The Spanish language is quickly becoming one of the most frequently spoken languages in the world. Spanish is an incredibly beautiful language that has a global influence on not just the global business culture, but on certain important aspects of society such as art, food, and music.
Like French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian, Spanish is one of the Romance languages meaning that it was created from common or Vulgar Latin. There are many Spanish speaking countries and Spanish is spoken officially in 20 countries. Even though it is not spoken officially in the United States, Spanish is spoken more commonly than other languages.
Here are some more things that you probably did not know about the Spanish language:
It is the most studied language in America
In the U.S, more than 40 million people are reported to speak Spanish as their first language and the number is set to keep growing as more people immigrate to America. After Mexico, America is the second largest Spanish speaking country as it is home to millions of bilingual Spanish speakers. It is also the most commonly taught language in America.
It is the world’s second most popular language
With more than 300 native speakers, Spanish is often categorized as the world’s second most popular language. The only continents in the world that have a small percentage of Spanish speakers is Antarctica and Australia.
First published in 1492
The first ever public Spanish grammar book was published in 1492 by Antonio de Nebrija, which is also coincidentally the same time that Columbus discovered America.
Influenced by Arabic
Apart from Latin, Spanish also has heavy Arabic influences.
It is easier to learn than most other languages
Compared to other languages that demand a lot from the speaker, Spanish is one of the simplest and easiest languages to learn. The grammar and the pronunciations are easy to understand and although it is different from English, it is a lot simpler and more dependable. Additionally, if you have a basic understanding of the grammar, you can communicate with other Spanish speakers with ease as many of the terms and phrases are recognizable. Spanish is also a phonetic language, which means that if you can spell it, then you can probably pronounce it.
It is often called Castillan
Those that speak the language on a regular basis sometimes refer to Spanish as Castellano. Most times, however, people use castellan to refer to the type of Spanish that is spoken by the natives of Spain.