What does the word language mean in spanish

Though el idioma, la lengua, el lenguaje, and el habla can all mean language, they’re not always used interchangeably.

Idioma and Lengua

The words idioma and lengua are more commonly used to describe language in the sense of a system of communication, such as English or Spanish.

Lenguaje

Though it can be used in the same sense as idioma and lengua, the word lenguaje is also commonly used to describe language in the sense of a particular way of speaking used by a certain group or in the sense of non-verbal communication.

Habla

The word habla is often used to describe the physical capacity for speech and the way a certain person or group uses language. It’s also used in combination with the name of a language in an adjectival sense, as shown in the first example below.

The words idioma and lengua are more commonly used to describe language in the sense of a system of communication, such as English or Spanish. Hablo cuatro idiomas: inglés, francés, español y aymara.

What is Pareces?

te pareces – would mean you seem to your self. and the rest is. to the word melancholy (or sadness)

Is it no habla or no hablo?

“Hablo” is the first person singular conjugation of the verb “hablar,” in the present tense (indicative). “Habla” wouldn’t be correct for this. It could be the third person conjugation.

Whats the difference between hablo and Habla?

You use the word hablo, since you’re describing yourself. Ex 2: “Tu hablas espanol?”(Do you speak spanish?) You use the phrase hablas since you’re telling or asking the person that’s with you, it’s like 2nd point of view. Ex 3: El mujer habla ingles? (The woman speaks english?)

What is the difference between hablas and Habla?

In Spanish, however, there’s much more change: I speak = hablo you (familiar) speak = hablas he/she/it/you (formal) speak(s) = habla etc.

What do habla mean?

to speak

What is the tu form of hablar?

The present form of the verb hablar means that the verb is expressing an action that is happening now or is current. Indicative means the verb is a statement of fact….Present Indicative of Hablar.

Person/Number	Verb Change
Yo (I)	Hablo
Tú (you)	Hablas
Usted, él, ella (he, she, it)	Habla
Nosotros (we)	Hablamos

What is the past tense of hablar in Spanish?

Hablar in the Preterite Tense

Subject Pronoun	Preterite Tense	Translation
yo	hablé	I talked
tú	hablaste	You (informal) talked
él, ella, usted	habló	He, she, you (formal) talked
nosotros nosotras	hablamos	We talked

What does habla mean in Arabic?

silly/stupid

What is Habal in Arabic?

Habal meaning in English is Cord and Habal or Cord synonym is Corduroy. Similar words of Cord includes as Cord, Cord, Cordiform and Cordelle, where Habal translation in Urdu is حبل.

It is widely used in Mexican cuisine and often seen in tacos and burritos (lengua). In Puerto Rican cuisine lengua al caldero pot roast tongue and lengua rellena braised stuffed tongue are both served with pique criollo.

What do you mean by Lingua Franca?

lingua franca (Italian: “Frankish language”) language used as a means of communication between populations speaking vernaculars that are not mutually intelligible.

Is idioma masculine or feminine?

For example the word idioma (“language”) is masculine in standard Spanish due to deriving from the Greek where words ending in -ma are typically masculine.

What are the 21 states that speak Spanish?

There are 21 Spanish-speaking countries. They are Spain Mexico Costa Rica El Salvador Guatemala Honduras Nicaragua Panama Cuba Dominican Republic Puerto Rico Argentina Bolivia Chile Colombia Ecuador Paraguay Peru Uruguay Venezuela and Equatorial Guinea.

Why is Spanish a popular language?

War and culture. Territorial and literary expansion. These are the two things which the Spanish have excelled at over the years. Put simply this is why so many people around the world speak Spanish.

Is English spoken in Spain?

Spain much like many other European countries speaks English as a second language and has over 11 million English-speaking residents. However there are times when English speakers need to be careful and can’t just add ‘-ado’ at the end of a word and expect it to become Spanish!

How do you say hello in Mexico?

The common verbal greeting is “Buenos dias” (Good day) “Buenas tardes” (Good afternoon) or “Buenas noches” (Good evening/night) depending on the time of day. A more casual greeting is “Hola” (Hello) “¿Qué tal?” (What’s up?) or “¿Cómo estás?” (How are you?).

Do Spain and Mexico speak the same language?

There are differences in pronunciation vocabulary and other nuances but essentially the official Spanish in Mexico is the same as the Spanish in Spain and throughout most of the world. It has a distinctly Mexican flavor to it today of course but it hardly counts as a separate dialect or language on its own.

Should I learn Mexican Spanish or Spain Spanish?

The main advice is that if you are going to use Spanish in Europe you should learn Spanish from Spain and the opposite for Latin America. Some writers say that Latin American Spanish is easier for beginners even some regions/countries within America (e.g. Central America Colombia Ecuador) are easier than others.

Are there 2 types of Spanish?

Many people think that Spanish can be broken down into two categories: Spain Spanish and Latin American Spanish. But oh have we got a surprise for you! There are actually a lot of different Spanish dialects out there. Now don’t worry.

Is Spanish and Portuguese the same?

Spanish and Portuguese are indeed sister languages. Undeniably they share the same linguistic root and have a lot in common. Most of the grammar rules and much of the vocabulary are similar. Yet they do have a lot of little differences that altogether make them distinct languages.

Is English Latin?

British and American culture. English has its roots in the Germanic languages from which German and Dutch also developed as well as having many influences from romance languages such as French. (Romance languages are so called because they are derived from Latin which was the language spoken in ancient Rome.)

Which language is easiest to learn?

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1. Spanish language

   Spanish is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries. It is the world’s second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese; the world’s fourth-most spoken language overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu); and the world’s most widely spoken Romance language. The largest population of native speakers is in Mexico.Spanish is part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century, and the first systematic written use of the language happened in Toledo, a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile, in the 13th century. Spanish colonialism in the early modern period spurred on the introduction of the language to overseas locations, most notably to the Americas.As a Romance language, Spanish is a descendant of Latin, and has one of the smaller degrees of difference from it (about 20%) alongside Sardinian and Italian. Around 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is derived from Latin, including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek. Alongside English and French, it is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world. Spanish does not feature prominently as a scientific language; however, it is better represented in areas like humanities and social sciences. Spanish is also the third most used language on internet websites after English and Chinese.Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and it is also used as an official language by the European Union, Organization of American States, Union of South American Nations, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, African Union and many other international organizations.

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1. Spanish Language

   Spanish, also called Castilian, 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.

How to pronounce SPANISH LANGUAGE?

