Spanish language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language
Spanish language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Spanish ( espańol ) or
Spanish, Castilian
Castilian (castellano) is a
Espańol, Castellano
Romance language originally
Pronunciation:
/espa'rol/, /kaste'�ano/ or /kaste'�ano/
from the northern area of Spain.
Spoken in: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba,
From there, its use gradually
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, El Salvador,
spread inside the Kingdom of
Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay,
Castile, where it evolved and
Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay, Venezuela and significant
eventually became the principal
parts of the population in Andorra, Belize, Gibraltar, and the
language of the government
United States.
and trade. It was later taken to
Total speakers:
First languagea: 322[1][2] c. 400 million[3][4][5]
Africa, the Americas and Asia
Totala: 400 500 million[6][7][8]
Pacific in the last five centuries
aAll numbers are approximate.
by Spanish explorers and
colonists.
Ranking:
2-4 (native)[9][10][11][12]
Total: 3
Today, it is one of the official
Language Indo-European
languages of Spain, most Latin
family: Italic
American countries, and
Romance
Equatorial Guinea. In total, 21
Italo-Western
nations use Spanish as their
Gallo-Iberian
primary language. Spanish is
Ibero-Romance
also one of six official West Iberian
Spanish, Castilian
languages of the United
Nations.
Writing Latin (Spanish variant)
system:
The language is spoken by
Official status
between 322 and 400 million
Official 21 countries
people natively,[13][7] making
language in:
Spanish the most spoken
Regulated by: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Espańola (Real Academia
Romance language and
Espańola and 21 other national Spanish language academies)
possibly the second most
Language codes
spoken language by number of
es
ISO 639-1:
native speakers.[14][15]
spa
ISO 639-2:
Mexico is the world's largest
spa
ISO 639-3:
(http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/documentation.asp?id=spa)
Spanish-speaking country.
Spanish is the second most
widely spoken language in the United States[16] and by far the most popular studied foreign language in U.S.
schools and universities.[17][18] Spanish is among the most popular foreign languages for study in the rest of the
nations of the Anglosphere in general, where on top of the widespread use of English globally, the large number
of additional countries and geographic territory that Spanish allows exploring is an attractive prospect for many
people. Due to proximity, linguistic similarities, and trade reasons it is also a very popular second language in
Italy, Portugal, and particularly the southern states of Brazil. It is estimated that the combined total of native and
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non-native Spanish speakers is approximately 500 million, likely making it the fourth most spoken language by
total number of speakers.[13][7] Global internet usage statistics for 2007 show Spanish as the third most
commonly used language on the internet, after English and Chinese.[19]
According to George Weber's point system, Spanish is the third most influential language in the world (after
English and French).[20]
Contents
1 Naming and origin
2 Classification and related languages
2.1 Ladino
2.2 Vocabulary comparison
3 History
3.1 Typical sound changes
4 Geographic distribution
4.1 Latin America
4.1.1 The non-Spanish speaking Americas
4.2 Europe
4.3 Asia
4.4 Africa
4.5 Oceania
5 Variations
6 Writing system
7 Sounds
7.1 Lexical stress
8 Grammar
9 See also
9.1 Local varieties
10 References
11 External links
Naming and origin
Spaniards tend to call this language espańol (Spanish) when contrasting it with languages of other states, such
as French and English, but call it castellano (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 castellana to define the official language of the whole Spanish State, as
opposed to las dem�s lenguas espańolas (lit. the other Spanish languages). Article III reads as follows:
El castellano es la lengua espańola oficial del Estado. (& ) Las dem�s lenguas espańolas ser�n tambi�n
oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas&
Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. (& ) The other Spanish languages shall also be
official in their respective Autonomous Communities&
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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 vice-versa, to refer to that variety of Spanish which is considered as standard in the
region.
Classification and
related languages
Castilian Spanish has closest
affinity to the other West
Iberian Romance languages:
Asturian (asturianu),
Galician (galego), Ladino
Countries where Spanish has official status.
Situation in the United States of America:
Countries and regions where the Spanish language is spoken without official recognition and
areas with a strong Hispanic influence.
NOTE: For detailed information about the sources taken to make the map, see its
description page
(http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Map-Hispanophone_World.png#Sources_for_the_lege
(dzhudezmo/spanyol/kasteyano), and Portuguese (portuguęs), as well as to Aragonese (aragon�s) and Catalan
(catalą).
