Spanish - History of Spanish

The truth is that both the terms "Spanish" and "Castilian" are synonyms and are acceptable when referring to the language spoken by Spanish speakers. Although, to such extent there are no conflicts about them, what meant a certain problem (that today is considered overcome) is the fact that each one denotes a territory with its own ideology loaded with a historical past identifying it. Therefore, it can be said that the difference has an extralinguistic nature. In pursuit of neutrality, the Diccionario panhispánico de dudas from RAE recommends to use the term "Spanish" since it lacks of any connotation.

History of Spanish

Spanish is a Romance language, i.e. derives from Latin, and like many other languages it was influenced by other languages and dialects in the peninsula.

The conquest of Hispania by the Roman Empire, called Romanization, introduced Latin in the Iberian Peninsula and afterwards the invasion of different Germanic settlers, among them the Visigoths, in the Vth Century introduced words to the language but did not alter the linguistic aspect significantly.

This continued until the Moors invasion in 711 A.D. when Arabic was introduced. In this way Arabic and Latin coexisted in the Iberian Peninsula. Arabic and Mozarabic were spoken in Spain except for some kingdoms in the North where Latin was the official language.

Castilian dialect began in the year 1200 with King Alfonso X. Castilian showed different features from the rest of the Peninsular languages and acquired a great importance as it was considered of a relevant cultural richness. With the Unification of Spain by the Catholic Monarchs it has been spread to the whole territory. This coincides with the Discovery of America and the extension of the language to the new lands.

Spanish today

According to Instituto Cervantes, nowadays more than 490 million people speak Spanish as a native and second language. It is the second world language by number of native speakers and it is the second language of international communication. Spanish is growing increasingly around the world. In the last years, the demand of learners of Spanish as a foreign language has increased and it is estimated that it will continue increasing.