Spanish language

"Castellano" redirects here. For the village in Italy, see Castellano (Trentino). For people with the surname Castellano, see Castellano (surname).

"Español" redirects here. For other uses, see Español (disambiguation).

Spanish, Castilian
Español, castellano
Pronunciation	[espaˈɲol], [kasteˈʎano]
Region	(see below)
Native speakers	First language 329 million to 400 million. 500 million as first or second language.
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Gallo-Iberian Ibero-Romance West Iberian Spanish, Castilian
Writing system	Latin (Spanish variant)
Official status
Official language in	21 countries, United Nations, European Union, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, Union of South American Nations, Central American Integration System, African Union, Caricom, World Trade Organization, North American Free Trade Agreement, Andean Community of Nations, Mercosur, Inter-American Development Bank, Latin Union, Antarctic Treaty.
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
Countries where Spanish has official status.   States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 25% or more of the population.   States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 10-20% of the population.   States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 5-9.9% of the population.

Spanish or Castilian (español or castellano in Spanish) is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia during the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the later Medieval period.

Modern Spanish developed with the readjustment of consonants (reajuste de las sibilantes) that began in 15th century. The language continues to adopt foreign words from a variety of other languages, as well as developing new words. Spanish was taken most notably to the Americas as well as to Africa and Asia Pacific with the expansion of the Spanish Empire between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, where it became the most important language for government and trade.

In 1999, there were according to Ethnologue 358 million people speaking Spanish as a native language and a total of 417 million speakers worldwide. Currently these figures are up to 400 and 500 million people respectively. Spanish is the second most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese. Mexico contains the largest population of Spanish speakers. Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and used as an official language of the European Union, and Mercosur. Spanish is the second most studied language in the world, after English.

History

Main article: History of the Spanish language

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

Castilian evolved from Vulgar Latin (common Latin) that had been introduced to the Iberian Peninsula by Romans during the Second Punic War around 210 BC, with influences from native languages such as Celtiberian, Basque and other paleohispanic languages, and later external influences, most notably Arabic of the Andalusian period.

Local versions of Vulgar Latin are thought to have evolved into Castilian in the central-north of the Iberia during the 9th and 10th centuries, in an area defined by the remote crossroad strips of Alava, Cantabria, Burgos, Soria and La Rioja, within the Kingdom of Castile (see Glosas Emilianenses). In this formative stage, Castilian developed a strongly differing variant from its near cousin, Leonese, with a strong degree of 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).

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

In the fifteenth century, Castilian underwent a dramatic change with the Readjustment of the Consonants (Reajuste de las sibilantes). Typical features of Spanish diachronic phonology include lenition (Latin [vita] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Spanish [vida] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)), palatalisation (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 diphthongisation (stem-changing) of stressed 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.

The first Spanish grammar([Gramática de la lengua castellana] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) — and, incidentally, the first grammar of any modern European language — was written in Salamanca, Spain, in 1492, by Elio Antonio de Nebrija. When he presented it to Queen Isabella, according to anecdote, she asked him what was the use of such a work, and he answered that language is the instrument of empire.

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

In his introduction to the grammar, dated August 18, 1492, Nebrija wrote that "... language was always the companion of empire."

From the 16th century onwards, the language was taken to the Americas and the Spanish East Indies via Spanish colonization. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's influence on the Spanish language from the 17th century has been so great that Spanish is often called la lengua de Cervantes ("the language of Cervantes").

In the 20th 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.

Geographic distribution

Spanish is recognised as one of the official languages of the United Nations, the European Union, the Organisation 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.

