In which independent states is Spanish the official language? 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
- Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (partially recognized state)
- US states of New Mexico and Puerto Rico
Spanish is a fairly common language, ranking third among other languages. More than 20 countries in the world speak this language. Spanish is 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 Hispanic countries are Argentina and Mexico. Next come the following countries:
Colombia
Venezuela
Guatemala
Honduras
Salvador
Paraguay
Costa Rica
Philippines
Portugal
Great Britain
Spanish is the third most widely spoken language in the world, after Chinese and English of course, and is the second most spoken language. (this is approximately 700 million).
In South America:
In Central America:
In the Caribbean and North America:
In Europe:
In Africa:
Spanish is the second most widely spoken language after Chinese. According to various estimates, it is spoken by about 500 million people, 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.
Spanish is spoken in the USA. And in the state of New Mexico, Spanish has a de facto official status, since it is possible to use Spanish along with English in official documents.
Spanish is spoken by 450,500 million people worldwide. 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, in the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic and in 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 spoken mother tongue in the world (right after Chinese) with 470 million speakers. According to various estimates of experts, in the world today up to 548 million people can speak Spanish fluently.
Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the world after English. It is spoken by more than 500 million people from the Americas, Europe and Africa. In many countries, Spanish is the official language.
Number of Hispanics
Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages. It is spoken in twenty countries around the world. Mexico and Spain speak Spanish and this is not the whole list. Here is a list of countries where you will hear Spanish spoken.
Spanish is the official (state) language in the following countries:
As a regional or local language, Spanish is used in the following countries:
Spanish is the native language of about 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, having studied it, you can safely pack and go to travel 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 United States and the Philippines.
20 countries around the world speak Spanish. This is Spain and all of South America, with the exception of 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 the countries of Latin America that speak Spanish, these are:
Argentina
Paraguay
Venezuela
Colombia
Salvador
Dominican Republic
Honduras
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
Puerto Rico
And part of the United States of America.
Spanish is also partially spoken in the Philippines, Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea.
Learn Spanish. Helped me.
The community of Spanish-speaking countries is called Espanidad, which can literally be translated as Spanish Studiesquot ;.
Naturally, each region has its own dialect. However, 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 to Latin America and other countries where it is spoken.
Of course, it is not as popular for learning as English, but it also boasts a multimillion-dollar army of speakers. In addition, it is the second largest in the world in terms of the number of speakers, after Chinese. At last count, more than half a billion people speak it fluently!
Named after Spain, it actually originated in the medieval kingdom of Castile. It is also called Castilian, both names are common among the Hispanic population. Researchers have not come to 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, some grammatical aspects are greatly simplified in dialects, and many synonyms are used in vocabulary. Many dialects are common in Latin America: Argentine, 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 version of Castilian Spanish, and textbooks are published in it.
Mexico
The place where it is most common, surprisingly, is Mexico. The number of Spanish speakers here exceeds 100 million people. However, this is not surprising if we recall the history - after the discovery of America, Mexico was settled by the Spanish conquistadors.
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 the 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 apply to government agencies in their native language, and not in Spanish.
Spain
The second country where they speak Spanish, of course, is Spain. Over 47 million people speak it here. By the way, there is still debate about how to call it correctly - Spanish or Castilian. In addition, in Spain you can meet others - for example, Catalan and Baksky.
And the official language of the country itself originated in Castile, and earlier it was called Castilian. However, the name Castilian is more suitable for 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 agreed in unanimous opinion and call it Castilian when it is spoken about inside the country, and abroad they say "Spanish".
In general, the Spaniards are very reverent for their languages and try to revive even the rarest dialects. For example, 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, Spanish is spoken by more than 45 million people - almost the population of Spain. In this country, there is an active mixture of many cultures, primarily Europeans, indigenous peoples and Africans. Colombia is on the list of states where Spanish is official - almost 99% of the population speaks it.
On the territory of Colombia, you can find dialects of indigenous peoples, even rare ones such as Creole or Gypsy. And the classical version itself 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
It is home to 41 million Hispanic residents. As in 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 the population of Argentina are descendants of Spanish settlers, and only 1.5% are the remaining indigenous peoples.
