Spanish language

Spanish
Castilian
español castellano
Pronunciation	[espaˈɲol]ⓘ [kasteˈʝano]ⓘ,[kasteˈʎano]ⓘ
Speakers	Native: 500 million (2023)[1] Total: 600 million[1] 100 million speakers with limited capacity (23 million students)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Latin Romance Italo-Western Western Romance Gallo-Iberian Ibero-Romance West Iberian Castilian[2][3] Spanish
Early forms	Vulgar Latin Old Spanish Early Modern Spanish
Writing system	Latin script(Spanish alphabet) Spanish Braille
Signed forms	Signed Spanish(using signs of the local language)
Official status
Official language in	20 countries Argentina Bolivia Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Guatemala Honduras Mexico Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Spain Uruguay Venezuela Dependent territories Puerto Rico Partially recognized country Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Significant minority Andorra Belize Gibraltar United States International organizations African Union Andean Community Association of Caribbean States Caribbean Community CELAC European Union ALADI Latin American Parliament Mercosur OSCE Organization of American States United Nations Union of South American Nations Organization of Ibero-American States
Regulated by	Association of Spanish Language Academies (Real Academia Españolaand 22 other national Spanish language academies)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	es
ISO 639-2	spa
ISO 639-3	spa
Glottolog	stan1288
Linguasphere	51-AAA-b
Official majority language Co-official or administrative language but not majority native language Secondary language (more than 20% Spanish speakers) or culturally important
This article containsIPAphonetic symbols.Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbolsinstead ofUnicodecharacters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA.

Spanish(español) orCastilian(castellano) is aRomance languageof theIndo-European language familythat evolved from theVulgar Latinspoken on theIberian PeninsulaofEurope. Today, it is aglobal languagewith about 500 million native speakers, mainly in theAmericasandSpain, and about 600 million when including second language speakers.^[4][5]Spanish is the official language of20 countries, as well as one of the six official languages of theUnited Nations.^[6][7]Spanish is the world'ssecond-most spoken native languageafterMandarin Chinese;^[5][8]the world'sfourth-most spoken languageoverall afterEnglish, Mandarin Chinese, andHindustani(Hindi-Urdu); and the world's most widely spoken Romance language. The country with the largest population of native speakers isMexico.^[9]

Spanish is part of theIbero-Romance language group, in which the language is also known asCastilian(castellano). The group evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after thecollapse of the Western Roman Empirein the 5th century. The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century,^[10]and the first systematic written use of the language happened inToledo, a prominent city of theKingdom of Castile, in the 13th century. Spanish colonialism in theearly modern periodspurred the introduction of the language to overseas locations, most notably to the Americas.^[11]

As a Romance language, Spanish is a descendant of Latin. Around 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is Latin in origin, including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek.^[12][13]Alongside English andFrench, it is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world.^[14]Spanish is well represented in thehumanitiesandsocial sciences.^[15]Spanish is also the third most used language on the internet by number of users after English and Chinese^[16]and the second most used language by number of websites after English.^[17]

Spanish is used as an official language bymany international organizations, including theUnited Nations,European Union,Organization of American States,Union of South American Nations,Community of Latin American and Caribbean States,African Union, among others.^[6]

In Spain and some other parts of the Spanish-speaking world, Spanish is called not onlyespañolbut alsocastellano(Castilian), the language from theKingdom of Castile, contrasting it with otherlanguages spoken in Spainsuch asGalician,Basque,Asturian,Catalan/Valencian,Aragonese,Occitanand other minor languages.

TheSpanish Constitution of 1978uses the termcastellanoto define theofficial languageof the whole of Spain, in contrast tolas demás lenguas españolas(lit. "the otherSpanish 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...

TheRoyal Spanish Academy(Real Academia Española), on the other hand, currently uses the termespañolin its publications. However, from 1713 to 1923, it called the languagecastellano.

TheDiccionario panhispánico de dudas(a language guide published by the Royal Spanish Academy) states that, although the Royal Spanish Academy prefers to use the termespañolin its publications when referring to the Spanish language, both terms—españolandcastellano—are regarded as synonymous and equally valid.^[18]

The termcastellanois related toCastile(Castillaor archaicallyCastiella), the kingdom where the language was originally spoken. The nameCastile, in turn, is usually assumed to be derived fromcastillo('castle').

In theMiddle Ages, the language spoken in Castile was generically referred to asRomanceand later also asLengua vulgar.^[19]Later in the period, it gained geographical specification asRomance castellano(romanz castellano,romanz de Castiella),lenguaje de Castiella, and ultimately simply ascastellano(noun).^[19]

Different etymologies have been suggested for the termespañol(Spanish). According to the Royal Spanish Academy,españolderives from theOccitanwordespaignoland that, in turn, derives from theVulgar Latin*hispaniolus('of Hispania').^[20]Hispaniawas the Roman name for the entireIberian Peninsula.

There are other hypotheses apart from the one suggested by the Royal Spanish Academy. Spanish philologistRamón Menéndez Pidalsuggested that the classichispanusorhispanicustook the suffix-onefromVulgar Latin, as happened with other words such asbretón(Breton) orsajón(Saxon).

Like the otherRomance languages, the Spanish language evolved fromVulgar Latin, which was brought to theIberian Peninsulaby theRomansduring theSecond Punic War, beginning in 210 BC. Several pre-Roman languages (also calledPaleohispanic languages)—some distantly related to Latin asIndo-European languages, and some that are not related at all—were previously spoken in the Iberian Peninsula. These languages includedProto-Basque,Iberian,Lusitanian,CeltiberianandGallaecian.

The first documents to show traces of what is today regarded as the precursor of modern Spanish are from the 9th century. Throughout the Middle Ages and into themodern era, the most importantinfluenceson the Spanish lexicon came from neighboringRomance languages—Mozarabic(Andalusi Romance),Navarro-Aragonese,Leonese,Catalan/Valencian,Portuguese,Galician,Occitan, and later,FrenchandItalian. Spanish alsoborroweda considerable number of words fromArabic, as well as a minor influence from the GermanicGothic languagethrough the migration of tribes and a period ofVisigothrule in Iberia. In addition, many more words were borrowed fromLatinthrough the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church. The loanwords were taken from bothClassical LatinandRenaissance Latin, the form of Latin in use at that time.

According to the theories ofRamón Menéndez Pidal, localsociolectsof Vulgar Latin evolved into Spanish, in the north of Iberia, in an area centered in the city ofBurgos, and this dialect was later brought to the city ofToledo, where the written standard of Spanish was first developed, in the 13th century.^[22]In this formative stage, Spanish developed a strongly differing variant from its close cousin,Leonese, and, according to some authors, was distinguished by a heavy Basque influence (seeIberian Romance languages). This distinctive dialect spread to southern Spain with the advance of theReconquista, and meanwhile gathered a sizable lexical influence from theArabicofAl-Andalus, much of it indirectly, through the RomanceMozarabic dialects(some 4,000Arabic-derived words, make up around 8% of the language today).^[23]The written standard for this new language was developed in the cities ofToledo, in the 13th to 16th centuries, andMadrid, from the 1570s.^[22]

The development of theSpanish sound systemfrom that ofVulgar Latinexhibits most of the changes that are typical ofWestern Romance languages, includinglenitionof intervocalic consonants (thus Latinvīta> Spanishvida). Thediphthongizationof Latin stressed shorteando—which occurred inopen syllablesin French and Italian, but not at all in Catalan or Portuguese—is found in both open and closed syllables in Spanish, as shown in the following table:

Spanish is marked bypalatalizationof the Latin double consonants (geminates)nnandll(thus Latinannum> Spanishaño, and Latinanellum> Spanishanillo).

