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Spanish, Castilian Español, Castellano
Pronunciation:	/espaˈɲol/, /kasteˈʎano/ - /kasteˈʝano/
Spoken in:	Spanish speaking countries and territories:  Argentina,  Bolivia,  Chile,  Colombia,  Costa Rica,  Cuba,  Dominican Republic,  Ecuador,  El Salvador,  Equatorial Guinea,  Guatemala,  Honduras,  Mexico,  Nicaragua,  Panama,  Paraguay,  Peru,  Puerto Rico,  Spain,  Uruguay,  Venezuela, and a significant number of the populations of  Belize,  Gibraltar,  United States,  Philippines,  Andorra,  Brazil.
Total speakers:	First languagea: 322 million aAll numbers are approximate.
Ranking:	3 (native speakers) 3 (total speakers)
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:	21 countries, United Nations, European Union, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, African Union, Latin Union, Caricom, North American Free Trade Agreement, Antarctic Treaty.
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
Information:      Spanish is the sole official language at the national level     Spanish a co-official language     Spanish official in some U.S. states, counties and cities
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Spanish ( español (help·info)) or Castilian (castellano) is a 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 most notably to the Americas, and also to Africa and Asia Pacific with the expansion of the Spanish Empire between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Today, about 400 million people speak Spanish as a native language, making it the world's second or third most spoken language, depending on the sources. Mexico contains the largest population of Spanish speakers.

Spanish is growing increasingly popular as a second or third language in a number of countries due to logistical, economic, and touristic interest towards the many nations which chiefly use Spanish as the primary language. This phenomenon is most notable in Brazil, the United States, Italy, France, Portugal, and much of the Anglosphere in general.

Contents 1 Naming and origin 2 Geographic distribution 2.1 Hispanosphere 2.2 Europe 2.3 The Americas 2.3.1 Latin America 2.3.2 United States 2.4 Africa 2.5 Asia 2.6 Oceania 3 Dialectal variation 3.1 Voseo 3.1.1 Grammar 3.1.2 Extension of Voseo in Latin America 3.2 Ustedes 3.3 Vocabulary 3.4 Real Academia 4 Classification and related languages 4.1 Judaeo-Spanish 4.2 Vocabulary comparison 5 History 5.1 Characterization 6 Writing system 7 Phonology 7.1 Lexical stress 8 Grammar 9 Samples 10 See also 10.1 Local varieties 11 References 12 External links

[edit] Naming and origin

Spaniards tend to call this language español (Spanish) when contrasting it with languages 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. The reason that people from Spain, unlike Latin Americans, talk with a lisp is because the first king of Spain, Rey Fernando, had a clinical lisp. Because he was embarrassed, he decreed that all of his subjects speak with a lisp as well. And thus the language proliferated as such. This reasoning also holds true for the language's preferred name in some Latin American countries. In this manner, the Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the official language of the whole Spanish State, as opposed to las demás lenguas españolas (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… Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. (…) The other Spanish languages shall also be official in their respective Autonomous Communities…

”

However, to some in other linguistic regions, this is considered as demeaning to them and they will therefore use the term castellano exclusively.

The name Castellano (Castilian), which refers directly to the origins of the Language and the sociopolitical context in which it was introduced in the Americas, is preferred in Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Chile, instead of español, which is more commonly used to refer to the language as a whole in the rest of Latin America.

Some Spanish speakers consider castellano a generic term with no political or ideological links, much as "Spanish" is in English.

[edit] Geographic distribution

Spanish is one of the official languages of the United Nations, the European Union, the Organization of American States, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the African Union, the Union of South American Nations, the Latin Union, the Caricom, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Antarctic Treaty.

[edit] Hispanosphere

It is estimated that the combined total of native and non-native Spanish speakers is approximately 350 million, likely making it the third most spoken language by total number of speakers (after English and Chinese).^[1] and the most popular studied foreign language in U.S. schools and universities.^[2][3] Global internet usage statistics for 2007 show Spanish as the third most commonly used language on the Internet, after English and Chinese. ^[4]

[edit] 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.^[5] Likewise, it is spoken in Andorra though Catalan is the official language.^[6][7] It is also spoken by small communities in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.^[8] 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.^[9]

[edit] The Americas

[edit] Latin America

Most Spanish speakers are in Latin America; of all countries with majority Spanish speakers, only Spain and Equatorial Guinea are outside of the Americas. Mexico has the most native speakers of any country. Nationally, Spanish is the —de facto or de jure— 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^[10]), 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.^[11]

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.^[12][13] Mainly, it is spoken by Hispanic descendants who remained in the region since the 17th century; however, English is the official language.^[14]

