Spanish language

"Español" redirects here. For other uses, see Español (disambiguation).

"Castellano" redirects here. For the surname, see Castellano (surname).

Spanish, Castilian
Español, Castellano
Pronunciation	/espaˈɲol/, /kasteˈʎano/ - /kasteˈʝano/
Region	Spanish speaking countries and territories: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela, and a significant number of the populations of Andorra, Belize, Gibraltar, and the United States.
Native speakers	First languagea: 322– c. 400 million Totala: 400–500 million aAll numbers are approximate.
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Gallo-Iberian Ibero-Romance West Iberian Spanish, Castilian
Writing system	Latin (Spanish variant)
Official status
Official language in	20 countries, United Nations, European Union, Organization of American States
Regulated by	Association of Spanish Language Academies (Real Academia Española and 21 other national Spanish language academies)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	es
ISO 639-2	spa
ISO 639-3	spa

Spanish (español^ⓘ) or Castilian (castellano) is an Indo-European, Romance language that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade. It was taken to Africa, the Americas, and Asia Pacific with the expansion of the Spanish Empire between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Today, between 322 and 400 million people speak Spanish as a native language, making it the world's second most-spoken language by native speakers (after Mandarin Chinese).

Hispanosphere

See also: Spanish Empire

Spanish identified as the sole official language   Spanish identified as a co-official language

The Countries of the Hispanic-influenced World

It is estimated that the combined total of native and non-native Spanish speakers is approximately 500 million, likely making it the third most spoken language by total number of speakers (after English and Chinese).
Today, Spanish is an official language of Spain, most Latin American countries, and Equatorial Guinea; 20 nations speak it as their primary language. Spanish also is one of six official languages of the United Nations. Mexico has the world's largest Spanish-speaking population, and Spanish is the second most-widely spoken language in the United States and the most popular studied foreign language in U.S. schools and universities. Global internet usage statistics for 2007 show Spanish as the third most commonly used language on the Internet, after English and Chinese.

Naming and origin

Main article: Names given to the Spanish language

Spaniards tend to call this language [español] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (Spanish) when contrasting it with languages of other states, such as French and English, but call it [castellano] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (Castilian), that is, the language of the Castile region, when contrasting it with other languages spoken in Spain such as Galician, Basque, and Catalan. This reasoning also holds true for the language's preferred name in some Hispanic American countries. In this manner, the Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term [castellano] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) to define the official language of the whole Spanish State, as opposed to [las demás lenguas españolas] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (lit. the other Spanish languages). Article III reads as follows:

[El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. (…) Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas…] 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 their respective Autonomous Communities…

The name castellano is, however, widely used for the language as a whole in Latin America. Some Spanish speakers consider castellano a generic term with no political or ideological links, much as "Spanish" is in English. Often Latin Americans use it to differentiate their own variety of Spanish as opposed to the variety of Spanish spoken in Spain, or variety of Spanish which is considered as standard in the region.

Classification and related languages

Spanish is closely related to the other West Iberian Romance languages: Asturian, Galician, Ladino, Leonese and Portuguese. Catalan, an East Iberian language which exhibits many Gallo-Romance traits, is more similar to the neighboring Occitan language than to Spanish, or indeed than Spanish and Portuguese are to each other.

Spanish and Portuguese share similar grammars and 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 has been estimated as 89%. See Differences between Spanish and Portuguese for further information.

Judaeo-Spanish

Further information: [[:Judaeo-Spanish]]

Judaeo-Spanish (also known as Ladino), which is essentially medieval Spanish and closer to modern Spanish than any other language, is spoken by many descendants of the Sephardi Jews who were expelled from Spain in the 15th century. Ladino speakers are currently almost exclusively Sephardi Jews, with family roots in Turkey, Greece or the Balkans: current speakers mostly live in Israel and Turkey, with a few pockets in Latin America. It lacks the Native American vocabulary which was influential during the Spanish colonial period, and it retains many archaic features which have since been lost in standard Spanish. It contains, however, other vocabulary which is not found in standard Castilian, including vocabulary from Hebrew, some French, Greek and Turkish, and other languages spoken where the Sephardim settled.