The consonant writtenuorvin Latin and pronounced[w]in Classical Latin had probably "fortified" to a bilabial fricative/β/in Vulgar Latin. In early Spanish (but not in Catalan or Portuguese) it merged with the consonant writtenb(a bilabial with plosive and fricative allophones). In modern Spanish, there isno differencebetween the pronunciation of orthographicbandv.

Typical of Spanish (as also of neighboringGasconextending as far north as theGironde estuary, and found in a small area ofCalabria), attributed by some scholars to a Basquesubstratumwas the mutation of Latin initialfintoh-whenever it was followed by a vowel that did not diphthongize. Theh-, still preserved in spelling, is now silent in most varieties of the language, although in some Andalusian and Caribbean dialects, it is still aspirated in some words. Because of borrowings from Latin and neighboring Romance languages, there are manyf-/h-doubletsin modern Spanish:FernandoandHernando(both Spanish for "Ferdinand"),ferreroandherrero(both Spanish for "smith"),fierroandhierro(both Spanish for "iron"), andfondoandhondo(both words pertaining to depth in Spanish, thoughfondomeans "bottom", whilehondomeans "deep"); additionally,hacer("to make") iscognateto the root word ofsatisfacer("to satisfy"), andhecho("made") is similarly cognate to the root word ofsatisfecho("satisfied").

Compare the examples in the following table:

Someconsonant clustersof Latin also produced characteristically different results in these languages, as shown in the examples in the following table:

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish underwent a dramatic change in the pronunciation of itssibilant consonants, known in Spanish as thereajuste de las sibilantes, which resulted in the distinctivevelar[x]pronunciation of the letter⟨j⟩and—in a large part of Spain—the characteristicinterdental[θ]("th-sound") for the letter⟨z⟩(and for⟨c⟩before⟨e⟩or⟨i⟩). SeeHistory of Spanish (Modern development of the Old Spanish sibilants)for details.

TheGramática de la lengua castellana, written inSalamancain 1492 byElio Antonio de Nebrija, was the first grammar written for a modern European language.^[25]According to a popular anecdote, when Nebrija presented it toQueen Isabella I, she asked him what was the use of such a work, and he answered that language is the instrument of empire.^[26]In his introduction to the grammar, dated 18 August 1492, Nebrija wrote that "... language was always the companion of empire."^[27]

From the 16th century onwards, the language was taken to the Spanish-discoveredAmericaand theSpanish East IndiesviaSpanish colonization of America.Miguel de Cervantes, author ofDon Quixote, is such a well-known reference in the world that Spanish is often calledla lengua de Cervantes("the language of Cervantes").^[28]

In the 20th century, Spanish was introduced toEquatorial Guineaand theWestern Sahara, and to areas of the United States that had not been part of the Spanish Empire, such asSpanish HarleminNew York City. For details on borrowed words and other external influences upon Spanish, seeInfluences on the Spanish language.

Spanish is the primary language in 20 countries worldwide. As of 2023, it is estimated that about 486 million people speak Spanish as anative language, making it the secondmost spoken language by number of native speakers.^[29]An additional 75 million speak Spanish as a second orforeign language, making it the fourthmost spoken language in the world overallafter English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi with a total number of 538 million speakers.^[30]Spanish is also the thirdmost used language on the Internet, after English and Chinese.^[31]

Spanish is the official language ofSpain. Upon the emergence of theCastilian Crownas the dominant power in the Iberian Peninsula by the end of the Middle Ages, the Romance vernacular associated with this polity became increasingly used in instances of prestige and influence, and the distinction between "Castilian" and "Spanish" started to become blurred.^[32]Hard policies imposing the language's hegemony in an intensely centralising Spanish state were established from the 18th century onward.^[33]

Other European territories in which it is also widely spoken includeGibraltarandAndorra.^[34]

Spanish is also spoken by immigrant communities in other European countries, such as theUnited Kingdom,France,Italy, andGermany.^[35]Spanish is an official language of theEuropean Union.

Today, the majority of the Spanish speakers live inHispanic America. Nationally, Spanish is the official language—eitherde factoorde jure—ofArgentina,Bolivia(co-official with 36 indigenous languages),Chile,Colombia,Costa Rica,Cuba,Dominican Republic,Ecuador,El Salvador,Guatemala,Honduras,Mexico(co-official with 63 indigenous languages),Nicaragua,Panama,Paraguay(co-official withGuaraní),^[36]Peru(co-official withQuechua,Aymara, and "the other indigenous languages"),^[37]Puerto Rico(co-official with English),^[38]Uruguay, andVenezuela.

Spanish language has a long history in the territory of the current-day United States dating back to the 16th century.^[39]In the wake of the1848 Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty, hundreds of thousands of Spanish speakers became a minoritized community in the United States.^[39]The 20th century saw further massive growth of Spanish speakers in areas where they had been hitherto scarce.^[40]

According to the 2020 census, over 60 million people of the U.S. population were ofHispanicorHispanic Americanby origin.^[41]In turn, 41.8 million people in the United States aged five or older speak Spanish at home, or about 13% of the population.^[42]Spanish predominates in the unincorporated territory ofPuerto Rico, where it is also an official language along with English.

Spanish is by far the most common second language in the country, with over 50 million total speakers if non-native or second-language speakers are included.^[43]While English is the de facto national language of the country, Spanish is often used in public services and notices at the federal and state levels. Spanish is also used in administration in the state ofNew Mexico.^[44]The language has a strong influence in major metropolitan areas such as those ofLos Angeles,Miami,San Antonio,New York,San Francisco,Dallas,TucsonandPhoenixof theArizona Sun Corridor, as well as more recently,Chicago,Las Vegas,Boston,Denver,Houston,Indianapolis,Philadelphia,Cleveland,Salt Lake City,Atlanta,Nashville,Orlando,Tampa,RaleighandBaltimore-Washington, D.C.due to 20th- and 21st-century immigration.

Although Spanish has no official recognition in the formerBritish colonyofBelize(known until 1973 asBritish Honduras) where English is the sole official language, according to the 2010 census it was then spoken natively by 45% of the population and 56.6% of the total population were able to speak the language.^[45]

Due to its proximity to Spanish-speaking countries and small existingnative Spanish speakingminority,Trinidad and Tobagohas implemented Spanish language teaching into its education system. The Trinidadian and Tobagonian government launched theSpanish as a First Foreign Language(SAFFL) initiative in March 2005.^[46]

In addition to sharing most of its borders with Spanish-speaking countries, the creation ofMercosurin the early 1990s induced a favorable situation for the promotion of Spanish language teaching inBrazil.^[47][48]In 2005, theNational Congress of Brazilapproved a bill, signed into law by thePresident, making it mandatory forschoolsto offer Spanish as an alternative foreign language course in both public and private secondary schools in Brazil.^[49]In September 2016 this law was revoked byMichel Temerafter theimpeachment of Dilma Rousseff.^[50]In many border towns and villages along Paraguay and Uruguay, amixed languageknown asPortuñolis spoken.^[51]

Equatorial Guineais the only Spanish-speaking country located entirely in Africa, with the language introduced during theSpanish colonial period.^[52]Enshrined in the constitution as an official language (alongside French and Portuguese), Spanish features prominently in the Equatoguinean education system and is the primary language used in government and business.^[53]Whereas it is not the mother tongue of virtually any of its speakers, the vast majority of the population is proficient in Spanish.^[54]TheInstituto Cervantesestimates that 87.7% of the population is fluent in Spanish.^[55]The proportion of proficient Spanish speakers in Equatorial Guinea exceeds the proportion of proficient speakers in other West and Central African nations of their respective colonial languages.^[56]

Spanish is spoken by very small communities inAngoladue to Cuban influence from theCold Warand inSouth Sudanamong South Sudanese natives that relocated to Cuba during the Sudanese wars and returned for their country's independence.^[57]

