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Spanish is, after Mandarin Chinese and English, the third most
spoken language in the world, with an estimated 400.000.000 of
native speakers throughout the planet. Its origins, however, are
much more reduced, both geographically and numerically.
Together with other initially European languages such as
Portuguese, French or Italian, the linguistic roots of Spanish
make it a Romance language. This means that Latin, or more
specifically, Vulgar Latin, constitutes its most important
linguistic base.
The constant contact and mutual influence of the Latin basis
with other linguistic traditions and cultures has led to the
formation of the different Romance languages as we know them
today. In the case of Spanish, there are, for example,
characteristics that come from the Iberian and Celtic traditions.
There is also a great amount of Greek vocabulary that was first
adopted by Latin speakers and then brought into Spanish. Words
such as "escuela" (school) or "huérfano" (orphan) all belong to
this tradition. And we should not forget the seven centuries of
Arab domination of the peninsula. This has left, among other
things, an important legacy of lexical elements that have been
incorporated into the Spanish language. A surname you probably
know which exemplifies this is "Almodóvar".
Spanish is, especially in the bilingual territories of Spain,
also known as castellano (Castilian), because of its origins in
the region of Castilla. Castilla is situated in the
north-central part of Spain, and it was once the neuralgic
center of the Spanish empire that would take the Spanish
language to more than twenty other countries.
The establishment of a linguistic unity of Spanish as a common
language for the state of Spain was parallel to its territorial
unity. This union was only possible after the Reconquest of the
peninsula from the Arab settlers, at the end of the 15th
century. The kingdom of Castilla, and also its linguistic
variety, expanded to the practical totality of the Iberian
Peninsula. After the marriage of Isabel I of Castilla and
Fernando II of Aragón, the Spanish state was born, and Castilian
language and culture became its most dominant identity. During
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, through a series of
linguistic evolutions and normalizing changes, the language of
the Spanish state became what is nowadays known as Modern
Spanish.
It is important to remember, however, that spoken Spanish is not
identical in the different regions of the Spanish state. In
fact, its pronunciation and lexical characteristics can vary to
a very significant extent from one place to another. However,
the maintenance of a unified, standard, version of the Spanish
language and of its written form is guaranteed by the Real
Academia de la Lengua Española. The Academia sets the rules to
follow in order to speak and write in a way that is accepted by
all the different Spanish speakers.
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