Have you ever ever questioned the place, precisely, does Spanish come from?
Simply how a lot did Spanish evolve over time? I imply, how completely different is the Spanish we hear and converse right this moment from the language at completely different phases in its historical past?
It seems, the Spanish we now know and love is the results of 1000’s of years of language improvement and cultural affect.
Let’s go on a journey to study concerning the origin of the Spanish language and its evolution to right this moment’s iteration of the language!
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5,000 Years In the past: Spanish Roots
In his widely-read e-book “A History of the Spanish Language,” writer Ralph Penny traces the Spanish language all the way in which again to the Indo-European languages, nevertheless it may go even additional again than that.
Historians and linguists imagine {that a} household of languages known as the Proto-Indo-European languages had been spoken till round 3,400 BCE, which then gave strategy to the event of the languages we all know right this moment.
Since these languages by no means developed a writing system, we don’t know a lot about them (however we’re fairly sure they existed). However we do know that ultimately, they morphed into the Indo-European languages—and we all know much more about these.
What Are Indo-European Languages?
The Indo-European languages had been first spoken 5,000 years in the past within the space surrounding the Black Sea, positioned between southeastern Europe, western Asia and modern-day Turkey.
As teams of individuals moved round, they unfold out throughout Europe and Asia—and as they did, they took their languages with them.
Over time, the languages developed and branched out into Anatolian, Indo-Iranian, Greek, Italic, Celtic, Germanic, Armenian, Tocharian, Balto-Slavic and Albanian.
Linguist Mark Damen explores one facet of this evolution over time in a fascinating TEDx talk, in the event you’d wish to study extra concerning the matter!
However we’re largely within the Italic department of the Indo-European languages as a result of it’s from that department that we ultimately obtained to Latin—and Spanish is rooted in Latin.
200 BC: Vulgar Latin Was Spoken
The Iberian Peninsula—the place Spain and Portugal are positioned—is almost 2,000 miles from the Black Sea.
However this distance didn’t cease the Roman Empire from spreading its attain out and influencing the event of the realm—each by way of tradition and language.
The Romans settled on the peninsula in about 200 BC, bringing their spoken language with them.
This wasn’t the basic Latin that we affiliate with effective artwork and faith right this moment. As a substitute, the Romans spoke a extra widespread, cruder type of Latin, referred to as Vulgar Latin.
Suppose you’re occupied with listening to how the Latin language differed between the basic and vulgar variations. In that case, NativLang has an interesting exploration of the sounds within the video beneath (and the way they translated to trendy Romance languages).
710 AD: Arabic Added to the Combine
Different settlers and languages started to filter in to the realm—together with Arabic—as a result of Muslim rule of the peninsula between 710 and 1450.
Actually, roughly 4,000 modern Spanish words are derived from Arabic!
You possibly can hear how comparable the 2 languages are in this fun video from Annenberg Media.
eleventh Century: Castilian Dialect Emerges
Because the languages within the space blended collectively, dialects started to take form inside the spoken language.
Across the finish of the 11th century, the Castilian dialect was formed in northern Spain. That is the earliest level the place we are able to see trendy Spanish’s beginnings!
What began as an area dialect unfold and gained a foothold when the kingdoms of Castile, Leon and Aragon joined collectively to kind the beginnings of Spain within the late fifteenth century.
In 1492, Castilian grew to become the area’s official language, having additionally developed a writing system.
With this newly widespread use, literature started to emerge from the realm. Individuals began to jot down down the tales that had been beforehand unfold by oral storytelling, additional evolving and refining the language.
Different literature started to be translated into Castilian, as effectively.
A surge of written language is a excessive level for any society and Spain was no exception.
In Charles E. Chapman’s “A History of Spain,” we study that there was a big mental surge main as much as the tip of the 15th century.
To at the present time, Castilian Spanish stays the official language of that unimaginable nation, Spain!
1492: Spanish Launched in Latin America
You might be questioning how Spanish ended up being spoken so removed from the Iberian Peninsula in Latin America.
