History of Spanish language
Apr 17th, 2008 by admin
Spanish language is a third popular language in the world after English and Mandarin Chinese.
Spanish language as well as Portuguese, French and Italian originated from Roman language, it means from Latin language and to be more exact from Vulgar Latin.
Latin language was often influenced by other cultures and languages and it lead to formation of different Roman languages. As for Spanish language, it has influences of Iberian and Celtic cultures.
Spanish language contains a lot of words of Greek origin, which were adopted firstly by Latin speakers and then by Spanish ones. For example: “escuela” (school) or “huérfano» (orphan) are word of Greek origin. And we also should remember about Arabic rule in Spain during seven centuries, some lexical features were adopted by Spanish language. Well0knows surname “Almodovar” is of Arabic origin.
Spanish language is also called “castellano”, because it appeared in the region of Castilla. Spanish language began to establish as official language of the country with the formation of united Spain after the Reconquest from Arabic domination. The Kingdom of Castilla became the center and the basis of the country. When Isabel I of Castilla and Fernando II of Aragon got married, the unification of the Spain was almost completed and Spanish language became the official language of Spain.
Don’t forget that conversational Spanish in different regions of the country has some differences, sometimes rather significant.
The organization which work with Spanish language, follow all changes in it is called the Real Academia de la Lengua Española.