Spanish

Spanish (español) or Castilian (Spanish: castellano) is a Romance language and in terms of native speakers, after the Chinese the most spoken language in the world.[1] [2] for 406 million people Spanish is the native language, while another 180 million speak Spanish as a second language. The historical origin of language is in Spain but most speakers today in Latin America to find.

Content

 * 1 History
 * 2 Relationship
 * 3 Variants
 * 4 pronunciation and spelling
 * 4.1 Summary of letters
 * 4.2 The letters e and i
 * 4.3 The alphabet
 * 4.4 Letters with the same pronunciation
 * 4.5 Emphasis
 * 4.6 Double consonants
 * 5 Geographical distribution
 * 6 See also

History [ edit ]
Spanish comes from the Vulgar Latin, the language of the Romans , who ruled the Iberian peninsula for 700 years. Under the influence of the Celtiberian language ,Basque , Visigoth and later the Arabic language has evolved from Latin. Striking differences are the elimination of the Latin names are mitigating consonants (vita wasvida) and diftongeren short vowels (terra was tierra).

Political fragmentation on the Iberian Peninsula and the different substrates led to the creation of several related languages ​​such as Portuguese and Galician, which to day existence, and the Mozarabic , the Spanish related to the language spoken by the Spanish Christians living in Muslim territory. The Catalan has not developed from the Spanish, but is separate from the Vulgar Latin formed. Because the Spanish language was originally from Castile, usually the language in Spain is self-labeled as "Castilian (Castellano). The first texts in Spanish dating back to the 9th century . The Cantar de Mio Cid , from the 12th century , is one of the oldest long texts in Spanish.

The first dictionary was written in 1492, when Christopher Columbus discovered America, which marked the beginning of the spread of Spanish as a world language.(The countries that today are Spanish speaking, are common Hispanidad mentioned.) Since then, pronunciation and vocabulary evolved differently in the old and the new world. In the same year were again the Jews expelled from Spain, so that the Jewish Spanish known as Ladino, evolved into a third version.

In the seventeenth century, the language some sound shifts that have gone largely to the Latin American Spanish and Ladino over. Therefore the Hispanic closer to Spanish of 1492 than that of today. In 1713 was the Real Academia Española founded, which was promoted the unity of the language in Spain. The current standard is largely based on the dialect from the area of Toledo .

In Spain, the other languages ​​in 1714 with the rise of the dynasty of the House of Bourbon prohibited and successive despots they continued more or less active in different periods, so they gradually lost speakers. The latest in that line was the dictator Francisco Franco (himself a Galician), which all non-native libraries let burn and the Guardia Civil penalties allowed unsubscribe anyone who spoke differently. Since the restoration of democracy in 1975 have been other Spanish languages ​​again an official constitutional status and breathed new life into them clearly. Other languages ​​in Spain are among others: Catalan , Galician and Basque . The presence of these languages ​​within the Spanish empire borders, is now the name 'Spanish' for the language considered politically incorrect and is spoken in the country of the Castilian.

Relationship [ edit ]
Spanish belongs to the Romance languages ​​, and within the Ibero-Romance languages ​​. These languages ​​( Portuguese , Asturian , Galician and Ladino ) are mainly on the Iberian Peninsula spoken and are so related that a speaker of one of these other languages ​​is fairly well understood. The Portuguese and Spanish are similar in grammar and vocabulary very similar. It is estimated that 89% of the languages ​​have the same vocabulary.

Spanish is also extended family of all other Romance languages ​​like French , Italian , Romanian , Catalan and some smaller languages.

Variants [ edit ]
Spanish has both in Spain itself as Latin America variants which sometimes differ significantly from each other.

Spain itself is the north-south distribution. Spanish from Northern Spain is generally regarded as the purest. Northern Spain is the only area where the difference is maintained in pronunciation between the y and ll, although there is also disappearing. The differences in emphasis between the different regions are striking and make it easy to recognize a person's origin. The Andalusian accent is characterized by the c (or z) and the s pronounced both as s ( seseo ) are pronounced, except in Granadaand environment where they just as c (as the English th) sound ( ceceo ) in the abroad known as the 'dirty' statement. Another distinctive feature of the southern accent, swallowing consonants (España is often pronounced Ehpaña). In addition to these regional variants are spoken also other Romance languages ​​in Spain: Galician ,Catalan , Asturian-Leonese dialect , Aragonese and Aranese . There is also the Basque language is no romance but entirely on its own.

