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Spanish
español, castellano
Pronunciation	/espa'ɲol/, /kaste'ʎano/
Region	Spain, most of Central America, less than half of South America, less than half of the Caribbean region and in some areas of the United States mainly used by Hispanic immigrants, a small percentage in Andorra, Belize, Equatorial Guinea and The Philippines.
Native speakers	Up to 400 Million.
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Gallo-Iberian Ibero-Romance West Iberian Spanish
Official status
Official language in	Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, European Union, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Regulated by	Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (Real Academia Española and 21 other national Spanish language academies)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	es
ISO 639-2	spa
ISO 639-3	spa
Map of the Hispanophone world, with major to minor Spanish-speaking countries or regions.

Spanish (español or Castilian (castellano) is an Iberian Romance language. It was spoken by roughly 364 million people in the year 2000. Current estimation accounts up to 400 million, making Spanish the third language in the world in number of speakers (after English and Mandarin Chinese) and the most widely spoken and studied Romance language. It is arguably the most widely studied foreign language for native speakers of English due to its perceived sense of practicality in a largely globalized 21st Century, as both languages have similar numbers of native speakers, Spanish is also widely dispersed in the Western Hemisphere and has a large population in Europe, and is spoken in many countries. It is also the most widely studied foreign language in Brazil, which is almost entirely surrounded by Spanish-speaking nations.

Spanish originated as a Latin dialect along a remote crossroads strip among the Cantabria, Burgos and La Rioja provinces of Northern Spain (cf. Glosas Emilianenses in San Millán de la Cogolla, La Rioja). From there, its use gradually spread inside the Kingdom of Castile, where it eventually became the principal language of government and trade. It was later brought to America and other parts of the world in the last five centuries by Spanish explorers, colonists and empire-builders. Spanish is one of six official working languages of the United Nations and one of the most used global languages, along with English. It is spoken most extensively in North and South America, Europe, and certain parts of Africa, Asia and Oceania. Within the globalized market, there is currently an international expansion and recognition of the Spanish language in literature, the film industry, television (notably telenovelas) and mostly music.

Naming

Spanish people tend to call this language Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) when contrasting it with languages of other states (e.g., in a list with French and English), but call it Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (Castilian, from the Castile region) when contrasting it with other languages of Spain (such as Galician, Basque, and Catalan). In this manner, the Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) to define the official language of the whole State, opposed to Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (lit. the other Spanish languages). Article III reads as follows:

Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)

Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. (…) The other Spanish languages shall also be official in the respective Autonomous Communities…

In some parts of Spain, mainly where people speak Galician, Basque and Catalan, the choice of words reveals the speakers' sense of belonging and their political views. People from bilingual areas might consider it offensive to call the language Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), as that is the term that was chosen by Francisco Franco — during whose dictatorship the use of regional languages was discouraged — and because it connotes that Basque, Catalan and Galician are not languages of Spain. On the other hand, more nationalist speakers (both Spanish and regional nationalists) might prefer Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) either to reflect their belief in the unity of the Spanish State or to denote the perceived detachment between their region and the rest of the State. However, most people in Spain, regardless of place of origin, use Spanish or Castilian indistinctively.

Some philologists use Castilian only when speaking of the language spoken in Castile during the Middle Ages, stating that it is preferable to use Spanish for its modern form. The subdialect of Spanish spoken in most parts of modern day Castile can also be called Castilian. This dialect differs from those of other regions of Spain (Andalusia for example); the Castilian dialect is almost exactly the same as standard Spanish.

Some Spanish speakers consider castellano a generic term with no political or ideological links, much as "Spanish" is in English.

Classification and related languages

Spanish/Castilian has closest affinity to the other West Iberian Romance languages. Most are mutually intelligible among speakers without too much difficulty. It has different common features with Catalan, an East-Iberian language which exhibits many Gallo-Romance traits. Catalan is more similar to Occitan than Spanish and Portuguese are to each other.