Judaeo-Spanish is in serious danger of extinction because many native speakers today are elderly as well as elderly olim (immigrants to Israel) who have not transmitted the language to their children or grandchildren. However, it is experiencing a minor revival among Sephardi communities, especially in music. In the case of the Latin American communities, the danger of extinction is also due to the risk of assimilation by modern Castilian.

A related dialect is Haketia, the Judaeo-Spanish of northern Morocco. This too tended to assimilate with modern Spanish, during the Spanish occupation of the region.

Vocabulary comparison

Spanish and Italian share a very similar phonological system. At present, the lexical similarity with Italian is estimated at 82%. As a result, Spanish and Italian are mutually intelligible to various degrees. The lexical similarity with Portuguese is greater, 89%, but the vagaries of Portuguese pronunciation make it less easily understood by Hispanophones than Italian. Mutual intelligibility between Spanish and French or Romanian is even lower (lexical similarity being respectively 75% and 71%): comprehension of Spanish by French speakers who have not studied the language is as low as an estimated 45% – the same as of English. The common features of the writing systems of the Romance languages allow for a greater amount of interlingual reading comprehension than oral communication would.

Latin	Spanish	Galician	Portuguese	Catalan	Italian	French	Romanian	English
[nos] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[nosotros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[nós] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)/[nosoutros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[nós] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)¹	[nosaltres] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[noi] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)²	[nous] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)³	[noi] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	we
[fratrem germānum (acc.)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (lit. "true brother", i.e. not a cousin)	[hermano] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[irmán] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[irmão] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[germà] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[fratello] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[frère] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[frate] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	brother
[dies Martis] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (Classical) [tertia feria] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (Ecclesiastical)	[martes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[martes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[terça-feira] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[dimarts] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[martedì] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[mardi] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[marți] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	Tuesday
[cantiō (nem, acc.), canticum] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[canción] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[canción] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[canção] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[cançó] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[canzone] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[chanson] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[cântec] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	song
[magis] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) or [plus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[más] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (archaically also [plus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[máis] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[mais] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (archaically also [chus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[més] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (archaically also [pus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[più] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[plus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[mai] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	more
[manum sinistram (acc.)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[mano izquierda] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) also ([mano siniestra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[man esquerda] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[mão esquerda] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) also (sinistra)(archaically also [sẽestra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[mà esquerra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[mano sinistra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[main gauche] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[mâna stângă] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	left hand
[nihil] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) or [nullam rem natam (acc.)] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (lit. "no thing born")	[nada] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[nada] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)/[ren] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[nada] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (archaically also [rem] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help))	[res] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[niente] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)/[nulla] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[rien] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)/[nul] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	[nimic] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	nothing

1. also [nós outros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in early modern Portuguese (e.g. The Lusiads)
2. [noi altri] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in Southern Italian dialects and languages
3. Alternatively [nous autres] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)

History

Main article: History of the Spanish language

A page of [Cantar de Mio Cid] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), in medieval Castilian.

Spanish evolved from Vulgar Latin, with major influences from Arabic in vocabulary during the Andalusian period and minor surviving influences from Basque and Celtiberian, as well as Germanic languages via the Visigoths. Spanish developed along the remote cross road strips among the Alava, Cantabria, Burgos, Soria and La Rioja provinces of Northern Spain (see Glosas Emilianenses), as a strongly innovative and differing variant from its nearest cousin, Leonese, with a higher degree of Basque influence in these regions (see Iberian Romance languages). Typical features of Spanish diachronical phonology include lenition (Latin [vita] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Spanish [vida] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)), palatalization (Latin [annum] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Spanish [año] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), and Latin [anellum] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Spanish [anillo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) and diphthongation (stem-changing) of short e and o from Vulgar Latin (Latin [terra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Spanish [tierra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Latin [novus] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Spanish [nuevo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)). Similar phenomena can be found in other Romance languages as well.

During the [Reconquista] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), this northern dialect from Cantabria was carried south, and remains a minority language in the northern coastal Morocco.

