Spanish language

Spanish
[español] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)
[castellano] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)
Pronunciation	[espaˈɲol], [kasteˈʎano]
Region	Spain, Latin America, Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara, Philippines, and Easter Island (see below)
Native speakers	406 million. (2010) 60 million as a second language. 500 million total (L1, L2, FL)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Romance Ibero-Romance West-Iberian Castilian languages Spanish
Early form	Old Spanish
Writing system	Latin (Spanish alphabet) Spanish Braille
Official status
Official language in	21 countries Argentina Bolivia Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Chile Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Guatemala Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru SADR Spain Uruguay Venezuela Dependent entities Canary Islands Ceuta Easter Island Melilla New Mexico Puerto Rico Minority language in: Andorra Belize Gibraltar Philippines United States International Organisations: United Nations African Union European Union Mercosur Organization of American States Union of South American Nations (see many more)
Regulated by	Association of Spanish Language Academies (Real Academia Española and 21 other national Spanish language academies)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	es
ISO 639-2	spa
ISO 639-3	spa
Linguasphere	51-AAA-b
Countries where Spanish has official status.   Countries and U.S. states where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 25% or more of the population.   Countries and U.S. states where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 10–20% of the population.   Countries and U.S. states where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 5–9.9% of the population.

Spanish ([español] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)), also called Castilian ([castellano] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ), is a Romance language that originated in Castile, a region in Spain. Approximately 406 million people speak Spanish as a native language, making it second only to Mandarin in terms of its number of native speakers. It also has 60 million speakers as a second language, and 20 million students as a foreign language. Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and is used as an official language by the European Union and Mercosur.

Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of common Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century. It was first documented in central-northern Iberia in the ninth century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia. From its beginnings, Spanish vocabulary was influenced by its contact with Basque and by other related Ibero-Romance languages and later absorbed many Arabic words during the Muslim presence in the Iberian Peninsula. It also adopted many words from non Iberian languages, particularly the Romance languages Occitan, French and Italian and increasingly from English in modern times, as well as adding its own new words. Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire in the sixteenth century, most notably to the Americas as well as territories in Africa, Oceania and the Philippines.

Spanish is the most popular second language learned by native speakers of American English. From the last decades of the 20th century, the study of Spanish as a foreign language has grown significantly, in part because of the growing populations and economies of many Spanish-speaking countries, and the growing international tourism in these countries.

Spanish is the most widely understood language in the Western Hemisphere, with significant populations of native Spanish speakers ranging from the tip of Patagonia to as far north as New York City and Chicago. Additionally, there are over 10 million fluent second language speakers in both Brazil and the United States. Since the early 21st century, it has arguably superseded French in becoming the second-most-studied language and the second language in international communication, after English.

Names of the language

Main article: Names given to the Spanish language

Geographical distribution of the preferential use of the terms castellano (Castilian), in red, vs. español (Spanish), in blue.

In Spain and in some other parts of the Spanish-speaking world, Spanish is called castellano (Castilian) as well as español (Spanish), that is, the language of the region of Castile, contrasting it with other languages spoken in Spain such as Galician, Basque, and Catalan. 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, in contrast to [las demás lenguas españolas] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (lit. the rest of the 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 rest of the Spanish languages shall also be official in their respective Autonomous Communities...

The Spanish Royal Academy, on the other hand, currently uses the term español in its publications but from 1713 to 1923 called the language castellano.

The Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (a language guide published by the Spanish Royal Academy) states that, although the Spanish Royal Academy prefers to use the term español in its publications when referring to the Spanish language, both terms, español and castellano, are regarded as synonymous and equally valid.

Two etymologies for español have been suggested. The Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary derives the term from the Provençal word espaignol, and that in turn from the Medieval Latin word Hispaniolus, 'from—or pertaining to—Hispania'. Other authorities attribute it to a supposed medieval Latin *hispaniōne, with the same meaning.

History

Main article: History of Spanish

A page of [Cantar de Mio Cid] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), the oldest preserved Spanish epic poem, in medieval Spanish.

The Spanish language evolved from Vulgar Latin (colloquial Latin), which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans during the Second Punic War, beginning in 210 B.C. Prior to that time, several pre-Roman languages (also called Paleohispanic languages)—unrelated to Latin, and some of them unrelated even to Indo-European—were spoken in the Iberian Peninsula. These languages included Basque (still spoken today), Iberian, and Celtiberian. Traces of these languages, especially Basque, can be found in the Spanish vocabulary today, mainly among place names.

The first documents to record what is today regarded as the precursor of modern Spanish are from the ninth century (see Glosas Emilianenses). Throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era, by far the most important influence on Spanish (Castilian) lexicon came from neighboring Romance languages—Navarro-Aragonese, Leonese, Aragonese, Catalan, Portuguese, Galician, Mirandese, Occitan, Gascon, and later, French and Italian—but also from Basque, Arabic and to a lesser extent, the Germanic languages. Many words were borrowed from Latin through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church.

Local sociolects of Vulgar Latin evolved into Spanish in the north of Iberia, in an area defined by Álava, Cantabria, Burgos, Soria and La Rioja. The dialect was later brought to the city of Toledo, where the written standard of Spanish was first developed, in the 13th century. In this formative stage, Spanish (Castilian) developed a strongly differing variant from its close cousin, Leonese, and, according to some authors, was distinguished by a heavy Basque influence (see Iberian Romance languages). This distinctive dialect progressively spread south with the advance of the [Reconquista] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), and so gathered a sizable lexical influence from the Arabic of Al-Andalus, much of it indirectly, through the Romance Mozarabic dialects. The written standard for this new language began to be developed in the cities of Toledo, in the 13th to 16th centuries, and Madrid, from the 1570s.