Country	Population	Spanish as a native language speakers	Bilingual and as a second language speakers (in countries where Spanish is official) or as a foreign language (where it is not official)	Spanish speakers as percentage of population	Total number of Spanish speakers
Mexico	112,396,211	103,527,885	7,110,031	98.5%	110,637,916
United States	309,059,724	44,468,501	6,231,499 + Students	16.3%	50,000,000 + 7,820,000 students
Spain	47,021,031	41,848,717	4,581,088	98.8%	46,456,779
Colombia	45,783,000	45,338,905	77,831	99.2%	45,416,736
Argentina	40,900,496	39,608,040	1,047,053	99.4%	40,655,093
Venezuela	29,056,000	28,033,228	674,100	98.8%	28,707,328
Peru	29.797.694	23,769,620	2,035,183	86.6%	25,804,803
Chile	17,248,450	15,513,255	1,600,024	99.3%	17,127,711
Ecuador	14,306,000	13,298,858	733,324	98.1%	14,024,376
Guatemala	14,361,666	9,291,997	3,116,482	86.4%	12,408,479
Cuba	11,235,863	11,235,863		99.4%	11,168,448
Dominican Republic	11,235,863	10,120,705	62,558	99.6%	10,184,100
Bolivia	10,426,154	4,350,833	4,813,756	87.9%	9,164,589
Honduras	8,215,313	7,981,998	151,161	99.0%	8,133,159
Morocco	29,680,069	20,000	6,479,935	21.9%	6,499,935
El Salvador	6,183,002	6,183,002		99.7%	6,164,451
France	64,057,790	440,106	5,721,380	9.6%	6,161,486
Nicaragua	5,822,000	5,088,428	551,328	97.0%	5,647,340
Costa Rica	4,615,646	4,345,130	87,126	99.2%	4,432,256
Paraguay	6,460,000	369,000	4,043,555	69.5%	4,489,700
Puerto Rico	3,998,000	3,802,098	147,334	98.8%	3,950,024
United Kingdom	60,943,912	107,654	3,814,846	6.4%	3,922,500
Uruguay	3,372,000	3,257,352	77,303	98.9	3,334,908
Panama	3,508,000	2,622,720	476,419	93.1%	3,179,365
Philippines	96,061,683	2,660	3,014,115	3.1%	3,016,773
Germany	82,369,548	140,000	2,566,972	3.2%	2,706,972
Italy	58,145,321	89,905	1,968,320	3.5%	2,058,225
Equatorial Guinea	1,153,915	n.a.	1,044,293	90.5%	1,044,293
Canada	33,212,696	909,000	92,853	3%	1,001,853
Portugal	10,676,910	9,744	727,282	6.9%	737,026
Netherlands	16,645,313	19,978	662,116	4.1%	682,094
Belgium	10,403,951	85,990	515,939	5.8%	601,929
Romania	22,246,862		544,531	2.4%	544,531
Sweden	9,045,389	101,472	442,601	6%	544,073
Australia	21,007,310	106,517	374,571	2.3%	481,088
Brazil	185.712.713	445,005	5 million students		unknown
Poland	38,500,696		316,104	0.8%	316,104
Austria	8,205,533		267,177	3.3%	267,177
Ivory Coast	20,179,602		235,806	1.2%	235,806
Algeria	33,769,669		223,000	0.7%	223,379
Denmark	5,484,723		219,003	4%	219,003
Israel	7,112,359	130,000	45,231	2.5%	175,231
Switzerland	7,581,520	123,000	14,420	1.7%	137,420
Japan	127,288,419	76,565	60,000	0.1%	136,565
Bulgaria	7,262,675		133,910	1.8%	133,910
Belize	301,270	106,795	21,848	42.7%	128,643
Netherlands Antilles	223,652	10,699	114,835	56.1%	125,534
Ireland	4,156,119		123,591	3%	123,591
Senegal	12,853,259		101,455	0.8%	101,455
Greece	10,722,816		86,742	0.8%	86,742
Finland	5,244,749		85,586	1.6%	85,586
Hungary	9,930,915		85,034	0.9%	85,034
Aruba	100,018	6,800	68,602	75.3%	75,402
Croatia	4,491,543		73,656	1.6%	73,656
Andorra	84,484	29,907	25,356	68.7%	58,040
Slovakia	5,455,407		43,164	0.8%	43,164
Norway	4,644,457	12,573	23,677	0.8%	36,250
Russia	140,702,094	3,320	20,000	0.01%	23,320
New Zealand	4,173,460	21,645		0.5%	21,645
Guam	154,805		19,092	12.3%	19,092
US Virgin Islands	108,612	16,788		15.5%	16,788
China	1,345,751,000	2,292	12,835	0.001124%	15,127
Lithuania	3,565,205		13,943	0.4%	13,943
Gibraltar	27,967	13,857		49.5%	13,857
Cyprus	792,604			1.4%	11,044
Turkey	71,892,807	380	8,000	0.01%	8,380
Jamaica	2,804,322	8,000		0.3%	8,000
Luxembourg	486,006	3,000	4,344	1.5%	7,344
Malta	403,532	6,458		1.6%	6,458
Trinidad and Tobago	1,047,366	4,100		0.4%	4,100
Western Sahara	513,000	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
Other immigrants in the E.U.		1,399,531			1,399,531
Other students of Spanish			2,895,562		2,895,562
Total native speakers in the world + bilingual and as a second language where Spanish is official:		427,440,053	32,928,599		460,368,652
Total with Spanish speakers as a foreign language:			89,983,399		517,423,452