The first Latin-to-Spanish grammar ([Gramática de la Lengua Castellana] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) was written in Salamanca, Spain, in 1492, by Elio Antonio de Nebrija. When it was presented to Isabel de Castilla, 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 taken to the Americas and the Spanish East Indies via Spanish colonization.

In the 20th century, Spanish was introduced to Equatorial Guinea and the Western Sahara, and in areas of the United States that had not been part of the Spanish Empire, such as in Spanish Harlem, in New York City. For details on borrowed words and other external influences upon Spanish, see Influences on the Spanish language.

Characterization

A defining characteristic of Spanish was the diphthongization of the Latin short vowels e and o into ie and ue, respectively, when they were stressed. Similar sound changes are found in other Romance languages, but in Spanish they were significant. Some examples:

• Lat. [petra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) > Sp. [piedra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), It. [pietra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Fr. [pierre] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Rom. [piatrǎ] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Port./Gal. [pedra] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "stone".
• Lat. [moritur] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) > Sp. [muere] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), It. [muore] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Fr. [meurt] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) / [muert] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Rom. [moare] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Port./Gal. [morre] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) "die".

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 that did not diphthongate. Compare for instance:

• Lat. [filium] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) > It. [figlio] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Port. [filho] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Gal. [fillo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Fr. [fils] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Occitan [filh] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (but Gascon [hilh] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)) Sp. [hijo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (but Ladino [fijo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help));
• Lat. [fabulari] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) > Lad. [favlar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Port./Gal. [falar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Sp. [hablar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help);
• but Lat. [focum] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) > It. [fuoco] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Port./Gal. [fogo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), Sp./Lad. [fuego] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help).

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

• Lat. [clamare] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), acc. [flammam] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [plenum] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) > Lad. [lyamar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [flama] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [pleno] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Sp. [llamar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [llama] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [lleno] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help). However, in Spanish there are also the forms [clamar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [flama] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [pleno] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Port. [chamar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [chama] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [cheio] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Gal. [chamar] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [chama] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [cheo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help).
• Lat. acc. [octo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [noctem] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [multum] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) > Lad. [ocho] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [noche] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [muncho] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Sp. [ocho] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [noche] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [mucho] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Port. [oito] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [noite] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [muito] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help); Gal. [oito] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [noite] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [moito] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help).

Geographic distribution

Main article: Hispanophone

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

Europe

Spanish is an official language of Spain, the country for which it is named and from which it originated. It is also spoken in Gibraltar, though English is the official language. Likewise, it is spoken in Andorra though Catalan is the official language. It is also spoken by small communities in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Spanish is an official language of the European Union. In Switzerland, Spanish is the mother tongue of 1.7% of the population, representing the first minority after the 4 official languages of the country.

The Americas

Latin America

Most Spanish speakers are in Latin America; of all countries with majority Spanish speakers, only Spain is outside of the Americas. Mexico has most of the world's native speakers. Nationally, Spanish is the official language of Argentina, Bolivia (co-official Quechua and Aymara), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico , Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay (co-official Guaraní), Peru (co-official Quechua and, in some regions, Aymara), Uruguay, and Venezuela. Spanish is also the official language (co-official with English) in the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Spanish has no official recognition in the former British colony of Belize; however, per the 2000 census, it is spoken by 43% of the population. Mainly, it is spoken by Hispanic descendants who remained in the region since the 17th century; however, English is the official language.

Spain colonized Trinidad and Tobago first in 1498, leaving the Carib people the Spanish language. Also the Cocoa Panyols, laborers from Venezuela, took their culture and language with them; they are accredited with the music of "Parang" ("Parranda") on the island. Because of Trinidad's location on the South American coast, the country is much influenced by its Spanish-speaking neighbors. A recent census shows that more than 1,500 inhabitants speak Spanish. In 2004, the government launched the Spanish as a First Foreign Language (SAFFL) initiative in March 2005. Government regulations require Spanish to be taught, beginning in primary school, while thirty percent of public employees are to be linguistically competent within five years. The government also announced that Spanish will be the country's second official language by 2020, beside English.