Spanish is also spoken in the integral territories of Spain in Africa, namely the cities ofCeutaandMelillaand theCanary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 km (62 mi) off the northwest of the African mainland. TheSpanish spoken in the Canary Islandstraces its origins back to theCastilian conquest in the 15th century, and, in addition to a resemblance to Western Andalusian speech patterns, it also features strong influence from the Spanish varieties spoken in the Americas,^[58]which in turn have also been influenced historically by Canarian Spanish.^[59]The Spanish spoken in North Africa by native bilingual speakers of Arabic or Berber who also speak Spanish as a second language features characteristics involving the variability of the vowel system.^[60]

While far from its heyday during theSpanish protectorate in Morocco, the Spanish language has some presence in northernMorocco, stemming for example from the availability of certain Spanish-language media.^[61]According to a 2012 survey by Morocco's Royal Institute for Strategic Studies (IRES), penetration of Spanish in Morocco reaches 4.6% of the population.^[62]Many northern Moroccans have rudimentary knowledge of Spanish,^[61]with Spanish being particularly significant in areas adjacent to Ceuta and Melilla.^[63]Spanish also has a presence in the education system of the country (through either selected education centers implementing Spain's education system, primarily located in the North, or the availability of Spanish as foreign language subject in secondary education).^[61]

InWestern Sahara, formerlySpanish Sahara, a primarilyHassaniya Arabic-speaking territory, Spanish was officially spoken as the language of the colonial administration during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Today, Spanish is present in the partially-recognizedSahrawi Arab Democratic Republicas its secondary official language,^[64]and in theSahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf(Algeria), where the Spanish language is still taught as a second language, largely by Cuban educators.^[65][66][67]The number of Spanish speakers is unknown.^{[failed verification][68][69]}

Spanish is also an official language of theAfrican Union.^[70]

Spanish was an official language of thePhilippinesfrom the beginning of Spanish administration in 1565 to a constitutional change in 1973. DuringSpanish colonization, it was the language of government, trade, and education, and was spoken as a first language by Spaniards and educated Filipinos (Ilustrados). Despite a public education system set up by the colonial government, by the end of Spanish rule in 1898, only about 10% of the population had knowledge of Spanish, mostly those of Spanish descent or elite standing.^[71]

Spanish continued to be official and used in Philippine literature and press during the early years ofAmerican administrationafter theSpanish–American Warbut was eventually replaced by English as the primary language of administration and education by the 1920s.^[72]Nevertheless, despite a significant decrease in influence and speakers, Spanish remained an official language of the Philippines upon independence in 1946, alongside English andFilipino, a standardized version ofTagalog.

Spanish was briefly removed from official status in 1973 but reimplemented under the administration ofFerdinand Marcostwo months later.^[73]It remained an official language until the ratification of the present constitution in 1987, in which it was re-designated as a voluntary and optional auxiliary language.^[74]Additionally, the constitution, in its Article XIV, stipulates that theGovernmentshall provide the people of the Philippines with a Spanish-language translation of the country's constitution.^[75]In recent years changing attitudes among non-Spanish speaking Filipinos have helped spur a revival of the language,^[76][77]and starting in 2009 Spanish was reintroduced as part of the basic education curriculum in a number of public high schools, becoming the largest foreign language program offered by the public school system,^[78]with over 7,000 students studying the language in the 2021–2022 school year alone.^[79]Thelocal business process outsourcing industryhas also helped boost the language's economic prospects.^[80]Today, while the actual number of proficient Spanish speakers is around 400,000, or under 0.5% of the population,^[81]a new generation of Spanish speakers in the Philippines has likewise emerged, though speaker estimates vary widely.^[82]

Aside from standard Spanish, a Spanish-based creole language calledChavacanodeveloped in the southern Philippines. However, it is not mutually intelligible with Spanish.^[83]The number of Chavacano-speakers was estimated at 1.2 million in 1996.^[84]The locallanguages of the Philippinesalso retain significant Spanish influence, with many words derived fromMexican Spanish, owing to the administration of the islands by Spain throughNew Spainuntil 1821, until direct governance from Madrid afterwards to 1898.^[85][86]

Spanish is the official and most spoken language onEaster Island, which is geographically part ofPolynesiain Oceania and politically part ofChile. However, Easter Island's traditional language isRapa Nui, anEastern Polynesian language.

As a legacy of comprising the formerSpanish East Indies, Spanish loan words are present in the local languages ofGuam,Northern Mariana Islands,Palau,Marshall IslandsandMicronesia.^[87][88]

In addition, in Australia and New Zealand, there are native Spanish communities, resulting from emigration from Spanish-speaking countries (mainly from theSouthern Cone).^[89]

20 countries and one United States territory speak Spanish officially, and the language has a significant unofficial presence in the rest of the United States along with Andorra, Belize and the territory of Gibraltar.

Worldwide Spanish fluency ( greyand * signifies official language)