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.^[15] In 2004, the government launched the Spanish as a First Foreign Language (SAFFL) initiative in March 2005.^[16] 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.^[15] The government also announced that Spanish will be the country's second official language by 2020, beside English.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[17] In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President, making Spanish language teaching mandatory in both public and private secondary schools.^[18] In many border towns and villages (especially on the Uruguayan-Brazilian border), a mixed language known as Portuñol is spoken.^[19]

[edit] United States

In the 2006 census, 44.3 million people of the U.S. population were Hispanic or Latino by origin;^[20] 34 million people, 12.2 percent, of the population older than 5 years old speak Spanish at home.^[21] Spanish has a long history in the United States (many south-western states and Florida were part of Mexico and Spain), and it recently has been revitalized by Hispanic immigrants. Spanish is the most widely taught foreign language in the country.^[22] Although the United States has no formally designated "official languages," Spanish is formally recognized at the state level in various states besides English; in the U.S. state of New Mexico for instance, 30% of the population speaks the language. It also has strong influence in metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, Miami, San Antonio, New York City, and in the 2000s the language has rapidly expanded in Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix and other major Sun-Belt cities. 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.^[23]

[edit] Africa

In Africa, Spanish is official in Equatorial Guinea (co-official French and Portuguese), as well as an official language of the African Union. Today, in Western Sahara, nearly 200,000 refugee Sahrawis are able to read and write in Spanish,^[24] 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.^[25][26] 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.^[27] 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.

[edit] Asia

Spanish was an official language of the Philippines since the early days of Spanish colonization in the 16th century, until the change of Constitution in 1973. During most of the colonial period it was the language of government, trade and education, and spoken mainly by Spaniards living in the islands and educated Filipinos. However, by the mid 19th century a free public school system in Spanish was established throughout the islands, which increased the numbers of Spanish speakers rapidly. Following the U.S. occupation and administration of the islands, the importance of Spanish fell, especially after the 1920s. The US authorities' imposition of English as the medium of instruction in schools and universities coupled with the prohibition of Spanish in media and educational institutions gradually reduced the importance of the language. After the country became independent in 1946, Spanish remained an official language along with English and Tagalog-based Filipino. However, the language lost its official status in 1973 during the Ferdinand Marcos administration. Under the Corazon Aquino administration which took office in 1986, the mandatory teaching of Spanish in colleges and universities was also stopped, and thus, younger generations of Filipinos have little or no knowledge of Spanish as compared to the older generations. However, the Spanish language retains a large influence in local languages, with many words coming from or being derived from Spanish.^[28]

[edit] 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^{[citation needed]}, where the older Mexican, Colombian, Spanish, and Chilean populations and newer Argentine, Salvadoran and Uruguayan communities live.^{[citation needed]}

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 spoken by Hispanic American resident populations.

[edit] Dialectal variation

There are important variations among the regions of Spain and throughout Spanish-speaking America. In some countries in Hispanophone America, it is preferable to use the word castellano to distinguish their version of the language from that of Spain^{[citation needed]}, 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 laísmo of this dialect is deprecated. More accurately, for nearly everyone in Spain, "standard Spanish" means, "pronouncing everything exactly as it is written,"^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}. The variety with the most number of speakers is Mexican Spanish, making up nearly a third of Spanish speakers.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Voseo

Spanish has three second-person singular pronouns: tú, usted, and vos. The use of the pronoun vos and/or its verb forms is called voseo.

[edit] Grammar

Vos is the subject form (vos decís) [you say] and the term of preposition (a vos digo) [to you I say], while "os" is the form of the direct complement (os vi) [I saw you (all)] and of the indirect complement without the preposition (os digo) [I say to you (all)].^[29]

The verb always goes in the second-person plural even though we addressed only one speaker:

«Han luchado, añadió dirigiéndose a Tarradellas, [...] por mantenerse fieles a las instituciones que vos representáis» (GaCandau Madrid-Barça [Esp. 1996]).