Spanish is important in Brazil because of its proximity to and increased trade with its Spanish-speaking neighbors; for example, as a member of the Mercosur trading bloc. In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President, making Spanish available as a foreign language in secondary schools. In many border towns and villages (especially on the Uruguayan-Brazilian border), a mixed language known as Portuñol is spoken.

United States

In the 2006 census, 44.3 million people of the U.S. population were Hispanic or Latino by origin; 34 million people, 12.2 percent, of the population older than 5 years speak Spanish at home. Spanish has a long history in the United States (many south-western states were part of Mexico and Spain), and it recently has been revitalized by much immigration from Latin America. Spanish is the most widely taught foreign language in the country. Although the United States has no formally designated "official languages," Spanish is formally recognized at the state level beside English; in the U.S. state of New Mexico, 30 percent of the population speak it. It also has strong influence in metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, Miami and New York City. Spanish is the dominant spoken language in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory. In total, the U.S. has the world's fifth-largest Spanish-speaking population.

Asia

Spanish was an official language of the Philippines but was never spoken by a majority of the population. Movements for most of the masses to learn the language were started but were stopped by the friars. Its importance fell in the first half of the 20th century following the U.S. occupation and administration of the islands. The introduction of the English language in the Philippine government system put an end to the use of Spanish as the official language. The language lost its official status in 1973 during the Ferdinand Marcos administration.

Spanish is spoken mainly by small communities of Filipino-born Spaniards, Latin Americans, and Filipino mestizos (mixed race), descendants of the early colonial Spanish settlers. Throughout the 20th century, the Spanish language has declined in importance compared to English and Tagalog. According to the 1990 Philippine census, there were 2,658 native speakers of Spanish. No figures were provided during the 1995 and 2000 censuses; however, figures for 2000 did specify there were over 600,000 native speakers of Chavacano, a Spanish-based creole language spoken in Cavite and Zamboanga. In Tagalog, there are 4,000 Spanish adopted words and around 6,000 Spanish adopted words in Visayan and other Philippine languages as well. Today Spanish is offered as a foreign language in Philippines schools and universities.

Africa

In Africa, Spanish is official in Equatorial Guinea (co-official French and Portuguese). Today, nearly 200,000 refugee Sahrawis are able to read and write in Spanish, and several thousands have received university education in foreign countries as part of aid packages (mainly Cuba and Spain). In Equatorial Guinea, Spanish is the predominant language when counting native and non-native speakers (around 500,000 people), while Fang is the most spoken language by a number of native speakers. It is also spoken in the Spanish cities in continental North Africa (Ceuta and Melilla) and in the autonomous community of Canary Islands (143,000 and 1,995,833 people, respectively). Within Northern Morocco, a former Franco-Spanish protectorate that is also geographically close to Spain, approximately 20,000 people speak Spanish. It is spoken by some communities of Angola, because of the Cuban influence from the Cold War, and in Nigeria by the descendants of Afro-Cuban ex-slaves. In Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal, Spanish can be learned as a second foreign language in the public education system. In 2008, Cervantes Institutes centers will be opened in Lagos and Johannesburg, the first one in the Sub-Saharan Africa.

Oceania

Among the countries and territories in Oceania, Spanish is also spoken in Easter Island, a territorial possession of Chile. According to the 2001 census, there are approximately 95,000 speakers of Spanish in Australia, 44,000 of which live in Greater Sydney , where the older Mexican, Colombian, Spanish, and Chilean populations and newer Argentine, Salvadoran and Uruguyan communities live.

The U.S. Territories of Guam, Palau, Northern Marianas, and the independent associated U.S. Territory of Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia all once had Spanish speakers, since Marianas and Caroline Islands were Spanish colonial possessions until late 19th century (see Spanish-American War), but Spanish has since been forgotten. It now only exists as an influence on the local native languages and also spoken by Hispanic American resident populations.

