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The incorporation into Spanish of learned, or "bookish" words from its own ancestor language, Latin, is arguably another form of lexical borrowing through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the early modern period, most literate Spanish-speakers were also literate in ...
Spanish is the primary language in 20 countries worldwide. As of 2023, it is estimated that about 486 million people speak Spanish as a native language, making it the second most spoken language by number of native speakers. [30]
In all these countries, Latin American Spanish is the vernacular language of the majority of the population, giving Spanish the most native speakers of any Romance language. In Africa it is one of the official languages of Equatorial Guinea. Spanish was one of the official languages in the Philippines in Southeast Asia until 1973.
The Romance languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, comprise all languages that descended from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. The Romance languages have more than 900 million native speakers worldwide, mainly in the Americas , Europe , and Africa , as well as in many smaller regions scattered through the world.
The term is usually used to refer to Spanish-and Portuguese-speaking countries, namely Hispanic America and Brazil. Latin Americans are called latinoamericanos and latino-americanos in Spanish and Portuguese, respectively; the shortening of this term resulted in the name for Latinos, [19] who are themselves sometimes just called "Latin". [20 ...
Pre-Roman languages of Iberia circa 300 BC. The following languages were spoken in the Iberian Peninsula before the Roman occupation and the spread of the Latin language. Aquitanian (probably closely related to or the same as Proto-Basque) Proto-Basque; Iberian; Tartessian; Indo-European languages. Celtic languages. Celtiberian; Gallaecian
Old Spanish (roman, romançe, romaz; [3] Spanish: español medieval), also known as Old Castilian or Medieval Spanish, refers to the varieties of Ibero-Romance spoken predominantly in Castile and environs during the Middle Ages. The earliest, longest, and most famous literary composition in Old Spanish is the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140–1207).
Spaniards, [a] or Spanish people, are a people native to Spain.Within Spain, there are a number of national and regional ethnic identities that reflect the country's complex history, including a number of different languages, both indigenous and local linguistic descendants of the Roman-imposed Latin language, of which Spanish is the largest and the only one that is official throughout the ...