä] [ˈd̪ä.t̪e̞ ˈpɾi.s̻ä] |
| Because | [Porque] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | /ˈpor.ke/ 3 | [ˈpo̞r.ke̞] |
| Why? | [¿Por qué?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | /por ˈke/ 3 | [po̞r ˈke̞] |
| Who? |
[¿Quién?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
/ˈkien/ 3 |
[ˈkjẽ̞n] [ˈkjẽ̞] |
| What? | [¿Qué?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | /ˈke/ | [ˈke̞] |
| When? | [¿Cuándo?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | /ˈkuan.do/ 3 | [ˈkwãn̪.d̪o̞] |
| Where? | [¿Dónde?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | /ˈdon.de/ 3 | [ˈdõ̞n̪.d̪e̞] |
| How? | [¿Cómo?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | /ˈko.mo/ | [ˈko̞.mo̞] |
| How much? | [¿Cuánto(-a)?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | /ˈkuan.to/ 3 | [ˈkwãn̪.t̪o̞] |
| I do not understand | [No entiendo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) | /no enˈtien.do/ 3 | [nŏ̞ ẽ̞n̪ˈt̪jẽ̞n̪.d̪o̞] |
| Help me (please) (formal) Help me! (informal) |
[Ayúde(n)me ¡Ayúdame! ] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
/aˈʝu.de.me//aˈʝu.da.me/ | [äˈʝ̞u.ð̞e̞.me̞] [äˈʒu.ð̞e̞.me̞] [äˈʝ̞u.ð̞ä.me̞] [äˈʒu.ð̞ä.me̞] |
| Where is the bathroom? |
[¿Dónde está el baño?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
/ˈdon.de esˈta el ˈba.ɲo] 3 |
[ˈdõ̞n̪.d̪e̞ e̞s̪ˈt̪ä ĕ̞l ˈbä.ɲo̞] [ˈdõ̞n̪ d̪ɛhˈt̪ä ĕ̞l ˈβ̞ä.ɲo̞] |
| Do you speak English? (informal) |
[¿Hablas inglés?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
/ˈa.blas inˈgles/ 3 |
[ˈä.β̞läs̺ ĩŋˈgle̞s̺] [ˈä.β̞läs̻ ĩŋˈgle̞s̻] [ˈæ̞.β̞læ̞h ĩŋˈglɛh] |
| Cheers! (toast) |
[¡Salud!] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) |
/saˈlud/ |
[s̺aˈluð̞] [s̻aˈlu(ð̞)] |
1 Phonemic representation of the abstract phonological entities (phonemes), 2 phonetic representation of the actual sounds pronounced (phones). In both cases, when several representations are given, the first one corresponds to the dialect in the recording (Castilian with yeísmo) and the rest to several other dialects not in the recording.
3 The nasal and rhotic sounds undergo a certain degree of neutralization and are represented as /n/ and /r/ in phonemic transcription even when the phonetic realiation differs from [n] and [r].
See also
Local varieties
References
- ^ [1].
- ^ CIA The World Factbook United States
- ^ "Internet World Users by Language". Miniwatts Marketing Group. 2008.
- ^ CIA World Factbook — Gibraltar
- ^ Andorra — People. MSN Encarta. Retrieved 2007-08-20.
- ^ "Background Note: Andorra". U.S. Department of State: Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-20.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ BBC Education — Languages, Languages Across Europe — Spanish.
- ^ "Switzerland's Four National Languages". all-about-switzerland.info. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
- ^ Ethnologue – Paraguay(2000). Guaraní is also the most-spoken language in Paraguay by its native speakers.
- ^ "Puerto Rico Elevates English". the New York Times. 29 January 1993. Retrieved 2007-10-06.
- ^ "Population Census 2000, Major Findings" (PDF). Central Statistical Office, Ministry of Budget Management, Belize. 2000. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-06-21. Retrieved 2007-12-20.
- ^ Belize Population and Housing Census 2000
- ^ CIA World Factbook — Belize
- ^ a b Williams, Carol J. (2005-08-30). "Trinidad Says It Needs Spanish to Talk Business". Los Angeles Times. p. A3. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
- ^ The Secretariat for The Implementation of Spanish, Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago
- ^ Mercosul, Portal Oficial (Portuguese)
- ^ Pimentel, Carolina (2005-08-08). "Brazil Wants to Pay Foreign Debt with Spanish Classes" (PDF). Brazzil magazine. Retrieved 2008-01-10.
- ^ Lipski, John M. (2006). "Too close for comfort? the genesis of "portuñol/portunhol"" (PDF). Selected Proceedings of the 8th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. ed. Timothy L. Face and Carol A. Klee, 1–22. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. Retrieved 2008-12-29.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ U.S. Census Bureau Hispanic or Latino by specific origin.
- ^ U.S. Census Bureau 1. Percent of People 5 Years and Over Who Speak Spanish at Home: 2006, U.S. Census Bureau 2. 34,044,945 People 5 Years and Over Who Speak Spanish at Home: 2006
- ^ Template:PDFlink, MLA Fall 2002.
- ^ Facts, Figures, and Statistics About Spanish, American Demographics, 1998
- ^ Template:PDFlink, Statistical Abstract of the United States: page 47: Table 47: Languages Spoken at Home by Language: 2003
- ^ Template:PDFlink, MLA Fall 2002.
- ^ El refuerzo del español llega a los saharauis con una escuela en los campos de Tinduf
- ^ Ethnologue – Equatorial Guinea ((2000)
- ^ CIA World Factbook – Equatorial Guinea (Last updated 20 September 2007)
- ^ Morocco.com, The Languages of Morocco.
- ^ 1973 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, thecorpusjuris.com, retrieved 2008-04-06 (See Article XV, Section 3(3)
- ^ Harris (1969:538)
- ^ Random House Unabridged Dictionary. Random House Inc. 2006.
- ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company. 2006.
- ^ Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. MICRA, Inc. 1998.
- ^ Encarta World English Dictionary. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. 2007. Retrieved 2008-08-05.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española
- ^ 3 Guys From Miami: Fruta Bomba
- ^ Urban Dictionary: papaya
- ^ a b c "Spanish". ethnologue.
- ^ "Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language". Oxford University Press. Retrieved 24 July 2008.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dateformat=ignored (help) - ^ Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas, 1st ed.
- ^ Real Academia Española, Explanation at http://www.spanishpronto.com/ (in Spanish and English)
- ^ "Abecedario". Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (in Spanish). Real Academia Española. 2005. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
- ^ Martínez-Celdrán et al. (2003:255)
- ^ Cressey (1978:152)
- ^ Abercrombie (1967:98)
- ^ Eddington (2000:96)
Bibliography
- Abercrombie, David (1967), Elements of General Phonetics, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
- Cressey, William Whitney (1978), Spanish Phonology and Morphology: A Generative View, Georgetown University Press, ISBN 0878400451
- Eddington, David (2000), "Spanish Stress Assignment within the Analogical Modeling of Language" (PDF), Language, 76 (1): 92–109, doi:10.2307/417394
- Harris, James (1967), "Sound Change in Spanish and the Theory of Markedness", Language, 45 (3): 538–552
- Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 255–259, doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373
External links
- Template:Es icon Dictionary of the RAE Real Academia Española's official Spanish language dictionary
- Spanish – BBC Languages
- English - Spanish - altogether 260348 entries.
- Spanish evolution from Latin
- Spanish phrasebook on WikiTravel
- The Project Gutenberg EBook of a first Spanish reader by Erwin W. Roessler and Alfred Remy.
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