Catalan, an East Iberian language which exhibits many Gallo-Romance traits, is more similar to the
neighbouring Occitan language (occitan) than to Spanish, or indeed than Spanish and Portuguese are to each
other. In the Middle Ages, it was even known as llemos� (Limousin). In later centuries it was generally regarded
as a dialect of Spanish, and it wasn't until the earliest years of the 20th century that Catalan was recognised as a
variant of the Occitan language.
Spanish and Portuguese share similar grammars and a majority of 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%.[1] See Differences between Spanish and
Portuguese, for further information.
Ladino
Further information: Ladino language
Ladino, which is essentially medieval Castilian and closer to modern Spanish than any other language, is spoken
by many descendants of the Spanish Jews who were expelled from Spain in the 15th century. In many ways it is
not a separate language but a parallel dialect of Castilian. Ladino lacks Native American vocabulary which was
influential during the Spanish colonial period, and it retains many archaic features which have since been lost in
standard Castilian. It does, however, contain other vocabulary which is not found in standard Castilian,
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including vocabulary from Hebrew as well as Turkish and other languages spoken wherever the Sephardim
settled.
Vocabulary comparison
Spanish and Italian share a very similar phonological system and do not differ very much in grammar. At
present, the lexical similarity with Italian is estimated at 82%.[1] As a result, Spanish and Italian are mutually
intelligible to various degrees. The lexical similarity with Portuguese is even greater, 89%, but the vagaries of
Portuguese pronunciation make it less easily understood by Hispanophones than Italian. Mutual intelligibility
with French and Romanian is even lower (lexical similarity being respectively 75% and 71%[1]):
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.
English
Latin Spanish Galician Portuguese Catalan Italian French Romanian Meaning
and notes
nos nosotros nós/nosoutros nosaltres noi we[-others
nósą noi� nousł
frater
germ

nus (lit.
"true brother", hermano irm�n irmćo germą fratello frŁre frate brother
i.e. not a
cousin)
dies Martis
(Classical)
mari
martes martes ter�a-feira dimarts marted� mardi Tuesday
tertia feria
(Ecclesiastical)
cantiM
(ne,
canción canción can�ćo can�ó canzone chanson c�ntec song
abl.)
m�s mais m�s
magis or plus (archaically m�is (archaically (archaically pił plus mai more
also plus) also chus) also pus)
mano
mćo
izquierda
esquerda
mą mano main m�na
manus sinistra man esquerda (archaically left hand
also (mano esquerra sinistra gauche st�ng

also
siniestra)
s�estra)
nihil or nulla
nada
res nata
nada nada/ren (archaically res niente/nulla rien/nul nimic nothing
(lit. "no thing
also rem)
born")
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1. also nós outros in early modern Portuguese (e.g. The Lusiads)
3. noi altri in Southern Italian dialects and languages
4. nous autres in Quebec French
History
The Spanish language developed from Vulgar Latin, with major influences
from Arabic during the Al-Andalusian period, and minor surviving influences
from Basque and Celtiberian, and to some extent the Germanic languages via
the Vandals. Spanish developed along the remote cross road strips among the
Cantabria, Burgos, Soria and La Rioja provinces of Northern Spain, partly as
strongly innovative and differing variant from its nearest cousin, Leonese
speech, with a higher degree of Basque influence in these regions(see Iberian
Romance languages). Typical features of Spanish diachronical phonology
include lenition (Latin vita, Spanish vida), palatalization (Latin annum,
Spanish ańo, and Latin anellum, Spanish anillo) and diphthongation
(stem-changing) of short e and o from Vulgar Latin (Latin terra, Spanish
tierra; Latin novus, Spanish nuevo). Similar phenomena can be found in other
Romance languages as well.
A page of Cantar de Mio Cid,
During the Reconquista, this northern dialect from Cantabria was carried
in medieval Castilian.
south, and indeed is still a minority language in the northern coastal regions of
Morocco.
The first Latin to Spanish grammar (Gram�tica de la Lengua Castellana) was written in Salamanca, Spain, in
1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija. When Isabel de Castilla was presented with the book, 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 brought to the Americas and Spanish East Indies by Spanish
colonization. Also in this epoch, Spanish became the main language of Politics and Art across the major part of
Europe. In the 18th century, French took its place.