How to say SPANISH LANGUAGE in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of SPANISH LANGUAGE in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of SPANISH LANGUAGE in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of SPANISH LANGUAGE in a Sentence

1. Wade Davis:

   The fact that we have by far the largest ad sales force on the planet selling Spanish language media, the largest relationships with global advertisers and their agencies, will provide us huge advantages relative to global media companies.

2. The GAO report:

   Some U.S. officials based in Mexico … noted that limited access to Spanish language eTrace diminished tracing of total firearms seized by Mexican authorities.

3. Penelope Cruz:

   For me what he has done is incredible, being Iranian and making a Spanish movie in Spanish language and there are no clichés, it’s just incredible.

4. Emilio Azcarraga:

   This strategic combination generates significant value for shareholders of both companies and will allow us to more efficiently reach all Spanish language audiences with more of our programming.

5. Sylvia Loehrmann:

   It was a Spanish language exchange programme and they were flying home after having what was probably the most wonderful time of their lives, it’s so tragic, so sad, so unfathomable.

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Spanish
Castilian
español castellano
Pronunciation	[espaˈɲol] [kasteˈʎano], [kasteˈʝano]
Native to	Spain, Hispanic America, United States
Speakers	Native: 486 million (2023)[1] Total: 595 million[2] 99 million speakers with limited capacity (24 million students)[2]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Romance Italo-Western Western Romance Ibero-Romance West Iberian Castilian[3][4] Spanish
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Italic Old Latin Vulgar Latin Proto-Romance Old Spanish Early Modern Spanish
Writing system	Latin (Spanish alphabet) Spanish Braille
Signed forms	Signed Spanish (Mexico, Spain and presumably elsewhere)
Official status
Official language in	20 countries Argentina Bolivia Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Guatemala Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Spain Uruguay Venezuela Dependent territories Puerto Rico Significant minority Andorra Belize Gibraltar United States International organizations African Union Association of Caribbean States Caribbean Community CELAC European Union ALADI Latin American Parliament Mercosur OSCE Organization of American States United Nations Union of South American Nations Organization of Ibero-American States
Regulated by	Association of Spanish Language Academies (Real Academia Española and 22 other national Spanish language academies)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	es
ISO 639-2	spa
ISO 639-3	spa
Glottolog	stan1288
Linguasphere	51-AAA-b
Official language   Co-official language   Culturally important or secondary language (> 20% of the population) or presence of Spanish-based creole
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Spanish (español or idioma español), or Castilian^[a] (castellano), is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula. Today, it is a global language with about 486 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain.^[1] Spanish is the official language of 20 countries. It is the world’s second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese;^[5][6] the world’s fourth-most spoken language overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu); and the world’s most widely spoken Romance language. The largest population of native speakers is in Mexico.^[7]

Spanish is part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century,^[8] and the first systematic written use of the language happened in Toledo, a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile, in the 13th century. Spanish colonialism in the early modern period spurred on the introduction of the language to overseas locations, most notably to the Americas.^[9]

As a Romance language, Spanish is a descendant of Latin, and has one of the smaller degrees of difference from it (about 20%) alongside Sardinian and Italian.^[10] Around 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is derived from Latin, including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek.^[11][12] Alongside English and French, it is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world.^[13] Spanish does not feature prominently as a scientific language; however, it is better represented in areas like humanities and social sciences.^[14] Spanish is also the third most used language on internet websites after English and Chinese.^[15]

Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and it is also used as an official language by the European Union, Organization of American States, Union of South American Nations, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, African Union and many other international organizations.^[16]

Name of the language and etymology[edit]

Name of the language[edit]

In Spain and in some other parts of the Spanish-speaking world, Spanish is called not only español but also castellano (Castilian), the language from the Kingdom of Castile, contrasting it with other languages spoken in Spain such as Galician, Basque, Asturian, Catalan, Aragonese and Occitan.

The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the official language of the whole Spanish State, in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas (lit. «the other Spanish languages»). Article III reads as follows:

El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. … Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas…
Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. … The other Spanish languages shall also be official in their respective Autonomous Communities…

The Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española), on the other hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. However, from 1713 to 1923, it called the language castellano.

The Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (a language guide published by the Royal Spanish Academy) states that, although the Royal Spanish 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.^[17]

Etymology[edit]

The term castellano is related to Castile (Castilla or archaically Castiella), the kingdom where the language was originally spoken. The name of Castile, in turn, is usually assumed to be derived from castillo (‘castle’).

In the Middle Ages, the language spoken in Castile was generically referred to as Romance and later also as Lengua vulgar.^[18] Later in the period, it gained geographical specification as Romance castellano («romanz castellano», «romanz de Castiella»), «lenguaje de Castiella», and ultimately simply as castellano (noun).^[18]

Different etymologies have been suggested for the term español (Spanish). According to the Royal Spanish Academy, español derives from the Occitan word espaignol and that, in turn, derives from the Vulgar Latin *hispaniolus (‘of Hispania’).^[19] Hispania was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula.

There are other hypotheses apart from the one suggested by the Royal Spanish Academy. Spanish philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal suggested that the classic hispanus or hispanicus took the suffix -one from Vulgar Latin, as happened with other words such as bretón (Breton) or sajón (Saxon).

History[edit]

Like the other Romance languages, the Spanish language evolved from Vulgar Latin, which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans during the Second Punic War, beginning in 210 BC. Several pre-Roman languages (also called Paleohispanic languages)—some distantly related to Latin as Indo-European languages, and some that are not related at all—were previously spoken in the Iberian Peninsula. These languages included Proto-Basque, Iberian, Lusitanian, Celtiberian and Gallaecian.

The first documents to show traces of what is today regarded as the precursor of modern Spanish are from the 9th century. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era, the most important influences on the Spanish lexicon came from neighboring Romance languages—Mozarabic (Andalusi Romance), Navarro-Aragonese, Leonese, Catalan, Portuguese, Galician, Occitan, and later, French and Italian. Spanish also borrowed a considerable number of words from Arabic, as well as a minor influence from the Germanic Gothic language through the migration of tribes and a period of Visigoth rule in Iberia. In addition, many more words were borrowed from Latin through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church. The loanwords were taken from both Classical Latin and Renaissance Latin, the form of Latin in use at that time.

According to the theories of Ramón Menéndez Pidal, local sociolects of Vulgar Latin evolved into Spanish, in the north of Iberia, in an area centered in the city of Burgos, and this dialect was later brought to the city of Toledo, where the written standard of Spanish was first developed, in the 13th century.^[21] In this formative stage, Spanish 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 spread to southern Spain with the advance of the Reconquista, and meanwhile gathered a sizable lexical influence from the Arabic of Al-Andalus, much of it indirectly, through the Romance Mozarabic dialects (some 4,000 Arabic-derived words, make up around 8% of the language today).^[22] The written standard for this new language was developed in the cities of Toledo, in the 13th to 16th centuries, and Madrid, from the 1570s.^[21]

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). 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:

Spanish is marked by palatalization of the Latin double consonants (geminates) nn and ll (thus Latin
annum > Spanish año, and Latin anellum > Spanish
anillo).