Country	Population[90]	Speakers of Spanish as a native language[91]	Native speakers and proficient speakers as a second language[92]	Total number of Spanish speakers(including limited competence speakers)[92][93]
Mexico*	132,274,416[94]	124,073,402 (93.8%)[95]	128,041,635 (96.8%)[1]	131,216,221 (99.2%)[95]
United States	333,287,557[96]	42,032,538 (13.3%)[97]	42,032,538(82% of U.S. Hispanics speak Spanish very well (according to a 2011 survey).[98]There are 63.5 million Hispanics in the U.S. as of 2022[99]+ 2.8 mill. non Hispanic Spanish speakers[100])	57,532,538[1](42 million as a first language + 15.5 million as a second language. To avoid double counting, the number does not include 8 million Spanish students and some of the 7.7 million undocumented Hispanics not accounted by the Census)
Colombia*	52,695,952[101]	52,168,992 (99%)[102]	52,274,384 (99.2%)[1]
Spain*	48,692,804[103]	41,595,530 (85.6%)[104]	46,649,193 (96%)[104]	48,349,944 (99.5%)[104]
Argentina*	47,067,641[105][107]	45,561,476 (96.8%)[108]	46,173,356 (98.1%)[1]	46,785,235 (99.4%)[93]
Venezuela*	32,605,423[109]	31,507,179(1,098,244 with another mother tongue)[110]	31,725,077 (97.3%)[1]	32,214,158 (98.8%)[93]
Peru*	34,102,668[111]	28,271,112 (82.9%)[112][113]	29,532,910 (86.6%)[1]
Chile*	20,086,377[114]	19,015,592(281,600 with another mother tongue)[115]	19,262,836 (95.9%)[1]	19,945,772 (99.3%)[93]
Ecuador*	18,350,000[116]	17,065,500 (93%)[117]	17,579,300 (95.8%)[1]	18,001,350 (98.1%)[93]
Guatemala*	17,357,886[118]	12,133,162 (69.9%)[119]	13,591,225 (78.3%)[1]	14,997,214 (86.4%)[93]
Cuba*	11,181,595[120]	11,159,232 (99.8%)[1]	11,159,232 (99.8%)[1]
Bolivia*	12,006,031[121]	7,287,661 (60.7%)[122]	9,965,006 (83%)[1]	10,553,301 (87.9%)[93]
Dominican Republic*	10,621,938[123]	10,367,011 (97.6%)[1]	10,367,011 (97.6%)[1]	10,473,231 (99.6%)[93]
Honduras*	9,526,440[124]	9,318,690(207,750 with another mother tongue)[125]	9,402,596 (98.7%)[1]
France	67,407,241[126]	477,564(1%[127]of 47,756,439[128])	1,910,258(4%[129]of 47,756,439[128])	6,685,901(14%[130]of 47,756,439[128])
Paraguay*	7,453,695[131]	5,083,420 (61.5%)[132]	6,596,520 (68.2%)[1]	6,484,714 (87%)[133][134]
Nicaragua*	6,595,674[135]	6,285,677(490,124 with another mother tongue)[136]	6,404,399 (97.1%)[1]
El Salvador*	6,330,947[137]	6,316,847(14,100 with another mother tongue)[138]	6,311,954 (99.7%)[1]
Brazil	214,100,000[139]	460,018[1]	460,018	6,056,018(460,018 immigrants native speakers + 96,000 descendants of Spanish immigrants + 5,500,000 can hold a conversation)[140][93]
Italy	60,542,215[141]	255,459[142]	1,037,248(2%[129]of 51,862,391[128])	5,704,863(11%[130]of 51,862,391[128])
Costa Rica*	5,262,374[143]	5,176,956(84,310 with another mother tongue)[144]	5,225,537 (99.3%)[1]
Panama*	4,278,500[145]	3,777,457(501,043 with another mother tongue)[146]	3,931,942 (91.9%)[1]
Uruguay*	3,543,026[147]	3,392,826(150,200 with another mother tongue)[148]	3,486,338 (98.4%)[1]
Puerto Rico*	3,285,874[149]	3,095,293 (94.2%)[150]	3,253,015 (99%)[1]
United Kingdom	67,081,000[151]	120,000[152]	518,480(1%[129]of 51,848,010[128])	3,110,880(6%[130]of 51,848,010[128])
Germany	83,190,556[153]	375,207[154]	644,091(1%[129]of 64,409,146[128])	2,576,366(4%[130]of 64,409,146[128])
Canada	34,605,346[155]	600,795 (1.6%)[156]	1,171,450[157](3.2%)[158]	1,775,000[159][160]
Morocco	35,601,000[161]	6,586[162]	6,586	1,664,823[1][163](10%)[164]
Equatorial Guinea*	1,505,588[165]		1,114,135 (74%)[1]	1,320,401 (87.7%)[166]
Portugal	10,352,042[167]		323,237(4%[129]of 8,080,915[128])	1,089,995[168]
Romania	21,355,849[169]		182,467(1%[129]of 18,246,731[128])	912,337(5%[130]of 18,246,731[128])
Netherlands	16,665,900[170]		133,719(1%[129]of 13,371,980[128])	668,599(5%[130]of 13,371,980[128])
Ivory Coast	21,359,000[171]			566,178 (students)[1]
Australia	21,507,717[172]	117,498[1]	117,498	547,397(117,498 native speakers + 374,571 limited competence speakers + 55,328 students)[1]
Philippines	101,562,305[173]	4,803[1][174]	4,803	500,092[1][175](4,803 native + 461,689 limited competence + 33,600 students)
Sweden	9,555,893[176]	77,912(1%[127]of 7,791,240[128])	77,912(1% of 7,791,240)	467,474(6%[130]of 7,791,240[128])
Belgium	10,918,405[177]		89,395(1%[129]of 8,939,546[128])	446,977(5%[130]of 8,939,546[128])
Benin	10,008,749[178]			412,515 (students)[1]
Senegal	12,853,259			356,000 (students)[1]
Poland	38,092,000		324,137(1%[129]of 32,413,735[128])	324,137(1% of 32,413,735)
Austria	8,205,533		70,098(1%[129]of 7,009,827[128])	280,393(4%[130]of 7,009,827[128])
Belize	430,191[179]	224,130 (52.1%)[180]	224,130 (52.1%)	270,160 (62.8%)[180]
Algeria	33,769,669		175,000[1]	223,000[1]
Switzerland	8,570,146[181]	197,113 (2.3%)[182][183]	197,113	211,533 (14,420 students)[184]
Cameroon	21,599,100[185]			193,018 (students)[1]
Denmark	5,484,723		45,613(1%[129]of 4,561,264[128])	182,450(4%[130]of 4,561,264[128])
Israel	7,112,359		130,000[1]	175,000[1]
Japan	127,288,419	108,000[1]	108,000	168,000 (60,000 students)[186]
Gabon	1,545,255[187]			167,410 (students)[188]
BonaireandCuraçao	223,652	10,006[1]	10,006	150,678[1]
Ireland	4,581,269[189]		35,220(1%[129]of 3,522,000[128])	140,880(4%[130]of 3,522,000[128])
Finland	5,244,749			133,200(3%[130]of 4,440,004[128])
Bulgaria	7,262,675		130,750(2%[129]of 6,537,510[128])	130,750(2%[130]of 6,537,510[128])
Norway	5,165,800	13,000[1]	13,000	129,168(92,168 students)[1]
Czech Republic	10,513,209[190]			90,124(1%[130]of 9,012,443[128])
Russia	146,171,015[191]	3,000[1]	3,000	87,313(84,313 students)[1]
Hungary	9,957,731[192]			83,206(1%[130]of 8,320,614[128])
Aruba	101,484[193]	13,710[1]	75,402[162]	83,064[1]
Trinidad and Tobago	1,317,714[194]	4,000[1]	4,000	70,401[1]
Guam		1,201[1]	1,201	60,582[1]
China	1,411,778,724[195]	5,000[1]	5,000	59,499(54,499 students)[1]
New Zealand		22,000[1]	22,000	58,373(36,373 students)[1]
Slovenia			35,194(2%[129]of 1,759,701[128])	52,791(3%[130]of 1,759,701[128])
India	1,386,745,000[196]	1,000[1]	1,000	50,264(49,264 students)[1]
Andorra	84,484	30,414[1]	30,414	47,271[1]
Slovakia	5,455,407			45,500(1%[130]of 4,549,955[128])
Gibraltar	29,441[197]	22,758 (77.3%[198])
Lithuania	2,972,949[199]			28,297(1%[130]of 2,829,740[128])
Luxembourg	524,853	4,049(1%[127]of 404,907[128])	8,098(2%[129]of 404,907[128])	24,294(6%[130]of 404,907[128])
Western Sahara	513,000[200]	N/A[201]		22,000[1]
Turkey	83,614,362	1,000[1]	1,000	20,346[1](4,346 students)[202]
US Virgin Islands		16,788[1]	16,788	16,788
Latvia	2,209,000[203]			13,943(1%[130]of 1,447,866[128])
Cyprus				2%[130]of 660,400[128]
Estonia				9,457(1%[130]of 945,733[128])
Jamaica	2,711,476[204]	8,000[1]	8,000	8,000
Namibia		666	3,866[205]	3,866
Egypt				3,500 (students)[206]
Malta				3,354(1%[130]of 335,476[128])
Total	7,626,000,000 (total world population)[207]	480,000,000[208][209](6%)	506,650,703[1](6.5%)	595,000,000[1](7.5%)

Most of the grammatical andtypologicalfeatures of Spanish are shared with the otherRomance languages. Spanish is afusional language. Thenounandadjectivesystems exhibit twogendersand twonumbers. In addition, articles and somepronounsanddeterminershave a neuter gender in their singular form. There are about fiftyconjugatedforms perverb, with 3 tenses: past, present, future; 2aspectsfor past:perfective,imperfective; 4moods: indicative, subjunctive, conditional, imperative; 3 persons: first, second, third; 2 numbers: singular, plural; 3verboidforms: infinitive, gerund, and past participle. The indicative mood is theunmarkedone, while the subjunctive moodexpresses uncertainty or indetermination, and is commonly paired with the conditional, which is a mood used to express "would" (as in, "I would eat if I had food"); the imperative is a mood to express a command, commonly a one word phrase – "¡Di!" ("Talk!").

Verbs expressT-V distinctionby using different persons for formal and informal addresses. (For a detailed overview of verbs, seeSpanish verbsandSpanish irregular verbs.)

Spanishsyntaxis consideredright-branching, meaning that subordinate ormodifyingconstituentstend to be placed after head words. The language usesprepositions(rather than postpositions or inflection of nouns forcase), and usually—though not always—placesadjectivesafternouns, as do most other Romance languages.