The journey of the language “throughout the pond” is basically because of an Italian (or maybe Portuguese) explorer whose title you may acknowledge—Christopher Columbus.
Beginning together with his voyage in 1492, Italian sailor Christopher Columbus traveled on behalf of Spain (talking Castilian Spanish) to the Americas 4 instances.
He and his crews introduced the language to many locations, together with the Bahamian islands, Trinidad, the South American mainland, Panama, present-day Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
However he wasn’t the one explorer who visited the inhabitants of America: Spain’s Juan Ponce de León additionally made some journeys beginning in 1513 to Florida and expanded across present-day United States.
All this exploration by the Spanish led to the institution of a number of Spanish-speaking colonies alongside the way in which.
Why Is Latin American Spanish Totally different from Castilian Spanish?
After all, languages don’t reside in isolation, and Spanish continued to evolve after it arrived within the Americas.
Castilian Spanish could have arrived in its pure, authentic kind to Latin America nevertheless it didn’t stay that approach: Dialects emerged, and Latin American Spanish developed!
Even right this moment, relying on the place you go, you’ll hear variations within the language, generally refined and generally fairly drastic, as you can see in this video.
And over time, the sounds of Latin American Spanish grew to become fairly completely different from these of Castilian Spanish, as you may hear by evaluating the great number of Latin American Spanish within the earlier video to Alberto Jorrin’s entrancing Castilian pronunciation here!
In order for you extra perception on the variations between Castilian and Latin American Spanish (and regional dialects), FluentU additionally demonstrates how actual folks all over the world use Spanish.
FluentU makes use of genuine media clips to show each Castilian and Latin American Spanish.
Native content material is made approachable at any stage with the assistance of interactive subtitles, multimedia flashcards and adaptive quizzes that study as you do.
Plus, you too can discover FluentU on iOS and Android, so you may brush up in your Spanish wherever you go.
The Spanish Language In the present day
The Totally different Branches of the Spanish Language
Castilian Spanish—also called Castellano—is spoken predominantly in Spain.
As we saw above, some pronunciation points make it sound different from Latin American Spanish.
There are also a few vocabulary differences.
For example, in Spain you’d drive un coche (a car) while elsewhere you’d use un carro (a car).
Additionally, the vosotros (you) form is used in Spain rather than the ustedes (you) that you’d hear in other Spanish-speaking countries.
In the Americas, Latin American Spanish is used.
Be aware though, that there are regional differences in Latin American Spanish, depending on location.
Dialects, idioms and slang phrases make this a fun language to hear and speak—wherever you are!
Millions of People Around the World Speak Spanish
Today, Spanish is the most widely spoken Romance language.
The opposite Romance languages embody Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian and Catalan. Additionally they hint their linguistic household strains again to the Indo-European language household.
Spanish is spoken throughout the globe and is even used extensively in international locations with an official language that isn’t Spanish. The USA is a major instance of a spot the place Spanish is used extensively regardless of not being the nation’s official language.
Spanish is the native language to greater than 490 million folks in 20 international locations.
It’s thought-about the second world language in worldwide communication and the third world language in politics, economics and tradition.
A “world language” is a language that’s extensively realized as a second language and spoken extensively throughout the globe. That’s a reasonably large deal!
The Royal Spanish Academy
Initially based in 1713 to protect and shield the Spanish language, the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy) nonetheless operates right this moment.
Though there are linguistic variations between the Spanish-speaking international locations and territories, one of many Academy’s essential functions is to take care of a sure customary and stage of uniformity inside the language.
This, in fact, additionally displays how Spanish modifications and evolves by time.
The Academy engages in educational exercise and even releases a dictionary that’s up to date each few years and different literary works.
Spanish is the results of linguistic evolution. The origins of the Spanish language present that languages don’t kind in isolation.
The language is like una hermosa mariposa (a stunning butterfly).
It went by numerous phases of development and alter.
Lastly, the language that we all know and love emerged, in all its superb colours and variations. It unfold its wings and flew—and now calls the worldwide neighborhood its dwelling!
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