Countries where Spanish has official status. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 25% or more of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 10-20% of the population. States of the U.S. where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 5-9.9% of the population.
Spanish or Castilian (español or castellano) is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects and languages in the northern fringes of the Iberian Peninsula during the 10th century and gradually spread through the Kingdom of Castile, becoming the foremost language for government and trade in the Spanish Empire.
Latin, the basic foundation of the Spanish language, was introduced to the Iberian Peninsula by Romans during the Second Punic War around 210 BC. During the 5th century, Hispania was invaded by Germanic Vandals, Suevi, Alans, and Visigoths, resulting in numerous dialects of Vulgar Latin. After the Moorish Conquest in the 8th century, Arabic became an influence in the evolution of Iberian languages including Castilian.
Modern Spanish developed with the Readjustment of the Consonants (es: Reajuste de las sibilantes del castellano) that began in 15th century. The language continues to adopt foreign words from a variety of other languages, as well as developing new words. Castilian was taken most notably to the Americas as well as to Africa and Asia Pacific with the expansion of the Spanish Empire between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries.
As of 2010[update], 329 to 358 million people speak Spanish as a native language and a total of 417 million people [7] speak it worldwide. It is the second most natively-spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese. [8] Mexico contains the largest population of Spanish speakers. Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
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Los Angeles Times
The gulf between them is expressed most pointedly through differences in music and language : although Fausta speaks Spanish , her mother tongue is Quechua. ...
Magaly Solier and Claudia Llosa return to Lima tonight Andina - Agencia Peruana de Noticias
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