Spanish is classified as asubject–verb–objectlanguage; however, as in most Romance languages, constituent order is highly variable and governed mainly bytopicalizationandfocusrather than by syntax. It is a "pro-drop", or "null-subject" language—that is, it allows the deletion of subject pronouns when they arepragmaticallyunnecessary. Spanish is described as a "verb-framed" language, meaning that thedirectionof motion is expressed in the verb while themodeof locomotion is expressed adverbially (e.g.subir corriendoorsalir volando; the respective English equivalents of these examples—'to run up' and 'to fly out'—show that English is, by contrast, "satellite-framed", with mode of locomotion expressed in the verb and direction in an adverbial modifier).

The Spanish phonological system evolved from that ofVulgar Latin. Its development exhibits some traits in common with otherWestern Romance languages, others with the neighboring Hispanic varieties—especiallyLeoneseandAragonese—as well as other features unique to Spanish. Spanish is alone among its immediate neighbors in having undergone frequent aspiration and eventual loss of the Latin initial/f/sound (e.g. Cast.harinavs. Leon. and Arag.farina).^[210]The Latin initial consonant sequencespl-,cl-, andfl-in Spanish typically merge asll-(originally pronounced[ʎ]), while in Aragonese they are preserved in most dialects, and in Leonese they present a variety of outcomes, including[tʃ],[ʃ], and[ʎ]. Where Latin had-li-before a vowel (e.g.filius) or the ending-iculus,-icula(e.g.auricula), Old Spanish produced[ʒ], that in Modern Spanish became the velar fricative[x](hijo,oreja), whereas neighboring languages have the palatal lateral[ʎ](e.g. Portuguesefilho,orelha; Catalanfill,orella).

The Spanishphonemicinventory consists of five vowel phonemes (/a/,/e/,/i/,/o/,/u/) and 17 to 19 consonant phonemes (the exact number depending on the dialect^[211]). The mainallophonicvariation among vowels is the reduction of the high vowels/i/and/u/to glides—[j]and[w]respectively—when unstressed and adjacent to another vowel. Some instances of the mid vowels/e/and/o/, determined lexically, alternate with the diphthongs/je/and/we/respectively when stressed, in a process that is better described asmorphophonemicrather than phonological, as it is not predictable from phonology alone.

The Spanish consonant system is characterized by (1) threenasalphonemes, and one or two (depending on the dialect)lateralphoneme(s), which in syllable-final positionlose their contrastand are subject toassimilationto a following consonant; (2) threevoicelessstopsand theaffricate/tʃ/; (3) three or four (depending on the dialect)voicelessfricatives; (4) a set of voicedobstruents—/b/,/d/,/ɡ/, and sometimes/ʝ/—which alternate betweenapproximantandplosiveallophones depending on the environment; and (5) a phonemic distinction between the "tapped" and "trilled"r-sounds (single⟨r⟩and double⟨rr⟩in orthography).

In the following table of consonant phonemes,/ʎ/is marked with an asterisk (*) to indicate that it is preserved only in some dialects. In most dialects it has been merged with/ʝ/in the merger calledyeísmo. Similarly,/θ/is also marked with an asterisk to indicate that most dialects do not distinguish it from/s/(seeseseo), although this is not a true merger but an outcome of different evolution of sibilants in Southern Spain.

The phoneme/ʃ/is in parentheses () to indicate that it appears only inloanwords. Each of the voiced obstruent phonemes/b/,/d/,/ʝ/, and/ɡ/appears to the right of apairof voiceless phonemes, to indicate that, while thevoicelessphonemes maintain a phonemic contrast between plosive (or affricate) and fricative, thevoicedones alternateallophonically(i.e. without phonemic contrast) between plosive and approximant pronunciations.

Consonant phonemes ^[212]

	Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar
Nasal		m				n		ɲ
Stop	p	b	t	d			tʃ	ʝ	k	ɡ
Continuant	f		θ*		s		(ʃ)		x
Lateral						l		ʎ*
Flap						ɾ
Trill						r

Spanish is classified by itsrhythmas asyllable-timed language: each syllable has approximately the same duration regardless of stress.^[213][214]

Spanishintonationvaries significantly according to dialect but generally conforms to a pattern of falling tone for declarative sentences and wh-questions (who, what, why, etc.) and rising tone foryes/no questions.^[215][216]There are no syntactic markers to distinguish between questions and statements and thus, the recognition of declarative or interrogative depends entirely on intonation.

Stress most often occurs on any of the last three syllables of a word, with some rare exceptions at the fourth-to-last or earlier syllables. Stress tends to occur as follows:^{[217][better source needed]}

• in words that end with amonophthong, on the penultimate syllable
• when the word ends in adiphthong, on the final syllable.
• in words that end with a consonant, on the last syllable, with the exception of two grammatical endings:-n, for third-person-plural of verbs, and-s, for plural of nouns and adjectives or for second-person-singular of verbs. However, even though a significant number of nouns and adjectives ending with-nare also stressed on the penult (joven,virgen,mitin), the great majority of nouns and adjectives ending with-nare stressed on their last syllable (capitán,almacén,jardín,corazón).
• Preantepenultimate stress (stress on the fourth-to-last syllable) occurs rarely, only on verbs withcliticpronouns attached (e.g.guardándoselos'saving them for him/her/them/you').

In addition to the many exceptions to these tendencies, there are numerousminimal pairsthat contrast solely on stress such assábana('sheet') andsabana('savannah');límite('boundary'),limite('he/she limits') andlimité('I limited');líquido('liquid'),liquido('I sell off') andliquidó('he/she sold off').

The orthographic system unambiguously reflects where the stress occurs: in the absence of an accent mark, the stress falls on the last syllable unless the last letter is⟨n⟩,⟨s⟩, or a vowel, in which cases the stress falls on the next-to-last (penultimate) syllable. Exceptions to those rules are indicated by an acute accent mark over the vowel of the stressed syllable. (SeeSpanish orthography.)

Spanish is the official, or national language in18 countries and one territory in the Americas,Spain, andEquatorial Guinea. With a population of over 410 million,Hispanophone Americaaccounts for the vast majority of Spanish speakers, of whichMexicois the most populous Spanish-speaking country. In theEuropean Union, Spanish is themother tongueof 8% of the population, with an additional 7% speaking it as a second language.^[218]Additionally, Spanish is the second most spoken language in theUnited Statesand is by far the most popular foreign language among students.^[219]In 2015, it was estimated that over 50 million Americans spoke Spanish, about 41 million of whom were native speakers.^[220]With continued immigration and increased use of the language domestically in public spheres and media, the number of Spanish speakers in the United States is expected to continue growing over the forthcoming decades.^[221]

While being mutually intelligible, there are important variations (phonological,grammatical, andlexical) in the spoken Spanish of the various regions of Spain and throughout the Spanish-speaking areas of the Americas.

The national variety with the most speakers isMexican Spanish. It is spoken by more than twenty percent of the world's Spanish speakers (more than 112 million of the total of more than 500 million, according to the table above). One of its main features is thereductionor loss ofunstressed vowels, mainly when they are in contact with the sound /s/.^[222][223]

In Spain, northern dialects are popularly thought of as closer to the standard, although positive attitudes toward southern dialects have increased significantly in the last 50 years. The speech from the educated classes of Madrid is the standard variety for use on radio and television in Spain and it is indicated by many as the one that has most influenced the written standard for Spanish.^[224]Central (European) Spanish speech patterns have been noted to be in the process of merging with more innovative southern varieties (including Eastern Andalusian and Murcian), as an emerging interdialectal levelledkoinebuffered between the Madrid's traditional national standard and the Seville speech trends.^[225]

The four main phonological divisions are based respectively on (1) the phoneme/θ/, (2) thedebuccalizationof syllable-final/s/, (3) the sound of the spelled⟨s⟩, (4) and the phoneme/ʎ/.