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.

Typical of Spanish (as also of neighboring Gascon extending as far north as the Gironde estuary, and found in a small area of Calabria), attributed by some scholars 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. Because of borrowings from Latin and from neighboring Romance languages, there are many f-/h-doublets in modern Spanish: Fernando and Hernando (both Spanish for «Ferdinand»), ferrero and herrero (both Spanish for «smith»), fierro and hierro (both Spanish for «iron»), and fondo and hondo (both Spanish for «deep», but fondo means «bottom» while hondo means «deep»); hacer (Spanish for «to make») is cognate to the root word of satisfacer («to satisfy»), and hecho («made») is similarly cognate to the root word of satisfecho («satisfied»).

Compare the examples in the following table:

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

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, written in Salamanca in 1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija, was the first grammar written for a modern European language.^[24] 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.^[25] In his introduction to the grammar, dated 18 August 1492, Nebrija wrote that «… language was always the companion of empire.»^[26]

From the 16th century onwards, the language was taken to the Spanish-discovered America and the Spanish East Indies via Spanish colonization of America. Miguel de Cervantes, 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»).^[27]

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.

Geographical distribution[edit]

Spanish is the primary language in 20 countries worldwide. As of 2023, it is estimated that about 486 million people speak Spanish as a native language, making it the second most spoken language by number of native speakers.^[1] An additional 75 million speak Spanish as a second or foreign language, making it the fourth most spoken language in the world overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi with a total number of 538 million speakers.^[29] Spanish is also the third most used language on the Internet, after English and Chinese.^[30]

Europe[edit]

Spanish is the official language of Spain, the country after which it is named and from which it originated. Other European territories in which it is also widely spoken include Gibraltar and Andorra.^[31]

Spanish is also spoken by immigrant communities in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany.^[32] Spanish is an official language of the European Union.

Americas[edit]

Hispanic America[edit]

Today, the majority of the Spanish speakers live in Hispanic America. Nationally, Spanish is the official language—either de facto or de jure—of Argentina, Bolivia (co-official with 36 indigenous languages), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico (co-official with 63 indigenous languages), Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay (co-official with Guaraní),^[33] Peru (co-official with Quechua, Aymara, and «the other indigenous languages»^[34]), Puerto Rico (co-official with English),^[35] Uruguay, and Venezuela.

United States[edit]

According to the 2020 census, over 60 million people of the U.S. population were of Hispanic or Hispanic American by origin.^[36] In turn, 41.8 million people in the United States aged five or older speak Spanish at home, or about 13% of the population.^[37] The Spanish language has a long history of presence in the United States due to early Spanish and, later, Mexican administration over territories now forming the southwestern states, also Louisiana ruled by Spain from 1762 to 1802, as well as Florida, which was Spanish territory until 1821, and Puerto Rico which was Spanish until 1898.

Spanish is by far the most common second language in the country, with over 50 million total speakers if non-native or second-language speakers are included.^[38] While English is the de facto national language of the country, Spanish is often used in public services and notices at the federal and state levels. Spanish is also used in administration in the state of New Mexico.^[39] The language has a strong influence in major metropolitan areas such as those of Los Angeles, Miami, San Antonio, New York, San Francisco, Dallas, Tucson and Phoenix of the Arizona Sun Corridor, as well as more recently, Chicago, Las Vegas, Boston, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Nashville, Orlando, Tampa, Raleigh and Baltimore-Washington, D.C. due to 20th- and 21st-century immigration.

Rest of the Americas[edit]

Although Spanish has no official recognition in the former British colony of Belize (known until 1973 as British Honduras) where English is the sole official language, according to the 2010 census it was then spoken natively by 45% of the population and 56.6% of the total population were able to speak the language.^[40]

Due to their proximity to Spanish-speaking countries and small existing native Spanish speaking minority, Trinidad and Tobago has implemented Spanish language teaching into its education system. The Trinidad government launched the Spanish as a First Foreign Language (SAFFL) initiative in March 2005.^[41]

In addition to sharing most of its borders with Spanish-speaking countries, the creation of Mercosur in the early 1990s induced a favorable situation for the promotion of Spanish language teaching in Brazil.^[42][43] In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President, making it mandatory for schools to offer Spanish as an alternative foreign language course in both public and private secondary schools in Brazil.^[44] In September 2016 this law was revoked by Michel Temer after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff.^[45] In many border towns and villages along Paraguay and Uruguay, a mixed language known as Portuñol is spoken.^[46]

Africa[edit]

Sub-Saharan Africa[edit]

Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish-speaking country located entirely in Africa, with the language introduced during the Spanish colonial period.^[47] Enshrined in the constitution as an official language (alongside French and Portuguese), Spanish features prominently in the Equatoguinean education system and is the primary language used in government and business.^[48] Whereas it is not the mother tongue of virtually any of its speakers, the vast majority of the population is proficient in Spanish.^[49] The Instituto Cervantes estimates that 87.7% of the population is fluent in Spanish.^[50] This figure highlights Equatorial Guinea as having a higher proportion of proficient speakers of a colonial language relative to the respective metropolitan languages in other West and Central African nations.^[51]

Spanish is spoken by very small communities in Angola due to Cuban influence from the Cold War and in South Sudan among South Sudanese natives that relocated to Cuba during the Sudanese wars and returned for their country’s independence.^[52]

North Africa and Macaronesia[edit]

Spanish is also spoken in the integral territories of Spain in Africa, namely the cities of Ceuta and Melilla and the Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 km (62 mi) off the northwest of the African mainland. The Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands, traces its origins back to the Castilian conquest in the 15th century, and, in addition to a resemblance to Western Andalusian speech patterns, it also features strong influence from the Spanish varieties spoken in the Americas,^[53] which in turn have also been influenced historically by Canarian Spanish.^[54]

While far from the heyday of the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, there are some presence of the Spanish language in the north of Morocco, stemming for example from the availability of certain Spanish-language media.^[55] Many northern Moroccans have rudimentary knowledge of Spanish.^[55] Spanish has also presence in the education system of the country (either by means of selected education centers running the Spain’s education system, primarily located in the North, and the availability of Spanish as foreign language subject in secondary education).^[55]

In Western Sahara, formerly Spanish Sahara, a primarily Hassaniya Arabic-speaking territory, Spanish was officially spoken as the language of the colonial administration during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Today, Spanish is present in the partially-recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf (Algeria), where the Spanish language is still taught as a second language, largely by Cuban educators.^[56][57][58] The number of Spanish speakers is unknown.^{[failed verification][59][60]}

Spanish is also an official language of the African Union.