Like the possessive employs the form vuestro: Admiro vuestra valentía, señora. The adjectives referred to the person or people to whom we address have established the correspondent agreement in gender and number: Vos, don Pedro, sois caritativo; Vos, bellas damas, sois ingeniosas.^[29]

The more commonly known American dialectal form of voseo uses the pronominal or verbal forms of the second-person plural (or derivatives of these) to address only one speaker. This voseo is appropriate to distinct regional or social varieties of American Spanish and on the contrary the reverential voseo, which implies closeness and familiarity.^[29]

The pronominal voseo employs the use of vos as a pronoun to replace tú and de ti, which are second-person singular informal.
^[29]

• As a subject vos employs: «Puede que vos tengás razón» (Herrera Casa [Ven. 1985]) instead of «Puede que tú tengas razón»
• As a vocative: «¿Por qué la tenés contra Alvaro Arzú, vos?» (Prensa [Guat.] 3.4.97) instead of «¿Por qué la tienes contra Alvaro Arzú, tú?»
• As a term of preposition: «Cada vez que sale con vos, se enferma» (Penerini Aventura [Arg. 1999]) instead of «Cada vez que sale contigo, se enferma»
• And as a term of comparison: «Es por lo menos tan actor como vos» (Cuzzani Cortés [Arg. 1988]) instead of «Es por lo menos tan actor como tú»
  ^[29]

However, for the pronombre átono (that which uses the pronominal verbs and its complements without preposition) and for the possessive, they employ the forms of tuteo (te, tu, and tuyo), respectively: «Vos te acostaste con el tuerto» (Gené Ulf [Arg. 1988]); «Lugar que odio [...] como te odio a vos» (Rossi María [C. Rica 1985]); «No cerrés tus ojos» (Flores Siguamonta [Guat. 1993]). In other words, in the previous examples the authors conjugate the pronoun subject vos with the pronominal verbs and its complements of tú.^[29]

The verbal voseo consists of the use of the second person plural, more or less modified, for the conjugated forms of the second person singular: tú vivís, vos comés. The verbal paradigm of voseante is characterized by its complexity. On the one hand, it affects, to a distinct extent, each verbal tense. On the other hand, it varies in functions of geographic and social factors and not all the forms are accepted in cultured norms.^[29]

[edit] Extension of Voseo in Latin America

Vos is used extensively as the primary spoken form of the second-person singular pronoun, although with wide differences in social consideration. Generally, it can be said that there are zones of exclusive use of tuteo in the following areas: almost all of Mexico, the West Indies, Panama, the majority of Peru and Venezuela, and; the Atlantic coast of Colombia.
They alternate tuteo as a cultured form and voseo as a popular or rural form in: Bolivia, north and south of Peru, Ecuador, small zones of the Venezuelan Andes, a great part of Colombia, and the oriental border of Cuba.

Tuteo exists as an intermediate formality of treatment and voseo as a familiar treatment in: Chile, the Venezuelan state of Zulia, the Pacific coast of Colombia, Central America, and; the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas.

Areas of generalized voseo include Argentina, Bolivia (east), Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Uruguay.
^[29]

[edit] Ustedes

Spanish forms also differ regarding second-person plural pronouns. "Usted" (Vd.) were initially the written abbreviation of "vuestra merced" (your mercy). The Spanish dialects of Latin America have only one form of the second-person plural for daily use, ustedes (formal or familiar, as the case may be, though vosotros 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 tú in most of Spain, but in the Americas (and certain southern Spanish cities such as Cádiz and in the Canary Islands) it is replaced with ustedes. It is notable 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 Cádiz 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.

[edit] 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 Peru, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay 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",^{[citation needed]} while carro means "car" in some Latin American countries and "cart" in others, as well as in Spain. Papaya is the slang term in Cuba for "vagina" therefore in Cuba when referring to the actual fruit Cubans call it fruta bomba instead.^[30][31] Also, just how Americans use the term "dude" to refer to a friend or someone, Spanish also has its own slang, or "modismo", but varies in every country. For example, "dude" is "güey, mano, cuate or carnal" in Mexico, "mae" in Costa Rica, "maje" in Nicaragua, "tío" in Spain, "parce","parcero in Colombia, "hueón" in Chile, "chabón" in Argentina, "pata", "causa" in Peru; "pana" in Venezuela and Ecuador.

[edit] 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 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%.^[32] See Differences between Spanish and Portuguese for further information.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Vocabulary comparison

Spanish and Italian share a very similar phonological system. At present, the lexical similarity with Italian is estimated at 82%.^[32] 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 is. Mutual intelligibility between Spanish and French or Romanian is even lower (lexical similarity being respectively 75% and 71%^[32]): comprehension of Spanish by French speakers who have not studied the language is as low as an estimated 45% – the same as 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	nosotros	nós	nós¹	nosaltres	noi²	nous³	noi	we
fratrem germānum (acc.) (lit. "true brother", i.e. not a cousin)	hermano	irmán	irmão	germà	fratello	frère	frate	brother
dies Martis (Classical) feria tertia (Ecclesiastical)	martes	martes	terça-feira	dimarts	martedì	mardi	marți	Tuesday
cantiō (nem, acc.), canticum	canción	canción	canção	cançó	canzone	chanson	cântec	song
magis or plus	más (archaically also plus)	máis	mais (archaically also chus)	més (archaically also pus)	più	plus	mai	more
manum sinistram (acc.)	mano izquierda also (mano siniestra)	man esquerda	mão esquerda also (sinistra)(archaically also sẽestra)	mà esquerra	mano sinistra	main gauche	mâna stângă	left hand
nihil or nullam rem natam (acc.) (lit. "no thing born")	nada	nada/ren	nada (archaically also rem)	res	niente/nulla	rien/nul	nimic	nothing