• The phoneme/θ/(spelledcbeforeeoriand spelled⟨z⟩elsewhere), avoiceless dental fricativeas in Englishthing, is maintained by a majority of Spain's population, especially in the northern and central parts of the country. In other areas (some parts of southern Spain, theCanary Islands, and the Americas),/θ/does not exist and/s/occurs instead. The maintenance of phonemic contrast is calleddistinciónin Spanish, while the merger is generally calledseseo(in reference to the usual realization of the merged phoneme as[s]) or, occasionally,ceceo(referring to its interdental realization,[θ], in some parts of southern Spain). In most of Hispanic America, the spelled⟨c⟩before⟨e⟩or⟨i⟩, and spelled⟨z⟩is always pronounced as avoiceless dental sibilant.
• The debuccalization (pronunciation as[h], or loss) of syllable-final/s/is associated with the southern half of Spain and lowland Americas: Central America (except central Costa Rica and Guatemala), the Caribbean, coastal areas of southern Mexico, and South America except Andean highlands. Debuccalization is frequently called "aspiration" in English, andaspiraciónin Spanish. When there is no debuccalization, the syllable-final/s/is pronounced asvoiceless "apico-alveolar" sibilantor as avoiceless dental sibilantin the same fashion as in the next paragraph.
• The sound that corresponds to the letter⟨s⟩is pronounced in northern and central Spain as avoiceless "apico-alveolar" sibilant[s̺](also described acoustically as "grave" and articulatorily as "retracted"), with a weak "hushing" sound reminiscent ofretroflexfricatives. InAndalusia,Canary Islandsand most of Hispanic America (except in thePaisa regionof Colombia) it is pronounced as avoiceless dental sibilant[s], much like the most frequent pronunciation of the /s/ of English.
• The phoneme/ʎ/, spelled⟨ll⟩, apalatal lateralconsonant that can be approximated by the sound of the⟨lli⟩of Englishmillion, tends to be maintained in less-urbanized areas of northern Spain and in thehighland areas of South America, as well as inParaguayandlowland Bolivia. Meanwhile, in the speech of most other Spanish speakers, it is merged with/ʝ/("curly-tailj"), a non-lateral, usually voiced, usually fricative, palatal consonant, sometimes compared to English/j/(yod) as inyachtand spelled⟨y⟩in Spanish. As with other forms of allophony across world languages, the small difference of the spelled⟨ll⟩and the spelled⟨y⟩is usually not perceived (the difference is not heard) by people who do not produce them as different phonemes. Such a phonemic merger is calledyeísmoin Spanish. InRioplatense Spanish, the merged phoneme is generally pronounced as a postalveolar fricative, either voiced[ʒ](as in Englishmeasureor the French⟨j⟩) in the central and western parts of the dialectal region (zheísmo), or voiceless[ʃ](as in the French⟨ch⟩or Portuguese⟨x⟩) in and around Buenos Aires and Montevideo (sheísmo).^[226]

The mainmorphologicalvariations between dialects of Spanish involve differing uses of pronouns, especially those of the secondpersonand, to a lesser extent, theobject pronounsof the thirdperson.

Virtually all dialects of Spanish make thedistinctionbetween a formal and a familiarregisterin thesecond-personsingularand thus have two differentpronounsmeaning "you":ustedin the formal and eithertúorvosin the familiar (and each of these three pronouns has its associated verb forms), with the choice oftúorvosvarying from one dialect to another. The use ofvosand its verb forms is calledvoseo. In a few dialects, all three pronouns are used, withusted,tú, andvosdenoting respectively formality, familiarity, and intimacy.^[227]

Invoseo,vosis thesubjectform (vos decís, "you say") and the form for the object of apreposition(voy con vos, "I am going with you"), while the direct and indirectobjectforms, and thepossessives, are the same as those associated withtú:Vos sabés que tus amigos te respetan("You know your friends respect you").

The verb forms of the generalvoseoare the same as those used withtúexcept in the presenttense(indicativeandimperative) verbs. The forms forvosgenerally can be derived from those ofvosotros(the traditional second-person familiarplural) by deleting theglide[i̯], or/d/, where it appears in the ending:vosotros pensáis>vos pensás;vosotros volvéis>vos volvés,pensad!(vosotros) >pensá!(vos),volved!(vosotros) >volvé!(vos).^[228]

General voseo (River Plate Spanish)

Indicative					Subjunctive		Imperative
Present	Simple past	Imperfect past	Future	Conditional	Present	Past
pensás	pensaste	pensabas	pensarás	pensarías	pienses	pensaras pensases	pensá
volvés	volviste	volvías	volverás	volverías	vuelvas	volvieras volvieses	volvé
dormís	dormiste	dormías	dormirás	dormirías	duermas	durmieras durmieses	dormí
The forms inboldcoincide with standardtú-conjugation.

In Central Americanvoseo, thetúandvosforms differ in the present subjunctive as well:

Central American voseo

Indicative					Subjunctive		Imperative
Present	Simple past	Imperfect past	Future	Conditional	Present	Past
pensás	pensaste	pensabas	pensarás	pensarías	pensés	pensaras pensases	pensá
volvés	volviste	volvías	volverás	volverías	volvás	volvieras volvieses	volvé
dormís	dormiste	dormías	dormirás	dormirías	durmás	durmieras durmieses	dormí
The forms inboldcoincide with standardtú-conjugation.

In Chileanvoseo, almost allvosforms are distinct from the corresponding standardtú-forms.

Chilean voseo

Indicative					Subjunctive		Imperative
Present	Simple past	Imperfect past	Future[229]	Conditional	Present	Past
pensái(s)	pensaste	pensabais	pensarí(s) pensaráis	pensaríai(s)	pensí(s)	pensarai(s) pensases	piensa
volví(s)	volviste	volvíai(s)	volverí(s) volveráis	volveríai(s)	volvái(s)	volvierai(s) volvieses	vuelve
dormís	dormiste	dormíais	dormirís dormiráis	dormiríais	durmáis	durmierais durmieses	duerme
The forms inboldcoincide with standardtú-conjugation.

The use of the pronounvoswith the verb forms oftú(vos piensas) is called "pronominalvoseo". Conversely, the use of the verb forms ofvoswith the pronountú(tú pensásortú pensái) is called "verbalvoseo". In Chile, for example, verbalvoseois much more common than the actual use of the pronounvos, which is usually reserved for highly informal situations.

Althoughvosis not used in Spain, it occurs in many Spanish-speaking regions of the Americas as the primary spoken form of the second-person singular familiar pronoun, with wide differences in social consideration.^{[230][better source needed]}Generally, it can be said that there are zones of exclusive use oftuteo(the use oftú) in the following areas: almost all ofMexico, theWest Indies,Panama, most ofColombia,Peru,Venezuelaand coastalEcuador.

Tuteoas a cultured form alternates withvoseoas a popular or rural form inBolivia, in the north and south of Peru, in Andean Ecuador, in small zones of the Venezuelan Andes (and most notably in the Venezuelan state ofZulia), and in a large part of Colombia. Some researchers maintain thatvoseocan be heard in some parts of eastern Cuba, and others assert that it is absent from the island.^[231]

Tuteoexists as the second-person usage with an intermediate degree of formality alongside the more familiarvoseoinChile, in the Venezuelan state ofZulia, on the Caribbean coast ofColombia, in theAzuero Peninsulain Panama, in the Mexican state ofChiapas, and in parts of Guatemala.

Areas of generalizedvoseoincludeArgentina,Nicaragua, easternBolivia,El Salvador,Guatemala,Honduras,Costa Rica,Paraguay,Uruguayand the Colombian departments ofAntioquia,Caldas,Risaralda,QuindioandValle del Cauca.^[227]

Ustedesfunctions as formal and informal second-person plural in all of Hispanic America, theCanary Islands, and parts ofAndalusia. It agrees with verbs in the 3rd person plural. Most of Spain maintains theformal/familiar distinctionwithustedesandvosotrosrespectively. The use ofustedeswith the second person plural is sometimes heard in Andalusia, but it is non-standard.

