Where in Spain is Spanish spoken? Spanish language and its dialects

Spanish belongs to the group Romance languages and is the most common of them. By the beginning of the 21st century, according to experts, the number of inhabitants of our planet who speak Spanish exceeded 420 million people. Spanish is the native language of the residents Spain And 18 Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, El Salvador, Uruguay, Chile, Ecuador. It is spoken by over 25 million people living in the United States, as well as in the Philippines and parts of North Africa.

Spanish, like other Romance languages ​​(French, Portuguese, Italian, etc.), was formed from colloquial Latin language, folk Latin, which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by Roman conquerors at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Germanic tribes entered the peninsula and had little influence on the Spanish language. At the beginning of the 8th century, the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula by the Arabs began, capturing most of the territory. But already in 718 the population rose up in an armed struggle for liberation and independence. Reconquista: return of occupied lands, creation of Christian states in the liberated territories. Played a special role in the Reconquista Castile, which is why the Castilian dialect became the basis of the Spanish literary language. In 1492, at the end of the Reconquista, the Spanish court launched the first expedition to India.

On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered America. colonial conquest of the New World Spanish conquistadors. The Spaniards discover vast territories from Mexico to Cape Horn in southern Argentina and conquer numerous Indian tribes of the Aztecs, Mayans, Incas, Quechuas, Patagonians and others. TO XVII century Spain creates a huge colonial empire in which, in the words of King Charles V, “The sun never sets.” The Spanish language spreads in conquered lands, and its development in new conditions is influenced by the languages ​​of the indigenous population, which led to the creation of national varieties of the Spanish language in Latin American countries. Over time, this powerful empire, enriched by new overseas possessions, collapsed, like all early and late empires in history, the former colonies became independent, retaining Spanish as the state language, and on its basis creating their own original literature and poetry.

Modern spoken Spanish in Latin American countries one is very different from each other both in phonetics and in lexical composition: a Mexican from the hinterland will not always understand an Argentinean, a Peruvian a Cuban, a Chilean a Guatemalan, etc. This is natural, because Each country has its own way of life, its own characteristics, its own history and culture. And this is not surprising: even in Spain itself, in different provinces, for example, in Valencia and Leon, Andalusia and Castile, they speak differently, but all Spanish speakers around the world are united by the generally accepted literary language And standard Castilian pronunciation(the so-called "castellano"), which all educated people adhere to.

Currently, Spanish, along with English, is actively used in international communication, and Russia does not remain aloof from this process. Russian citizens are well acquainted with Spain, its culture and traditions, largely thanks to world-famous figures of Spanish culture, such as Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Federico Garcia Lorca, Miguel de Unamuno, Velazquez, Goya, Picasso. The Spanish language is becoming more and more popular every day in Russia; it is the language of tourism and travel.

The increased interest in the Spanish language is evidenced by the opening of the Cervantes Institute in Moscow in 2001, where anyone can enroll in courses, sit in the library, check out a book, music CD or film, visit an exhibition, watch Spanish cinema or just chat. Instituto Cervantes  Spanish state organization, which emerged in 1991 and declared its mission to unite and disseminate cultural heritage Spanish-speaking countries in the world, where the main place is firmly occupied by English. Cervantes Institutes are open in many countries around the world; Moscow became the thirty-eighth. The Moscow Cervantes Institute is located in a reconstructed three-story mansion in the center of Moscow. The Institute has equipped last word equipment, auditoriums, exhibition halls, library. The language at the Cervantes Institute is taught by Spaniards. The Institute's library contains about 5 thousand volumes, and the Spanish side promises to allocate about 12 thousand euros annually to replenish its funds. Readers can order books through the interlibrary catalog from any library in Spain. In addition, the Cervantes Institute holds conferences, exhibitions, film screenings, concerts and other artistic events. Thus, the activities of the Institute are an important support for the wider study of the Spanish language. The importance that the leadership of the two countries attaches to this is evidenced by the fact that the Cervantes Institute in Moscow was opened personally by the Prince of Asturias.

As for studying the Russian language in Spain, according to the Ministry of Education and Culture of Spain, more than 3,000 people study the language in the country, of which about 700 at universities, over 1,600 in public foreign language schools and the rest in private educational institutions and at Russian language courses at public organizations. On the Russian side, Roszarubezhtsentr, the Institute of Russian Language named after. A.S. Pushkin, St. Petersburg publishing house "Zlatoust". A common disadvantage of teaching Russian in Spanish educational institutions is the lack of modern educational materials, limited access to the developments of Russian specialists on methods of teaching Russian as a foreign language, insufficient opportunities for advanced training. One of the leading public organizations, engaged in the dissemination of the Russian language in Spain, is the A.S. Pushkin Foundation in Madrid. Every year 200  300 people study in Russian language courses at the Foundation. Training is conducted according to programs developed by the Russian Language Institute. A.S. Pushkin in Moscow and according to manuals published in Russia. The courses are attended by students, journalists, teachers, diplomats, engineers, doctors, businessmen and people seeking to learn more deeply the language, culture and literature of Russia. The A.S. Pushkin Foundation organizes internships in Russian educational institutions and holds events dedicated to the promotion of Russian culture, literature and art.

