Spanish is the official language in. Spanish language and its dialects
- Spain
- Mexico
- Argentina
- Bolivia
- Venezuela
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Dominican Republic
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Salvador
- Uruguay
- Ecuador
- Equatorial Guinea
- Philippines
- Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (partially recognized state)
- US states of New Mexico and Puerto Rico
Spanish is a fairly common language and ranks third among other languages. This language is spoken in more than 20 countries around the world. You can hear Spanish spoken in more than 58 countries.
Spanish is one of the top three most popular languages in the world. More than twenty countries around the world speak Spanish. There are countries where the language is the official language. The most Spanish-speaking countries are Argentina and Mexico. Next come the following countries:
Colombia
Venezuela
Guatemala
Honduras
Salvador
Paraguay
Costa Rica
Philippines
Portugal
Great Britain
Spanish ranks third among the most widely spoken languages in the world, of course after Chinese and in English, and is the second largest number of people who speak it. (this is approximately 700 million).
In South America:
In Central America:
In the Caribbean and North America:
In Europe:
In Africa:
Spanish is considered the second most widely spoken language (after Chinese). According to various estimates, about 500 million people speak it, including those for whom Spanish is a second language.
Spanish is spoken in
Mexico (Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world),
Argentina,
Colombia,
Venezuela,
Ecuador,
Dominican Republic,
Guatemala,
Honduras,
Nicaragua,
Salvador,
Paraguay,
Equatorial Guinea,
Puerto Rico.
In the USA they speak Spanish. And in the state of New Mexico, Spanish actually has official status, since in official documents it is possible to use Spanish along with English.
Around the world, 450,500 million people speak Spanish. It has official status: in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, El Salvador, Uruguay, Chile, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea.
It is considered regional in the Philippines, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and some US states.
Mexico, Spain, Colombia, Argentina, USA, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Portugal, Philippines, Morocco, Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Belize, Dominican Republic.
List of Spanish speaking countries in 2015:
Spanish is the second most widely spoken native language in the world (just behind Chinese) and has 470 million native speakers. According to various expert estimates, up to 548 million people around the world today can speak Spanish fluently.
Spanish is considered the most widely spoken language in the world after English. It is spoken by more than 500 million people in America, Europe and Africa. In many countries, Spanish is the official language.
Number of Hispanics
Spanish turns out to be one of the most common languages. It is spoken in twenty countries around the world. Mexico and Spain speak Spanish, to name a few. Here is a list of countries where you will hear Spanish spoken.
Spanish is the official (state) language in the following countries:
Spanish is used as a regional or local language in the following countries:
Spanish is the native language of approximately 400 million people in the world and another 50-100 million people speak it as a second language.
Thanks to Spain's active colonial past, Spanish is now the official language in many countries. Therefore, after studying it, you can safely pack your things and go traveling to Mexico, Spain, Panama, Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, Honduras, Paraguay, Ecuador, Cuba, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, Chile, El Salvador and Equatorial Guinea. Spanish is also used locally in the USA and the Philippines.
20 countries around the world speak Spanish. This is Spain and everything South America, excluding Brazil. The official language of Brazil is Portuguese. it is a former colony of Portugal.
Spain itself has four official languages: Spanish, Catalan Basque and Galician.
As for Latin American countries that speak Spanish, these are:
Argentina
Paraguay
Venezuela
Colombia
Salvador
Dominican Republic
Honduras
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
Puerto Rico
And also part of the United States of America.
Spanish is also partially spoken in the Philippines, Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea.
Learn Spanish. I found it useful.
The community of Spanish-speaking countries is called Espanidad, which can literally be translated as Spanish Studies.
Naturally, each region has its own dialect. However, native Spanish speakers and Spanish linguists understand each other well, despite some phonetic and lexical differences.
Spanish will definitely come in handy in life, especially if you are going to travel around Latin America and other states where it is spoken.
It is, of course, not as popular for learning as English, but it also boasts an army of millions of native speakers. In addition, it is the second most spoken language in the world, after Chinese. At last count, more than half a billion people speak it fluently!
Named from Spain, it actually originated in the medieval kingdom of Castile. It is also called Castilian, both names common among the Spanish-speaking population. Researchers have not yet reached a consensus on which option is correct.
Spanish dialects
Differences in dialects are observed both in grammar and vocabulary, and in phonetics. This difference is especially visible when comparing the dialect with the “classical” Castilian variant. For example, in dialects some grammatical aspects are greatly simplified, and many synonyms are used in the vocabulary. Many dialects are common in Latin America: Argentinean, Cuban, Mexican and others.