Ustedis the usual second-person singular pronoun in a formal context, but it is used jointly with the third-person singular voice of the verb. It is used to convey respect toward someone who is a generation older or is of higher authority ("you, sir"/"you, ma'am"). It is also used in afamiliarcontext by many speakers in Colombia and Costa Rica and in parts of Ecuador and Panama, to the exclusion oftúorvos. This usage is sometimes calledustedeoin Spanish.

In Central America, especially in Honduras,ustedis often used as a formal pronoun to convey respect between the members of a romantic couple.Ustedis also used that way between parents and children in the Andean regions of Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

Most speakers use (and theReal Academia Españolaprefers) the pronounsloandlafordirectobjects(masculine and feminine respectively, regardless ofanimacy, meaning "him", "her", or "it"), andleforindirectobjects(regardless ofgenderoranimacy, meaning "to him", "to her", or "to it"). The usage is sometimes called "etymological", as these direct and indirect object pronouns are a continuation, respectively, of theaccusativeanddativepronouns of Latin, the ancestor language of Spanish.

Deviations from this norm (more common in Spain than in the Americas) are called "leísmo", "loísmo", or "laísmo", according to which respective pronoun,le,lo, orla, has expanded beyond the etymological usage (leas a direct object, orloorlaas an indirect object).

Some words can be significantly different 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 recognize specifically American usages. For example, Spanishmantequilla,aguacateandalbaricoque(respectively, 'butter', 'avocado', 'apricot') correspond tomanteca(word used forlardinPeninsular Spanish),palta, anddamasco, respectively, in Argentina, Chile (exceptmanteca), Paraguay, Peru (exceptmantecaanddamasco), and Uruguay. In the healthcare context, an assessment of the Spanish translation of theQWB-SAidentified some regional vocabulary choices and US-specific concepts, which cannot be successfully implemented in Spain without adaptation.^[232]

Around 85% of everyday Spanish vocabulary is ofLatin origin. Most of the core vocabulary and the most common words in Spanish comes from Latin. The Spanish words first learned by children as they learn to speak are mainly words of Latin origin. These words of Latin origin can be classified as heritage words, cultisms and semi-cultisms.

Most of the Spanish lexicon is made up of heritage lexicon. Heritage or directly inherited words are those whose presence in the spoken language has been continued since before the differentiation of theRomance languages. Heritage words are characterized by having undergone all the phonetic changes experienced by the language. This differentiates it from the cultisms and semi-cultisms that were no longer used in the spoken language and were later reintroduced for restricted uses. Because of this, cultisms generally have not experienced some of the phonetic changes and present a different form than they would have if they had been transmitted with heritage words.

In the philological tradition of Spanish, cultism is called a word whose morphology very strictly follows its Greek or Latin etymological origin, without undergoing the changes that the evolution of the Spanish language followed from its origin inVulgar Latin. The same concept also exists in other Romance languages. Reintroduced into the language for cultural, literary or scientific considerations, cultism only adapts its form to the orthographic and phonological conventions derived from linguistic evolution, but ignores the transformations that the roots and morphemes underwent in the development of the Romance language.

In some cases, cultisms are used to introduce technical or specialized terminology that, present in the classical language, did not appear in the Romance language due to lack of use; This is the case of many of the literary, legal and philosophical terms of classical culture, such asataraxia(from the Greek ἀταραξία, "dispassion") orlegislar(built from the Latinlegislator). In other cases, they construct neologisms, such as the name of most scientific disciplines.

A semi-cultism is a word that did not evolve in the expected way, in the vernacular language (Romance language), unlike heritage words; its evolution is incomplete. Many times interrupted by cultural influences (ecclesiastical, legal, administrative, etc.). For the same reason, they maintain some features of the language of origin.Diosis a clear example of semi-cultism, where it came from the LatinDeus. It is a semi-cultism, because it maintains (without fully adapting to Castilianization, in this case) some characteristics of the Latin language—the ending in -s—, but, at the same time, it undergoes slight phonetic modifications (change of eu for io).Deus>Dios(instead of remaining cultist:Deus>*Deus, or becoming a heritage word:Deus>*Dío). TheCatholic Churchinfluenced by stopping the natural evolution of this word, and, in this way, converted this word into a semi-cultism and unconsciously prevented it from becoming a heritage word.

Spanish vocabulary has been influenced by several languages. As in other European languages,Classical Greekwords (Hellenisms) are abundant in the terminologies of several fields, includingart,science,politics,nature, etc.^[233]Its vocabulary has also beeninfluenced by Arabic, having developed during theAl-Andalusera in theIberian Peninsula, with around 8% of its vocabulary havingArabiclexical roots.^{[234][235][236][237]}It has also been influenced byBasque,Iberian,Celtiberian,Visigothic, and other neighboring Ibero-Romance languages.^[238][237]Additionally, it has absorbed vocabulary from other languages, particularly other Romance languages such asFrench,Mozarabic,Portuguese,Galician,Catalan,Occitan, andSardinian, as well as fromQuechua,Nahuatl, andother indigenous languages of the Americas.^[239]In the 18th century, words taken from French referring above all to fashion, cooking and bureaucracy were added to the Spanish lexicon. In the 19th century, new loanwords were incorporated, especially from English and German, but also from Italian in areas related to music, particularly opera and cooking. In the 20th century, the pressure of English in the fields of technology, computing, science and sports was greatly accentuated.

In general,Latin Americais more susceptible to loanwords from English or Anglicisms. For example:mouse(computer mouse) is used in Latin America, in Spainratónis used. This happens largely due to closer contact with theUnited States. For its part,Spainis known by the use of Gallicisms or words taken from neighboringFrance(such as the Gallicismordenadorin the European Spanish, in contrast to the Anglicismcomputadororcomputadorain American Spanish).

Spanish is closely related to the otherWest Iberian Romance languages, includingAsturian,Aragonese,Galician,Ladino,Leonese,MirandeseandPortuguese. It is somewhat less similar, to varying degrees, from other members of theRomance languagefamily.

It is generally acknowledged that Portuguese and Spanish speakers can communicate in written form, with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility.^{[240][241][242][243]}Mutual intelligibilityof thewrittenSpanish and Portuguese languages is high, lexically and grammatically.Ethnologuegives estimates of thelexical similaritybetween related languages in terms of precise percentages. For Spanish and Portuguese, that figure is 89%, although phonologically the two languages are quite dissimilar. Italian on the other hand, is phonologically similar to Spanish, while sharing lower lexical and grammatical similarity of 82%. Mutual intelligibility between Spanish andFrenchor between Spanish andRomanianis lower still, given lexical similarity ratings of 75% and 71% respectively.^[244][245]Comprehension of Spanish by French speakers who have not studied the language is much lower, at an estimated 45%. In general, thanks to the common features of the writing systems of the Romance languages, interlingual comprehension of the written word is greater than that of oral communication.

