History of the Spanish Language

The Spanish language is ranked as the world’s second-most spoken native language at present and is used by communities in various regions of the world to communicate and express themselves. It has a rich culture and complex historical foundations, as it has been around for more than 1500 years. Spanish was the historical language of many current US states while controlled by the Spanish or Mexican governments. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries today and is spoken by 400 million native speakers worldwide.

The native tongues of the Iberian Peninsula used Proto-Indo-European languages to communicate that lead to paving the way for the Hispanic language. Spanish emerged as a dialect of spoken Latin in the Iberian Peninsula, as contrary to the Classical Latin which was used in literature. The dominant and prominent dialect of Spanish in Europe is considered to be Castellanos or Castilian Spanish, where Hispanics are usually seen to be speaking this dialect. Moreover, the first European settlement in the United States was actually established by Spain what is now called Florida.

The origin of Spanish can be dated back to the times of Roman Empire during which the Peninsula was called as “Hispania”. The Roman Empire conquered Hispania in 218 BC and influenced their culture and customary practices on the locals of the Iberian Peninsula. Its official language was the Latin language introduced by the Romans, however it got mixed with languages Celts and Iberians that were the native languages of the occupants, and it started to take on its own unique flavor. In the 4th century, the growth of this uniqueness was accelerated by a Germanic group called the Visigoths, who invaded and conquered areas of the Peninsula. Latin was spoken by the Visigoths at that time, with their primary influence being on cultural depression on the peninsula, instead of a Germanic influence on the language. Basically this is the crucial pinpoint highlighted by the historians and linguists that mark the beginnings of the Spanish language as we are aware of it today. Then later, in the 8th century when Islam began to take force in the Middle East, Visigoths were followed by Muslim Moorish conquerors and upon their arrival they contributed more than 4,000 Spanish words from Arabic, along with cultural impacts that still remain apparent in the design, art, and architecture of Spain. They used their Arabic-influenced design and architecture to build their most powerful and dominant cities. For instance, “La Alhambra” which is a world heritage site in Granada is viewed to be an ideal example of the Moor influence. However, Words that were adopted from Arabic lost their original pronunciation, so the overall sounds or phonology of Spanish was surprisingly not heavily influenced by Arabic.

Spanish language and culture further expanded with the arrival of Spanish conquerors including Christopher Columbus in America. The native and indigenous civilizations were colonized and forced to adopt Spanish religion, traditions, and the official language. Despite the Spanish efforts being largely focused on eradicating the culture, traditions, religion, and languages of Indigenous populations, their efforts were not very successful since the Indigenous American cultures still remain alive today. The imposition of the Spanish language in the southern Spanish colonies of the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central, and South America took words from native dialects and prompted Spanish to evolve once again.

The Royal Spanish Academy, also called as Real Academia Española, was established in 1713, mainly with the purpose of standardizing the language. It approves changes in grammar and the use of specific words and concepts in Spanish. The Academy produced its first dictionary (in six volumes) between 1726 –1739 and is still an authoritative source on Castilian Spanish today, reporting an estimated 93,000 words in its latest edition of 2014. At present, this institution still continues to play its significant role and has a vast impact on the evolution and studies of the origin of Spanish.