Dialectal variation

Main article: Spanish dialects and varieties

There are important variations among the regions of Spain and throughout Spanish-speaking America. In countries in Hispanophone America, it is preferable to use the word castellano to distinguish their version of the language from that of Spain, thus asserting their autonomy and national identity. In Spain the Castilian dialect's pronunciation is commonly regarded as the national standard, although a use of slightly different pronouns called [[Loísmo|[laísmo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)]] of this dialect is deprecated. More accurately, for nearly everyone in Spain, "standard Spanish" means "pronouncing everything exactly as it is written," an ideal which does not correspond to any real dialect, though the northern dialects are the closest to it. In practice, the standard way of speaking Spanish in the media is "written Spanish" for formal speech, "Madrid dialect" (one of the transitional variants between Castilian and Andalusian) for informal speech.

Voseo

Main article: Voseo

Spanish has three second-person singular pronouns: [tú] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [usted] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), and in some parts of Latin America, [vos] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (the use of this pronoun and/or its verb forms is called voseo). In those regions where it is used, generally speaking, [tú] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) and [vos] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) are informal and used with friends; in other countries, [vos] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is considered an archaic form. [Usted] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is universally regarded as the formal address (derived from [vuestra merced] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), "your grace"), and is used as a mark of respect, as when addressing one's elders or strangers.

Countries that feature [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), in blue. The deeper the blue is, the more predominant [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is. Countries where [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is a regionalism are in green; countries without [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) are in red.

[Vos] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is used extensively as the primary spoken form of the second-person singular pronoun, although with wide differences in social consideration, in many countries of Latin America, including Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, the central mountain region of Ecuador, the State of Chiapas in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay, the Paisa region and Caleños of Colombia and the States of Zulia and Trujillo in Venezuela. There are some differences in the verbal endings for vos in each country. In Argentina, Uruguay, and increasingly in Paraguay and some Central American countries, it is also the standard form used in the media, but the media in other countries with [voseo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) generally continue to use [usted] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) or [tú] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) except in advertisements, for instance. [Vos] 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.

Ustedes

Spanish forms also differ regarding second-person plural pronouns. The Spanish dialects of Latin America have only one form of the second-person plural for daily use, [ustedes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (formal or familiar, as the case may be, though [vosotros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) non-formal usage can sometimes appear in poetry and rhetorical or literary style). In Spain there are two forms — [ustedes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (formal) and [vosotros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (familiar). The pronoun [vosotros] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) is the plural form of [tú] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) in most of Spain, but in the Americas (and certain southern Spanish cities such as Cádiz or Seville, and in the Canary Islands) it is replaced with [ustedes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help). It is notable that the use of [ustedes] 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", [ustedes van] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), uses the third-person plural form of the verb, in Cádiz or Seville the informal form is constructed as [ustedes vais] 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.

Vocabulary

Some words can be different, even embarrassingly 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 "vulva". 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" (among other meanings) in Spain but is known to the rest of the world as a Mexican dish. Pija in many countries of Latin America and Spain itself is an obscene slang word for "penis", while in Spain the word also signifies "posh girl" or "snobby". Coche, which means "car" in Spain, for the vast majority of Spanish-speakers actually means "baby-stroller", in Guatemala it means "pig", while carro means "car" in some Latin American countries and "cart" in others, as well as in Spain.

Real Academia

The Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy), together with the 21 other national ones (see Association of Spanish Language Academies), 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.

Writing system

Main article: Spanish orthography

Spanish is written using the Latin alphabet, with the addition of the character ñ (eñe, representing the phoneme /ɲ/, a letter distinct from n, although typographically composed of an n with a tilde) and the digraphs ch ([che] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), representing the phoneme /tʃ/) and ll ([elle] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), representing the phoneme /ʎ/). However, the digraph rr ([erre fuerte] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), "strong r", [erre doble] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), "double r", or simply [erre] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)), which also represents a distinct phoneme /r/, is not similarly regarded as a single letter. Since 1994, the digraphs ch and ll are to be treated as letter pairs for collation purposes, though they remain a part of the alphabet. Words with ch are now alphabetically sorted between those with ce and ci, instead of following cz as they used to, and similarly for ll.

Thus, the Spanish alphabet has the following 29 letters:

a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll, m, n, ñ, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z.