• Galician (galego)
• Portuguese (português)
• Catalan (català)
• Asturian (asturianu)
• Occitan (aranès)
• Ladino (Djudeo-espanyol, sefardí)

Vocabulary comparison

Characterization

Spanish and Italian share a very similar phonological system and do not differ very much in grammar, vocabulary and above all morphology. Speakers of both languages can communicate relatively well: at present, the lexical similarity with Italian is estimated at 82%. As a result, Spanish and Italian are mutually intelligible to various degrees. Spanish is mutually intelligible with French and with Romanian to a lesser degree (lexical similarity is respectively 75% and 71%). The writing systems of the four languages allow for a greater amount of interlingual reading comprehension than oral communication would.

One defining characteristic of Spanish was the diphthongization of the Latin short vowels e and o into ie and ue, respectively, when they were stressed. Although similar sound changes can be found in other Romance languages, they were particularly significant in this one. Some examples:

• Lat. petra > Sp. piedra, It. pietra, Fr. pierre, Port./Gal. pedra "stone".
• Lat. moritur > Sp. muere, It. muore, Fr. meurt / muert, Rom. moare, Port./Gal. morre "he dies".

More 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 which did not diphthongate. Compare for instance:

• Lat. filium > It. figlio, Port. filho, Fr. fils, Occitan filh, Gascon hilh Sp. hijo and Ladino fijo;
• late Lat. *fabulare > Lad. favlar, Port. falar, Sp. hablar;
• but Lat. focum > It. fuoco, Port. fogo, Sp./Lad. fuego.

Some consonant clusters of Latin also produced characteristicaly different results in these languages, for example:

• Lat. clamare, acc. flammam, plenum > Lad. lyamar, flama, pleno; Sp. llamar, llama, lleno; Port. chamar, chama, cheio.
• Lat. acc. octo, noctem, multum > Lad. ocho, noche, muncho; Sp. ocho, noche, mucho; Port. oito, noite, muito.

Ladino

Ladino, which is essentially medieval Castilian and closer to modern Spanish than any other language, is spoken by many descendants of the Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Spain in the 15th century. In many ways it is not a separate language but a dialect of Castilian. Ladino lacks native American vocabulary which was influential during colonial times. It does contain other vocabulary from Turkish, Hebrew and from other languages spoken wherever the Sephardic Jews settled.

Portuguese

The two major Romance languages originated in the Iberian Peninsula, Spanish and Portuguese, have generally a moderate degree of mutual intelligibility in their standard spoken forms, though Spanish morphology and phonetics is much easier for a Portuguese speaker to understand than vice versa. Spanish and Portuguese share similar grammars and a majority of vocabulary as well as a common history of Arabic influence while a great part of the peninsula was under Islamic rule (both languages expanded over Islamic territories). Their lexical similarity is estimated at 89%.

History

The Spanish language developed from Vulgar Latin, with influence from Celtiberian, Basque and Arabic, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula (see Iberian Romance languages). Typical features of Spanish diachronical phonology include lenition (Latin Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Spanish Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)), palatalization (Latin Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Spanish Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) and diphthongation (stem-changing) of short e and o from Vulgar Latin (Latin Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Spanish Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Latin Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Spanish Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)). Similar phenomena can be found in other Romance languages as well.

During the Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), this northern dialect from Cantabria was carried south, and indeed is still a minority language in the northern coastal regions of Morocco.

The first Latin to Spanish grammar ( Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) was written in Salamanca, Spain, in 1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija. When Isabella of Castile was presented with the book, she asked, What do I want a work like this for, if I already know the language?, to which he replied, Your highness, the language is the instrument of the Empire.

From the 16th century onwards, the language was brought to the Americas, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Marianas, Palau, and the Philippines by Spanish colonization. Also in this epoch, Spanish became the main language of Politics and Art across the major part of Europe. In the 18th century, French took its place.

In the 20th century, Spanish was introduced in Equatorial Guinea and Western Sahara and parts of the United States, such as Spanish Harlem in New York City, that had not been part of the Spanish Empire.

For details on borrowed words and other external influences in Spanish, see Influences on the Spanish language.