Asia[edit]

Spanish was an official language of the Philippines from the beginning of Spanish administration in 1565 to a constitutional change in 1973. During Spanish colonization, it was the language of government, trade, and education, and was spoken as a first language by Spaniards and educated Filipinos (Ilustrados). Despite a public education system set up by the colonial government, by the end of Spanish rule in 1898, only about 10% of the population had knowledge of Spanish, mostly those of Spanish descent or elite standing.^[61]

Spanish continued to be official and used in Philippine literature and press during the early years of American administration after the Spanish–American War but was eventually replaced by English as the primary language of administration and education by the 1920s.^[62] Nevertheless, despite a significant decrease in influence and speakers, Spanish remained an official language of the Philippines upon independence in 1946, alongside English and Filipino, a standardized version of Tagalog.

Spanish was briefly removed from official status in 1973 but reimplemented under the administration of Ferdinand Marcos two months later.^[63] It remained an official language until the ratification of the present constitution in 1987, in which it was re-designated as a voluntary and optional auxiliary language.^[64] Despite an effort to reintroduce the language into the Philippine education system in 2010, the initiative failed to gain any traction, with the number of secondary schools at which the language is offered either as a compulsory subject or an elective remaining very limited.^[65][66] Today, the actual number of proficient Spanish speakers is around 400,000, or under 0.5% of the population.^[67][68]

Aside from standard Spanish, a Spanish-based creole language called Chavacano developed in the southern Philippines. However, it is not mutually intelligible with Spanish.^[69] The number of Chavacano-speakers was estimated at 1.2 million in 1996.^[70] The local languages of the Philippines also retain significant Spanish influence, with many words derived from Mexican Spanish, owing to the administration of the islands by Spain through New Spain until 1821, until direct governance from Madrid afterwards to 1898.^[71][72]

Oceania[edit]

Spanish is the official and most spoken language on Easter Island, which is geographically part of Polynesia in Oceania and politically part of Chile. However, Easter Island’s traditional language is Rapa Nui, an Eastern Polynesian language.

As a legacy of comprising the former Spanish East Indies, Spanish loan words are present in the local languages of Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Marshall Islands and Micronesia.^[73][74]

In addition, in Australia and New Zealand, there are native Spanish communities, resulting from emigration from Spanish-speaking countries (mainly from the Southern Cone).^[75]

Spanish speakers by country[edit]

20 countries speak Spanish including 2 not official Belize and United States of America.

Worldwide Spanish fluency (grey and * signifies official language)

