Spanish language facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Spanish |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| español castellano |
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| Region | Spain and Latin America (see below) | |||
| Native speakers | 427 million (2016) +80 million as a second language 500 million total |
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| Language family | ||||
| Early forms: |
Old Spanish
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| Writing system | Latin (Spanish alphabet) Spanish Braille |
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| Official status | ||||
| Official language in |
22 countries
Legally:
 ItalyInternational organisations:
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| Regulated by | Association of Spanish Language Academies (Real Academia Española and 21 other national Spanish language academies) |
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| Linguasphere | 51-AAA-b | |||
Countries where Spanish has official status.
Countries and U.S. states where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 25% or more of the population. Countries and U.S. states where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 10–20% of the population. Countries and U.S. states where Spanish has no official status but is spoken by 5–9.9% of the population. |
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Spanish, also known as Castilian, is a language that came from Latin. It's called a Romance language. Spanish is the most spoken Romance language around the world. As of November 2015, more than 360 million people spoke Spanish as their first language.
Contents
Where Spanish is Spoken
Many people around the world speak Spanish today. This is partly because Spain explored and settled in many different parts of the world. They created new countries and governments. Countries where Spanish is an official language are called Hispanic countries. Most of these are in the Americas, forming Latin America.
Spanish in North and Central America
In North America, Central America, and the Caribbean:
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- The Dominican Republic
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Mexico
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Puerto Rico
- El Salvador
In the United States and Belize, most people speak English. However, Spanish is the second most common language.
Spanish in South America
In South America, Spanish is spoken in:
Many people in Brazil learn Spanish as a second language. This is even though Brazil's official language is Portuguese.
Spanish in Other Regions
Spanish is also spoken in other parts of the world, such as:
How Spanish Developed
The Spanish language first came from the region of Castile in Spain. When the Western Roman Empire ended, the Latin language changed in different ways in different areas. The Latin spoken in the Iberian Peninsula (where Spain is) slowly turned into the Ibero-Romance language around the 6th century. Castilian and Portuguese became separate languages around the 12th century.
Languages Related to Spanish
In Spain, there are other languages that also came from Latin and are connected to Spanish. These include Catalan and Galician.
There is also a language called Basque, or Euskera, spoken in northern Spain and southern France. Basque is very different from Spanish. It is a language isolate, meaning it is not known to be related to any other language family. Catalan is not a type of Spanish. It is actually more closely related to French.
Why it's Called Castilian
Spanish is sometimes called Castilian because Castile is the region in Spain where the language started. People often think that the most proper form of Spanish is spoken in Castile.
The Spanish word for Spanish is "español". The Spanish word for Castilian is "castellano". In other Romance languages spoken in Spain, like Galician and Catalan, Spanish is usually called "Castellán" or "Castellà" instead of "Spanish". In schools in Spain, the subject is often called "lengua castellana" (Castilian language). However, in parts of Spain where only Spanish is spoken, people usually just call their language "Spanish".
Portuguese, which is spoken in Portugal and Brazil, is very similar to Spanish. In Portuguese, the word "castelhano" is common for Spanish. But in everyday talk, people usually say "espanhol".
Spanish Language Facts
In 2009, Spanish became the most common "mother tongue" (first language) in the Western world. It had more native speakers than English. It was also the second most common language on Earth, after Chinese.
As of 2016, here are the three most common languages in the world:
- Chinese: Spoken by about 1.305 billion people.
- Spanish: Spoken by about 427 million people in 34 different countries.
- English: Spoken by 339 million people in 108 different countries.
Images for kids
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Map showing where the language is called castellano (red) or español (blue).
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The Visigothic Cartularies of Valpuesta, showing some of the earliest words written in Castilian.
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A map showing how languages changed in southwest Europe over time.
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Antonio de Nebrija, who wrote the first grammar book for a modern European language.
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Spanish language signs in Malabo, the capital city of Equatorial Guinea.
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An early flag of Filipino revolutionaries. The first two constitutions of the Philippines were written in Spanish.
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An announcement in Spanish on Easter Island, welcoming visitors to Rapa Nui National Park.
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Miguel de Cervantes, a famous Spanish writer, author of Don Quixote.
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A world map trying to show the main types of Spanish spoken.
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A map showing how common the "voseo" way of speaking is in Hispanic America.
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The Rashi script, used to print Judaeo-Spanish.
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An original letter in Haketia, written in 1832.
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Cervantes Institute headquarters, Madrid.
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See also
In Spanish: Idioma español para niños