The development of the Spanish sound system from that of Vulgar Latin exhibits most of the changes that are typical of Western Romance languages, including lenition of intervocalic consonants (thus Latin vīta > Spanish [vida] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)). The diphthongization of Latin stressed short e and o—which occurred in open syllables in French and Italian, but not at all in Catalan or Portuguese—is found in both open and closed syllables in Spanish, as shown in the following table:

Latin	Spanish	Ladino	Aragonese	Asturian	Galician	Portuguese	Catalan	Occitan	French	Italian	Romanian	English
petra	piedra	piedra (or pyedra)	piedra	piedra	pedra	pedra	pedra	pedra/pèira	pierre	pietra	piatrǎ	'stone'
terra	tierra	tierra (or tyerra)	tierra	tierra	terra	terra	terra	tèrra	terre	terra	ţară	'land'
moritur	muere	muere	muere	muerre	morre	morre	mor	morís	meurt	muore	moare	'dies (v.)'
mortem	muerte	muerte	muerte	muerte	morte	morte	mort	mòrt	mort	morte	moarte	'death'

Spanish is marked by the palatalization of the Latin double consonants nn and ll (thus Latin annum > Spanish [año] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), and Latin anellum > Spanish [anillo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)).

The consonant written ⟨u⟩ or ⟨v⟩ in Latin and pronounced [w] in Classical Latin had probably "fortified" to a bilabial fricative /β/ in Vulgar Latin. In early Spanish (but not in Catalan or Portuguese) it merged with the consonant written ⟨b⟩ (a bilabial with plosive and fricative allophones). In modern Spanish, there is no difference between the pronunciation of orthographic ⟨b⟩ and ⟨v⟩.

Peculiar to Spanish (as well as to the neighboring Gascon dialect of Occitan, and sometimes attributed to a Basque substratum) was the mutation of Latin initial f- into h- whenever it was followed by a vowel that did not diphthongize. The h-, still preserved in spelling, is now silent in most varieties of the language, although in some Andalusian and Caribbean dialects it is still aspirated in some words. This is the reason why there are modern spelling variants Fernando and Hernando (both Spanish of "Ferdinand"), ferrero and herrero (both Spanish of "smith"), fierro and hierro (both Spanish of "iron"), and fondo and hondo (both Spanish of "deep", but fondo means "bottom" while hondo means "deep"); hacer (Spanish of "to make") is the root word of satisfacer (Spanish of "to satisfy"), and hecho ("made") is the root word of satisfecho (Spanish of "satisfied").

Compare the examples in the following table:

Latin	Spanish	Ladino	Aragonese	Asturian	Galician	Portuguese	Catalan	Occitan	French	Italian	Romanian	English
filium	hijo	fijo (or ijo)	fillo	fíu	fillo	filho	fill	filh/hilh	fils	figlio	fiu	'son'
facere	hacer	fazer	fer	facer	facer	fazer	fer	far/faire/har (or hèr)	faire	fare	facere	'to do'
febrem	fiebre	fiebre	fiebre	fiebre	febre	febre	febre	fèbre/frèbe/hrèbe (or herèbe)	fièvre	febbre	febră	'fever'
focum	fuego	fuego	fuego	fueu	fogo	fogo	foc	fuòc/fòc/huèc	feu	fuoco	foc	'fire'

Some consonant clusters of Latin also produced characteristically different results in these languages, as shown in the examples in the following table:

Latin	Spanish	Ladino	Aragonese	Asturian	Galician	Portuguese	Catalan	Occitan	French	Italian	Romanian	English
clāvem	llave	clave	clau	llave	chave	chave/clave	clau	clau	clé	chiave	cheie	'key'
flamma	llama	flama	flama	llama	chama	chama/flama	flama	flama	flamme	fiamma	flamă	'flame'
plēnum	lleno	pleno	plen	llenu	cheo	cheio/pleno	ple	plen	plein	pieno	plin	'plenty,full'
octō	ocho	ocho	güeito	ocho/oito	oito	oito	vuit/huit	uèch/uòch/uèit	huit	otto	opt	'eight'
multum	mucho muy	muncho muy	muito mui	munchu mui	moito moi	muito mui (arch.)	molt	molt (arch.)	moult (arch.)	molto	mult	'much, very, a lot of'

Antonio de Nebrija author of the Gramática, the first Grammar of modern European languages.

Miguel de Cervantes author of Don Quixote, considered the first modern European novel.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish underwent a dramatic change in the pronunciation of its sibilant consonants, known in Spanish as the reajuste de las sibilantes, which resulted in the distinctive velar [x] pronunciation of the letter ⟨j⟩ and—in a large part of Spain—the characteristic interdental [θ] ("th-sound") for the letter ⟨z⟩ (and for ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩). See History of Spanish (Modern development of the Old Spanish sibilants) for details.

The [Gramática de la lengua castellana] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), written in Salamanca in 1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija, was the first grammar written for a modern European language. According to a popular anecdote, when Nebrija presented it to Queen Isabella I, she asked him what was the use of such a work, and he answered that language is the instrument of empire. In his introduction to the grammar, dated August 18, 1492, Nebrija wrote that "... language was always the companion of empire."

From the sixteenth century onwards, the language was taken to America and the Spanish East Indies via Spanish colonization of America. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, author of Don Quixote, is such a well-known reference in the world that Spanish is often called la lengua de Cervantes ("the language of Cervantes").

In the twentieth century, Spanish was introduced to Equatorial Guinea and the Western Sahara, and to areas of the United States that had not been part of the Spanish Empire, such as Spanish Harlem in New York City. For details on borrowed words and other external influences upon Spanish, see Influences on the Spanish language.

Grammar

Main article: Spanish grammar

Spanish is a relatively inflected language, with a two-gender noun system and about fifty conjugated forms per verb, but with inflection of nouns, adjectives, and determiners limited to number and gender. (For a detailed overview of verbs, see Spanish verbs and Spanish irregular verbs.) Spanish syntax is considered right-branching, meaning that subordinate or modifying constituents tend to be placed after their head words. The language uses prepositions (rather than postpositions or inflection of nouns for case), and usually—though not always—places adjectives after nouns, as do most other Romance languages.