Country	Population[76]	Spanish as a native language speakers[77]	Native speakers and proficient speakers as a second language[78]	Total number of Spanish speakers (including limited competence speakers)[78][79]
Mexico*	130 118 356 [80]	122,051,018 (93.8%)[81]	125,954,569 (96,8%)[2]	129,077,409 (99.2%)[81]
United States	331 893 745 [82]	41 254 941 (13.2%) [83]	41,254,941 (82% of U.S. Hispanics speak Spanish very well (according to a 2011 survey).[84] There are 60.5 million Hispanics in the U.S. as of 2019[85] + 2.8 mill. non Hispanic Spanish speakers[86])	56,254,941 [2] (41.25 million as a first language + 15 million as a second language. To avoid double counting, the number does not include 8 million Spanish students and some of the 7.7 million undocumented Hispanics not accounted by the Census
Colombia*	51 609 474 [87]	50 759 474 (850,000 with other mother tongue)[88]	51 196 598 (99.2%)[2]
Spain*	47 353 590 [89]	43,565,303 (92%)[2]	46,406,518 (98%)[90]
Argentina*	46 234 830 [91][93]	44 709 081 (96.7%)[94]	45 356 368 (98,1%)[2]	45,957,421 (99.4%)[79]
Venezuela*	32 605 423 [95]	31,507,179 (1,098,244 with other mother tongue)[96]	31,725,077 (97.3%)[2]	32,214,158 (98.8%)[79]
Peru*	33 470 569 [97]	27,747,102 (82.9%)[98][99]	30,123,512 (86.6%)[2]
Chile*	19 828 563 [100]	19 015 592 (281,600 with other mother tongue)[101]	19,015,592 (95.9%)[2]	19,689,763 (99.3%)[79]
Ecuador*	17 424 000[102]	16 625 145 (93%)[103]	17,125,687 (95.8%)[2]	17,536,847 (98.1%)[79]
Guatemala*	17 357 886 [104]	12,133,162 (69.9%)[105]	13,591,225 (78.3%)[2]	14,997,214 (86.4%)[79]
Cuba*	11 181 595 [106]	11 159 232 (99.8%)[2]	11,159,232 (99.8%)[2]
Bolivia*	12 006 031 [107]	7,287,661 (60.7%)[108]	9,965,006 (83%)[2]	10,553,301 (87.9%)[79]
Dominican Republic*	10 621 938 [109]	10 367 011 (97.6%)[2]	10 367 011 (97.6%)[2]	10,473,231 (99.6%)[79]
Honduras*	9 526 440 [110]	9 318 690 (207,750 with other mother tongue)[111]	9,402,596 (98.7%)[2]
France	67 407 241 [112]	477,564 (1%[113] of 47,756,439[114])	1,910,258 (4%[90] of 47,756,439[114])	6,685,901 (14%[115] of 47,756,439[114])
Paraguay*	7 453 695 [116]	5 083 420 (61.5%)[117]	6,596,520 (68,2%)[2]	6 484 714 (87%)[118][119]
Nicaragua*	6 595 674 [120]	6 285 677 (490,124 with other mother tongue)[121]	6,404,399 (97.1%)[2]
El Salvador*	6 330 947 [122]	6 316 847 (14,100 with other mother tongue)[123]	6,311,954 (99.7%)[2]
Brazil	214 100 000 [124]	460,018 [2]	460,018	6,056,018 (460,018 immigrants native speakers + 96,000 descendants of Spanish immigrants + 5,500,000 can hold a conversation)[125][79]
Italy	60 542 215 [126]	255,459[127]	1,037,248 (2%[90] of 51,862,391[114])	5,704,863 (11%[115] of 51,862,391[114])
Costa Rica*	5 262 374 [128]	5 176 956 (84,310 with other mother tongue)[129]	5,225,537 (99.3%)[2]
Panama*	4 278 500 [130]	3 777 457 (501,043 with other mother tongue)[131]	3,931,942 (91.9%)[2]
Uruguay*	3 543 026 [132]	3 392 826 (150,200 with other mother tongue)[133]	3,486,338 (98.4%)[2]
Puerto Rico*	3 285 874 [134]	3,095,293 (94.2%)[135]	3,253,015 (99%)[2]
United Kingdom	67 081 000 [136]	120,000[137]	518,480 (1%[90] of 51,848,010[114])	3,110,880 (6%[115] of 51,848,010[114])
Philippines	101,562,305[138]		438,882[139]	3,016,773[140][141][142][143][144][145][146]
Germany	83 190 556 [147]	375,207 [148]	644,091 (1%[90] of 64,409,146[114])	2,576,366 (4%[115] of 64,409,146[114])
Morocco	35 601 000 [149]	6,586[150]	6,586	1,664,823 [2][151] (10%)[152]
Equatorial Guinea*	1 505 588 [153]		1 114 135 (74%)[2]	1 320 401 (87.7%)[154]
Canada	34,605,346[155]	553,495 [156]	553,495	939,348 (293,000 limited competence speakers + 93,853 students)[2]
Romania	21,355,849[157]		182,467 (1%[90] of 18,246,731[114])	912,337 (5%[115] of 18,246,731[114])
Portugal	10,636,888[158]		323,237 (4%[90] of 8,080,915[114])	808,091 (10%[115] of 8,080,915[114])
Netherlands	16,665,900[159]		133,719 (1%[90] of 13,371,980[114])	668,599 (5%[115] of 13,371,980[114] )
Ivory Coast	21,359,000[160]			566,178 (students)[2]
Australia	21,507,717[161]	117,498 [2]	117,498	547,397 (117,498 native speakers + 374,571 limited competence speakers + 55,328 students)[2]
Sweden	9,555,893[162]	77,912 (1%[113] of 7,791,240[114])	77,912 (1% of 7,791,240)	467,474 (6%[115] of 7,791,240[114])
Belgium	10,918,405[163]		89,395 (1%[90] of 8,939,546[114])	446,977 (5%[115] of 8,939,546[114])
Benin	10,008,749[164]			412,515 (students)[2]
Senegal	12,853,259			356,000 (students)[2]
Poland	38,092,000		324,137 (1%[90] of 32,413,735[114])	324,137 (1% of 32,413,735)
Austria	8,205,533		70,098 (1%[90] of 7,009,827[114])	280,393 (4%[115] of 7,009,827[114])
Belize	430,191 [165]	224,130 (52.1%)[166]	224,130 (52.1%)	270,160 (62,8 %) [166]
Algeria	33,769,669		175,000 [2]	223,000 [2]
Switzerland	8,570,146 [167]	197,113 (2.3%) [168][169]	197,113	211,533 (14,420 students)[170]
Cameroon	21,599,100[171]			193,018 (students)[2]
Denmark	5,484,723		45,613 (1%[90] of 4,561,264[114])	182,450 (4%[115] of 4,561,264[114])
Israel	7,112,359		130,000 [2]	175,000 [2]
Japan	127,288,419	108,000 [2]	108,000	168,000 (60,000 students)[172]
Gabon	1,545,255[173]			167,410 (students)[174]
Bonaire and Curaçao	223,652	10,006 [2]	10,006	150,678 [2]
Ireland	4,581,269[175]		35,220 (1%[90] of 3,522,000[114])	140,880 (4%[115] of 3,522,000[114])
Finland	5,244,749			133,200 (3%[115] of 4,440,004[114])
Bulgaria	7,262,675		130,750 (2%[90] of 6,537,510[114])	130,750 (2%[115] of 6,537,510[114])
Norway	5,165,800	13,000 [2]	13,000	129,168 (92,168 students)[2]
Czech Republic	10,513,209[176]			90,124 (1%[115] of 9,012,443[114])
Russia	146 171 015 [177]	3 000 [2]	3 000	87 313 (84,313 students)[2]
Hungary	9,957,731[178]			83,206 (1%[115] of 8,320,614[114])
Aruba	101,484[179]	13,710 [2]	75,402 [150]	83,064 [2]
Trinidad and Tobago	1,317,714[180]	4,000 [2]	4,000	70,401 [2]
Guam		1,201 [2]	1,201	60,582 [2]
China	1 411 778 724 [181]	5 000 [2]	5 000	59 499 (54,499 students)[2]
New Zealand		22,000 [2]	22,000	58,373 (36,373 students)[2]
Slovenia			35,194 (2%[90] of 1,759,701[114])	52,791 (3%[115] of 1,759,701[114])
India	1 386 745 000 [182]	1 000 [2]	1 000	50 264 (49,264 students)[2]
Andorra	84,484	30,414 [2]	30,414	47,271 [2]
Slovakia	5,455,407			45,500 (1%[115] of 4,549,955[114])
Gibraltar	29,441[183]	22,758 (77.3%[184])
Lithuania	2,972,949[185]			28,297 (1%[115] of 2,829,740[114])
Luxembourg	524,853	4,049 (1%[113] of 404,907[114])	8,098 (2%[90] of 404,907[114])	24,294 (6%[115] of 404,907[114])
Western Sahara	513,000[186]	n.a.[187]		22,000 [2]
Turkey	83 614 362	1,000 [2]	1,000	20,346 [2] (4,346 students)[188]
US Virgin Islands		16,788 [2]	16,788	16,788
Latvia	2,209,000[189]			13,943 (1%[115] of 1,447,866[114])
Cyprus				2%[115] of 660,400[114]
Estonia				9,457 (1%[115] of 945,733[114])
Jamaica	2,711,476[190]	8,000 [2]	8,000	8,000
Namibia		666	3,866 [191]	3,866
Egypt				3,500 (students)[192]
Malta				3,354 (1%[115] of 335,476[114])
Total	7,626,000,000 (Total World Population)[193]	484,017,576[194][195] (6.2 %)[196]	505,873,106 [2] (6.5 % )	566,462,956 [2] (7.2 %)[197]

Grammar[edit]

Most of the grammatical and typological features of Spanish are shared with the other Romance languages. Spanish is a fusional language. The noun and adjective systems exhibit two genders and two numbers. In addition, articles and some pronouns and determiners have a neuter gender in their singular form. There are about fifty conjugated forms per verb, with 3 tenses: past, present, future; 2 aspects for past: perfective, imperfective; 4 moods: indicative, subjunctive, conditional, imperative; 3 persons: first, second, third; 2 numbers: singular, plural; 3 verboid forms: infinitive, gerund, and past participle. The indicative mood is the unmarked one, while the subjunctive mood expresses uncertainty or indetermination, and is commonly paired with the conditional, which is a mood used to express «would» (as in, «I would eat if I had food); the imperative is a mood to express a command, commonly a one word phrase – «¡Di!», «¡Talk!».