In the 20th century, Spanish was introduced in Equatorial Guinea and Western Sahara and parts of the United
States, such as Spanish Harlem in New York City, that had not been part of the Spanish Empire.
For details on borrowed words and other external influences in Spanish, see Influences on the Spanish language.
Typical sound changes
One 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 can be found in other Romance languages, but in
Spanish they were particularly significant. Some examples:
Lat. petra > Sp. piedra, It. pietra, Fr. pierre, Port./Gal. pedra "stone".
Lat. moritur > Sp. muere, It. muore, Fr. meurt / muert, Rom. moare, Port./Gal. morre "die".
More 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 which did not diphthongate.
Compare for instance:
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Lat. filium > It. figlio, Port. filho, Gal. fillo, Fr. fils, Occitan filh (but Gascon hilh) Sp. hijo (but Ladino
fijo);
late Lat. *fabulare > Lad. favlar, Port./Gal. falar, Sp. hablar;
but Lat. focum > It. fuoco, Port./Gal. fogo, Sp./Lad. fuego.
Some consonant clusters of Latin also produced characteristically different results in these languages, for
example:
Lat. clamare, acc. flammam, plenum > Lad. lyamar, flama, pleno; Sp. llamar, llama, lleno. However, in
Spanish there are also the forms clamar, flama, pleno; Port. chamar, chama, cheio; Gal. chamar, chama,
cheo.
Lat. acc. octo, noctem, multum > Lad. ocho, noche, muncho; Sp. ocho, noche, mucho; Port. oito, noite,
muito; Gal. oito, noite, moito.
Geographic distribution
Spanish is one of the official languages of the Organization of American States,
Spanish language
the Organization of Ibero-American States, the United Nations, the Union of
South American Nations, and the European Union.
Latin America
The vast majority of Spanish speakers are located in Latin America. Of most
countries with the largest numbers of Spanish speakers, only Spain is situated
Names for the language
outside of the Americas. Mexico boasts the world's largest number of native
History
speakers. At the national level, Spanish is the official language of Argentina,
Pronunciation
Bolivia (co-official Quechua and Aymara), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba,
Dialects
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico,
Orthography
Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay (co-official Guaran�[21]), Peru (co-official Grammar:
Quechua and, in some regions, Aymara), Uruguay, and Venezuela. Spanish is
Determiners
also the official language (co-official language English) in the U.S.
Nouns
commonwealth of Puerto Rico.[22]
Pronouns
Adjectives
Prepositions
The non-Spanish speaking Americas
Verbs
Conjugation
Spanish holds no official recognition in the former British colony of Belize.
Irregular
However, according to the 2000 census, 52.1% of the population speaks the
verbs
language "very well."[23] [24] It is mainly spoken by Hispanic descendants who
have remained in the region since the 17th century. However, English remains
the sole official language.[25]
Spanish has become increasingly important in Brazil due to proximity and increased trade with its
Spanish-speaking neighbours, for example, as a member of the Mercosur trading bloc.[26] In 2005, the National
Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President, that makes Spanish available as a foreign
language in the country's secondary schools.[27] In many border towns and villages (especially along the
Uruguayan-Brazilian border) a mixed language commonly known as Portuńol is also spoken.[28]
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In Haiti, French is one of two official languages, but it is spoken by only about 10% of the population. All
Haitians speak Creole, the country's other official language. The latter, is a creole based primarily on French and
African languages, with some English, Ta�no, Portuguese and Spanish influences. Spanish, though not official,
is spoken by a growing amount of the population. It is spoken more frequently near the border with the
Dominican Republic, however Spanish is increasingly being spoken in more westward areas, as Venezuelan,
Cuban, and Dominican trade influence Haitian society, and Haiti becomes increasingly involved in Latin
American affairs.
