subject: The Origin of the Spanish Language [print this page] The Origin of the Spanish Language The Origin of the Spanish Language
The Spanish language we know today is a direct result of the romanization of Spain, which began just before 200 BC. The conquest lasted 200 years but the Romans remained in Spain for 700 years. When they departed they left a legacy of culture, architecture, religion and, also, their language.
Consequently, Spanish is known as a Romance language because it was derived from a dialect of spoken Latin firstly in the Iberian Peninsula (now northern Spain) and during the next 1000 years it spread south and then to the Spanish colonial empire, predominantly the Americas.
Spanish is distinguished from other Romance languages by several features of phonology but for current students, it is perhaps sufficient to know how Spanish syntax is affected, such as direct objects (use of 'personal a') and the continued use of arguably redundant indirect object pronouns (le, les). These aspects of Spanish grammar can be more clearly explained by a good Spanish tutor.
With regard to subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, you - plural, they), Spanish is called a 'pro-drop' language, meaning that a verb can very often stand alone without the need to use the subject pronoun because the verb changes with each conjugation to indicate the subject. This is maybe easier to explain by example: pienso - I think, piensas - you think, piensa - he, she, it thinks, pensamos - we think, pensis - you (plural) think, piensan - they think. Note how the verb endings have changed throughout the conjugation of the verb. These endings indicate the subject and thus the subject pronoun is not required.
Modern Spanish was not only influenced by the Romans but also contains words or variations from other languages, including Basque (from the Basque province in Spain), the Americas, and German: for instance the Spanish words of Germanic origin for cardinal directions - norte (north), este (east), sur (south) and oeste (west). In 711 Spain was conquered by Moors (Berbers and Arabs of North African descent), who brought the Arabic language to the peninsula.
Accents, their purpose being to 'stress' syllables where the stress is not predictable, were first used in the 15th century and became widely spread in the 16th. The Spanish Royal Academy, formed mainly to preserve the 'purity' of the language in the 18th century, brought about a standard use of accents.
Castillian Spanish originated after the fall of the Roman Empire and, under General Franco, the dictator, was declared the only official language of Spain. However, in the 1960s and 1970s Spanish parliament allowed three other languages: Catalan, Basque and Galician. All three languages are distinct from Castillian Spanish.
Today, Spanish is the official language of 21 countries and is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