Its sentence structure is generally subject–verb–object, although variations are common. It is a "pro-drop", or "null-subject" language—that is, it allows the deletion of subject pronouns when they are pragmatically unnecessary. Spanish is described as a "verb-framed" language, meaning that the direction of motion is expressed in the verb while the mode of locomotion is expressed adverbially (e.g. subir corriendo or salir volando; the respective English equivalents of these examples—'to run up' and 'to fly out'—show that English is, by contrast, "satellite-framed", with mode of locomotion expressed in the verb and direction in an adverbial modifier).

Subject/verb inversion is not required in questions, and thus the recognition of declarative or interrogative may depend entirely on intonation.

Phonology

Main article: Spanish phonology

Segmental phonology

The Spanish phonemic inventory consists of five vowel phonemes (/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/) and 17 to 19 consonant phonemes (the exact number depending on the dialect). The main allophonic variation among vowels is the reduction of the high vowels /i/ and /u/ to glides—[j] and [w] respectively—when unstressed and adjacent to another vowel. Some instances of the mid vowels /e/ and /o/, determined lexically, alternate with the diphthongs [je] and [we] respectively when stressed, in a process that is better described as morphophonemic rather than phonological, as it is not predictable from phonology alone.

The Spanish consonant system is characterized by (1) three nasal phonemes, and one or two (depending on the dialect) lateral phoneme(s), which in syllable-final position lose their contrast and are subject to assimilation to a following consonant; (2) three voiceless stops and the affricate /tʃ/; (3) three or four (depending on the dialect) voiceless fricatives; (4) a set of voiced obstruents—/b/, /d/, /ɡ/, and sometimes /ʝ/—which alternate between fricative and plosive allophones depending on the environment; and (5) a phonemic distinction between the "tapped" and "trilled" r-sounds (single ⟨r⟩ and double ⟨rr⟩ in orthography).

In the following table of consonant phonemes, /θ/ and /ʎ/ are marked with an asterisk (*) to indicate that they are preserved only in some dialects. In most dialects they have been merged, respectively, with /s/ and /ʝ/, in the mergers called, respectively, seseo and yeísmo. The phoneme /ʃ/ is in parentheses () to indicate that it appears only in loanwords. Each of the voiced obstruent phonemes /b/, /d/, /ʝ/, and /ɡ/ appears to the right of a pair of voiceless phonemes, to indicate that, while the voiceless phonemes maintain a phonemic contrast between plosive (or affricate) and fricative, the voiced ones alternate allophonically (i.e. without phonemic contrast) between plosive and fricative pronunciations.

Table of consonant phonemes of Spanish

	Labial		Dental		Alveolar	Palatal		Velar
Nasal	m				n	ɲ
Plosive	p	b	t	d				k	ɡ
Fricative	f		θ*		s	(ʃ)	ʝ	x
Affricate						tʃ
Trill					r
Tap					ɾ
Lateral					l	ʎ*

V and B

The letters ⟨v⟩ and ⟨b⟩ normally represent the same phoneme, /b/, which is realized as [b] after a nasal consonant or a pause, and as [β] elsewhere, as in ambos [ˈambos] ('both') envío [emˈbi.o] ('I send'), acabar [akaˈβaɾ] ('to finish') and mover [moˈβeɾ] ('to move'). The Royal Spanish Academy considers the /v/ pronunciation for the letter ⟨v⟩ to be incorrect and affected. However, some Spanish speakers maintain the pronunciation of the /v/ sound as it is in other western European languages. The sound /v/ is used for the letter ⟨v⟩, in the Spanish language, by a few second-language speakers in Spain whose native language is Catalan, in the Balearic Islands, in the Valencian Community, and in southern Catalonia. In the USA it is also common because of the proximity and influence of English phonology, and the /v/ is also occasionally used in Mexico. Some parts of Central America also use /v/, which the Royal Academy attributes to the interference of local indigenous languages.

Historically, the /v/ pronunciation was uncommon, but considered correct well into the twentieth century.

Prosody

Spanish is classified by its rhythm as a syllable-timed language, meaning that each syllable has approximately the same duration regardless of stress.

Spanish intonation varies significantly according to dialect, but generally conforms to a pattern of falling tone for declarative sentences and wh-questions (who, what, why, etc.), and rising tone for yes/no questions. There are no syntactic markers to distinguish between questions and statements, and thus the recognition of declarative or interrogative depends entirely on intonation.

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:

• In words that end with a vowel, stress most often falls on the penultimate syllable.

• In words that end with a consonant, stress most often falls on the last syllable, with the following exceptions: The grammatical endings -n (for third-person-plural of verbs) and -s (whether for plural of nouns and adjectives or for second-person-singular of verbs) do not change the location of stress. Thus regular verbs ending with -n and the great majority of words ending with -s are stressed on the penult. Although a significant number of nouns and adjectives ending with -n are also stressed on the penult (e.g. joven, virgen, mitin), the great majority of nouns and adjectives ending with -n are stressed on their last syllable (e.g. capitán, almacén, jardín, corazón).

• Preantepenultimate stress (stress on the fourth-to-last syllable) occurs rarely, and only on verbs with clitic pronouns attached (e.g. guardándoselos 'saving them for him/her/them').

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'), or also líquido ('liquid'), liquido ('I sell off') and liquidó ('he/she sold off').

The spelling system unambiguously reflects where the stress occurs: in the absence of an accent mark, the stress falls on the last syllable unless the last letter is ⟨n⟩, ⟨s⟩, or a vowel, in which cases the stress falls on the next-to-last syllable; if and only if the absence of an accent mark would give the wrong stress information, an acute accent mark appears over the stressed syllable.

Geographical distribution

See also: Hispanophone

Active learning of Spanish.

Spanish is the primary language of 20 countries worldwide. It is estimated that the combined total number of Spanish speakers is between 470 and 500 million, making it the second most widely spoken language in terms of native speakers.

Spanish is the third most spoken language by total number of speakers (after Mandarin and English). Internet usage statistics for 2007 show Spanish as the third most commonly used language on the Internet, after English and Mandarin.

Europe

Percentage of people who self reportedly know enough Spanish to hold a conversation, in the EU, 2005.