However, here Spanish also has its own dialects that cannot be found elsewhere. Dominant throughout the country is the Rioplat dialect - an dialect formed from the first European colonists. Each region has its own dialect, distinct from others, derived from the Rioplat dialect.
USA
There are 35 million Hispanics in the United States of America. This is approximately 12% of the total population. This also happened historically - the territory, which 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 soon their influence weakened. The British and French arrived on the continent, and the division of territories began. In the course of land development and the war between the US and Mexico, mostly English-speaking states were formed, but there are also Spanish ones.
Jewish influence
A huge influence on the spread of Spanish around the world was not only the Spaniards who went to the New World. Queen Isabella of Castile, under whom the era of the exploration of America began, is famous for the Spanish Inquisition. Starting in the 1480s, she, along with her husband Ferdinand, expelled 10,000 Jews from Spain.
They had a choice - to change their faith or leave the country. Those who refused were tortured and placed in closed quarters called ghettos. Most of the Jews still went abroad and spread the Spanish culture in different parts of the world.
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 impresses not only with the bright sun, magnificent beaches, delicious food, passionate dances, 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 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
Castilian is the same official Spanish, which got its name from the kingdom of Castile, where it, in fact, was formed. The culture of the country 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 in the center of Spain. Castilian is spoken by over 40 million people throughout the country and is the most widely spoken of the Spanish languages. Dialects of Castilian can be found in areas near the borders where the two languages intermingle. Among them are: Madrid, Aragonese, Galician, Rioja, Murcia and Churro.
Catalan
Catalan (catala) is spoken in Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands. In these areas, like Spanish, it is the official language. In addition, Catalan is used in Andorra, where it was recognized as an official language, in the south of France and in Sardinia. In terms of the number of people speaking it in Spain, it occupies an honorable second place - 10 million people. There is also the Valencian version of the Catalan language, which differs in phonetics, but so far it has not been singled out as a separate language or dialect. On the other hand, Mallorquin, which is spoken in the Balearic Islands, was fully recognized as a dialect of Catalan.
Galician
Galician (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, in terms of the number of users in Spain, it belongs to the third place: it is native to 3 million people. Due to territorial factors, Galician is considered close to both Spanish and Portuguese. Three dialects are distinguished in it: the western one, which is common in the Rías Bahas, up to about Santiago de Compostela; eastern, which is spoken in the eastern part of Galicia and in the border areas 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 800,000 users. It is spoken in a very limited area. This is the north of Spain: Navarra, Gipuzkoa and part of Biscay. Historically, this territory is called the Basque Country. Along with Spanish in this area, Basque is the official language, but it does not have the features of Spanish, like the same Galician. The mysterious Basque language cannot be attributed to any language family, it is the so-called isolated language. Its complexity and limited territory meant that during the Second World War it was used as a cipher.
Asturian dialect
The Asturian language (asturianu), which is spoken in the northern Spanish province of Asturias, despite its audience of 500,000 people, has not yet received the status of an official language and continues to be considered a dialect of Spanish, but the authorities are required by law to support its study in order to preserve it. Other dialects that are not similar to Asturian, or even its variants, are Lena, Cantabrian and Extremadura.
Spanish: How Many "Spanish Languages" Actually Are There?
In terms of the number of speakers (people who speak the language), Spanish is the second largest language in the world. Only Chinese is ahead of him. 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 of Asia and Africa (former Spanish colonies: Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara, in the Philippines). In the United States, Spanish is the second most spoken language after English. Most government agencies in the US (White House, Government, etc.) keep records in both English and Spanish.
The peoples and states for which Spanish is their native and official language feel like a multinational community and are called Hispanidad. The understanding of the 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 of the 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. In some Spanish-speaking countries, the day of the unity of the peoples of the Spanish language, Día de la Hispanidad, is celebrated as a national holiday.
The official language of Spain is the Castilian dialect. This type of Spanish is spoken by more than forty million people. In addition to the official, Spain has three semi-official languages - Catalan, Basque and Galician - and many unrecognized dialects, the most popular of which is Asturian Spanish.