Yulia Baltacheva

Spanish is a fairly common language and ranks third among other languages. This language is spoken in more than 20 countries around the world. You can hear Spanish spoken in more than 58 countries.

Spanish is one of the top three most popular languages ​​in the world. More than twenty countries around the world speak Spanish. There are countries where the language is the official language. The most Spanish-speaking countries are Argentina and Mexico. Next come the following countries:

Colombia

Venezuela

Guatemala

Honduras

Salvador

Paraguay

Costa Rica

Philippines

Portugal

Great Britain

Spanish is the third most widely spoken language in the world, after Chinese and English, of course, and is the second most widely spoken language. (this is approximately 700 million).

In South America:

In Central America:

In the Caribbean and North America:

In Europe:

In Africa:

Spanish is considered the second most widely spoken language (after Chinese). According to various estimates, about 500 million people speak it, including those for whom Spanish is a second language.

Spanish is spoken in

Mexico (Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world),

Argentina,

Colombia,

Venezuela,

Ecuador,

Dominican Republic,

Guatemala,

Honduras,

Nicaragua,

Salvador,

Paraguay,

Equatorial Guinea,

Puerto Rico.

In the USA they speak Spanish. And in the state of New Mexico, Spanish actually has official status, since in official documents it is possible to use Spanish along with English.

Around the world, 450,500 million people speak Spanish. It has official status: in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, El Salvador, Uruguay, Chile, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea.

It is considered regional in the Philippines, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and some US states.

Mexico, Spain, Colombia, Argentina, USA, Peru, Venezuela, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Portugal, Philippines, Morocco, Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Belize, Dominican Republic.

List of Spanish speaking countries in 2015:

Spanish is the second most widely spoken native language in the world (just behind Chinese) and has 470 million native speakers. According to various expert estimates, up to 548 million people around the world today can speak Spanish fluently.

Spanish is considered the most widely spoken language in the world after English. It is spoken by more than 500 million people in America, Europe and Africa. In many countries, Spanish is the official language.



Number of Hispanics



Spanish turns out to be one of the most common languages. It is spoken in twenty countries around the world. Mexico and Spain speak Spanish, to name a few. Here is a list of countries where you will hear Spanish spoken.

Spanish is the official (state) language in the following countries:

• Spain
• Mexico
• Argentina
• Bolivia
• Venezuela
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Dominican Republic
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Nicaragua
• Panama
• Paraguay
• Salvador
• Uruguay
• Ecuador
• Equatorial Guinea

Spanish is used as a regional or local language in the following countries:

• Philippines
• Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (partially recognized state)
• US states of New Mexico and Puerto Rico

Spanish is the native language of approximately 400 million people in the world and another 50-100 million people speak it as a second language.

Thanks to Spain's active colonial past, Spanish is now the official language in many countries. Therefore, after studying it, you can safely pack your things and go traveling to Mexico, Spain, Panama, Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia, Honduras, Paraguay, Ecuador, Cuba, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, Chile, El Salvador and Equatorial Guinea. Spanish is also used locally in the USA and the Philippines.

20 countries around the world speak Spanish. This is Spain and everything South America, excluding Brazil. The official language of Brazil is Portuguese. it is a former colony of Portugal.

Spain itself has four official languages: Spanish, Catalan Basque and Galician.

As for Latin American countries that speak Spanish, these are:

Argentina

Paraguay

Venezuela

Colombia

Salvador

Dominican Republic

Honduras

Nicaragua

Costa Rica

Puerto Rico

And also part of the United States of America.

Spanish is also partially spoken in the Philippines, Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea.

Learn Spanish. I found it useful.

The community of Spanish-speaking countries is called Espanidad, which can literally be translated as Spanish Studies.

Naturally, each region has its own dialect. However, native Spanish speakers and Spanish linguists understand each other well, despite some phonetic and lexical differences.

It is one of the most widespread languages ​​on the planet and is represented on almost all continents; this is connected both with the colonial past of Spain and with the active settlement of Spaniards around the world in the 20th century. Civil War, which shook the country in the 20th century, became a catalyst for the active movement of Spaniards around the world, and many supporters of communism, fleeing their fascist persecutors, even ended up in the Soviet Union.