With the exclusion of a very small number of regional terms such as México (see Toponymy of Mexico) and some neologisms like software, pronunciation can be entirely determined from spelling. 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; it is 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 used, in addition, to distinguish between certain homophones, especially when one of them is a stressed word and the other one is a clitic: compare [el] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("the", masculine singular definite article) with [él] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("he" or "it"), or [te] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("you", object pronoun), [de] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (preposition "of" or "from"), and [se] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (reflexive pronoun) with [té] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("tea"), [dé] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("give") and [sé] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("I know", or imperative "be").

The interrogative pronouns ([qué] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [cuál] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [dónde] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [quién] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), etc.) also receive accents in direct or indirect questions, and some demonstratives ([ése] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [éste] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), [aquél] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help), etc.) must be accented when used as pronouns. The conjunction [o] 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., [10 ó 20] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) should be read as [diez o veinte] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) rather than [diez mil veinte] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) ("10,020"). Accent marks are frequently omitted in capital letters (a widespread practice in the early days of computers where only lowercase vowels were available with accents), although the RAE advises against this.

When u is written between g and a front vowel (e or i), if it should be pronounced, it is written with a diaeresis (ü) to indicate that it is not silent as it normally would be (e.g., cigüeña, "stork", is pronounced /θiˈɣweɲa/; if it were written cigueña, it would be pronounced /θiˈɣeɲa/.

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

Sounds

Main article: Spanish phonology

The phonemic inventory listed in the following table includes phonemes that are preserved only in some dialects, other dialects having merged them (such as yeísmo); these are marked with an asterisk (*). Sounds in parentheses are allophones.

Table of Spanish consonants

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m			n	ɲ
Stop	p   b		t   d		tʃ   (ɟʝ)	k   g
Fricative		f   (v)	*θ   (ð)	s   (z)	ʝ	x
Approximant	(β̞)		(ð̞)			(ɣ˕)
Trill				r
Tap				ɾ
Lateral				l	*ʎ

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:

• Initial /f/, when it had evolved into a vacillating /h/, was lost in most words (although this etymological h- is preserved in spelling and in some Andalusian dialects is still aspirated).
• The bilabial approximant /β̞/ (which was written u or v) merged with the bilabial occlusive /b/ (written b). There is no difference between the pronunciation of orthographic b and v in contemporary Spanish, excepting emphatic pronunciations that cannot be considered standard or natural.
• The voiced alveolar fricative /z/ which existed as a separate phoneme in medieval Spanish merged with its voiceless counterpart /s/. The phoneme which resulted from this merger is currently spelled s.
• The voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/ merged with its voiceless counterpart /ʃ/, which 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 voiced alveolar affricate /dz/ merged with its voiceless counterpart /ts/, which then developed into the interdental /θ/, now written z, or c before e, i. But in Andalusia, the Canary Islands and the Americas this sound merged with /s/ as well. See Ceceo, for further information.

The consonant system of Medieval Spanish has been better preserved in Ladino and in Portuguese, neither of which underwent these shifts.

Lexical stress

Spanish is a syllable-timed language, so each syllable has the same duration regardless of stress. Stress most often occurs on any of the last three syllables of a word, with some rare exceptions at the fourth last. The tendencies of stress assignment are as follows:

• In words ending in vowels and /s/, stress most often falls on the penultimate syllable.
• In words ending in all other consonants, the stress more often falls on the ultimate syllable.
• Preantepenultimate stress occurs rarely and only in words like guardándoselos ('saving them for him/her') where a clitic follows certain verbal forms.

In addition to the many exceptions to these tendencies, there are numerous minimal pairs which contrast solely on stress. For example, sabana, with penultimate stress, means 'savannah' while sábana, with antepenultimate stress, means 'sheet'; límite ('boundary'), limite ('[that] he/she limits') and limité ('I limited') also contrast solely on stress.

Phonological stress may be marked orthographically with an acute accent (ácido, distinción, etc). This is done according to the mandatory stress rules of Spanish orthography which are similar to the tendencies above (differing with words like distinción) and are defined so as to unequivocally indicate where the stress lies in a given written word. An acute accent may also be used to differentiate homophones (such as té for 'tea' and te

An amusing example of the significance of intonation in Spanish is the phrase ¿Cómo "cómo como"? ¡Como como como! ("What do you mean / 'how / do I eat'? / I eat / the way / I eat!").