Geographic distribution

Spanish language
A manuscript of the Cantar de mio Cid, 13th century
Overview
Pronunciation stress Orthography Names
History
Old Middle Influences
Grammar
Determiners Nouns gender Pronouns personal object Adjectives Prepositions Verbs conjugation irregular verbs
Dialects
Andalusian Andean Argentine Belizean Bolivian Canarian Caribbean Central American Chilean Colombian Costa Rican Cuban Dominican Ecuadorian Equatoguinean Guatemalan Honduran Mexican Murcian New Mexican Nicaraguan Paraguay Panamanian Peninsular Peruvian Philippine status Puerto Rican Rioplatense Saharan Salvadoran Standard Uruguayan Venezuelan
Dialectology
Seseo Yeísmo Voseo Leísmo Loísmo
Interlanguages
Llanito Jopara Judaeo-Spanish Portuñol Spanglish Castrapo Creoles Roquetas Pidgin Chavacano or Chabacano Palenquero or Palenque
Teaching
Hispanism RAE Instituto Cervantes
v t e

Spanish is one of the official languages of the Organization of American States, the United Nations, the South American Community of Nations, and the European Union.

With approximately 106 million first-language and second-language speakers, Mexico boasts the largest population of Spanish-speakers in the world. The three next largest Spanish-speaking populations reside in Colombia, Spain and Argentina.

Spanish is the official language in 21 countries: Argentina, Bolivia (co-official Quechua and Aymara), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea (co-official French), Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama , Paraguay (co-official Guaraní), Peru (co-official Quechua and Aymara), Puerto Rico (co-official English), Spain (co-official in some regions with Catalan, Galician and Basque), Uruguay, and Venezuela.

The majority of its speakers are located in Spain and the Western Hemisphere.

The Americas

In Belize, Spanish holds no official recognition. However, it is the native tongue of about 50% of the population, and is spoken as a second language by another 20%. It is arguably the most important and widely spoken on a popular level, but English remains the sole official language.

In Canada and the non-Spanish speaking Caribbean, Spanish is also spoken by segments of the populations in Aruba, Canada (mainly in Toronto and Montreal), Netherlands Antilles (mainly on Bonaire, Curaçao and St. Maarten), Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (mainly on St. Croix).

In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill that makes Spanish available as a foreign language in the country's secondary schools. Brazil has increased trade with its Spanish-speaking neighbors (especially as a member of the Mercosur trading bloc). Spanish may also be spoken by immigrant workers from neighbouring Spanish-speaking countries and by Brazilian Sephardim. In many border towns and villages (especially along the Uruguayan-Brazilian border) a mixed language commonly known as Portunhol is also spoken.

In Haiti, it is spoken by a sizable portion of the population, especially those who live close to the border with the Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic. The Télévision Nationale d'Haïti, the country's national television network and the Agence Haïtienne de Presse also have occasional television and radio broadcasts in Spanish, however French and Haitian Creole are the two officially recognized languages in that nation.

In the United States, 42 Million people are Hispanics (according to census in 2005). 63% of all Hispanics are Spanish dominant, and the remaining 37% are English dominant/only or prefer English more than Spanish, though this figure is questionable. With 27 million Spanish-speaking people, the United States, a mainly English-speaking country, has the fifth-sixth largest number of Spanish-speakers in the world. The continuous arrival of new immigrants enables it to resist the assimilation experienced by the languages of most previous immigrants. It is also being learned and spoken by a small, though slowly growing, proportion of its non-Hispanic population for its increasing use in business, commerce, and both domestic and international politics. Spanish holds co-official status with English in the associated commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and is used alongside English in both official documents and everyday speech in the State of New Mexico, so much that there is a widespread misconception that Spanish and English are the official languages of the state of New Mexico.

Europe

In European countries other than Spain, it may be spoken by some of their Spanish-speaking immigrant communities, primarily in Andorra (where it is spoken by a great part of the population, despite having no official status), the Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom where there is a strong community in London. There has been a sharp increase in the popularity of Spanish in the United Kingdom over the last few years. It is spoken by much of the population of Gibraltar, though English remains the only official language. Llanito, an English-Spanish (Spanglish) mixed language is also spoken.