  Native country

  More than 8.99%

  Between 4% and 8.99%

  Between 1% and 3.99%

  Less than 1%

In Europe, Spanish is an official language of Spain, the country after which it is named and from which it originated. It is widely spoken in Gibraltar, although English is the official language. It is also commonly spoken in Andorra, although Catalan is the official language.

Spanish is also spoken by small communities in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Spanish is an official language of the European Union. In Switzerland, Spanish is the native language of 1.7% of the population, representing the largest minority after the 4 official languages of the country.

Spanish is the fourth most widely studied second language in Western Europe after English, French, and German. In France and the United Kingdom, Spanish is often the second most popular foreign language (after English and French respectively).

The Americas

Latin America

Main article: Spanish language in the Americas

Most Spanish speakers are in Latin America; of all countries with a majority of Spanish speakers, only Spain and Equatorial Guinea are outside 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, Aymara, Guarani and 34 other languages), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Uruguay, Venezuela, Peru (in addition to Spanish; Quechua, Aymara and other indigenous languages are also official in areas where they predominate ), Paraguay (co-official with Guaraní). Spanish is also the de facto and official language in Puerto Rico.

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. Mainly, it is spoken by the descendants of Hispanics who have been in the region since the seventeenth century; however, English is the official language.

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. In 2004, the government launched the Spanish as a First Foreign Language (SAFFL) initiative in March 2005. 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.

Spanish is important in Brazil because of its proximity to and increased trade with its Spanish-speaking neighbors, and because of its membership in the Mercosur trading bloc and the Union of South American Nations. 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 in Brazil. In many border towns and villages (especially in the Uruguayan-Brazilian and Paraguayan-Brazilian border areas), a mixed language known as Portuñol is spoken.

United States

Main article: Spanish language in the United States

Spanish spoken in the United States. Darker shades of blue indicate higher percentages of Spanish speakers.

According to 2006 census data, 44.3 million people of the U.S. population were Hispanic or Latin American by origin; 34 million people, 12.2 percent, of the population more than five years old speak Spanish at home. Spanish has a long history in the United States because many southwestern states were Spanish territories, and subsequently part of Mexico. In the southeast, Florida was a Spanish territory until 1821.

Spanish has been revitalized in the U.S. by an influx of Hispanic immigrants. Spanish is the most widely taught language in the country after English. Although the United States has no formally designated "official languages," Spanish is formally recognized at the state level in various states in addition to English. In the U.S. state of New Mexico, 40% of the population speaks the language.

It also has strong influence in metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, Miami, San Antonio, New York City, Tampa, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Chicago, and in the twenty-first century the language has rapidly expanded in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Richmond, and Washington, DC. With a total of 37 million Spanish speakers, according to US Census Bureau, the U.S. has the world's second-largest Spanish-speaking population. Spanish ranks second, behind English, as the language spoken most widely at home.

Africa

In Africa, Spanish is official in Equatorial Guinea, as well as an official language of the African Union. In Equatorial Guinea, Spanish is the predominant language when native and non-native speakers (around 500,000 people) are counted, while Fang is the most spoken language by number of native speakers.

Today, in Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, an unknown number of Sahrawis are able to read and write in Spanish, and several thousands have received university education in foreign countries as part of aid packages (mainly in Cuba and Spain). Sahrawi Press Service, the official news service of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic of Western Sahara, has been available in Spanish since 2001, and RASD TV, the official television channel of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, has a website available in Spanish.

The Sahara Film Festival, Western Sahara's only film festival, mainly shows Spanish-language films. Spanish is used to document Sahrawi poetry and oral traditions and has also be used in Sahrawi literature. Despite Spanish having been used by the Sahrawi people for over a century because of Western Sahara's history as a former Spanish colony, the Cervantes Institute has denied support and Spanish-language education to Sahrawis in Western Sahara and the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria. A group of Sahrawi poets known as Generación de la Amistad saharaui produces Sahrawi literature in Spanish.

Spanish is also spoken in the Spanish autonomous cities of Ceuta (75,241) and Melilla (73,460) in continental North Africa, and in the autonomous community of the Canary Islands (2,117,519), a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa. Within Northern Morocco, a former Spanish protectorate that is also geographically close to Spain, approximately 20,000 people speak Spanish as a second language. A small number of Moroccan Jews speak the Sephardic Spanish dialect Haketia (related to the Ladino dialect spoken in Israel). Spanish is spoken by some communities in Angola because of the Cuban influence from the Cold War and in South Sudan among South Sudanese natives that relocated to Cuba during the Sudanese wars and returned in time for their country's independence.

Asia-Pacific

See also: Romance-speaking Asia and Latin Asia

See also: Spanish language in the Philippines

Spanish is an official language in Easter Island, a territorial possession of Chile in Oceania. Spanish was used by the colonial governments and the educated classes in the former Spanish East Indies, namely the Philippines, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. From 1565 to 1973 it was an official language of the Philippines. Up to 1899 it was the language of government, trade and education, and spoken as a first language by Spaniards and educated Filipinos. In the mid-nineteenth century the colonial government set up a free public school system with Spanish as the medium of instruction. This increased the use of Spanish throughout the islands and led to a class of Spanish-speaking intellectuals called the Ilustrados. Although Spanish never became the language of a majority of the population,

Philippine literature and press primarily used Spanish up to the 1940s. It continued as an official language until the change of Constitution in 1973. Following the U.S. occupation and administration of the islands in 1899, the American government increasingly imposed English, especially after the 1920s plus persecuted Spanish speakers and killed thousands in Intramuros, Manila during World War II. The US authorities conducted a campaign of introducing English as the medium of instruction in schools, universities and public spaces, and prohibited the use of Spanish in media and educational institutions.

After the Philippines 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 regime of Ferdinand Marcos. In 2007, the Arroyo administration announced that it would pass legislation to reintroduce Spanish in the Philippine education system. In 2010, a Memorandum was signed between Spanish and Philippine authorities to cooperate in implementing this decree. Despite government promotions of Spanish, less than 0.5% of the population speak Spanish. Worthy of mention however, is Chavacano, a Spanish-Based Creole Language or Creole Spanish Language and also known as Philippine Creole Spanish, spoken by 600,000 people as of the year 2000 both in the Philippines and Sabah.