Grammar

Main article: Spanish grammar

Spanish is a relatively inflected language, with a two-gender system and about fifty conjugated forms per verb, but limited inflection of nouns, adjectives, and determiners. (For a detailed overview of verbs, see Spanish verbs and Spanish irregular verbs.)

It is right-branching, uses prepositions, and usually, though not always, places adjectives after nouns. Its syntax is generally Subject Verb Object, though variations are common. It is a pro-drop language (allows the deletion of pronouns when pragmatically unnecessary) and verb-framed.

Samples

English	Spanish	IPA phonemic transcription (abstract phonemes) 1	IPA phonetic transcription (actual sounds) 2
Spanish	[español] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/es.paˈɲol/	[e̞s̺.päˈɲo̞l] [e̞s̻.päˈɲo̞l]
(Castilian) Spanish	[castellano] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/kas.teˈʎa.no/   /kas.teˈʝa.no/	[käs̪.t̪e̞ˈʎä.no̞] [käs̪.t̪e̞ˈʝ̞ä.no̞] [käh.t̪e̞ˈʒä.no̞]
English	[inglés] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/iNˈgles/ 3	[ĩŋˈgle̞s̺] [ĩŋˈgle̞s̻]
Yes	[Sí] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈsi/	[ˈs̺i] [ˈs̻i]
No	[No] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈno/	[ˈno̞]
Hello	[Hola] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈo.la/	[ˈo̞.lä]
How are you?	[¿Cómo estás (tú)?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (informal) [¿Cómo está (usted)?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) (formal)	/ˈko.mo esˈtas/	[ˈko̞.mo̞ e̞s̪ˈt̪äs̺] [ˈko̞.mo̞ e̞s̪ˈt̪äs̻] [ˈko̞.mo̞ ɛhˈt̪æ̞h]
Good morning!	[Buenos días] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈbue.nos ˈdi.as/	[ˈbwe̞.no̞z̪ ˈð̞i.äs̺] [ˈbwe̞.no̞z̪ ˈð̞i.äs̻] [ˈbwɛ.nɔh ˈð̞i.æ̞h]
Good afternoon/evening!	[Buenas tardes] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈbue.nas ˈtaR.des/ 3	[ˈbwe̞.näs̪ ˈt̪äɾ.ð̞e̞s̺] [ˈbwe̞.näs̪ ˈt̪äɾ.ð̞e̞s̻] [ˈbwɛ.næ̞h ˈt̪æ̞ɾ.ð̞ɛh]
Good night!	[Buenas noches] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈbue.nas ˈno.tʃes/	[ˈbwe̞.näs̺ ˈno̞.tʃe̞s̺] [ˈbwe̞.näs̻ ˈno̞.tʃe̞s̻] [ˈbwɛ.næ̞h ˈnɔ.tʃɛh]
Goodbye	[Adiós] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/aˈdios/	[äˈð̞jo̞s̺] [äˈð̞jo̞s̻] [æ̞ˈð̞jɔh]
Please	[Por favor] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/poR faˈboR/ 3	[po̞r fäˈβ̞o̞r]
Thank you	[Gracias] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈgRa.θias/ 3 /ˈgRa.sias/ 3	[ˈgɾä.θjäs̺] [ˈgɾä.s̻jäs̻] [ˈgɾ æ̞.s̻jæ̞h]
Excuse me	[Perdón] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/peRˈdoN/ 3	[pe̞ɾˈð̞õ̞n] [pe̞ɾˈð̞õ̞ŋ]
I'm sorry	[Lo siento] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/lo ˈsieN.to/ 3	[lo̞ ˈs̺jẽ̞n̪.t̪o̞] [lo̞ ˈs̻jẽ̞n̪.t̪o̞]
Hurry! (informal)	[¡Date prisa!] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help) [¡Apúrate!] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈda.te ˈpRi.sa/ 3	[ˈd̪ä.t̪e̞ ˈpɾi.s̺ä] [ˈd̪ä.t̪e̞ ˈpɾi.s̻ä]
Because	[Porque] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈpoR.ke/ 3	[ˈpo̞r.ke̞]
Why?	[¿Por qué?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/poR ˈke/ 3	[po̞r ˈke̞]