Verbs express T-V distinction by using different persons for formal and informal addresses. (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 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.

Spanish is classified as a subject–verb–object language; however, as in most Romance languages, constituent order is highly variable and governed mainly by topicalization and focus rather than by syntax. 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).

Phonology[edit]

The Spanish phonological system evolved from that of Vulgar Latin. Its development exhibits some traits in common with other Western Romance languages, others with the neighboring Hispanic varieties—especially Leonese and Aragonese—as well as other features unique to Spanish. Spanish is alone among its immediate neighbors in having undergone frequent aspiration and eventual loss of the Latin initial /f/ sound (e.g. Cast. harina vs. Leon. and Arag. farina).^[198] The Latin initial consonant sequences pl-, cl-, and fl- in Spanish typically merge as ll- (originally pronounced [ʎ]), while in Aragonese they are preserved in most dialects, and in Leonese they present a variety of outcomes, including [tʃ], [ʃ], and [ʎ]. Where Latin had -li- before a vowel (e.g. filius) or the ending -iculus, -icula (e.g. auricula), Old Spanish produced [ʒ], that in Modern Spanish became the velar fricative [x] (hijo, oreja), whereas neighboring languages have the palatal lateral [ʎ] (e.g. Portuguese filho, orelha; Catalan fill, orella).

Segmental phonology[edit]

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^[199]). 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 approximant 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, /ʎ/ is marked with an asterisk (*) to indicate that it is preserved only in some dialects. In most dialects it has been merged with /ʝ/ in the merger called yeísmo. Similarly, /θ/ is also marked with an asterisk to indicate that most dialects do not distinguish it from /s/ (see seseo), although this is not a true merger but an outcome of different evolution of sibilants in Southern Spain.

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 approximant pronunciations.

Consonant phonemes^[200]

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

Prosody[edit]

Spanish is classified by its rhythm as a syllable-timed language: each syllable has approximately the same duration regardless of stress.^[201][202]

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.^[203][204] 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-to-last or earlier syllables. Stress tends to occur as follows:^{[205][better source needed]}

• in words that end with a monophthong, on the penultimate syllable
• when the word ends in a diphthong, on the final syllable.
• in words that end with a consonant, on the last syllable, with the exception of two grammatical endings: -n, for third-person-plural of verbs, and -s, for plural of nouns and adjectives or for second-person-singular of verbs. However, even though a significant number of nouns and adjectives ending with -n are also stressed on the penult (joven, virgen, mitin), the great majority of nouns and adjectives ending with -n are stressed on their last syllable (capitán, almacén, jardín, corazón).
• Preantepenultimate stress (stress on the fourth-to-last syllable) occurs rarely, only on verbs with clitic pronouns attached (e.g. guardándoselos ‘saving them for him/her/them/you’).

In addition to the many exceptions to these tendencies, there are numerous minimal pairs that contrast solely on stress such as sábana (‘sheet’) and sabana (‘savannah’); límite (‘boundary’), limite (‘he/she limits’) and limité (‘I limited’); líquido (‘liquid’), liquido (‘I sell off’) and liquidó (‘he/she sold off’).

The orthographic 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 (penultimate) syllable. Exceptions to those rules are indicated by an acute accent mark over the vowel of the stressed syllable. (See Spanish orthography.)

Speaker population[edit]

Spanish is the official, or national language in 18 countries and one territory in the Americas, Spain, and Equatorial Guinea. With a population of over 410 million, Hispanophone America accounts for the vast majority of Spanish speakers, of which Mexico is the most populous Spanish-speaking country. In the European Union, Spanish is the mother tongue of 8% of the population, with an additional 7% speaking it as a second language.^[206] Additionally, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States and is by far the most popular foreign language among students.^[207] In 2015, it was estimated that over 50 million Americans spoke Spanish, about 41 million of whom were native speakers.^[208] With continued immigration and increased use of the language domestically in public spheres and media, the number of Spanish speakers in the United States is expected to continue growing over the forthcoming decades.^[209]

Dialectal variation[edit]

While being mutually intelligible, 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/.^[210][211]

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. The speech from the educated classes of Madrid is the standard variety for use on radio and television in Spain and it is indicated by many as the one that has most influenced the written standard for Spanish.^[212] Central (European) Spanish speech patterns have been noted to be in the process of merging with more innovative southern varieties (including Eastern Andalusian and Murcian), as an emerging interdialectal levelled koine buffered between the Madrid’s traditional national standard and the Seville speech trends.^[213]

Phonology[edit]

The four main phonological divisions are based respectively on (1) the phoneme /θ/ («theta»), (2) the debuccalization of syllable-final /s/, (3) the sound of the spelled ⟨s⟩, (4) and the phoneme /ʎ/ («turned y«),^[214]

• The phoneme /θ/ (spelled c before e or i and spelled ⟨z⟩ elsewhere), a voiceless dental fricative as in English thing, is maintained by a majority of Spain’s population, especially in the northern and central parts of the country. In other areas (some parts of southern Spain, the Canary Islands, and the Americas), /θ/ does not exist and /s/ occurs instead. The maintenance of phonemic contrast is called distinción in Spanish, while the merger is generally called seseo (in reference to the usual realization of the merged phoneme as [s]) or, occasionally, ceceo (referring to its interdental realization, [θ], in some parts of southern Spain). In most of Hispanic America, the spelled ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩, and spelled ⟨z⟩ is always pronounced as a voiceless dental sibilant.
• The debuccalization (pronunciation as [h], or loss) of syllable-final /s/ is associated with the southern half of Spain and lowland Americas: Central America (except central Costa Rica and Guatemala), the Caribbean, coastal areas of southern Mexico, and South America except Andean highlands. Debuccalization is frequently called «aspiration» in English, and aspiración in Spanish. When there is no debuccalization, the syllable-final /s/ is pronounced as voiceless «apico-alveolar» sibilant or as a voiceless dental sibilant in the same fashion as in the next paragraph.
• The sound that corresponds to the letter ⟨s⟩ is pronounced in northern and central Spain as a voiceless «apico-alveolar» sibilant [s̺] (also described acoustically as «grave» and articulatorily as «retracted»), with a weak «hushing» sound reminiscent of retroflex fricatives. In Andalusia, Canary Islands and most of Hispanic America (except in the Paisa region of Colombia) it is pronounced as a voiceless dental sibilant [s], much like the most frequent pronunciation of the /s/ of English. Because /s/ is one of the most frequent phonemes in Spanish, the difference of pronunciation is one of the first to be noted by a Spanish-speaking person to differentiate Spaniards from Spanish-speakers of the Americas.^{[citation needed]}
• The phoneme /ʎ/, spelled ⟨ll⟩, a palatal lateral consonant that can be approximated by the sound of the ⟨lli⟩ of English million, tends to be maintained in less-urbanized areas of northern Spain and in highland areas of South America. Meanwhile, 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. As with other forms of allophony across world languages, the small difference of the spelled ⟨ll⟩ and the spelled ⟨y⟩ is usually not perceived (the difference is not heard) by people who do not produce them as different phonemes. Such a phonemic merger is called yeísmo in Spanish. In Rioplatense Spanish, the merged phoneme is generally pronounced as a postalveolar fricative, either voiced [ʒ] (as in English measure or the French ⟨j⟩) in the central and western parts of the dialectal region (zheísmo), or voiceless [ʃ] (as in the French ⟨ch⟩ or Portuguese ⟨x⟩) in and around Buenos Aires and Montevideo (sheísmo).^[215]