In the United States, 42.7 million people were of Hispanic heritage according to the 2005 census. Some 32
million people, or 12% of the whole population aged 5 years or older speak Spanish at home.[29] The Spanish
language has a long history in the United States (many states in the South contain land that used to be part of
Mexico or other Spanish colonies) and has recently been revitalised by heavy immigration from
Spanish-speaking Latin America. Spanish, moreover, is the most widely taught foreign language in the United
States.[30] Though the United States has no formally designated "official languages", Spanish is formally
recognized at the state level, alongside English, in the U.S. state of New Mexico, where it is spoken by almost
30% of the population. In total, the U.S. contains the world's fifth-largest Spanish speaking population.[31]
Europe
Spanish is official in Spain, the country for which it is named and from which it originated. It is also spoken
widely in Gibraltar, although English is used for official purposes.[32] Likewise, it is spoken in Andorra though
Catalan is the official language.[33][34] It is also spoken by small communities in other European countries,
such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.[35] 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 [36].
Asia
Although Spanish was an official language in the Philippines, it was never spoken by a majority of the
population. Its importance fell in the first half of the 20th century following the US occupation and
administration of the islands. The introduction of the English language in the Filipino government system put an
end to the use of Spanish as the official language. The language lost its status in 1987, during the Corazon
Aquino administration. According to the 1990 census, there were 2,658 native speakers of Spanish.[37] The
number of Spanish speakers, however, are not available in the ensuing 1995 and 2000 censuses. Additionally,
according to the 2000 census, there are over 600,000 native speakers of Chavacano, a Spanish based creole
spoken in Cavite and Zamboanga. Many Philippine languages have numerous Spanish loanwords. See also:
Spanish language in the Philippines.
Africa
In Africa, Spanish language is official in the UN-recognised but Moroccan-occupied Sahrawi Arab Democratic
Republic (co-official Arabic) and Equatorial Guinea (co-official French and Portuguese). Today, nearly 200,000
refugee Sahrawis are able to read and write in Spanish [38], 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 number of native speakers [39], [40]. 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
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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.[41]. It is spoken by some
communities of Angola, because of the Cuban influence from the Cold War. In C�te d'Ivoire and Senegal, the
Spanish can be learned as a second foreign language in the public educative system.[42]. In 2008, Cervantes
Institutes centers will be opened in Lagos and Johannesburg, the first one in the Sub-Saharan Africa[43]
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.
The island nations of Guam, Palau, Northern Marianas, 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.
Variations
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
la�smo of this dialect is deprecated. More accurately, for nearly everyone in
Dialectal map of Castilian
Spain, "standard Spanish" means "pronouncing everything exactly as it is
Spanish and Languages of
written", an ideal which does not correspond to any real dialect, though the
Spain.
northern dialects get 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.
Spanish has three second-person singular pronouns: tś, usted, and in some parts of Latin America, vos (the use
of this form is called voseo). Generally speaking, tś and vos are informal and used with friends (though in Spain
vos is considered an archaic form for address of exalted personages, its use now mainly confined to the liturgy).
Usted is universally regarded as the formal address (derived from vuestra merced, "your grace"), and is used as a
mark of respect, as when addressing one's elders or strangers.
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Vos is used extensively as the primary spoken form of the
second-person singular pronoun in many countries of Latin
America, including Argentina, Costa Rica, the central
mountain region of Ecuador, the State of Chiapas in
Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Paraguay, Uruguay, the Antioquia and Valle del Cauca
states of Colombia and the State of Zulia in Venezuela. In
Argentina, Uruguay, and increasingly in Paraguay, it is also
the standard form used in the media, but the media in other
countries with voseo generally continue to use usted or tś
except in advertisements, for instance. Vos 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. For further information, see
Voseo.
Spanish forms also differ regarding second-person plural
Countries that feature voseo. In blue, countries that
pronouns. The Spanish dialects of Latin America have only
use vos as the primary spoken form. In green
one form of the second-person plural for daily use, ustedes
countries that feature voseo as a regionalism or
(formal or familiar, as the case may be, though vosotros
non-mainstream practice.
non-formal usage can sometimes appear in poetry and
rhetorical or literary style). In Spain there are two forms 
ustedes (formal) and vosotros (familiar). The pronoun vosotros is the plural form of tś in most of Spain, but in
the Americas (and certain southern Spanish cities such as C�diz or Seville, and in the Canary Islands) it is
replaced with ustedes. It is remarkable that the use of ustedes 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, uses the third-person plural form of the verb, in C�diz or Seville the informal form is constructed as ustedes
vais, using the second-person plural of the verb. In the Canary Islands, though, the usual pronoun-verb
agreement is preserved in most cases.