Hispanosphere

See also: Hispanophone

Active learning of Spanish.

It is estimated that the combined total number of Spanish speakers is between 470 and 500 million, making it the third most spoken language by total number of speakers (after Chinese, and English). Spanish is the second most widely spoken language in terms of native speakers. Global internet usage statistics for 2007 show Spanish as the third most commonly used language on the Internet, after English and Chinese.

Europe

Spanish spoken in the European Union

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, though English is the official language. It is the most spoken language in Andorra, though Catalan is the official language.

Spanish is spoken in 20 different countries worldwide. It 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.

Spain

Main article: Names given to the Spanish language

In Spain and in some parts of the Spanish speaking world, but not all, Spanish is called castellano (Castilian) as well as español (Spanish), that is, the language of the Castile region, contrasting it with other languages spoken in Spain such as Galician, Basque, and Catalan. 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 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 uses the term español (rather than "castellano") in its publications, due to the fact that "the term derives from the Provenzal word espaignol, which in turn derives from the Medieval Latin word Hispaniolus, which means 'from -- or pertaining to -- Hispania'". The Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas (a linguistic 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.

Currently, the name castellano, which refers directly to the historical context in which it was introduced in the Americas, is preferred in Spain due to the existence of regions where other official languages are spoken (Catalonia, Basque Country, Valencia, Balearic Islands and Galicia) as well as in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, instead of español, which is more commonly used to refer to the language as a whole when relating to a global context.

Americas

Latin America

Main article: Hispanic America

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 and Aymara), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico , Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay (co-official with Guaraní), Peru (co-official with Quechua and, in some regions, Aymara), Uruguay, and Venezuela. Spanish is also the official language (co-official with English) 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 17th 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 Latino 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 south-western states were part of Mexico, and Florida was also part of Spain, and it recently has been revitalized by 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 for instance, 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, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Chicago and in the last decade, the language has rapidly expanded in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Phoenix, Richmond, Washington, DC, and Missouri. Spanish is the dominant spoken language in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory. With a total of 33,701,181 Spanish (Castilian) 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 (co-official with French and Portuguese), 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). 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. 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 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 mainly by Spaniards and Filipinos educated in Spanish. In the mid 19th 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. 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 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. 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. Today, Radio Manila broadcasts daily in Spanish. Worthy of mention is the Chabacano language spoken by 600,000 people both in the Philippines and Sabah. Chabacano, a Spanish-Philippine pidgin, sounds strange to Spanish speakers but is mutually intelligible.

The local languages of the Philippines retain much Spanish influence, with many words coming from or being derived from Castilian Spanish and Mexican Spanish, due to the control of the islands by Madrid through Mexico City.

Oceania

Among the countries and territories in Oceania, Spanish is also 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 19th century (see Spanish-American War), but 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 and is spoken by Hispanic American resident populations.

Antarctica

The Antarctic Treaty regulates international relations with respect to Antarctica. Argentina and Chile, both Spanish speaking countries, claim territories according to this treaty. The Argentine Antarctica sector had a winter population of 169 in 1999, and in the Chilean Antarctic Territory, according to the national census of 2002, the population was 130 (115 male, 15 female).