As for Basque, Galician and Catalan, these are separate languages with their own history. The study of Spanish is usually based on the national Castilian version of Spanish, and textbooks are published in it.
Mexico
The place where it is most common is, surprisingly, Mexico. The number of Spanish speakers here exceeds 100 million. However, this is not surprising if you remember history - Mexico was settled by Spanish conquistadors after the discovery of America.
At the end of the 15th century, the language was standardized and spread throughout the world. In Mexico it is also divided into dialects, for example, there is North American and Peruvian. Although Mexico positions itself as a multinational state and recognizes 68 more languages along with Spanish. After all, the population of this country consists of indigenous peoples who lived here even before the arrival of conquerors from the Old World.
It took several centuries for the number of Spanish speakers in Mexico to exceed 90% of the population. Now the government of the country intends to preserve those indigenous dialects that still remain. Interestingly, any resident of Mexico can contact government agencies for native language, not in Spanish.
Spain
The second country where Spanish is spoken is, of course, Spain. It is spoken by more than 47 million people here. By the way, there is still debate about what to call it correctly - Spanish or Castilian. In addition, in Spain you can find others - for example, Catalan and Bak.
And the official language of the country itself originated in Castile, and it used to be called Castilian. However, the name Castilian is more suitable to the variant spoken in this region in the Middle Ages. But Spanish also sounds incorrect, because there are other dialects in Spain. As a result, the Spaniards came to a common opinion and call it Castilian when talking about it within the country, and when speaking about it abroad they say “Spanish”.
In general, the Spaniards highly respect their languages and try to revive even the rarest dialects. For example, the Aragonese is practically on the verge of extinction, but the authorities are conducting special programs to preserve it.
Colombia
In the Republic of Colombia, which neighbors Brazil, more than 45 million people speak Spanish - this is almost the population of Spain. In this country there is an active mixing of many cultures, primarily Europeans, indigenous peoples and Africans. Colombia is on the list of countries where Spanish is official - almost 99% of the population speaks it.
In Colombia you can find indigenous dialects, even such rare ones as Creole or Gypsy. Yes, myself classic version in this country is divided into various dialects that differ in morphology, syntax and semantics. However, they all have characteristic Spanish features that unite them.
Argentina
There are 41 million Spanish-speaking residents here. Like other South American lands, he came here along with the colonists. Almost the entire indigenous population of these lands was destroyed with the arrival of Europeans, in particular the Spaniards. More than 85% of Argentina's population are descendants of Spanish settlers, and only 1.5% are the remaining indigenous peoples.
However, Spanish here also has its own dialects that cannot be found in other places. The dominant dialect throughout the country is the Rioplatan dialect, a dialect that was formed by the first European colonists. Each region has its own dialect, different from others, derived from the Rioplat dialect.
USA
There are 35 million Spanish speakers in the United States of America. This is approximately 12% of total number population. This also happened historically - the territory that is now called, several centuries ago, attracted several influential states at once.
Spain, England, France and others fought for the right to live here. Of course, the Spanish navigators were the first, but their influence soon waned. The British and French arrived on the continent, and the division of territories began. During the development of land and the war between the United States and Mexico, mostly English-speaking states were formed, but there are also Spanish ones.
Jewish influence
The spread of Spanish throughout the world was greatly influenced not only by the Spaniards who went to New World. Queen Isabella of Castile, under whom the era of American exploration began, is famous for the Spanish Inquisition. Beginning in the 1480s, she and her husband Ferdinand expelled 10,000 Jews from Spain.
They had a choice - change their faith or leave the country. Those who refused were tortured and placed in closed quarters called ghettos. Most of the Jews did go abroad and spread Spanish culture to different points peace.
In addition, Spanish is spoken in Peru, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Chile, Venezuela, Honduras and other countries. There is even a special term Hispanidad, which refers to a group of countries where Spanish is recognized as official. In total, this group includes 23 states.
Spain amazes not only bright sun, magnificent beaches, delicious food, passionate dancing, incredible architecture and emotional beautiful people. Spain also surprises with the number of languages and dialects.
Just imagine, there are four official languages in Spain (!), not to mention the dialects. The languages, of course, have some similarities, but the differences are so great that each of them has acquired the status of an independent language.
Castilian language
Castilian is the very official Spanish, which received its name from the kingdom of Castile, where it, in fact, was formed. The country's culture was so multinational that a language that everyone could understand was simply necessary. Therefore, Castilian became the official language. The Spaniards call it castellano, and if the conversation turns to other countries, then español. Castilian is spoken mainly in the north and center of Spain. Castilian is spoken by more than 40 million people throughout the country and is the most widely spoken Spanish language. Castilian dialects can be found in areas near borders where the two languages are mixed. Among them are: Madrid, Aragonese, Galician, Rioja, Murcian and Churro.