1. also nós outros in early modern Portuguese (e.g. The Lusiads)
2. noi altri in Southern Italian dialects and languages
3. Alternatively nous autres

[edit] History

Spanish evolved from Vulgar Latin, with influences from Arabic in vocabulary during the Andalusian period^[33] and other 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, Spanish vida), palatalization (Latin annum, Spanish año, 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.

During the Reconquista, 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) 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."^{[citation needed]}

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.

[edit] Characterization

A defining feature 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 > Sp. piedra, It. pietra, Fr. pierre, Rom. piatrǎ, Port./Gal. pedra, Cat. pedra "stone".
• Lat. moritur > Sp. muere, It. muore, Fr. meurt / muert, Rom. moare, Port./Gal. morre, Cat. mor "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 > It. figlio, Port. filho, Gal. fillo, Fr. fils, Cat. fill, Occitan filh (but Gascon hilh) Sp. hijo (but Ladino fijo);
• Lat. fabulari > Lad. favlar, Port./Gal. falar, Sp. hablar;
• but Lat. focum > It. fuoco, Port./Gal. fogo, Cat. foc, 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.

[edit] Writing system

Spanish language
Don Quixote is a recognized work in Spanish literature.
Names for the language · History Pronunciation · Dialects · Orthography
Grammar
Conjugation · Irregular verbs
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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, representing the phoneme /tʃ/) and ll (elle, representing the phoneme /ʎ/). However, the digraph rr (erre fuerte, "strong r", erre doble, "double r", or simply erre), 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.^[34][35]

Thus, the Spanish alphabet has the following 29 letters:^[36]

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), 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 él ("he" or "it"), or te ("you", object pronoun), de (preposition "of" or "from"), and se (reflexive pronoun) with té ("tea"), dé ("give") and sé ("I know", or imperative "be").

The interrogative pronouns (qué, cuál, dónde, quién, etc.) also receive accents in direct or indirect questions, and some demonstratives (ése, éste, aquél, 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 (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.

[edit] 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. Where symbols appear in pairs, the symbol to the right represents a voiced consonant.

Table of Spanish consonants^[37]

	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.

[edit] Lexical stress

Spanish is a syllable-timed language, so each syllable has the same duration regardless of stress.^[38][39] 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:^[40]

• 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 last 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 such as sábana ('sheet') and sabana ('savannah'), as well as límite ('boundary'), limite ('[that] he/she limits') and limité ('I limited').

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!").

[edit] 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 - as most other Romance languages. 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.