Morphology[edit]

The main morphological 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[edit]

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 its verb forms is called voseo. In a few dialects, all three pronouns are used, with usted, tú, and vos denoting respectively formality, familiarity, and intimacy.^[216]

In voseo, vos is the subject form (vos decís, «you say») and the form for the object of a preposition (voy con vos, «I am 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»).

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).^[217]

General voseo (River Plate Spanish)

Indicative	Subjunctive	Imperative
Present	Simple past	Imperfect past	Future	Conditional	Present	Past
pensás	pensaste	pensabas	pensarás	pensarías	pienses	pensaras pensases	pensá
volvés	volviste	volvías	volverás	volverías	vuelvas	volvieras volvieses	volvé
dormís	dormiste	dormías	dormirás	dormirías	duermas	durmieras durmieses	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	Simple past	Imperfect past	Future[218]	Conditional	Present	Past
pensái(s)	pensaste	pensabais	pensarí(s) pensaráis	pensaríai(s)	pensí(s)	pensarai(s) pensases	piensa
volví(s)	volviste	volvíai(s)	volverí(s) volveráis	volveríai(s)	volvái(s)	volvierai(s) volvieses	vuelve
dormís	dormiste	dormíais	dormirís dormiráis	dormiríais	durmáis	durmierais durmieses	duerme
The forms in bold coincide with standard tú-conjugation.

The use of the pronoun vos with the verb forms of tú (vos piensas) is called «pronominal voseo«. Conversely, the use of the verb forms of vos with the pronoun tú (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 usually reserved for highly informal situations.

And in Central American voseo, one can see even further distinction.

Central American voseo

Indicative	Subjunctive	Imperative
Present	Simple past	Imperfect past	Future	Conditional	Present	Past
pensás	pensaste	pensabas	pensarás	pensarías	pensés	pensaras pensases	pensá
volvés	volviste	volvías	volverás	volverías	volvás	volvieras volvieses	volvé
dormís	dormiste	dormías	dormirás	dormirías	durmás	durmieras durmieses	dormí
The forms in bold coincide with standard tú-conjugation.

Distribution in Spanish-speaking regions of the Americas[edit]

Although vos 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, with wide differences in social consideration.^{[219][better source needed]} Generally, it can be said that there are zones of exclusive use of tuteo (the use of tú) in the following areas: almost all of Mexico, the West Indies, Panama, most of Colombia, Peru, Venezuela and coastal Ecuador.

Tuteo as a cultured form alternates with voseo 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 maintain that voseo can be heard in some parts of eastern Cuba, and others assert that it is absent from the island.^[220]

Tuteo exists as the second-person usage with an intermediate degree of formality alongside the more familiar voseo in Chile, in the Venezuelan state of Zulia, on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, in the Azuero Peninsula in Panama, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, and in parts of Guatemala.

Areas of generalized voseo include Argentina, Nicaragua, eastern Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Uruguay and the Colombian departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Risaralda, Quindio and Valle del Cauca.^[216]

Ustedes[edit]

Ustedes functions as formal and informal second-person plural in all of Hispanic America, the Canary Islands, and parts of Andalusia. It agrees with verbs in the 3rd person plural. Most of Spain maintains the formal/familiar distinction with ustedes and vosotros respectively. The use of ustedes with the second person plural is sometimes heard in Andalusia, but it’s non-standard.

Usted[edit]

Usted is the usual second-person singular pronoun in a formal context, but it is used jointly with the third-person singular voice of the verb. It is 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 that way between parents and children in the Andean regions of Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

Third-person object pronouns[edit]

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»). The 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 (le as a direct object, or lo or la as an indirect object).

Vocabulary[edit]

Some words can be significantly different 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 (word used for lard in Peninsular Spanish), palta, and damasco, respectively, in Argentina, Chile (except manteca), Paraguay, Peru (except manteca and damasco), and Uruguay.

Relation to other languages[edit]

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

It is generally acknowledged that Portuguese and Spanish speakers can communicate in written form, with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility.^{[221][222][223][224]} Mutual intelligibility of the written Spanish and Portuguese languages is remarkably high, and the at times variance of the spoken forms are based more on the phonology than on grammatical and lexical usage. Ethnologue gives estimates of the lexical similarity between related languages in terms of precise percentages. For Spanish and Portuguese, that figure is 89%. Italian, on the other hand is phonologically similar to Spanish, but has a lower lexical and grammatical similarity of 82%. Mutual intelligibility between Spanish and French or between Spanish and Romanian is lower still, given lexical similarity ratings of 75% and 71% respectively.^[225][226] Comprehension of Spanish by French speakers who have not studied the language is much lower, at an estimated 45%. In general, thanks to the common features of the writing systems of the Romance languages, interlingual comprehension of the written word is greater than that of oral communication.