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" in Spain but is known to the rest of the world as the Mexican foodstuff. Pija in many
countries of Latin America is an obscene slang word for "penis", while in Spain the word also signifies "posh
girl" or "snobby". Coche, which means "car" in Spain, means "pig" in Guatemala while carro means "car" in
some Latin American countries and "cart" in others, as well as in Spain.
The Real Academia Espańola (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.
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Writing system
Spanish is written using the Latin alphabet, with the addition of the character ń (eńe, representing the phoneme
/r/, a letter distinct from n, although typographically composed of an n with a tilde) and the digraphs ch (che,
representing the phoneme /t�/, a letter distinct from c and h) and ll (elle, representing the phoneme /�/, a letter
distinct from l). However, the digraph rr (erre fuerte, "strong r", erre doble, "double r", or simply erre), which
also represents a single phoneme /r/, is not similarly regarded as a single letter. Thus, the traditional Spanish
alphabet has 28 letters (29 if one counts w, which is only used in foreign names and loanwords):
a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll, m, n, ń, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z.
Since 1994, the digraphs ch and ll are to be treated as letter pairs for collation purposes only. 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, although ch and ll remain otherwise distinct letters.[44] All words that start with the rr sound are written with
only one r and collated under this letter. There are no words that start with the r sound.
With the exclusion of a very small number of regional terms such as M�xico (see Mexico: Toponymy),
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 ("the", masculine singular definite article) with �l
("he" or "it"), or te ("you", object pronoun), de (preposition "of" or "from"), and se (reflexive pronoun) with t�
("tea"), d� ("give") and s� ("I know", or imperative "be").
The interrogative pronouns (qu�, cu�l, dónde, qui�n, etc.) also receive accents in direct or indirect questions,
and some demonstratives (�se, �ste, aqu�l, etc.) can be accented when used as pronouns. The conjunction o
("or") is written with an accent between numerals so as not to be confused with a zero: e.g., 10 ó 20 should be
read as diez o veinte rather than diez mil veinte ("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
(�) to indicate that it is not silent as it normally would be (e.g., cig�eńa, "stork", is pronounced /�i�gwera/}}; if
it were written cigueńa, it would be pronounced /�i�gera/.
Interrogative and exclamatory clauses are introduced with inverted question ( ż ) and exclamation marks ( Ą ).
Sounds
The phonemic inventory listed in the following table includes phonemes that are preserved only in some
dialects, other dialects have merged them (such as ye�smo); these are marked with an asterisk (*). Sounds in
parentheses are allophones.
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Table of Spanish consonants[45]
Labio-
Bilabial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar
dental
Nasal m n r
Stop p b t d t� _� k g
Fricative f *� (� ) s (z) x
Approximant (�) (�) (�) (c)
Trill r
Tap ~
Lateral l *�
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 /� / (which was written u or v) merged with the bilabial oclusive /b/ (written b).
There is no difference between the pronunciation of orthographic b and v in contemporary Spanish,
excepting specific areas in Spain (particularly the ones influenced by Catalan) and Latin America (notably
Peru).
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 /ł/ merged with its voiceless counterpart /�/, 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 /ł/ or /�/.
The voiced alveolar affricate /dz/ merged with its voiceless counterpart /ts/, which then developed into the
interdental /�/, 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 syllables are all pronounced at a more or less constant tempo, so it is sometimes said to be
syllable-timed, but in fact it is stress-timed, with different stress patterns resulting in separate meanings for the
same spelling, distinguishable by written accents, especially noticeable in verb conjugations. For example, the
word camino (with penultimate stress) means "road" or "I walk" whereas caminó (with final stress) means "you
(formal)/he/she/it walked". Another example is the word pr�ctico (first-syllable stress) "practical", which is
different from practico (second-syllable stress) "I practice", and practicó (last-syllable stress) "you
(formal)/he/she/it practiced." As mentioned above, stress can always be predicted from the written form of a
word. An amusing example of the significance of stress and intonation in Spanish is the riddle cómo cómo como
como como como, to be punctuated and accented so that it makes sense. The answer is żCómo "cómo como"?
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Spanish language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language
ĄComo como como! ("What do you mean / 'how / do I eat'? / I eat / the way / I eat!").
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.