The following table compares the forms of some common words in several Romance languages:

1. In Romance etymology, Latin terms are given in the Accusative since most forms derive from this case.
2. As in "us very selves", an emphatic expression.
3. Alsonós outrosin early modern Portuguese (e.g.The Lusiads), andnosoutrosin Galician.
4. Alternativelynous autresinFrench.
5.noialtriin many SouthernItalian dialects and languages.
6. Medieval Catalan (e.g.Llibre dels fets).
7. Modified with the learned suffix-ción.
8. Depending on the written norm used (seeReintegrationism).
9. FromBasqueesku, "hand" +erdi, "half, incomplete". This negative meaning also applies for Latinsinistra(m)("dark, unfortunate").
10. Romaniancaș(from Latincāsevs) means a type of cheese. The universal term for cheese in Romanian isbrânză(from unknown etymology).^[246]

Judaeo-Spanish, also known as Ladino,^[247]is a variety of Spanish which preserves many features of medieval Spanish and some old Portuguese and is spoken by descendants of theSephardi Jewswho wereexpelled from Spain in the 15th century.^[247]While in Portugal the conversion of Jews occurred earlier and the assimilation ofNew Christianswas overwhelming, in Spain the Jews kept their language and identity. The relationship of Ladino and Spanish is therefore comparable with that of theYiddish languagetoGerman. Ladino speakers today are almost exclusivelySephardiJews, with family roots in Turkey, Greece, or the Balkans, and living mostly in Israel, Turkey, and the United States, with a few communities in Hispanic America.^[247]Judaeo-Spanish lacks theNative American vocabularywhich was acquired by standard Spanish during theSpanish 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 Spanish, including vocabulary fromHebrew, French, Greek andTurkish, 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 elderlyolim(immigrants toIsrael) 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 Latin American communities, the danger of extinction is also due to assimilation by modern Spanish.

A related dialect isHaketia, the Judaeo-Spanish of northernMorocco. This too, tended to assimilate with modern Spanish, during the Spanish occupation of the region.

Spanish language
A manuscript of the Cantar de mio Cid, 13th century
Overview
Pronunciation stress Orthography Names
History
Old Middle Influences
Grammar
Determiners Nouns gender Pronouns personal object Adjectives Prepositions Verbs conjugation irregular verbs
Dialects
Andalusian Andean Argentine Belizean Bolivian Canarian Caribbean Central American Chilean Colombian Costa Rican Cuban Dominican Ecuadorian Equatoguinean Guatemalan Honduran Mexican Murcian New Mexican Nicaraguan Paraguay Panamanian Peninsular Peruvian Philippine status Puerto Rican Rioplatense Saharan Salvadoran Standard Uruguayan Venezuelan
Dialectology
Seseo Yeísmo Voseo Leísmo Loísmo
Interlanguages
Llanito Jopara Judaeo-Spanish Portuñol Spanglish Castrapo Creoles Roquetas Pidgin Chavacano or Chabacano Palenquero or Palenque
Teaching
Hispanism RAE Instituto Cervantes
v t e

Spanish is written in theLatin script, with the addition of the character⟨ñ⟩(eñe, representing the phoneme/ɲ/, a letter distinct from⟨n⟩, although typographically composed of an⟨n⟩with atilde). Formerly thedigraphs⟨ch⟩(che, representing the phoneme/t͡ʃ/) and⟨ll⟩(elle, representing the phoneme/ʎ/or/ʝ/), were also considered single letters. However, the digraph⟨rr⟩(erre fuerte, 'strong r',erre doble, 'double r', or simplyerre), which also represents a distinct phoneme/r/, was not similarly regarded as a single letter. Since 1994⟨ch⟩and⟨ll⟩have been treated as letter pairs forcollationpurposes, though they remained a part of the alphabet until 2010. Words with⟨ch⟩are now alphabetically sorted between those with⟨cg⟩and⟨ci⟩, instead of following⟨cz⟩as they used to. The situation is similar for⟨ll⟩.^[248][249]

Thus, the Spanish alphabet has the following 27 letters:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, Ñ, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.

Since 2010, none of the digraphs (ch, ll, rr, gu, qu) are considered letters by the Royal Spanish Academy.^[250]

The letterskandware used only in words and names coming from foreign languages (kilo, folklore, whisky, kiwi, etc.).

With the exclusion of a very small number of regional terms such asMéxico(seeToponymy of Mexico), pronunciation can be entirely determined from spelling. Under the orthographic conventions, a typical Spanish word is stressed on thesyllablebefore the last if it ends with a vowel (not including⟨y⟩) or with a vowel followed by⟨n⟩or an⟨s⟩; it is stressed on the last syllable otherwise. Exceptions to this rule are indicated by placing anacute accenton thestressed vowel.

The acute accent is used, in addition, to distinguish between certainhomophones, especially when one of them is a stressed word and the other one is aclitic: compareel('the', masculine singular definite article) withél('he' or 'it'), orte('you', object pronoun) withté('tea'),de(preposition 'of') versusdé('give' [formal imperative/third-person present subjunctive]), andse(reflexive pronoun) versussé('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. Accent marks used to be omitted on capital letters (a widespread practice in the days oftypewritersand the early days of computers when only lowercase vowels were available with accents), although theReal Academia Españolaadvises against this and the orthographic conventions taught at schools enforce the use of the accent.

Whenuis written betweengand a front voweleori, it indicates a "hard g" pronunciation. Adiaeresisüindicates 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 withinverted question and exclamation marks(¿and¡, respectively) and closed by the usual question and exclamation marks.

The Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española), founded in 1713,^[251]together with the 21 other national ones (seeAssociation of Spanish Language Academies), exercises a standardizing influence through its publication of dictionaries and widely respected grammar and style guides.^[252]Because of 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.

The Association of Spanish Language Academies (Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española, orASALE) is the entity which regulates the Spanish language. It was created in Mexico in 1951 and represents the union of all the separate academies in the Spanish-speaking world. It comprises the academies of 23 countries, ordered by date of academy foundation:Spain(1713),^[254]Colombia(1871),^[255]Ecuador(1874),^[256]Mexico(1875),^[257]El Salvador(1876),^[258]Venezuela(1883),^[259]Chile(1885),^[260]Peru(1887),^[261]Guatemala(1887),^[262]Costa Rica(1923),^[263]Philippines(1924),^[264]Panama(1926),^[265]Cuba(1926),^[266]Paraguay(1927),^[267]Dominican Republic(1927),^[268]Bolivia(1927),^[269]Nicaragua(1928),^[270]Argentina(1931),^[271]Uruguay(1943),^[272]Honduras(1949),^[273]Puerto Rico(1955),^[274]United States(1973)^[275]andEquatorial Guinea(2016).^[276]

TheInstituto Cervantes('Cervantes Institute') is a worldwide nonprofit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991. This organization has branches in 45 countries, with 88 centers devoted to the Spanish and Hispanic American cultures and Spanish language.^[277]The goals of the Institute are to promote universally the education, the study, and the use of Spanish as a second language, to support methods and activities that help the process of Spanish-language education, and to contribute to the advancement of the Spanish and Hispanic American cultures in non-Spanish-speaking countries. The institute's 2015 report "El español, una lengua viva" (Spanish, a living language) estimated that there were 559 million Spanish speakers worldwide. Its latest annual report "El español en el mundo 2018" (Spanish in the world 2018) counts 577 million Spanish speakers worldwide. Among the sources cited in the report is theU.S. Census Bureau, which estimates that the U.S. will have 138 million Spanish speakers by 2050, making it the biggest Spanish-speaking nation on earth, with Spanish the mother tongue of almost a third of its citizens.^[278]

Spanish is one of the official languages of theUnited Nations, theEuropean Union, theWorld Trade Organization, theOrganization of American States, theOrganization of Ibero-American States, theAfrican Union, theUnion of South American Nations, theAntarctic Treaty Secretariat, theLatin Union, theCaricom, theNorth American Free Trade Agreement, theInter-American Development Bank, and numerous other international organizations.

Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rightsin Spanish:

Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales en dignidad y derechos y, dotados como están de razón y conciencia, deben comportarse fraternalmente los unos con los otros. ^[279]

Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rightsin English:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. ^[280]

Organizations

• Real Academia Española (RAE), Royal Spanish Academy. Spain's official institution, with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language
• Instituto Cervantes, Cervantes Institute. A Spanish government agency, responsible for promoting the study and the teaching of the Spanish language and culture.
• FundéuRAE, Foundation of Emerging Spanish. A non-profit organization with collaboration of the RAE which mission is to clarify doubts and ambiguities of Spanish.

Educational websites

• ProfeDeEle, Exercises targeted toward Spanish language teachers (ELE)
• AprenderEspanol, Spanish activities and material