Spanish

Spanish (español), also known as Castilian (castellano), is a Romance language that originated in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a global language with nearly 500 million native speakers, mainly in Spain and the Americas. It is the second most spoken language by total number of speakers, and the third most spoken language by number of native speakers.

History

Spanish is a part of the Indo-European language family, and is closely related to Italian and Portuguese. It evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The first written standard was developed in the 13th century in the Kingdom of Castile.

Geographic distribution

Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the Western Hemisphere, and the second most widely spoken language in the world after Mandarin Chinese. It is the official language in 21 countries, including Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and Peru. It is also widely spoken in the United States, with over 40 million speakers.

Grammar

Spanish grammar is a type of inflected language, which means that word order can vary, and words are modified (inflected) to signify different aspects of grammar. Spanish nouns have gender and number, and Spanish verbs are conjugated to indicate tense, mood, aspect, and subject.

Vocabulary

The Spanish vocabulary is largely derived from Latin, with influence from Arabic, French, and Italian. It also includes many loanwords from other languages, especially English, French, German, and Italian.

See also

• Spanish literature
• Spanish phonology
• Spanish dialects and varieties