See also
List of languages by number of native speakers Papiamento
Chavacano language Portuguese language
Differences between Spanish and Portuguese Portuńol
Frespańol Real Academia Espańola
Hispanic culture Rock en espańol
Hispanophone Romance languages
Instituto Cervantes Spanglish
Isleńos Spanish-based creole languages
Latin Union Spanish language learning and teaching
List of English words of Spanish origin Spanish language poets
Llanito Spanish profanity
Names given to the Spanish language Spanish proverbs
Palenquero Spanish Empire
Local varieties
Andalusian Spanish Mexican Spanish
Argentine Spanish New Mexican Spanish
Bolivian Spanish Panamanian Spanish
Caliche Peruvian Coast Spanish
Canarian Spanish Puerto Rican Spanish
Central American Spanish Rioplatense Spanish
Colombian Spanish Spanish in the Philippines
Chilean Spanish Spanish in the United States
Cuban Spanish Venezuelan Spanish
Dominican Spanish
References
(http://encarta.msn.com/media_701500404/Languages_S
1. ^ a b c d Spanish
3. ^ Ciberamerica-Castellano
(http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=spa)
(http://www.ciberamerica.org/Ciberamerica/Castellano/General/
. ethnologue.
4. ^ El Nuevo Diario
2. ^ Encarta-Most Spoken languages
12 of 14 12/3/2007 9:29 PM
Spanish language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language
(http://archivo.elnuevodiario.com.ni/2004/febrero/15-febrero-2004/especiales/especiales2.html)
25. ^ CIA World Factbook  Belize
5. ^ Terra Noticias (https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/bh.html
(http://www.terra.com/noticias/articulo/html/act821930.htm) ^ MERCOSUL, Portal Oficial
26.
6. ^ Universidad de M�xico (http://www.mercosur.int/msweb/portal%20intermediario/pt/ind
(http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:v5IUdEETu40J:www.lllf.uam.es/~fmarcos/coloquio/Ponencias/MMelgar.doc+
(Portuguese)
27. ^ BrazilMag.com
7. ^ a b c Instituto Cervantes ("El Mundo" news
(http://www.brazzilmag.com/index2.php?option=com_content&
(http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:0i7Y43lUanEJ:www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2007/04/26/cultura/1177610767.html+%22Ins
, August 08, 2005.
)
28. ^ Lipski, John M. (2006). "Too close for comfort? the
8. ^ Yahoo Press Room
genesis of  portuńol/portunhol
(http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/press/ReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=173481)
(http://www.lingref.com/cpp/hls/8/paper1251.pdf) ".
9. ^ Languages of the world by Ethnologue
Selected Proceedings of the 8th Hispanic Linguistics
(http://www.ethnologue.com/)
Symposium. ed. Timothy L. Face and Carol A. Klee,
10. ^ Most widely spoken languages by Nations Online
1 22. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
(http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/most_spoken_languages.htm)
29. ^ U.S. Census Bureau.
11. ^ Most spoken languages by Ask Men
(http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GRTTable?_bm=y&
(http://www.askmen.com/toys/top_10/45b_top_10_list.html)
Percent of People 5 Years and Over Who Speak
12. ^ Encarta Languages Spoken by More Than 10 Million
Spanish at Home: 2005
People
30. ^ Foreign Language Enrollments in United States
(http://encarta.msn.com/media_701500404/Languages_Spoken_by_More_Than_10_Million_People.html)
Institutions of Higher Learning
13. ^ a b Universidad de M�xico
(http://www.adfl.org/resources/enrollments.pdf)
(http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:v5IUdEETu40J:www.lllf.uam.es/~fmarcos/coloquio/Ponencias/MMelgar.doc+
PDF (129 KiB), MLA Fall 2002.
14. ^ Ethnologue, 1999
31. ^ Facts, Figures, and Statistics About Spanish
(http://web.archive.org/web/19990429232804/www.sil.org/ethnologue/top100.html)
(http://spanish.about.com/library/weekly/aa070300a.htm
15. ^ CIA World Factbook
, American Demographics, 1998.
(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2098.html)
32. ^ CIA World Factbook  Gibraltar
, Field Listing - Languages (World).
(https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/gi.html
16. ^ CIA The World Factbook United States
33. ^ Andorra  People
(https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html)
(http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761554662/Andorra.html
17. ^ United States Census Bureau
. MSN Encarta. Retrieved on 2007-08-20.