The local languages of the Philippines retain much Spanish influence, with many words being derived from Spanish from Spain and Mexican Spanish, owing to the control of the islands by Spain through Mexico City until 1821, and directly from Madrid until 1898.

Among the countries and territories in Oceania, Spanish is spoken in Easter Island, a territorial possession of Chile. The U.S. Territories of Guam and Northern Marianas, and the independent states of Palau, Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia all once had majority Spanish speakers, since the Marianas and the Caroline Islands were Spanish colonial possessions until the late nineteenth century (see Spanish-American War). Spanish is no longer used by the masses, but there are still native and second-language speakers. It also exists as an influence on the local native languages as many Spanish loan words still exist in that part of the world. In fact, over 9% of foreign loanwords in the Palaun language can be traced back to Spanish. Additionally, it is also spoken by Hispanic American resident populations.

Spanish speakers by country

The following table shows the number of Spanish speakers in some 80 countries.

Country	Population	Spanish as a native language speakers	Native speakers or very good speakers as a second language	Total number of Spanish speakers	Spanish speakers as percentage of population
Mexico	118,395,054	109,752,215	116,619,128		98.5%
United States	316,005,000	37,579,787	43,700,000	51,500,000	16.3%
Colombia	47,133,000	46,624,624	46,755,936		99.2%
Spain	47,059,533	38,588,817	46,494,819		98.8%
Argentina	41,660,417	39,500,000	41,410,454		99.4%
Venezuela	30,341,000	29,242,756	29,976,908		98.8%
Peru	30,475,144	25,629,596	26,391,475		86.6%
Chile	17,556,815	17,275,215	17,433,917		99.3%
Ecuador	15,460,000	13,200,000	15,166,260		98.1%
Guatemala	15,438,384	9,263,030	13,338,764		86.4%
Brazil	193,946,886	483,547	483,547	12,483,547	6.4%
Cuba	11,244,000	11,244,000	11,176,536		99.4%
Dominican Republic	10,309,000	9,300,000	10,267,764		99.6%
Bolivia	10,426,154	6,047,169	9,164,589		87.9%
Honduras	8,215,313	8,007,563	8,133,160		99.0%
France	65,635,000	477,564	1,910,258	6,685,901	10.2%
El Salvador	6,183,002	6,168,902	6,164,453		99.7%
Nicaragua	6,042,000	5,551,876	5,860,740		97.0%
Italy	60,820,696	467,015	1,037,248	5,704,863	9.4%
Morocco	31,759,997	7,405	7,405	5,500,000	17.3%
Paraguay	6,798,000	3,874,860	4,724,610		69.5%
Costa Rica	4,301,712	4,216,294	4,267,298		99.2%
Puerto Rico	3,667,084	3,487,397	3,623,079		98.8%
Panama	3,678,000	3,176,957	3,424,218		93.1%
United Kingdom	63,181,775	194,487	518,480	3,110,880	4.9%
Uruguay	3,286,314	3,136,114	3,250,165		98.9%
Philippines	97,866,000	3,325	438,882	3,016,773	3.1%
Germany	80,327,900	187,036	644,091	2,576,366	3.1%
Equatorial Guinea	1,170,308	1,683	164,662	1,059,129	90.5%
Canada	34,605,346	439,000	839,000	1,001,853	2.9%
Romania	21,355,849		182,467	912,337	4.3%
Portugal	10,636,888	10,635	323,237	808,091	7.6%
Netherlands	16,665,900	61,666	133,719	668,599	4%
Sweden	9,555,893	101,472	101,472	467,474	4.9%
Australia	21,507,717	111,400	111,400	447,175	2.1%
Belgium	10,918,405	67,024	89,395	446,977	4.1%
Poland	38,092,000		324,137	324,137	0.9%
Austria	8,205,533			280,393	3.4%
Ivory Coast	20,179,602			235,806	1.2%
Algeria	33,769,669			223,000	0.7%
Belize	333,200	173,597	173,597	209,250	62.8%
Denmark	5,484,723		45,613	182,450	3.3%
Israel	7,112,359	95,000	95,000	175,231	2.5%
Japan	127,288,419	107,514	107,514	167,514	0.1%
Ireland	4,581,269	5,325	35,220	140,880	3.1%
Switzerland	7,581,520	123,000	123,000	137,420	1.7%
Finland	5,244,749			133200	2.5%
Bulgaria	7,262,675		130,750	130,750	1.8%
Netherlands Antilles	223,652	10,699	10,699	125,534	56.1%
Senegal	12,853,259			101,455	0.8%
Czech Republic	10,513,209			90,124	0.9%
Cameroon	21,599,100	1,377	1,377	87,077	0.4%
Greece	10,787,690			86,936	0.8%
Hungary	9,957,731			83,206	0.8%
Aruba	101,484	6,800	75,402	75,402	74.3%
Croatia	4,491,543			73,656	1.6%
Trinidad and Tobago	1,317,714	4,100	4,100	65,886	5%
Andorra	84,484	29,907	58,040	58,040	68.7%
Slovakia	5,455,407		45,500	45,500	0.8%
Norway	4,644,457	12,573	12,573	36,250	0.8%
China	1,339,724,852	5,209	5,209	35,209	0%
Lithuania	2,972,949			28,297	1%
Luxembourg	524,853	4,049	20,245	24,294	4.6%
Russia	140,702,094	3,320	3,320	23,320	0%
New Zealand	4,173,460	21,645	21,645	21,645	0.5%
Guam	154,805			19,092	12.3%
US Virgin Islands	108,612	16,788	16,788	16,788	15.5%
Gibraltar	27,967	13,857	13,857	13,857	49.5%
Latvia	2,209,000			13,943	0.6%
Turkey	73,722,988	1,134	1,134	13,480	0%
Cyprus	838,897			13,208	1.6%
India	1,210,193,422	695	695	10,445	0%
Estonia	1,294,455			9,457	0.7%
Jamaica	2,804,322	8,000	8,000	8,000	0.3%
Namibia	2,104,900	3,870	3,870	3,969	0.2%
Egypt	82,950,332			3,500	0%
Malta	417,617			3,354	0.8%
Western Sahara	513,000	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
Total	7,085,276,964 (Total World Population)	434,139,933	475,898,586	523,518,179	7.43%

Dialectal variation

A world map attempting to identify the main dialects of Spanish.