[edit] Samples

English	Spanish	IPA phonemic transcription (abstract phonemes) 1	IPA phonetic transcription (actual sounds) 2
Spanish	Español	/es.paˈɲol/	[e̞s̺.päˈɲo̞l] [e̞s̻.päˈɲo̞l]
(Castilian) Spanish	castellano	/kas.teˈʎa.no/   /kas.teˈʝa.no/	[käs̪.t̪e̞ˈʎä.no̞] [käs̪.t̪e̞ˈʝ̞ä.no̞] [käh.t̪e̞ˈʒä.no̞]
English	Inglés	/iNˈgles/ 3	[ĩŋˈgle̞s̺] [ĩŋˈgle̞s̻]
Yes	Sí	/ˈsi/	[ˈs̺i] [ˈs̻i]
No	No	/ˈno/	[ˈno̞]
Hello	Hola	/ˈo.la/	[ˈo̞.lä]
How are you?	¿Cómo estás (tú)? (informal) ¿Cómo está (usted)? (formal)	/ˈko.mo esˈtas/	[ˈko̞.mo̞ e̞s̪ˈt̪äs̺] [ˈko̞.mo̞ e̞s̪ˈt̪äs̻] [ˈko̞.mo̞ ɛhˈt̪æ̞h]
Good morning	Buenos días	/ˈbue.nos ˈdi.as/	[ˈbwe̞.no̞z̪ ˈð̞i.äs̺] [ˈbwe̞.no̞z̪ ˈð̞i.äs̻] [ˈbwɛ.nɔh ˈð̞i.æ̞h]
Good afternoon/evening	Buenas tardes	/ˈbue.nas ˈtaR.des/ 3	[ˈbwe̞.näs̪ ˈt̪äɾ.ð̞e̞s̺] [ˈbwe̞.näs̪ ˈt̪äɾ.ð̞e̞s̻] [ˈbwɛ.næ̞h ˈt̪æ̞ɾ.ð̞ɛh]
Good night	Buenas noches	/ˈbue.nas ˈno.tʃes/	[ˈbwe̞.näs̺ ˈno̞.tʃe̞s̺] [ˈbwe̞.näs̻ ˈno̞.tʃe̞s̻] [ˈbwɛ.næ̞h ˈnɔ.tʃɛh]
Goodbye	Adiós	/aˈdios/	[äˈð̞jo̞s̺] [äˈð̞jo̞s̻] [æ̞ˈð̞jɔh]
Please	Por favor	/poR faˈboR/ 3	[po̞r fäˈβ̞o̞r]
Thank you	Gracias	/ˈgRa.θias/ 3 /ˈgRa.sias/ 3	[ˈgɾä.θjäs̺] [ˈgɾä.s̻jäs̻] [ˈgɾ æ̞.s̻jæ̞h]
Excuse me	Perdón	/peRˈdoN/ 3	[pe̞ɾˈð̞õ̞n] [pe̞ɾˈð̞õ̞ŋ]
I am sorry	Lo siento	/lo ˈsieN.to/ 3;	[lo̞ ˈs̺jẽ̞n̪.t̪o̞] [lo̞ ˈs̻jẽ̞n̪.t̪o̞]
Hurry! (informal)	¡Date prisa! ¡Apúrate!	/ˈda.te ˈpRi.sa/ 3	[ˈd̪ä.t̪e̞ ˈpɾi.s̺ä] [ˈd̪ä.t̪e̞ ˈpɾi.s̻ä]
Because	Porque	/ˈpoR.ke/ 3	[ˈpo̞r.ke̞]
Why?	¿Por qué?	/poR ˈke/ 3	[po̞r ˈke̞]
Who?	¿Quién?	/ˈkieN/ 3	[ˈkjẽ̞n] [ˈkjẽ̞ŋ]
What?	¿Qué?	/ˈke/	[ˈke̞]
When?	¿Cuándo?	/ˈkuaN.do/ 3	[ˈkwãn̪.d̪o̞]
Where?	¿Dónde?	/ˈdoN.de/ 3	[ˈdõ̞n̪.d̪e̞]
How?	¿Cómo?	/ˈko.mo/	[ˈko̞.mo̞]
How much?	¿Cuánto(-a)?	/ˈkuaN.to/ 3	[ˈkwãn̪.t̪o̞]
I do not understand	No entiendo	/no eNˈtieN.do/ 3	[nŏ̞ ẽ̞n̪ˈt̪jẽ̞n̪.d̪o̞]
Help me (please) (formal)   Help me! (informal)	Ayúde(n)me   ¡Ayúdame!	/aˈʝu.de.me//aˈʝu.da.me/	[äˈʝ̞u.ð̞e̞.me̞] [äˈʒu.ð̞e̞.me̞] [äˈʝ̞u.ð̞ä.me̞] [äˈʒu.ð̞ä.me̞]
Where is the bathroom?	¿Dónde está el baño?	/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?	/ˈa.blas iNˈgles/ 3	[ˈä.β̞läs̺ ĩŋˈgle̞s̺] [ˈä.β̞läs̻ ĩŋˈgle̞s̻] [ˈæ̞.β̞læ̞h ĩŋˈglɛh]
Cheers! (toast)	¡Salud!	/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 syllable coda and intra-cluster positions.

[edit] See also

[edit] Local varieties

Peninsular Spanish Andalusian Spanish Canarian Spanish Castilian Spanish Castrapo (Galician Spanish) Murcian Spanish Latin American Spanish Bolivian Spanish Caliche Central American Spanish Chilean Spanish Colombian Spanish

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

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Look up Category:Spanish Language in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Spanish language edition of Wiktionary, the free dictionary/thesaurus

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Spanish

Wikiversity has learning materials about Spanish

• (Spanish) Dictionary of the RAE Real Academia Española's official Spanish language dictionary
• Spanish – BBC Languages
• English - Spanish - altogether 260348 entries.
• Spanish evolution from Latin
• Spanish phrasebook on WikiTravel
• The Project Gutenberg EBook of a first Spanish reader by Erwin W. Roessler and Alfred Remy.

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