Who?	[¿Quién?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈkieN/ 3	[ˈkjẽ̞n] [ˈkjẽ̞ŋ]
What?	[¿Qué?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈke/	[ˈke̞]
When?	[¿Cuándo?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈkuaN.do/ 3	[ˈkwãn̪.d̪o̞]
Where?	[¿Dónde?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈdoN.de/ 3	[ˈdõ̞n̪.d̪e̞]
How?	[¿Cómo?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈko.mo/	[ˈko̞.mo̞]
How much?	[¿Cuánto?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈkuaN.to/ 3	[ˈkwãn̪.t̪o̞]
I do not understand	[No entiendo] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/no eNˈtieN.do/ 3	[nŏ̞ ẽ̞n̪ˈt̪jẽ̞n̪.d̪o̞]
Help me (please) (formal)   Help me! (informal)	[Ayúdeme   ¡Ayúdame!  ] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/aˈʝu.de.me//aˈʝu.da.me/	[äˈʝ̞u.ð̞e̞.me̞] [äˈʒu.ð̞e̞.me̞] [äˈʝ̞u.ð̞ä.me̞] [äˈʒu.ð̞ä.me̞]
Where's the bathroom?	[¿Dónde está el baño?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈdoN.de esˈta el ˈba.ɲo] 3	[ˈdõ̞n̪.d̪e̞ e̞s̪ˈt̪ä ĕ̞l ˈbä.ɲo̞] [ˈdõ̞n̪ d̪ɛhˈt̪ä ĕ̞l ˈβ̞ä.ɲo̞]
Do you speak English? (informal)	[¿Hablas inglés?] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/ˈa.blas iNˈgles/ 3	[ˈä.β̞läs̺ ĩŋˈgle̞s̺] [ˈä.β̞läs̻ ĩŋˈgle̞s̻] [ˈæ̞.β̞læ̞h ĩŋˈglɛh]
Cheers! (toast)	[¡Salud!] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)	/saˈlud/	[s̺aˈluð̞] [s̻aˈlu(ð̞)]
1 Phonemic representation of the abstract phonological entities (phonemes), 2 phonetic representation of the actual sounds pronounced (phones). In both cases, when several representations are given, the first one corresponds to the dialect in the recording (Castilian with yeísmo) and the rest to several other dialects not in the recording. 3 Capital /N/ and /R/ (non-standard IPA) are used here to represent the nasal and rhotic archiphonemes that neutralize the phonemic oppositions [m]-[n]-[ɲ] and [r]-[ɾ], respectively, in syllabe coda and intra-cluster positions.

See also

• Chavacano language
• Countries where Spanish is an official language
• Differences between Spanish and Portuguese
• Frespañol
• Hispanic culture
• Hispanophone
• Instituto Cervantes
• Latin Union
• List of English words of Spanish origin
• List of Spanish words of Germanic origin
• Llanito

• Names given to the Spanish language
• Palenquero
• Papiamento
• Portuñol
• Pseudo-Spanish adapted to English
• Real Academia Española
• Romance languages
• Spanglish
• Spanish language poets
• Spanish profanity
• Spanish proverbs
• Spanish-based creole languages
• Spanish-English translation problems

Local varieties

Peninsular Spanish

• Andalusian Spanish
• Canarian Spanish
• Castilian Spanish
• Castrapo

Latin American Spanish

• Argentine Spanish
• Bolivian Spanish
• Caliche
• Central American Spanish
• Colombian Spanish
• Chilean Spanish

• Cuban Spanish
• Dominican Spanish
• Mexican Spanish
• New Mexican Spanish
• Panamanian Spanish
• Peruvian Coast Spanish
• Puerto Rican Spanish
• Rioplatense Spanish
• Spanish in the United States
• Venezuelan Spanish

Other Variants

• Spanish in the Philippines

External links

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