Main article: Spanish dialects and varieties

There are important variations—phonological, grammatical, and lexical—in the spoken Spanish of the various regions of Spain and throughout the Spanish-speaking areas of the Americas.

The variety with the most speakers is Mexican Spanish. It is spoken by more than twenty percent of the world's Spanish speakers (more than 112 million of the total of more than 500 million, according to the table above). One of its main features is the reduction or loss of unstressed vowels, mainly when they are in contact with the sound /s/.

In Spain, northern dialects are popularly thought of as closer to the standard, although positive attitudes toward southern dialects have increased significantly in the last 50 years. Even so, the speech of Madrid, which has typically southern features such as yeísmo and s-aspiration, is the standard variety for use on radio and television, and is the variety that has most influenced the written standard for Spanish.

Phonology

Three of the main phonological divisions are based respectively on (1) the phoneme /θ/ ("theta"), (2) the phoneme /ʎ/ ("turned y"), and (3) the "debuccalization" (also frequently called "aspiration") of syllable-final /s/. The phoneme /θ/ (spelled ⟨z⟩, or ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩)—a voiceless dental fricative as in English thing—is maintained in northern and central Spain, but is merged with the sibilant /s/ in southern Spain, the Canary Islands, and all of Latin-American Spanish.

This merger is called seseo in Spanish. The phoneme /ʎ/ (spelled ⟨ll⟩)—a palatal lateral consonant sometimes compared in sound to the lli of English million—tends to be maintained in less-urbanized areas of northern Spain and in highland areas of South America, but in the speech of most other Spanish-speakers it is merged with /ʝ/ ("curly-tail j")—a non-lateral, usually voiced, usually fricative, palatal consonant—sometimes compared to English /j/ (yod) as in yacht, and spelled y in Spanish. This merger is called yeísmo in Spanish. And the debuccalization (pronunciation as [h], or loss) of syllable-final /s/ is associated with southern Spain, the Caribbean, and coastal areas of South America.

Grammar

The main grammatical variations between dialects of Spanish involve differing uses of pronouns: especially those of the second person and, to a lesser extent, the object pronouns of the third person.

Voseo

Main article: Voseo

An examination of the dominance and stress of the voseo dialect in Latin America. Data generated as illustrated by the Association of Spanish Language Academies. The darker the area, the stronger its dominance.

Virtually all dialects of Spanish make the distinction between a formal and a familiar register in the second-person singular, and thus have two different pronouns meaning "you": usted in the formal, and either tú or vos in the familiar (and each of these three pronouns has its associated verb forms), with the choice of tú or vos varying from one dialect to another. The use of vos (and/or its verb forms) is called voseo. In a few dialects, all three pronouns are used—usted, tú, and vos—denoting respectively formality, familiarity, and intimacy.

In voseo, [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 form for the object of a preposition (voy con vos, "I'm going with you"), while the direct and indirect object forms, and the possessives, are the same as those associated with tú: Vos sabés que tus amigos te respetan ("You know your friends respect you"). Additional examples: ["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)

The verb forms of general voseo are the same as those used with tú except in the present tense (indicative and imperative) verbs. The forms for vos generally can be derived from those of vosotros (the traditional second-person familiar plural) by deleting the glide /i̯/, or /d/, where it appears in the ending: vosotros pensáis > vos pensás; vosotros volvéis > vos volvés, pensad! (vosotros) > pensá! (vos), volved! (vosotros) > volvé! (vos) .

General voseo (River Plate Spanish)

Indicative			Subjunctive		Imperative
Present	Past	Conditional	Present	Past
pensás	pensabas	pensarías	pienses	pensaras	pensá
volvés	volvías	volverías	vuelvas	volvieras	volvé
dormís	dormías	dormirías	duermas	durmieras	dormí
The forms in bold coincide with standard tú-conjugation.

In Chilean voseo on the other hand, almost all verb forms are distinct from their standard tú-forms.

Chilean voseo

Indicative			Subjunctive		Imperative
Present	Past	Conditional	Present	Past
pensái	pensabai	pensaríai	pensís	pensarai	piensa
volvís	volvíai	volveríai	volvái	volvierai	vuelve
dormís	dormíai	dormiríai	durmái	durmierai	duerme
The forms in bold coincide with standard tú-conjugation.

The use of the pronoun vos with the verb forms of tú (e.g. vos piensas) is called "pronominal voseo". And conversely, the use of the verb forms of vos with the pronoun tú (e.g. tú pensás or tú pensái) is called "verbal voseo".
In Chile, for example, verbal voseo is much more common than the actual use of the pronoun vos which is often reserved for deeply informal situations.

Distribution in Spanish-Speaking Regions of America

File:Nicaragua Voseo Aeropuerto C Sandino.jpg

The voseo pronoun is used in Central America's Nicaragua.

Although [vos] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is not used in Spain, it occurs in many Spanish-speaking regions of the Americas as the primary spoken form of the second-person singular familiar 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, most of Peru and Venezuela, coastal Ecuador and the Caribbean coast of Colombia.

[Tuteo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (the use of tú) as a cultured form alternates with [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) as a popular or rural form in Bolivia, in the north and south of Peru, in Andean Ecuador, in small zones of the Venezuelan Andes (and most notably in the Venezuelan state of Zulia), and in a large part of Colombia. Some researchers claim that voseo can be heard in some parts of eastern Cuba, while others assert that it is absent from the island.

[Tuteo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) exists as the second-person usage with an intermediate degree of formality alongside the more familiar [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in Chile, in the Venezuelan state of Zulia, on the Caribbean coast of Colombia(Monteria, Sincelejo, Cartagena, Barranquilla, Riohacha and Valledupar), in the Azuero Peninsula in Panama, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, and in parts of Guatemala.

