subject: A Little History Of The Spanish Language [print this page] After Mandarin Chinese and English, the third most used language on the globe is Spanish, with
an estimated four hundred thousand native speakers accross the world. Its origins,
however, are very much reduced, geographically and numerically.
Together with other initially European languages such as French, Italian, or Portuguese, the linguistic roots of
Spanish make it a romantic language. This means that Latin, or more specifically, Vulgar Latin, constitutes its most important linguistic base. With
the constant contact and the
friendly influence of the Latin base with other language cultures and traditions has led to the
building of all the different romance languages as we know them today. In the case of Spanish, there are, for example, characteristics that come from the Celtic and Iberian traditions.
Also there is a huge amount of Greek vocabulary which was first taken up by Latin speakers and then introduced into Spanish. Such as words like hurfano (orphan) or escuela (school) that belong to this tradition. Also we should not forget the seven centuries of Arab domination of the peninsula. This has left, among other things, an important legacy of lexical elements that have been incorporated into the Spanish language. A surname you probably know which exemplifies this is Almodvar.
Spanish, especially in the bilingual territories of Spain, is also known as Castellano (Castilian), because of its origins in the region of Castilla. Castilla is situated in the north central area of Spain, and it was once the neuralgic center of the Spanish empire that would take the Spanish language to more than twenty other countries.
The making of a linguistic unity of Spanish as a common language for the country of Spain was parallel to its territorial unity. This union was only possible after the re-conquest of the peninsula from the Arab settlers, at the end of the 15th century.
The linguistic variety of the kingdom of Castilla expanded to the practical totality of the Iberian Peninsula. After the marriage of Isabel I of Castilla and Fernando II of Aragn, the Spanish state was born, and Castilian language and culture became its most dominant identity. During the 16th and 17th centuries, through a lot's of linguistic evolutions and normalizing changes, the language of the Spanish state became what is thesedays known as Modern Spanish.
It's quite important to remember, however, that spoken Spanish is not identical in the different regions of Spain. In fact, its pronunciation and lexical characteristics can vary to a very significant extent from one town to another.