Spanish of Latin America differs in vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar of that of Spain. The Latin American Spanish is no exception yeísta, ie that there is no difference in pronunciation between y and ll In most of Latin America are both y. (Dutch: j) pronounced, while in the Rioplatensisch- Spanish of Argentina and Uruguay assh are pronounced. Llamar (call) is so pronounced in Spain as ljamar, in Argentina and Uruguay as sjamar and in the rest of Latin America as jamar. Just as little as there is in Andalusia in Latin America and the difference between the s c. As a result, some linguists believe that the Spanish of Latin America is heavily influenced by SpanishAndalusia . However, it is likely that this change has occurred autonomous: after Latin America was conquered by the Spaniards generations Indians taught Spanish as a foreign language, the difference between ll and y and between s and c, has lapsed. In the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and the Canary Islands is the mutual influence by massive emigration and return migration in the 20th century by Canary Islanders clearly noticeable. The southern accent and southern vocabulary have had a tremendous impact on the Caribbean Spanish that so closely resembles the Canarian Spanish . Further, in Andalusia, the Canary Islands and in Latin America the word vosotros (you) never used with corresponding forms. This may take ustedes that also as a plural form of "you" serves. In Spainustedes only this formal meaning.

Even within Latin America there are many variants as the substrate have different languages ​​influenced the vocabulary. The Mexican Spanish, for example, many words from the Nahuatl recorded, and the Andean Spanish from Quechua . Several groups of immigrants have contributed; the remarkable statement of ll and y in Argentina and Uruguay have been attributed to the large amount of immigrant Italians . The Rioplatense Spanish and in Central American Spanish, which is spoken in the republics of Central America and southern Mexico, is used for the second person singular vos instead of tú (this phenomenon is voseo called). In other parts of the Spanish-speaking world this form is perceived as archaic, similar to the use of 'you' in Dutch. Furthermore, in the entire border with BrazilPortunol speaking, a combination of Spanish and Portuguese, with many variants.

Gabriel García Márquez once declared that the Colombian-Spanish, the clearest statement, although others argue again that the Mexican Spanish is brighter.The Caribbean Spanish is considered the worst intelligible variant, because the speakers many consonants swallowed. Generally, the Latin American Spanishconservative than that of Spain; that is especially true for the forms that are spoken in the interior.

The language has in Equatorial Guinea and other former Spanish colonies in Africa undergo similar changes as in Latin America, but held under the influence of French and African languages ​​again very own characteristics.

Pronunciation and spelling [ edit ]
Even foreign words are usually written phonetically, chauffeur chofer

The pronunciation and spelling are, in comparison with that of many other languages, fairly simple. The spelling is nearly phonetic : there is mostly a one-to-one relationship between the writing and pronunciation.

Who teaches the basic rules of spelling and pronunciation can speak smoothly any text after some practice. Well of course there are different dialects and regional languages ​​.

The letters e and i [ edit ]
The above shows that some letters are pronounced differently for an e or i. The following table shows a summary. The ñ (ENE) is a typical Spanish letter

The alphabet [ edit ]
The alphabet has 27 letters. The alphabet looks like this:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. The letter Ñ is different than in the Dutch language.

The letters CH and LL were regarded until recently as separate letters but by the Real Academia Española officially removed from the alphabet.

Letters with the same pronunciation [ edit ]
There are some pairs of letters that are pronounced the same way, but usually there is a clue what font you use. There are really only three cases where a word can be written with a particular statement in two ways:
 * There is no difference in pronunciation between the y (i griega) and the i (i latina). The i is always followed or preceded by a consonant - otherwise one writes a y.
 * There is no difference in pronunciation between c (e or i) and z. Z is never followed by e or i (except zeta, the letter Z)
 * There is no difference in pronunciation between c (not for e or i) and qu. Qu is always followed by e or i.
 * The b and v sound alike. They are not at the beginning of a word, then the v softer, almost a w, but the difference is barely audible.
 * There is also no difference between g (followed by e or i), and j.
 * The h is not pronounced and often for historical reasons, written in words as helado (ice cream) and hierro (iron). A word never begins UE, but can start Hue-.