Accent variation

Main article: Spanish dialects and varieties

There are important variations spoken among the regions of Spain and throughout Spanish-speaking America. One major phonological difference between Castilian, broadly speaking, the accents spoken in most of Spain, and the accent of much of southern Spain, the Canary Islands and all the Latin American accents of Spanish, is the absence of a voiceless dental fricative (/θ/ as in English thing) in the latter. In Spain, the Castilian accent is commonly regarded as the standard variety used on radio and television, although attitudes towards southern accents have changed significantly in the last 50 years. In addition to variations in pronunciation, minor lexical and grammatical differences exist. For example, [[[Loísmo|loísmo]]] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is the use of slightly different pronouns and differs from the standard.

The variety with the most speakers is Mexican Spanish. It is spoken by more than the twenty percent of the Spanish speakers (107 million of the total 494 million, according to the table above). One of its main features is the reduction or loss of the unstressed vowels, mainly when they are in contact with the sound /s/.

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 country, the stronger its dominance.

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 object of a preposition (a vos digo) [to you I say], while "os" is the direct object form [(os vi)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) [I saw you] and indirect object without express preposition [(os digo)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) [I say to you].

Since vos is historically the 2nd-person plural, verbs are conjugated as such despite the fact the word now refers to a single person:

«Han luchado, añadió dirigiéndose a Tarradellas, [...] por mantenerse fieles a las instituciones que vos representáis» (GaCandau Madrid-Barça [Esp. 1996]).

The possessive form is [vuestro] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help): [Admiro vuestra valentía, señora] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help). Adjectives, when used in conjunction with vos, do not agree with the pronoun but instead with the real referents in gender and number: [Vos, don Pedro, sois caritativo; Vos, bellas damas, sois ingeniosas] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help).

Two main types of [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) may be distinguished: reverential and American dialectal. In archaic solemn usage, [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) expressed special reverence and could be used to address both the second person singular and the second person plural. In contrast, the more commonly known American form of [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is always used to address only one speaker and implies closeness and familiarity. Unlike the first type, the second one need not involve vos and may instead be expressed simply in the use of the plural form of the verb (even in combination with the pronoun tú).

The pronominal voseo 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.

• 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 Álvaro Arzú ?» (Prensa [Guat.] 3.4.97)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) instead of [«¿Por qué tú la tienes contra Álvaro 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)
  

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).

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: [vos 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.

Extension in Latin America

File:Nicaragua Voseo Aeropuerto C Sandino.jpg

The voseo pronoun is used in Central America's Nicaragua more frequently than in neighboring countries.

[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, most of Peru and Venezuela, Coastal Ecuador and the Andine 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, Andean 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 Zulia State, the Pacific coast of Colombia, and the Mexican state of Chiapas.

Areas of generalized [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) include Argentina, Costa Rica, East of Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay and the Colombian region of Valle and Antioquia.

Ustedes

Spanish forms also differ regarding second-person plural pronouns. "Usted" (Ud.) was initially the written abbreviation of "vuestra merced" (your grace). The 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 in 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. The 'ustedeo' is mainly used in Costa Rica and Colombia In Honduras especially in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, "usted" is used as a formal pronoun between couples. It is used to portray respect between the romantic couple, while between colleagues and friends "vos" is used. "Usted" is also used to portray respect between someone whom is a generation older or is of higher authority.

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 and "traffic jam" in Chile, 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", 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 the parts of Cuba and Venezuela, where the fruit is instead called fruta bomba and "lechosa", respectively.

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

Countries members of the ASALE.

The Association of Spanish Language Academies (Spanish: 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).

Classification and related languages

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 Occitan to the east than to Spanish or 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. While 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.

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 15th 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 Castilian, 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.

Vocabulary comparison

Spanish and Italian share a similar phonological system. 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	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) (outros)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) (archaically also [nós] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[noi] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (altri)²	[nous] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (autres)³	[noi] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	we
[frater germanum] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (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) (archaically also [frare] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))5	[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) (Ecclesiastical)	[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)	[martes,"martz"] 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)/cançom4	[canção] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[canción (in asturian canciu)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[canta] 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/plus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[más] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[más,"més"] 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) (archaically also [sẽestra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[mano esquierda (in asturian 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)	[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) (neca and nula rés in some expressions; archaically also [rem] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[nada (in asturian un res is the same of nada)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[cosa] 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)
4. Depending on the written norm used. See Reintegracionismo
5. Medieval Catalan, e.g. Llibre dels feits del rei en Jacme