Catalan
Catalan (catala) is spoken in Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands. In these areas, like Spanish, it is an official language. In addition, Catalan is used in Andorra, where it has been recognized as an official language, in the south of France and Sardinia. In terms of the number of people speaking it in Spain, it takes an honorable second place - 10 million people. There is also a Valencian version of the Catalan language, which differs in phonetics, but so far it has not been identified as a separate language or dialect. But Mallorquin, spoken in the Balearic Islands, was fully recognized as a dialect of Catalan.
Galician language
The Galician language (galego) is spoken in the Spanish province of Galicia, which borders Portugal. Along with Spanish, Galician was recognized as an official language in this territory. As you might guess, it ranks third in terms of the number of users in Spain: it is native to 3 million people. Due to territorial factors, Galician is considered close to both Spanish and Portuguese. It has three dialects: Western, which is common in the Rias Bajas, approximately to Santiago de Compostela; eastern, which is spoken in the eastern part of Galicia and in the borderlands of Zamora and Leon, and central, which occupies most of the province.
Basque
Basque (euskara) is the fourth most spoken language in Spain, with approximately 800 thousand users. It is spoken in a very limited area. This is the north of Spain: Navarre, Gipuzkoa and part of Vizcaya. Historically, this territory is called the Basque country. Along with Spanish, Basque is an official language in this area, but it does not have the features of Spanish, like Galician. The mysterious Basque language cannot be attributed to any language family; it is a so-called isolated language. Its complexity and limited area led to its use as a cipher during World War II.
Asturian dialect
The Asturian language (asturianu), spoken in the northern Spanish province of Asturias, despite its audience of 500 thousand people, has not yet received the status of an official language and continues to be considered a dialect of Spanish, but by law the authorities are obliged to support its study in order to preserve it. Other dialects that are either similar to Asturian or even variants of it are Lena, Cantabrian and Extremaduran.
Spanish: How many "Spanish languages" are there really?
In terms of the number of native speakers (people who speak the language), Spanish ranks second in the world. Only Chinese is ahead of it. more than half a million inhabitants of the earth consider Spanish their native language, in twenty-one states it is recognized as official: in Spain, in most countries of Latin America, in some states of the USA and even in several countries in Asia and Africa (former Spanish colonies: Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara, in the Philippines). In the United States, Spanish is the second most widely spoken language after English. Majority government agencies USA ( The White house, Government, etc.) conduct office work simultaneously in English and Spanish.
Peoples and states for which Spanish is their native and official language consider themselves a multinational community and are called Hispanidad. The understanding of Spanish-speaking peoples as a cultural community began in the 18th century: in 1713, the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language was created, whose task was to standardize the Spanish language used throughout the world. In the 19th century, most Spanish colonies gained independence or came under the control of other states, but the self-perception of Spanish speakers as a community did not disappear and still exists today. In some Spanish-speaking countries, Spanish Unity Day, Día de la Hispanidad, is celebrated as a national holiday.
Official language Spain is considered a Castilian dialect. This type of Spanish is spoken by more than forty million people. In addition to the official one, Spain has three semi-official languages - Catalan, Basque and Galician - and many unrecognized dialects, the most popular of which is the Asturian dialect of Spanish.
About ten million people speak Catalan: residents of Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Catalonia. The Galician dialect of Spanish is common in regions neighboring Portugal and is the result of a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish. The grammatical structure of Galician is close to Portuguese, and its phonetics are similar to Spanish. Galician is spoken by over 3 million people in Galicia and Galician communities around the world.
The language of the Basques, a people living in the northern part of Spain and the adjacent southern regions of France, has a mysterious theory of origin. This type of Spanish is not related to Indo-European or any other known language families, and is a so-called isolated language. The genetic connections of the language have not been established, but Basque has traditionally been included by scientists in the so-called Paleo-Spanish languages, and more broadly in the unclassified and probably heterogeneous group of Mediterranean languages. The Basque dialect is spoken by approximately 800,000 people. most of who live in the Spanish-speaking part of the Basque Country region.