Areas of generalized [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) include Argentina, Costa Rica, eastern Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay and the Colombian departments of Antioquia (the second largest in population), Caldas, Risaralda, Quindio, and parts of The Valle del Cauca department.

Ustedes

Ustedes functions as formal and informal second person plural in over 90% of the Spanish-speaking world, including all of Latin America, the Canary Islands, and some regions of Andalusia. In Seville, Cadiz, and other parts of western Andalusia, the familiar form is constructed as ustedes vais, using the traditional second-person plural form of the verb. Most of Spain maintains the formal/familiar distinction with ustedes and vosotros respectively.

Usted

Usted is the usual second-person singular pronoun in a formal context, used to convey respect toward someone who is a generation older or is of higher authority ("you, sir"/"you, ma'am"). It is also used in a familiar context by many speakers in Colombia and Costa Rica, and in parts of Ecuador and Panama, to the exclusion of tú or vos. This usage is sometimes called ustedeo in Spanish.

In Central America, especially in Honduras, usted is often used as a formal pronoun to convey respect between the members of a romantic couple. Usted is also used in this way, as well as between parents and children, in the Andean regions of Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

Third-person object pronouns

Most speakers use (and the Real Academia Española prefers) the pronouns lo and la for direct objects (masculine and feminine respectively, regardless of animacy, meaning "him", "her", or "it"), and le for indirect objects (regardless of gender or animacy, meaning "to him", "to her", or "to it"). This usage is sometimes called "etymological", as these direct and indirect object pronouns are a continuation, respectively, of the accusative and dative pronouns of Latin, the ancestor language of Spanish.

Deviations from this norm (more common in Spain than in the Americas) are called "leísmo", "loísmo", or "laísmo", according to which respective pronoun—le, lo, or la—has expanded beyond the etymological usage (i.e. le as a direct object, or lo or la as an indirect object).

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 recognize specifically American usages. For example, Spanish mantequilla, aguacate and albaricoque (respectively, 'butter', 'avocado', 'apricot') correspond to manteca, palta, and damasco, respectively, in Argentina, Chile (except manteca), Paraguay, Peru (except manteca and damasco), and Uruguay.

The everyday Spanish words coger ('to take'), 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, but in Nicaragua it simply means "stingy", and in Spain refers to a chef's helper. Other examples include taco, which means "swearword" (among other meanings) in Spain, "traffic jam" in Chile and "heels" (shoe) in Argentina and Peru 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, central Mexico and Argentina, for the vast majority of Spanish-speakers actually means "baby-stroller" or "pushchair", while carro means "car" in some Latin American countries and "cart" in others, as well as in Spain. Papaya is the slang term for "vagina" in parts of Cuba and Venezuela, where the fruit is instead called fruta bomba and lechosa, respectively. Also, in Argentina, one would say "piña" when talking about 'punching' someone else, whereas in other countries, "piña" refers to a pineapple.

Relation to other languages

Further information: Comparison of Spanish and Portuguese

Spanish is closely related to the other Iberian Romance languages: Asturian, Aragonese, Catalan, Galician, Ladino, Leonese, Mirandese and Portuguese.

It should be noted that although Portuguese and Spanish are very closely related, particularly in vocabulary (89% lexically similar according to the Ethnologue of Languages), syntax and grammar, there are also some differences that don't exist between Catalan and Portuguese. Although Spanish and Portuguese are widely considered to be mutually intelligible, it has been noted that while most Portuguese speakers can understand spoken Spanish with little difficulty, Spanish speakers face more difficulty in understanding spoken Portuguese. The written forms are considered to be equally intelligible, however.

Vocabulary comparison

At present, the lexical similarity with Italian is estimated at 82%. The lexical similarity with Portuguese is greater at 89%. Mutual intelligibility between Spanish and French or Romanian is lower (lexical similarity being respectively 75% and 71%): comprehension of Spanish by French speakers who have not studied the language is low at 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	Astur-Leonese	Aragonese	Catalan	French	Italian	Romanian	English
nos	[nosotros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[nós] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)1	[nós] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)1	[nós, nosotros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[nusatros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[nosaltres] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (arch. [nós] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[nous] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)2	[noi] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)3	[noi] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	'we'
frater germanum (lit. "true brother")	[hermano] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[irmán] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[irmão] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[hermanu] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[chirmán] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[germà] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (arch. [frare] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))5	[frère] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[fratello] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[frate] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	'brother'
dies martis (Classical) feria tertia (Ecclesiastical)	[martes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[martes/terza feira] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[terça-feira] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[martes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[martes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[dimarts] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[mardi] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[martedì] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[marţi] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	'Tuesday'
cantiō(nem) canticum	[canción] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[canción/cançom] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)4	[canção] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[canción (or canciu)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[canta] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[cançó] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[chanson] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[canzone] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[cântec] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	'song'
magis plus	[más] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (arch. [plus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[máis] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[mais] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (arch. [chus or plus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[más] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[más (or més)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[més] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (arch. [pus or plus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[plus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[più] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[mai/plus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	'more'
manum sinistram	[mano izquierda] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (arch. [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) (arch. [mão sẽestra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[manu izquierda] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (or [esquierda; also manzorga] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[man cucha] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[mà esquerra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (arch. [mà sinistra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[main gauche] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[mano sinistra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[mâna stângă] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	'left hand'
nihil nullam rem natam (lit. "no thing born")	[nada] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[nada] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (also [ren] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[nada] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ([neca] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) and [nula rés] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in some expressions; arch. [rem] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[nada (also un res] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[cosa] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[res] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[rien/nul] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[niente/nulla] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[nimic/nul] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	'nothing'
cāseus formaticus	[queso] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[queixo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[queijo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[quesu] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[queso] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[formatge] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[fromage] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[formaggio] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[caș] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)6	'cheese'

1. Also [nós outros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in early modern Portuguese (e.g. The Lusiads).
2. Alternatively [nous autres] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in French.
3. Also [noialtri] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in Southern Italian dialects and languages.
4. Depending on the written norm used (see Reintegracionism).
5. Medieval Catalan (e.g. Llibre dels fets).
6. Note that Romanian caș (from Latin cāsevs) means a type of cheese. The universal term for cheese in Romanian is brânză (from unknown etymology).

