Spanish language

Spanish—also known as Castilian—belongs to the Romance branch of the Indo-European language family, having grown out of the Vulgar Latin once spoken on the Iberian Peninsula. It began in the Kingdom of Castile, a historical realm in north-central Spain. Today it is spoken natively by 519 million people, mostly in the Americas and Spain, with around 636 million total speakers when second-language users are counted. The language holds official status in 21 countries and is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Among native languages, it ranks second only to Mandarin Chinese; overall, it is the fourth most spoken language in the world, after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu). It is also the most widely spoken Romance language globally. Mexico has the largest population of native Spanish speakers.

Spanish falls within the Ibero-Romance group, which emerged from various Vulgar Latin dialects in Iberia following the Western Roman Empire’s collapse in the 5th century. The oldest Latin texts showing traces of Spanish date from the 9th century in mid-northern Iberia, and the first systematic written use of the language occurred in Toledo, a key city of the Kingdom of Castile, during the 13th century. Early modern Spanish colonialism carried the language overseas, most notably to the Americas.

As a Romance language, Spanish descends from Latin. Roughly 75% of its modern vocabulary comes from Latin, including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek. Alongside English and French, it is one of the most taught foreign languages worldwide and is well represented in the humanities and social sciences. On the internet, Spanish ranks third by number of users (after English and Chinese) and second by number of websites (after English). It serves as an official language for numerous international organizations, including the United Nations, the European Union, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the Organization of American States, the Union of South American Nations, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, and the African Union.

**Name of the language and etymology**

In Spain and parts of the Spanish-speaking world, the language is called not only *español* but also *castellano* (Castilian), a name that distinguishes it from other languages spoken in Spain—such as Galician, Basque, Asturian, Catalan/Valencian, Aragonese, Occitan, and others. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses *castellano* to define the state’s official language, contrasting it with *las demás lenguas españolas* (“the other Spanish languages”). Article III states: “Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. … The other Spanish languages shall also be official in their respective Autonomous Communities.” The Royal Spanish Academy, however, currently prefers *español* in its publications, though from 1713 to 1923 it used *castellano*. The *Diccionario panhispánico de dudas* notes that while the Academy favors *español*, both terms are considered synonymous and equally valid.

The word *castellano* comes from Castile (*Castilla* or archaic *Castiella*), the kingdom where the language originated. The name Castile itself is generally thought to derive from *castillo* (“castle”). In the Middle Ages, the language spoken in Castile was broadly called *Romance* and later *Lengua vulgar*; over time it gained geographic specificity as *Romance castellano*, *lenguaje de Castiella*, and finally simply *castellano*. For *español*, the Royal Spanish Academy traces it to the Occitan word *espaignol*, which in turn comes from Vulgar Latin *hispaniolus* (“of Hispania”), the Roman name for the entire Iberian Peninsula. Another hypothesis, from philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal, suggests that the classical *hispanus* or *hispanicus* took the Vulgar Latin suffix *-one*, as seen in words like *bretón* (Breton) or *sajón* (Saxon).

**History**

Like other Romance languages, Spanish evolved from Vulgar Latin, which Romans brought to the Iberian Peninsula during the Second Punic War, starting in 210 BC. Before that, several Paleohispanic languages were spoken there—some distantly related to Latin as Indo-European languages, others unrelated—including Proto-Basque, Iberian, Lusitanian, Celtiberian, and Gallaecian. The earliest documents showing traces of what would become modern Spanish date from the 9th century. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era, the most significant lexical influences came from neighboring Romance languages: Mozarabic (Andalusi Romance), Navarro-Aragonese, Leonese, Catalan/Valencian, Portuguese, Galician, Occitan, and later French and Italian. Spanish also borrowed many words from Andalusi Arabic and a few from Basque, and it took numerous loanwords from Latin through written language and the Church’s liturgical language, drawing from both Classical Latin and other sources.