About ten million people speak Catalan: residents of Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Catalonia. The Galician dialect of Spanish is widespread in the regions neighboring Portugal and appeared as a result of mixing Portuguese and Spanish. In terms of grammatical structure, Galician is close to Portuguese, and its phonetics is 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 of the other known language families, and is a so-called isolated language. The genetic links of the language have not been established, but Basque is traditionally included by scientists in the so-called Paleo-Spanish languages, and in a broader sense, in an unclassified and probably heterogeneous group of Mediterranean languages. The Basque dialect is spoken by about 800,000 people, most of whom 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. Dialects of the first, Caribbean group, are spoken by Spanish speakers 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 dialects of the Spanish language of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The fourth group is the Argentine-Uruguayan-Paraguayan variant (Argentine-Uruguayan-Paraguayan variant), which includes Eastern Bolivia (Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando). The fifth group is conditionally called Highland Latin American Spanish. This language is spoken by the inhabitants of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, belonging to the Andes of Colombia and Venezuela, Quito (located at an altitude of 2800 m, the capital of Ecuador), the Peruvian mountain range and Bolivia.
Latin dialects of Spanish are notable for the simplification of some grammatical forms. For example, in comparison with the Castilian dialect, the forms of tense formation are greatly facilitated. 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 today in many areas, from business and business cooperation to travel and personal communication. And how could it be otherwise with a language spoken by half a million people? When teachers from Russia's leading liberal arts universities were asked to choose the most promising languages for learning, they replied that in the next ten years, English, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic should be taught first of all. Every year these languages will become more and more in demand.
And, of course, any school of foreign languages today offers a huge number of Spanish courses based on a variety of methods. Professionals consider communicative 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 overcoming the language barrier by students. The fastest and most meaningful results can be achieved by learning Spanish with a native speaker. But whatever method of learning you choose - Spanish courses or Spanish classes with a native speaker - first of all it all depends on you, your willingness to learn the language and love for it.
Madrid. - Spanish, spoken by more than 495 million people, has become the second most widely spoken language in the world after Chinese. The number of Spanish speakers continued to grow in 2012, while the number of English and Chinese speakers declined.
These data are contained in the annual report "Spanish in the World" (El español en el mundo), which, since 1998, has been published by the Instituto Cervantes. This edition was presented by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Interaction, José Manuel García-Margallo, and the Director of the Instituto Cervantes, Víctor García de la Concha.
Spanish is also the second language of international communication after English. According to some estimates, by 2030, 7.5% of the world's population will speak Spanish (535 million people). Only Chinese surpasses it in popularity, Garcia de la Concha said at a presentation held in the main building of the Instituto Cervantes. In three or four generations, 10% of the world's population will communicate in Spanish, and the largest number of Spanish speakers will live in the United States. In the United States, there will be even more of them than in Mexico, the authors of the report believe.
On Twitter, Spanish is already in second place
On the World Wide Web, Spanish is already the third most used language after English and Chinese. Over the past 10 years, his online presence has grown by 800%, with the difference between using Spanish on the one hand and Japanese, Portuguese and German ever increasing. On the social network Twitter, Spanish is already the second most spoken language, far behind Arabic, Russian, Italian, French and German. On Facebook, Spanish is also one of the most used languages. More than 80 million people communicate on it.
The report indicates that about 18 million students are learning Spanish as a foreign language. Last year, the Instituto Cervantes received 8% more applicants to learn Spanish. Branches of the Institute are located in 77 cities in 44 countries, mainly in America and Asia.
García de la Concha praised the agreement signed in 2012 with Mexico, which will allow Spain to use Mexican offices in the US, and reported on progress in negotiations to establish a Spanish Language Observatory in the US. At the same time, he drew attention to the lack of qualified Spanish teachers in countries such as Brazil and China, whose universities in 2010 were able to satisfy only 30% of applications submitted for the study of Spanish (about 25,000 Chinese students).
Foreign Minister Garcia-Margallo described the Instituto Cervantes as the jewel in the crown of Spain's foreign policy and warned of the danger that globalization poses to a world culture dominated by Anglo-American approaches.