Spanish language is the official language of Spain and of most Latin American countries. It is also an official language of Equatorial Guinea, in Africa, and of Puerto Rico, a United States territory. More than 400 million people worldwide speak Spanish, the most popular Romance language . Of those people, about 40 million Spanish speakers live in the United States.
The Spanish spoken in Spain often is called Castilian Spanish. The Spanish used in Latin America is known as American Spanish. Castilian Spanish and American Spanish are basically the same but have a few differences in pronunciation and vocabulary.
Many English words come from Spanish. They include alfalfa, alligator, armada, cargo, cork, lariat, lasso, mosquito, potato, ranch, rodeo, tobacco, tomato, tornado, and vanilla. Some states and many U.S. cities have Spanish names. Among them are California, Florida, Nevada, Los Angeles, San Antonio, and San Francisco.
Spanish pronunciation
Spanish is one of the most phonetic of all languages. That is, its pronunciation follows its spelling closely. See Phonetics (Phonetics and spelling) .
Vowels.
Spanish has only five basic vowel sounds. These sounds are represented by the letters a, e, i or y, o, and u. The following list gives the approximate English sound for each Spanish vowel:
a = the a in father; e = the e in they; i or y = the i in machine; o = the o in owe; u = the oo in moon.
Consonants.
Spanish has four consonant sounds not found in English. They are ch, ll, ñ, and rr. Their pronunciation corresponds roughly to the English pronunciation of ch in church; lli in million; ny in canyon; and a trilled (rolled) r, a sound that does not exist in American English. People who speak American Spanish pronounce the consonants c (when it is followed by e or i) and z as English-speaking persons pronounce the s in sink. People who speak Castilian Spanish pronounce them like the th in think. The letter h is not pronounced in Spanish. The consonants b and v are generally pronounced like a b.
Spanish grammar
Nouns and adjectives.
All Spanish nouns are either masculine or feminine. Most nouns that name male human beings or male animals, or that end in –o, -l, or –r, are masculine. Most nouns that name female human beings or female animals, or that end in –a, -d, or –ión, are feminine. For example, padre (father), libro (book), papel (paper), and calor (heat) are masculine. Madre (mother), pluma (pen), felicidad (happiness), and revolución (revolution) are feminine. Plurals of nouns and adjectives are formed by adding –s to those that end in vowels and –es to those ending in consonants.
Adjectives must agree in gender (masculine or feminine) and in number (singular or plural) with the nouns they modify. Thus, many adjectives have four forms. Sombrero pequeño means small hat, casa pequeña means small house, sombreros pequeños means small hats, and casas pequeñas means small houses.
Verbs.
Spanish has 15 commonly used tenses, 8 simple and 7 perfect, or compound (see Tense ). The simple tenses are formed by adding endings to the stem of the verb or to the infinitive. The perfect tenses are formed by using the appropriate simple tense of haber (to have) followed by a past participle of the verb.
Spanish verbs are classified according to the endings of their infinitives. They fall into three groups: –ar verbs, such as andar (to walk); –er verbs, such as correr (to run); and –ir verbs, such as vivir (to live).
Word order
in Spanish is similar to that of English. Two exceptions are the positions of object pronouns and descriptive adjectives in Spanish sentences. Object pronouns usually come before the verb in Spanish. In the English sentence She greeted us, the verb (greeted) comes before the object pronoun (us). In Spanish, this sentence becomes Ella nos saludó (She us greeted). Descriptive adjectives in Spanish usually follow the nouns they modify. In the English sentence We live in a white house, the descriptive adjective (white) comes before the noun (house). In Spanish, this sentence becomes Vivimos en una casa blanca (We live in a house white).
A Spanish sentence is made negative by placing no before the verb. An interrogative sentence (one which asks a question) is formed by placing the subject after the verb. A Spanish interrogative sentence has an inverted question mark before the first word, and a regular question mark after the last word. This construction enables readers to recognize an interrogative sentence as soon as they begin reading it.
Development
Beginnings.
The Spanish language developed from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. During the 200’s and 100’s B.C., Roman armies conquered the Iberian Peninsula (present-day Spain and Portugal). The Iberians gradually adopted their conquerors’ language, vulgar (common) Latin.
In the early 400’s, Germanic tribes, called Goths, invaded the Iberian Peninsula. The Goths controlled the peninsula until 711, but they had little influence on the language. In 711, the Arabic-speaking Moors conquered all but a small part of the peninsula. They ruled most of the region until the mid-1200’s. The Moors added about 700 Arabic words to vulgar Latin. But the language changed little in sound and structure.
Castilian Spanish.
Spanish began to emerge as an independent language from Latin in the period from 950 to 1000. Like other languages, Spanish developed several dialects. During the 1200’s, the Spanish province of Castile became an important literary, military, and political center. The influence of Castile spread, and the Castilian dialect was soon the accepted form of Spanish in most parts of the Iberian Peninsula.
Two other dialects became separate languages during this period. The Galician-Portuguese dialect developed in the western part of the Iberian Peninsula. This dialect was the basis of Portuguese, which began in the late 1100’s (see Portuguese language ). The Catalan dialect survived in northeastern Spain and grew into the Catalan language.
American Spanish
developed in what is now Latin America as Spanish colonists, conquerors, and missionaries began settling there in the 1500’s. Spanish to a large extent replaced many of the indigenous (native) languages that were spoken in Latin America, including those of the Aztec, Inca, and Maya.
See also Spain (Language) ; Spanish literature .