Africa

In Africa, Spanish is spoken in Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla which are part of Spain. Also, Spanish is co-official with French in Equatorial Guinea, a country of 500 000 people where it is the prevalent language. Small Spanish-speaking communities exist in northern Morocco (both standard Spanish and Ladino).

Asia

In the Philippines, the Spanish language has been in decline as the official language. Although it was the national language of the country for over four centuries, it's importance fell in the first half of the 20th century following the US occupation and administration of the islands. During World War II, many of the Spanish speaking peoples in the country were either killed or immigrated to Spain, Latin America and the United States, reducing the numbers of Spanish speaking population of the islands. The introduction of the English language in the Philippine government system put to an end of the Spanish as the official language. It ceased to be an official language of the Philippines in 1973 during the Marcos regime, who abolished it.

According to the 1990 census, less than 0.1% of the Filipino population (2,658 people) speak Spanish fluently, although probably an additional half a million Filipinos speak it as a second language. In co-ordination with Academia Filipina de la Lengua Espaňola (Philippine Academy of the Spanish Language), showed that in 2006, there are roughly 3,180,000 Spanish speakers in the Philippines (as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th spoken language). Also, there seems to be a resurgence in interest in the language in the recent years, among the educated youth. The sole existing Spanish-Asiatic creole language, Chabacano or Zamboangueño (from Zamboanga), is spoken by an additional 0.4% of the Filipino population: 607,200 speakers (2000 census). Most other Philippine languages contain generous quantities of Spanish loan words.

Among other Asian countries, Spanish is spoken mainly by small percentages of Hispanic expatriates living in the Middle East, Israel and Turkey.

Oceania

Among the countries and territories in Oceania, Spanish is the seventh most spoken language in Australia (100,000 speakers); there are small pertages of Argentine, Chilean, Salvadoran, Spanish, Uruguayan Colombian and Mexican communities living mainly in Sydney. It is also spoken by the approximately 3,000 inhabitants of Easter Island, a territorial possession of Chile. The island nations of Guam, Palau, Northern Marianas, Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia all once had Spanish speakers, but Spanish has long since been forgotten. It now only exists as an influence on the local native languages and spoken by its foreign populations.

In Antarctica, the territorial claims and permanent bases made by Argentina, Chile, Peru, Uruguay and Spain also place Spanish as the official and working language of these exclaves.

Total numbers of Spanish speakers

• The following is a list of the amounts of Spanish speakers in the Hispanic world.

Variations

There are important variations among the regions of Spain and throughout Spanish-speaking America. In Spain the Castilian dialect pronunciation is commonly taken as the national standard (although the characteristic weak pronouns usage or Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)]] of this dialect is deprecated). Anyway, one has to be aware that for most people, nearly for everyone in Spain, "standard Spanish" means "pronouncing everything exactly as it is written", which of course doesn't correspond to any real dialect. In practice, the standard way of speaking Spanish in the media is "written Spanish" for formal speech, "Madrilenian dialect" (basically a southern dialect) for informal speech.

Spanish has three second-person singular pronouns: Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), and in some parts of Latin America, Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (the use of this form is called voseo). Generally speaking, Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) and Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) are informal and used with friends (though in Spain Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is considered an archaic form for address of exalted personages, its use now mainly confined to the liturgy). Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is universally regarded as the formal form (derived from Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), "your mercy") , and is used as a mark of respect, as when addressing one's elders or strangers. The pronoun Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is the plural form of Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in most of Spain, although in the Americas (and certain southern Spanish cities such as Cádiz, and in the Canary Islands) it is replaced with Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help). It is remarkable that the use of 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", Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), uses the third-person plural form of the verb, in Cádiz the informal form is constructed as 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.

Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (see Voseo) is used extensively as the primary spoken form of the second-person singular pronoun in many countries of Latin America, including Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay, the Antioquia and Valle del Cauca states of Colombia and the State of Zulia in Venezuela. In Argentina, Uruguay, and increasingly in Paraguay, it is also the standard form used in the media, but media in other Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) countries generally continue to use Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) or Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) except in advertisements, for instance. Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) may also be used regionally in other countries. Depending on country or region, usage may be considered standard or (by better educated speakers) to be unrefined. Interpersonal situations in which the use of vos is acceptable may also differ considerably between regions.

Spanish forms also differ regarding second-person plural pronouns. The Spanish dialects of Latin America have only one form of the second-person plural, Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (formal or familiar, as the case may be). In Spain there are two forms — Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (formal) and Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (familiar).

The Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy), like academies formed for twenty-one other national languages, exercises a standardizing influence through its publication of dictionaries and widely respected grammar and style guides. Due to this influence and for other sociohistorical reasons, a standardized form of the language (Standard Spanish) is widely acknowledged for use in literature, academic contexts and the media.

Some words can be different, even embarassingly so, in different Hispanophone countries. Most Spanish speakers can recognize other Spanish forms, even in places where they are not commonly used, but Spaniards generally do not recognise specifically American usages. For example, Spanish mantequilla, aguacate and albaricoque (respectively, "butter", "avocado", "apricot") correspond to manteca, palta, and damasco, respectively, in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. The everyday Spanish words coger (to catch, get, or pick up), 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 "vagina". The Puerto Rican word for "bobby pin" (pinche) is an obscenity in Mexico, and in Nicaragua simply means stingy. Other examples include taco, which means "swearword" in Spain but is known to the rest of the world as the Mexican foodstuff. Pija in many countries of Latin America is a slang and informal word for penis, while in Spain the word signifies "posh girl" or "snobby". Coche, which means car in Spain, means pig in Guatemala while carro means "car" in some Latin American countries and "cart" in others as well as in Spain.

Writing system

Spanish is written using the Latin alphabet, with the addition of the character "ñ" (eñe), an "n" with tilde. Historically, the digraphs "ch" ( Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)), "ll" ( Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)), and "rr" ( Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), double "r") were regarded as single letters, with their own names and places in the alphabet (a, b, c, ch, d…, l, ll, m, n, ñ, o… r, rr, s…), because each represents a single phoneme (/tʃ/, /ʎ/, and /r/, respectively). Since 1994, these letters are to be replaced with the appropriate letter pair in collation. Spelling remains visually unchanged, but words with "ch" are now alphabetically sorted between those with "ce" and "ci", instead of following "cz", and similarly for "ll" and "rr". However, the names che, elle and erre doble are still used colloquially.

Excluding a very small number of regional terms such as México, pronunciation can be entirely determined from spelling (see Mexico: Origin and history of the name). 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", and 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 additionally used to distinguish certain homophones, especially when one of them is a stressed word and the other one is a clitic: compare Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("the" before a masculine singular noun) with Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("he" or "it"), or Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("tea"), Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("give") and Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("I know", or imperative "be") with Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("you", object pronoun), Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (preposition "of" or "from"), and Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (reflexive pronoun). Interrogative pronouns ( Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), etc.) receive accents in direct or indirect questions, and some demonstratives ( Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), etc.) are accented when used as pronouns. The conjunction 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., Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) should be read as Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) rather than Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("10, 020"). Accent marks are frequently omitted in capital letters, though this is not standard.

Interrogative and exclamatory clauses are introduced with inverted question ( ¿ ) and exclamation marks ( ¡ ).

Sounds

The phonemic inventory listed in the following table includes historical phonemes that have merged with others in the process of the language's evolution (in most dialects), marked with an asterisk (*). Sounds in parentheses are allophones or dialectal variants.