(http://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/06statab/pop.pdf)
34. ^ Background Note: Andorra
PDF (1.86 MiB), Statistical Abstract of the United States:
(http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3164.htm) . U.S.
page 47: Table 47: Languages Spoken at Home by
Department of State: Bureau of European and Eurasian
Language: 2003
Affairs (January 2007). Retrieved on 2007-08-20.
18. ^ Foreign Language Enrollments in United States
35. ^ BBC Education  Languages
Institutions of Higher Learning
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/european_languages/languages
(http://www.adfl.org/resources/enrollments.pdf)
, Languages Across Europe  Spanish.
PDF (129 KiB), MLA Fall 2002.
36. ^ Switzerland's Four National Languages
19. ^ World Internet Usage Statistics
(http://www.all-about-switzerland.info/swiss-population-languag
(http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm)
. all-about-switzerland.info. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
20. ^ [1]
37. ^ Ethnologue
(http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/weber/rep-weber.htm)
(http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Philippin
21. ^ Ethnologue - Paraguay(2000)
. Ethnologue Report for the Philippines.
(http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=PY)
38. ^ El refuerzo del espańol llega a los saharauis con una
. Guaran� is also the most spoken language in Paraguay
escuela en los campos de Tinduf
by number of native speakers.
(http://www.aprendemas.com/Noticias/html/N1960_F17012007.
22. ^ "Puerto Rico Elevates English
39. ^ Ethnologue -Equatorial Guinea ((2000)
(http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE1D8163AF93AA15752C0A965958260&n=Top%2fReference%
(http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=Equatoria
", the New York Times, January 29, 1993. Retrieved
40. ^ CIA World Factbook - Equatorial Guinea (Last
on 2007-10-06.
updated 20 September, 2007)
23. ^ Population Census 2000, Major Findings
(https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geo
(http://www.cso.gov.bz/publications/MF2000.pdf) .
41. ^ Morocco.com
Central Statistical Office, Ministry of Budget
(http://www.morocco.com/culture/language/) , The
Management, Belize (2000). Retrieved on 2007-08-23.
Languages of Morocco.
24. ^ Belize Population and Housing Census 2000
42. ^ El idioma espańol en �frica subsahariana
(http://censos.ccp.ucr.ac.cr/)
13 of 14 12/3/2007 9:29 PM
Spanish language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language
(http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/analisis/580.asp) no se consideran letras independientes. En
43. ^ El Cervantes espera duplicar las matr�culas para el consecuencia, estas dos letras pasan a alfabetizarse en
2012 dentro de la 'gran operación de comunicación' del los lugares que les corresponden dentro de la C (entre
espańol -cg- y -ci-) y dentro de la L (entre -lk- y -lm-),
respectivamente." Real Academia Espańola
(http://actualidad.terra.es/cultura/articulo/cervantes_espera_duplicar_matriculas_gran_1921112.htm)
(http://www.rae.es/) . Explanation
44. ^ "No obstante, en el X Congreso de la Asociación de
(http://www.spanishpronto.com/spanishpronto/spanishalphabet.h
Academias de la Lengua Espańola, celebrado en 1994,
se acordó adoptar para los diccionarios acad�micos, a at http://www.spanishpronto.com/ (in Spanish and
petición de varios organismos internacionales, el English)
orden alfab�tico latino universal, en el que la ch y la ll 45. ^ Mart�nez-Celdr�n et al (2003:255)
External links
Ethnologue report for Spanish (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=spa)
Spanish evolution from Latin (http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/2444/splatin.html)
(Spanish) Dictionary of the RAE (http://buscon.rae.es/diccionario/drae.htm) Real Academia Espańola's
official Spanish language dictionary
Spanish phrasebook on WikiTravel
Spanish verb conjugations (http://www.verbix.com/languages/spanish.shtml)
Random Spanish Audio Examples (http://www.onlinespanishhelp.com/viewSentence.php)
The Project Gutenberg EBook of A First Spanish Reader
(http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15353/15353-h/15353-h.htm#e1) by Erwin W. Roessler and Alfred
Remy.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language"
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Rica | Languages of the Dominican Republic | Languages of Ecuador | Languages of El Salvador | Languages of
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