Spanish speaking countries

If we assume that a country is considered Spanish-speaking if there is a fairly large number of people for whom Spanish is their native language, then in the world we can count more than forty countries that meet this criterion.

First of all, of course, Spanish is the official language. But there are twenty-two other countries in which Spanish is officially recognized. The community of Spanish-speaking countries traditionally includes states where the language has official status.

The list of Spanish speaking countries is as follows:

• Argentina;
• Chile;
• Colombia;
• Bolivia;
• Costa Rica;
• Cuba;
• Dominican Republic;
• Ecuador;
• Guatemala;
• Honduras;
• Mexico;
• Nicaragua;
• Panama;
• Paraguay;
• Peru;
• Puerto Rico;
• Salvador;
• Uruguay;
• Venezuela;
• Spain;
• Philippines.

Spanish-speaking countries in Africa include the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The Spanish language achieved a dominant position in these countries thanks to the aggressive colonialist policy of Spain, which lasted for four centuries. During this time, Spanish-speaking countries appeared in all parts of the world, and the language spread from Easter Island, today under the control of the Chilean Republic, to countries

Jewish influence

However, it was not only colonialism that contributed to the spread of the language around the world. There were other events, no less tragic, that influenced this process.

In 1492, the Spanish Queen Isabella shocked her country's large Jewish community with a decree of incredible cruelty: all Jews were to leave the country or accept holy baptism, which, of course, was unacceptable for devout Jews. Death awaited those who disobeyed.

Within three months, many Jewish families left the kingdom, taking with them, in addition to their personal belongings, also their language and culture. Spanish kingdom. This is how the Spanish language was brought to the territory of the Ottoman Empire, and then to the state of Israel.

Additionally, numerous Spanish and Jewish settlers brought the language to Morocco, where for a long time was safe thanks to the traditional religious tolerance of Islamic rulers.

Spanish in the USA

There is not a word in the United States Constitution about state language, and most states do not have specific laws governing this issue. However, along with English, Spanish is actively used in the country, therefore, although the United States is not considered a Spanish-speaking country, in some states Spanish is also used in government agencies.

The large number of Hispanic Americans is not only due to migration, as it might seem, but also to historical events nineteenth century, when Mexico and the United States actively competed for influence in North America.

The result of this confrontation was a devastating war that lasted two years from 1846 to 1848. As a result of the war, more than a million were alienated from Mexico square kilometers lands, which amounted to almost half the territory of the losing country. Along with these lands, the United States also received Spanish-speaking citizens. Since then, Spanish has been the second most widely spoken language in many southern states, and in some states Spanish is spoken by a majority of the population.

Madrid. - Spanish, spoken by more than 495 million people, has become the second most widely spoken language in the world after Chinese. The number of people speaking Spanish continued to rise in 2012, while the number of people speaking English and Chinese declined.

These data are contained in the annual report “Spanish in the World” (El español en el mundo), which has been published by the Cervantes Institute since 1998. The current edition was presented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Interaction, José Manuel García-Margallo, and the Director of the Cervantes Institute, Victor García de la Concha.

Spanish is also second after English language international communication. According to some estimates, by 2030 7.5% of the population globe will speak Spanish (535 million people). In terms of prevalence, it is surpassed only by Chinese, Garcia de la Concha noted at a presentation held in the main building of the Instituto Cervantes. In three or four generations, 10% of the world's population will communicate in Spanish, and greatest number Hispanics will reside in the United States. In the United States there will be even more of them than in Mexico, the authors of the report believe.

Spanish is already number two on Twitter

On the World Wide Web, Spanish is already the third most used language after English and Chinese. Over the past 10 years, its presence on the Internet has grown by 800%, with the difference between the use of Spanish on the one hand and Japanese, Portuguese and German constantly widening. IN social network On Twitter, Spanish is already the second most widely spoken language, ahead of Arabic, Russian, Italian, French and German. On Facebook, Spanish is also one of the most used languages. More than 80 million people communicate with each other on it.

The report indicates that approximately 18 million students are learning Spanish as a foreign language. Last year, 8% more people enrolled in the Instituto Cervantes wanted to study Spanish. The Institute's branches are located in 77 cities in 44 countries, mainly America and Asia.

Garcia de la Concha praised the agreement signed in 2012 with Mexico, which will allow Spain to use Mexican offices in the United States, and reported on the progress of negotiations to create an Observatory of the Spanish Language in the United States. At the same time, he drew attention to the shortage of qualified Spanish teachers in countries such as Brazil and China, whose universities in 2010 were able to satisfy only 30% of applications submitted to study Spanish (about 25 thousand Chinese students).

Foreign Minister García-Margallo described the Instituto Cervantes as the jewel in the crown of Spanish foreign policy and warned of the dangers that globalization poses to a world culture dominated by Anglo-American approaches.