By the 16th century, the consonant system of Spanish underwent the following important changes that differentiated it from neighboring Romance languages such as Portuguese and Catalan:

• The initial /f/, that had evolved into a vacillating /h/, was lost in most words (although this etymological h- has been preserved in spelling and in some andalucian dialects is still aspirated).
• The bilabial approximant /β̞/ (which was written u or v) merged with the bilabial oclusive /b/ (written b). Orthographically, b and v do not correspond to different phonemes in contemporary Spanish, excepting some areas in Spain, particularly the ones influenced by Catalan.
• The voiced alveolar fricative /z/ (written as s between vowels) merged with voiceless /s/ (written s, or ss between vowels).
• The voiced alveolar affricate /dz/ (written z) merged with voiceless /ts/ (written ç, or c before e, i), and then /ts/ developed into the interdental /θ/, now written z, or c before e, i. But in Andalucia, the Canary Islands and the Americas this sound merged with /s/ as well. (Notice that the ç or c with cedilla was in its origin a Spanish letter, although it is no longer used.)
• The voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/ (written j, or g before e, i) merged with voiceless /ʃ/ (written x, as in Quixote), and then /ʃ/ 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 consonant system of Medieval Spanish has been better preserved in Ladino and in Portuguese, neither of which underwent these shifts.

Lexical stress

Spanish has a phonemic stress system — the place where stress will fall cannot be predicted by other features of the word, and two words can differ by just a change in stress. For example, the word Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (with penultimate stress) means "road" or "I walk" whereas Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (with final stress) means "you (formal)/he/she/it walked". Also, since Spanish syllables are all pronounced at a more or less constant tempo, the language is said to be syllable-timed.

As mentioned above, stress can always be predicted from the written form of a word. An amusing example of the significance of stress and intonation in Spanish is the riddle como como como como como como, to be punctuated and accented so that it makes sense. The answer is ¿Cómo, cómo como? ¡Como como como! ("What do you mean / how / do I eat? / I eat / the way / I eat!").

Grammar

Spanish is a relatively inflected language, with a two-gender system and about fifty conjugated forms per verb, but small noun declension and limited pronominal declension. (For a detailed overview of verbs, see Spanish verbs and Spanish irregular verbs.)

Spanish syntax is generally Subject Verb Object, though variations are common. Spanish is right-branching, uses prepositions, and usually places adjectives after nouns.

Spanish is also pro-drop (allows the deletion of pronouns when pragmatically unnecessary) and verb-framed.

See also

• Romance languages
• Real Academia Española
• Common phrases in Spanish
• Hispanophone
• List of English words of Spanish origin
• Names given to the Spanish language
• Spanish proverbs
• Spanish language poets
• Spanish-based creole languages
• Spanish profanity
• Portuguese Language
• Portuñol
• Papiamento, Chavacano language, Palenquero
• Llanito
• Rock en español (Spanish language rock and roll)
• Latin Union
• Isleños
• Spanish Empire
• Frespañol
• Spanglish

Local varieties

References

1. "Fuentes y criterios demográficos". Centro virtual Cervantes.
2. "Presentación del IV Congreso Internacional de la Lengua Española". RAE.
3. ^ "Spanish". ethnologue.
4. Embassy of Haiti in Washington D.C.

External links

• Ethnologue report for Spanish
• Spanish evolution from Latin
• Template:Es icon Dictionary of the RAE Real Academia Española's official Spanish language dictionary
• Spanish phrasebook on WikiTravel
• The Project Gutenberg EBook of A First Spanish Reader by Erwin W. Roessler and Alfred Remy.

Template:Official UN languages Template:Official EU languages

Template:Languages of South America

• Spanish language
• Languages of Spain
• Languages of Andorra
• Languages of Argentina
• Languages of Belize
• Languages of Brazil
• Languages of Bolivia
• Languages of Canada
• Languages of Chile
• Languages of Colombia
• Languages of Costa Rica
• Languages of Ecuador
• Languages of El Salvador
• Languages of Equatorial Guinea
• Languages of Guatemala
• Languages of Honduras
• Languages of Mexico
• Languages of Morocco
• Languages of Nicaragua
• Languages of Panama
• Languages of Paraguay
• Languages of Peru
• Languages of the Philippines
• Languages of the United States
• Languages of Uruguay
• Languages of Venezuela
• West Iberian languages
• Romance languages