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10 Facts About the Spanish Language
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Do you want to know more about the Spanish language? Here are 10 facts to get you started:
1- Spanish Ranks as World's No. 2 Language
With 329 million native speakers, Spanish
ranks as the world's No. 2 language in terms of how many people speak it
as their first language, according to Ethnologue. It is slightly ahead of English (328 million) but far behind Chinese (1.2 billion).
Spanish is Spoken Around the WorldSpanish has at least 3 million native
speakers in each of 44 countries, making it the fourth most widely
spoken language behind English (112 countries), French (60) and Arabic
(57).
Spanish Is in the Same Language Family as English
Spanish is part of the Indo-European family
of languages, which are spoken by more than a third of the world's
population. Other Indo-European languages include English, French,
German, the Scandinavian languages, the Slavic languages and many of the
languages of India. Spanish can be classified further as a Romance
language, a group that includes French, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan and
Romanian.
Spanish Language Dates to at Least 13th Century
Although
there is no clear boundary defining when the Latin of what is now the
north-central area of Spain became Spanish, it is safe to say that the
language of the Castile region became a distinct language in part
because of efforts by King Alfonso in the 13th century to standardize
the language for official use. By the time Columbus came to the Western
Hemisphere in 1492, Spanish had reached the point where the language as
spoken and written would be easily understandable today.
Spanish Is Sometimes Called Castilian
To the people who speak it, Spanish is sometimes called español and sometimes castellano (the Spanish equivalent of "Castilian"). The labels used vary regionally and sometimes according to political viewpoint.
If You Can Spell It, You Can Say It
Spanish is one of the world's most phonetic
languages. If you know how a word is spelled, you can almost always know
how it is pronounced (although the reverse isn't true). The main
exception is recent words of foreign origin, which usually retain their
original spelling.
The Academy Promotes Consistency in Spanish
The Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española),
created in the 18th century, is widely considered the arbiter of
standard Spanish. It produces authoritative dictionaries and grammar
guides. Although its decisions do not have the force of law, they are
widely followed in both Spain and Latin America. Among the language
reforms promoted by the Academy have been the use of the inverted question mark and exclamation point (¿ and ¡).
Although they have been used by people who speak some of the
non-Spanish languages of Spain, they are otherwise unique to the Spanish
language. Similarly unique to Spanish and a few local languages that
have copied it is the ñ, which became standardized around the 14th century.
Most Spanish Speakers Are in Latin America
Although Spanish originated on the Iberian
Peninsula as a descendant of Latin, today it has far more speakers in
Latin America, having been brought to the New World by Spanish
colonialization. There are minor differences in vocabulary, grammar and
pronunciation between the Spanish of Spain and the Spanish of Latin
America, not so great as to prevent easy communication.
Arabic Had a Huge Influence on Spanish Language
After Latin, the language that has had the biggest influence on Spanish is Arabic.
Today, the foreign language exerting the most influence is English, and
Spanish has adopted hundreds of English words related to technology and
culture.
Spanish and English Share Large Vocabulary
Spanish and English share much of their vocabulary through cognates,
as both languages derive many of their words from Latin and Arabic. The
biggest differences in the grammar of the two languages include
Spanish's use of gender, a more extensive verb conjugation and the widespread use of the subjunctive mood.
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