Characterisation

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. [petram] 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), Ar. [piedra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Ast. [piedra] 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), Ar. [muere] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Ast. [muerre] 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 diphthongize. 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), Ar. [fillo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Gal. [fillo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Ast. [fíu] 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), Rom. [fiu] 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), Ar. [fablar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Ast. [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), Rom. [foc] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Ar. [fuego] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Ast. [fueu] 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); Rom. [chema] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [flacără] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [plin] 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); Ast. [llamar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [llama] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [llenu] 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); Rom. [opt] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [noapte] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [mult] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Ast. [ocho] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [nueche] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [munchu] 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 neighbouring 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 consonant written ‹u› or ‹v› (in Latin, this was [w], at the time of the merger it may have been a bilabial fricative /β/) merged with the consonant written ‹b› (a voiced bilabial plosive, /b/). In contemporary Spanish, there is no difference between the pronunciation of orthographic ‹b› and ‹v›, excepting emphatic pronunciations that cannot be considered standard or natural.
• 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 /d͡z/ merged with its voiceless counterpart /t͡s/, 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 Mediaeval Spanish has been better preserved in Ladino and in Portuguese, neither of which underwent these shifts

Writing system

Main article: Spanish orthography

Spanish is written in 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 /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 ‹ce› 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, 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 when only lowercase vowels were available with accents), although the Real Academia Española 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

Main article: Spanish phonology

The phonemic inventory listed in the following table includes phonemes that are preserved only in some accents, other accents 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.

Table of Spanish consonants

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m			n	ɲ
Stop	p   b		t̪   d̪		t͡ʃ   ɟ͡ʝ	k   ɡ
Fricative	(β̞)	f   (v)	*θ   (ð̞)	s   (z)	(ʝ)	x   (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. 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 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 (stress on the syllable that comes three before the last in a word) occurs rarely and only in words like guardándoselos ('saving them for him/her/them') where clitics follow 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'), or also "líquido", "liquido" and "liquidó".

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!).

V and B

The letters V and B are both normally pronounced identically as /b/ or similar, and academic authorities now state that this is the only correct pronunciation. 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 Valencian Community, Mallorca, and southern Catalonia. In the USA it is also common due to 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 20th century. Spanish schools taught a /v/ pronunciation for most of the 20th century.

Some Spaniards consider the pronunciation of /v/ for the letter V to be more poetic, and it is used by many singers such as Julio Iglesias, Juan Pardo, Paloma San Basilio, Amaia Montero and Alejandro Sanz.

Grammar

Main article: Spanish 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 do most other Romance languages. Its syntax is generally Subject Verb Object, though variations are common. It is a pro-drop language (or null subject language) (that is, it allows the deletion of pronouns which are pragmatically unnecessary) and is verb-framed.

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 centres 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.

See also

• Names given to the Spanish language
• Spanish language poets
• Spanish profanity
• Spanish proverbs

Spanish language institutions

• Association of Spanish Language Academies
• Real Academia Española
• Instituto Cervantes
• Certificate of Use of Language in Spanish
• Fundéu BBVA (formerly The Foundation of Urgent Spanish)

Spanish-speaking world

• Countries where Spanish is an official language
• Hispanic culture
• Hispanophone
• Panhispanism

Romance languages

• Differences between Spanish and Portuguese
• Romance languages
• Latin Union

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

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

Spanish dialects and varieties

• European Spanish

  • Andalusian Spanish
  • Canarian Spanish
  • Castilian Spanish
  • Castrapo (Galician Spanish)
  • Murcian 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" (Document). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. {{cite document}}: 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, Vol. 76, No. 1: 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, Vol. 45, No. 3: 538–552. doi:10.2307/411438. {{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): 255–259. doi:10.1017/S0025100303001373. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Template:Es icon Dictionary of the RAE Real Academia Española's official Spanish language dictionary
• Spanish – BBC Languages
• Basic Spanish Grammar
• Spanish evolution from Latin
• Spanish phrasebook on WikiTravel
• Instituto Cervantes
• Learn Spanish! - List of online Spanish courses