[Emphasis edit ]
The location of the focus depends on the final letter of a word. In all other cases there is an accent on the stressed vowel (eg Farmaco (drug), Córdoba).
 * A word ends in a vowel, -n or -s, the stress is on the penultimate syllable, unless there is only one syllable.
 * A word ends in a consonant, except -n or -s, the emphasis on the last syllable.

A combination of two vowels (including a i, u or y) is a two-tone and applies to the determination of the stress as a single syllable.

Sometimes, an accent symbol is needed in order to separate a diphthong. Writes one slide, then that is a word of one syllable about the ruling dja. The combination ia constitutes a diphthong. By putting an accent on the i, so día, it indicates that the focus is on the i: statement-a. The diphthong is no diphthong more, the word has two syllables and the stress is on the penultimate syllable. However, the accent remains necessary.

An accent is also sometimes used to homonyms to distinguish, for example, como (I eat) and ¿Cómo? (what?).

All question words have an accent. For Example:

Double consonants [ edit ]
In general, there are no double consonants, such oficina, interesting. Exceptions are ll and rr, which sound different than l and r, and cc in words like accidente and acción, and nn, which occurs only when prefixes ending in -n set for a word that starts with n as in connotación.

The double r sounds a bit longer than a single r. At the beginning of a word is written and pronounced r rr. The result is sometimes a r doubled as a word is a prefix. For example: pre + romano = prerromano (pre-Roman) and portorriqueño (Puerto Rican, Puerto Rico).

Geographic distribution [ edit ]
Countries and regions where Spanish is an official language

Spanish is an official language in the following countries ( NB : Not all residents indicated for each country have Spanish as a mother tongue ): Of the above countries, most monolingual, with only Spanish as an official language. Exceptions are Bolivia (with Quechua and Aymara which are also official), Equatorial Guinea (French), Paraguay ( Guarani ), Peru (Quechua and Aymara) and Spain itself ( Catalan , Galician , Basque , Aragonese , Asturian and Aranese ). In other countries, sometimes exist substantial communities that use languages ​​other than Spanish as a parent or colloquial (examples: several Indian languages ​​in Mexico and the Guarani and Quechua in Argentina).
 * 1) Mexico : 114.8 million (2011)
 * 2) Colombia : 46.9 million (2011)
 * 3) Spain : 46.3 million (2011)
 * 4) Argentina : 40.8 million (2011)
 * 5) Peru : 29.4 million (2011)
 * 6) Venezuela : 29.3 million (2011)
 * 7) Chile : 17.3 million (2011)
 * 8) Guatemala : 14.8 million (2011)
 * 9) Ecuador : 14.7 million (2011)
 * 10) Cuba : 11.3 million (2011)
 * 11) Bolivia : 10.1 million (2011)
 * 12) Dominican Republic : 10.1 million (2011)
 * 13) Honduras : 7.8 million (2011)
 * 14) Paraguay : 6.6 million (2011)
 * 15) El Salvador : 6.2 million (2011)
 * 16) Nicaragua : 5.9 million (2011)
 * 17) Costa Rica : 4.7 million (2011)
 * 18) Puerto Rico (depending on area of the United States): 3.7 million (2011)
 * 19) Uruguay : 3.4 million (2011)
 * 20) Panama : 3.6 million (2011)
 * 21) Equatorial Guinea (only African country that is in Spanish): 0.7 million (2011)

The United States has about 40 million Spanish speakers. The bulk of this is an immigrant, but there is a part that is descended from the Spanish-Mexican population living in the southwest of the United States when it was captured by the Americans. In Puerto Rico, the Spanish recognized as an official language and the Constitution of New Mexico states that the state is bilingual by the use of English and Spanish. Furthermore, the Spanish spoken by significant communities in Brazil , Belize , Guyana, the Philippines , Morocco , the Western Sahara and the Netherlands Antilles . In none of these countries and territories it is official. Also in Spain bordering on Andorra and Gibraltar is Spanish not recognized (there are, respectively, Catalan and English the official languages).