Judaeo-Spanish

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 fifteenth century. Therefore, its relationship to Spanish is comparable with that of the Yiddish language to German. 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, and the United States, 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 Spanish, including vocabulary from Hebrew, 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.

Writing system

Main article: Spanish orthography

Spanish is written in the Latin script, 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 /t͡ʃ/) 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 ⟨cg⟩ and ⟨ci⟩, instead of following ⟨cz⟩ as they used to. The situation is similar for ⟨ll⟩.

Thus, the Spanish alphabet has the following 27 letters and 2 digraphs:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, Ñ, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.

Ch, Ll.

The letters ⟨k⟩ and ⟨w⟩ are used only in words and names coming from foreign languages (kilo, folklore, whisky, 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 an ⟨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) with [té] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ('tea'), [de] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (preposition 'of') versus [dé] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ('give' [formal imperative/third-person present subjunctive]), and [se] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (reflexive pronoun) versus [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. Accent marks used to be omitted in capital letters (a widespread practice in the days of typewriters and the early days of computers when only lowercase vowels were available with accents), although the Real Academia Española advises against this and the orthographic conventions taught at schools enforce the use of the accent.

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).

Organizations

Royal Spanish Academy

Arms of the Royal Spanish Academy.

The Royal Spanish Academy Headquarters in Madrid, Spain.

The [Real Academia Española] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (Royal Spanish Academy), founded in 1713, 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. Because of 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.

Association of Spanish Language Academies

Main article: Association of Spanish Language Academies

Countries members of the ASALE.

The Association of Spanish Language Academies (Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española, or ASALE) is the entity which regulates the Spanish language. It comprises the academies of 22 countries, ordered by date of Academy foundation: Spain (1713), Colombia (1871), Ecuador (1874), Mexico (1875), El Salvador (1876), Venezuela (1883), Chile (1885), Peru (1887), Guatemala (1887), Costa Rica (1923), Philippines (1924), Panama (1926), Cuba (1926), Paraguay (1927), Dominican Republic (1927), Bolivia (1927), Nicaragua (1928), Argentina (1931), Uruguay (1943), Honduras (1949), Puerto Rico (1955), and United States (1973).

Instituto Cervantes

Cervantes Institute headquarters, Madrid

The Instituto Cervantes (Cervantes Institute) is a worldwide non-profit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991. This organization has branched out in over 20 different countries with 54 centers devoted to the Spanish and Hispanic American culture and Spanish Language. The ultimate goals of the Institute are to promote the education, the study and the use of Spanish universally as a second language, to support the methods and activities that would help the process of Spanish language education, and to contribute to the advancement of the Spanish and Hispanic American cultures throughout non-Spanish-speaking countries.

Official use by international organizations

Spanish is recognised as one of the official languages of the United Nations, the European Union, the World Trade Organisation, the Organization of American States, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the African Union, the Union of South American Nations, the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat, the Latin Union, the Caricom and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

See also

• List of Spanish-language poets
• Spanish profanity
• Spanish proverbs
• Certificate of Use of Language in Spanish
• Fundéu BBVA (formerly The Foundation of Urgent Spanish)

Spanish-speaking world (Hispanosphere)

• Countries where Spanish is an official language
• Hispanic culture
• Hispanidad
• Panhispanism
• Spanish as a Second Language

Influences on the Spanish language

• Arabic influence on the Spanish language
• List of Spanish words of Germanic origin
• List of Spanish words of Nahuatl origin
• List of Spanish words of Indigenous American Indian origin
• List of Spanish words of Philippine origin

Dialects and languages influenced by Spanish

• Caló
• Chavacano
• Frespañol
• Ladino
• Llanito
• Palenquero
• Papiamento
• Chamorro
• Philippine languages
• Portuñol
• Spanglish
• Spanish-based creole languages
• List of English words of Spanish origin

Spanish dialects and varieties

• European Spanish
  • Peninsular Spanish
    • Andalusian Spanish
    • Castilian Spanish
    • Castrapo (Galician Spanish)
    • Castúo (Extremaduran Spanish)
    • Murcian Spanish
  • Insular Spanish
    • Canarian Spanish

  Spanish in the Americas

  • North American Spanish
  • Central American Spanish
  • Caribbean Spanish
  • South American Spanish
  • Spanish in the United States

  Spanish in Africa

  • Equatoguinean Spanish

  Spanish in Asia

  • Spanish in the Philippines

Bibliography

• Abercrombie, David (1967). "Elements of General Phonetics". Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Cressey, William Whitney (1978). Spanish Phonology and Morphology: A Generative View. Georgetown University Press. ISBN 0878400451. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Eddington, David (2000). "Spanish Stress Assignment within the Analogical Modeling of Language" (PDF). Language. 76 (1). Language: 92–109. doi:10.2307/417394. JSTOR 417394. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Harris, James (1967). "Sound Change in Spanish and the Theory of Markedness". Language. 45 (3). Language: 538–52. doi:10.2307/411438. JSTOR 411438. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Martínez-Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández-Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera-Sabaté, Josefina (2003). "Castilian Spanish". Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 33 (2): 255–59. doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Moreno Fernández, Francisco; Otero, Jaime (2008), Atlas de la lengua española en el mundo, Barcelona: Ariel
• Population by age, both sexes, annual; estimate for 2012 (XLS), UN.

Further reading

• Nadeau, Jean-Benoît and Julie Barlow. The Story of Spanish. St Martin’s Press, 2013.
• "The rise of Spanish Hats off." The Economist. June 1, 2013.

External links

• Dictionary of the RAE Real Academia Española's official Spanish language dictionary Template:Es icon
• Spanish – BBC Languages
• USA Foreign Service Institute Spanish basic course
• Spanish evolution from Latin
• Spanish phrasebook on Wikivoyage
• Vocabulary - Language Spanish<> For study Spanish
• Size and nature of the Spanish vocabulary
• Collins Unabridged English<>Spanish Dictionary
• - Study Spanish