The many dialects of Spanish in Latin America are grouped into five main groups. The dialects of the first, Caribbean group, are spoken by speakers of Spanish in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Panama, the Caribbean part of Colombia and the Caribbean parts of Nicaragua, Venezuela and Mexico. In the dialects of the second group - in the South American Pacific region - Peru, Chile and Guayaquil, Ecuador. The third, Central American group, includes the Spanish dialects of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The fourth group is the Argentine-Uruguayan-Paraguayan variant, which includes Eastern Bolivia (Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando). The fifth group is conventionally called Mountain Latin American Spanish. This language is spoken by the inhabitants of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, the Andes of Colombia and Venezuela, Quito (the capital of Ecuador located at an altitude of 2800 m), the Peruvian mountain range and Bolivia.
Latin dialects of Spanish are characterized by simplification of some grammatical forms. For example, compared to the Castilian dialect, the forms of tense formation are significantly simplified. The vocabulary and pronunciation of the Latin dialects of the Spanish language are also quite different.
Learning Spanish as a foreign language is becoming more and more popular every year. Spanish is needed in many areas today, from business and business collaboration to travel and personal communication. And how could it be otherwise with a language spoken by half a million people? When teachers at leading humanitarian universities in Russia were asked to choose the most promising languages for studying, they answered that in the next ten years it is necessary to learn, first of all, English, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic languages. Every year these languages will become more and more in demand.
And, of course, any school foreign languages today offers a huge number of Spanish courses based on the most different methods. Professionals consider communicative methods to be one of the most effective and popular methods of learning Spanish. It is based on the fact that classes are held exclusively in Spanish. This contributes to complete immersion in the language environment and students to overcome the language barrier. Speedy and more significant result can be achieved by learning Spanish with a native speaker. But whatever learning method you choose - Spanish courses or Spanish classes with a native speaker - first of all, everything depends on you, your willingness to learn the language and your love for it.
It is one of the most widespread languages on the planet and is represented on almost all continents; this is connected both with the colonial past of Spain and with the active settlement of Spaniards around the world in the 20th century. Civil War, which shook the country in the 20th century, became a catalyst for the active movement of Spaniards around the world, and many supporters of communism, fleeing their fascist persecutors, even ended up in the Soviet Union.
Spanish speaking countries
Based on the fact that a Spanish-speaking country is considered quite large quantities Since people for whom Spanish is their native language, there are more than forty countries in the world that meet this criterion.
First of all, of course, Spanish is the official language. But there are twenty-two other countries in which Spanish is officially recognized. The community of Spanish-speaking countries traditionally includes states where the language has official status.
The list of Spanish speaking countries is as follows:
- Argentina;
- Chile;
- Colombia;
- Bolivia;
- Costa Rica;
- Cuba;
- Dominican Republic;
- Ecuador;
- Guatemala;
- Honduras;
- Mexico;
- Nicaragua;
- Panama;
- Paraguay;
- Peru;
- Puerto Rico;
- Salvador;
- Uruguay;
- Venezuela;
- Spain;
- Philippines.
Spanish-speaking countries in Africa include the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The Spanish language achieved a dominant position in these countries thanks to the aggressive colonialist policy of Spain, which lasted for four centuries. During this time, Spanish-speaking countries appeared in all parts of the world, and the language spread from Easter Island, today under the control of the Chilean Republic, to countries
Jewish influence
However, it was not only colonialism that contributed to the spread of the language around the world. There were other events, no less tragic, that influenced this process.
In 1492, the Spanish Queen Isabella shocked her country's large Jewish community with a decree of incredible cruelty: all Jews were to leave the country or accept holy baptism, which, of course, was unacceptable for devout Jews. Death awaited those who disobeyed.
Within three months, many Jewish families left the kingdom, taking with them, in addition to their personal belongings, the language and culture of the Spanish kingdom. This is how the Spanish language was brought into the territory Ottoman Empire, and then to the State of Israel.
In addition, numerous Spanish and Jewish settlers brought the language to Morocco, which had long been safe thanks to the traditional religious tolerance of Islamic rulers.
Spanish in the USA
There is not a word in the United States Constitution about state language, and most states do not have specific laws governing this issue. However, along with English, Spanish is actively used in the country, therefore, although the United States is not considered a Spanish-speaking country, in some states Spanish is also used in government agencies.
The large number of Hispanic Americans is not only due to migration, as it might seem, but also to historical events nineteenth century, when Mexico and the United States actively competed for influence in North America.
The result of this confrontation was a devastating war that lasted two years from 1846 to 1848. As a result of the war, more than a million square kilometers of land were alienated from Mexico, which amounted to almost half the territory of the losing country. Along with these lands, the United States also received Spanish-speaking citizens. Since then, Spanish has been the second most widely spoken language in many southern states, and in some states Spanish is spoken by a majority of the population.