The Spanish vocabulary has been influenced by several languages: As in other European languages, Classical Greek words (Hellenisms) are abundant in several fields, mainly in Art, Science, Politics, Nature, etc.^[227] Its vocabulary has also been influenced by Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula, with around 8% of its vocabulary having Arabic lexical roots.^{[228][229][230][231]} It has also been influenced by Basque, Iberian, Celtiberian, Visigothic, and other neighboring Ibero-Romance languages.^[232][231] Additionally, it has absorbed vocabulary from other languages, particularly other Romance languages such as French, Latin, Mozarabic, Portuguese, Galician, Catalan, Occitan, and Sardinian, as well as from Quechua, Nahuatl, and other indigenous languages of the Americas.^[233]

The following table compares the forms of some common words in several Romance languages:

1. In Romance etymology, Latin terms are given in the Accusative since most forms derive from this case.
2. As in «us very selves», an emphatic expression.
3. Also nós outros in early modern Portuguese (e.g. The Lusiads), and nosoutros in Galician.
4. Alternatively nous autres in French.
5. noialtri in many Southern Italian dialects and languages.
6. Medieval Catalan (e.g. Llibre dels fets).
7. Modified with the learned suffix -ción.
8. Depending on the written norm used (see Reintegrationism).
9. From Basque esku, «hand» + erdi, «half, incomplete». Notice that this negative meaning also applies for Latin sinistra(m) («dark, unfortunate»).
10. Romanian caș (from Latin cāsevs) means a type of cheese. The universal term for cheese in Romanian is brânză (from unknown etymology).^[234]

Judaeo-Spanish[edit]

Judaeo-Spanish, also known as Ladino,^[235] is a variety of Spanish which preserves many features of medieval Spanish and Portuguese and is spoken by descendants of the Sephardi Jews who were expelled from Spain in the 15th century.^[235] Conversely, in Portugal the vast majority of the Portuguese Jews converted and became ‘New Christians’. Therefore, its relationship to Spanish is comparable with that of the Yiddish language to German. Ladino speakers today are almost exclusively Sephardi Jews, with family roots in Turkey, Greece, or the Balkans, and living mostly in Israel, Turkey, and the United States, with a few communities in Hispanic America.^[235] Judaeo-Spanish lacks the Native American vocabulary which was acquired by standard Spanish 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 Latin American communities, the danger of extinction is also due to assimilation by modern Spanish.

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[edit]

Spanish is written in the Latin script, with the addition of the character ⟨ñ⟩ (eñe, representing the phoneme /ɲ/, a letter distinct from ⟨n⟩, although typographically composed of an ⟨n⟩ with a tilde). Formerly the digraphs ⟨ch⟩ (che, representing the phoneme /t͡ʃ/) and ⟨ll⟩ (elle, representing the phoneme /ʎ/ or /ʝ/), were also considered single letters. However, the digraph ⟨rr⟩ (erre fuerte, ‘strong r’, erre doble, ‘double r’, or simply erre), which also represents a distinct phoneme /r/, was not similarly regarded as a single letter. Since 1994 ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨ll⟩ have been treated as letter pairs for collation purposes, though they remained a part of the alphabet until 2010. 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⟩.^[236][237]

Thus, the Spanish alphabet has the following 27 letters:

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.

Since 2010, none of the digraphs (ch, ll, rr, gu, qu) are considered letters by the Royal Spanish Academy.^[238]

The letters k and w are used only in words and names coming from foreign languages (kilo, folklore, whisky, kiwi, 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 (‘the’, masculine singular definite article) with él (‘he’ or ‘it’), or te (‘you’, object pronoun) with té (‘tea’), de (preposition ‘of’) versus dé (‘give’ [formal imperative/third-person present subjunctive]), and se (reflexive pronoun) versus sé (‘I know’ or imperative ‘be’).

The interrogative pronouns (qué, cuál, dónde, quién, etc.) also receive accents in direct or indirect questions, and some demonstratives (ése, éste, aquél, etc.) can be accented when used as pronouns. Accent marks used to be omitted on 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 or 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) and closed by the usual question and exclamation marks.

Organizations[edit]

Royal Spanish Academy[edit]

The Royal Spanish Academy (Spanish: Real Academia Española), founded in 1713,^[239] 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.^[240]
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[edit]

The Association of Spanish Language Academies (Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española, or ASALE) is the entity which regulates the Spanish language. It was created in Mexico in 1951 and represents the union of all the separate academies in the Spanish-speaking world. It comprises the academies of 23 countries, ordered by date of academy foundation: Spain (1713),^[242] Colombia (1871),^[243] Ecuador (1874),^[244] Mexico (1875),^[245] El Salvador (1876),^[246] Venezuela (1883),^[247] Chile (1885),^[248] Peru (1887),^[249] Guatemala (1887),^[250] Costa Rica (1923),^[251] Philippines (1924),^[252] Panama (1926),^[253] Cuba (1926),^[254]
Paraguay (1927),^[255] Dominican Republic (1927),^[256] Bolivia (1927),^[257] Nicaragua (1928),^[258] Argentina (1931),^[259] Uruguay (1943),^[260] Honduras (1949),^[261] Puerto Rico (1955),^[262] United States (1973)^[263] and Equatorial Guinea (2016).^[264]

Cervantes Institute[edit]

The Instituto Cervantes (Cervantes Institute) is a worldwide nonprofit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991. This organization has branches in 45 countries, with 88 centers devoted to the Spanish and Hispanic American cultures and Spanish language.^[265] The goals of the Institute are to promote universally the education, the study, and the use of Spanish as a second language, to support methods and activities that help the process of Spanish-language education, and to contribute to the advancement of the Spanish and Hispanic American cultures in non-Spanish-speaking countries. The institute’s 2015 report «El español, una lengua viva» (Spanish, a living language) estimated that there were 559 million Spanish speakers worldwide. Its latest annual report «El español en el mundo 2018» (Spanish in the world 2018) counts 577 million Spanish speakers worldwide. Among the sources cited in the report is the U.S. Census Bureau, which estimates that the U.S. will have 138 million Spanish speakers by 2050, making it the biggest Spanish-speaking nation on earth, with Spanish the mother tongue of almost a third of its citizens.^[266]

Official use by international organizations[edit]

Spanish is one of the official languages of the United Nations, the European Union, the World Trade Organization, 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, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Inter-American Development Bank, and numerous other international organizations.

Sample text[edit]

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Spanish:

Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales en dignidad y derechos y, dotados como están de razón y conciencia, deben comportarse fraternalmente los unos con los otros.^[267]

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.^[268]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

Organizations

• Real Academia Española (RAE), Royal Spanish Academy. Spain’s official institution, with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language
• Instituto Cervantes, Cervantes Institute. A Spanish government agency, responsible for promoting the study and the teaching of the Spanish language and culture.
• FundéuRAE, Foundation of Emerging Spanish. A non-profit organization with collaboration of the RAE which mission is to clarify doubts and ambiguities of Spanish.

Educational websites

• ProfeDeEle, Exercises targeted toward Spanish language teachers (ELE)
• AprenderEspanol, Spanish activities and material