Spanish will definitely come in handy in life, especially if you are going to travel around Latin America and other states where it is spoken.

It is, of course, not as popular for learning as English, but it also boasts an army of millions of native speakers. In addition, it is the second most spoken language in the world, after Chinese. At last count, more than half a billion people speak it fluently!

Named from Spain, it actually originated in the medieval kingdom of Castile. It is also called Castilian, both names common among the Spanish-speaking population. Researchers have not yet reached a consensus on which option is correct.

Spanish dialects

Differences in dialects are observed both in grammar and vocabulary, and in phonetics. This difference is especially visible when comparing the dialect with the “classical” Castilian variant. For example, in dialects some grammatical aspects are greatly simplified, and many synonyms are used in the vocabulary. Many dialects are common in Latin America: Argentinean, Cuban, Mexican and others.

As for Basque, Galician and Catalan, these are separate languages ​​with their own history. The study of Spanish is usually based on the national Castilian version of Spanish, and textbooks are published in it.

Mexico

The place where it is most common is, surprisingly, Mexico. The number of Spanish speakers here exceeds 100 million. However, this is not surprising if you remember history - Mexico was settled by Spanish conquistadors after the discovery of America.

At the end of the 15th century, the language was standardized and spread throughout the world. In Mexico it is also divided into dialects, for example, there is North American and Peruvian. Although Mexico positions itself as a multinational state and recognizes 68 more languages ​​along with Spanish. After all, the population of this country consists of indigenous peoples who lived here even before the arrival of conquerors from the Old World.

It took several centuries for the number of Spanish speakers in Mexico to exceed 90% of the population. Now the government of the country intends to preserve those indigenous dialects that still remain. Interestingly, any resident of Mexico can contact government agencies in their native language, and not in Spanish.

Spain

The second country where Spanish is spoken is, of course, Spain. It is spoken by more than 47 million people here. By the way, there is still debate about what to call it correctly - Spanish or Castilian. In addition, in Spain you can find others - for example, Catalan and Bak.

And directly official language The country originated in Castile, and was previously called Castilian. However, the name Castilian is more suitable to the variant spoken in this region in the Middle Ages. But Spanish also sounds incorrect, because there are other dialects in Spain. As a result, the Spaniards came to a common opinion and call it Castilian when talking about it within the country, and when speaking about it abroad they say “Spanish”.

In general, the Spaniards highly respect their languages ​​and try to revive even the rarest dialects. For example, the Aragonese is practically on the verge of extinction, but the authorities are special programs for its preservation.

Colombia

In the Republic of Colombia, which neighbors Brazil, more than 45 million people speak Spanish - almost the population of Spain. In this country there is an active mixing of many cultures, primarily Europeans, indigenous peoples and Africans. Colombia is on the list of countries where Spanish is official - almost 99% of the population speaks it.

In Colombia you can find indigenous dialects, even such rare ones as Creole or Gypsy. Yes, myself classic version in this country is divided into various dialects that differ in morphology, syntax and semantics. However, they all have characteristic Spanish features that unite them.

Argentina

There are 41 million Spanish-speaking residents here. Like other South American lands, he came here along with the colonists. Almost the entire indigenous population of these lands was destroyed with the arrival of Europeans, in particular the Spaniards. More than 85% of Argentina's population are descendants of Spanish settlers, and only 1.5% are the remaining indigenous peoples.

However, Spanish here also has its own dialects that cannot be found in other places. The dominant dialect throughout the country is the Rioplatan dialect, a dialect that was formed by the first European colonists. Each region has its own dialect, different from others, derived from the Rioplat dialect.

USA

There are 35 million Spanish speakers in the United States of America. This represents approximately 12% of the total population. This also happened historically - the territory, which is now called, several centuries ago attracted several influential states at once.

Spain, England, France and others fought for the right to live here. Of course, the Spanish navigators were the first, but their influence soon waned. The British and French arrived on the continent, and the division of territories began. During the development of land and the war between the United States and Mexico, mostly English-speaking states were formed, but there are also Spanish ones.

Jewish influence

The spread of Spanish throughout the world was greatly influenced not only by the Spaniards who went to New World. Queen Isabella of Castile, under whom the era of American exploration began, is famous for the Spanish Inquisition. Beginning in the 1480s, she and her husband Ferdinand expelled 10,000 Jews from Spain.

They had a choice - change their faith or leave the country. Those who refused were tortured and placed in closed quarters called ghettos. Most Jews did go abroad and spread Spanish culture to different parts of the world.

In addition, Spanish is spoken in Peru, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Chile, Venezuela, Honduras and other countries. There is even a special term Hispanidad, which refers to a group of countries where Spanish is recognized as official. In total, this group includes 23 states.