Spanish Language Use and History

Hobbies and interests vary greatly from person to person. Some individuals like to spend their spare time reading books or watching critically acclaimed films. Others enjoy the outdoors, taking advantage of a nice day by hiking, climbing, or camping. Still others love the thrill of travel, whether to other parts of the country or by taking an excursion to another part of the world.

Experiencing new cultures, tasting new foods, and visiting famous historical landmarks is an enriching and valuable experience that people remember for the rest of their lives. However, there are some difficulties associated with traveling to another country.

In particular, if the country to which you are traveling has a native language other than English, you will need to have at least a basic understanding of the language in order to communicate with the local people, or at least have a way to do an English to Spanish conversion.  One of the most popular and widely understood foreign languages is Spanish.

Spanish is a Romance language that is part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages. It evolved from a combination of several languages that were spoken in the central-north region of Iberia during the 9th century. The expansion of the Kingdom of Castile helped to spread Spanish into central and southern Iberia.

Spanish is a continually evolving language. Modern Spanish developed with the “Readjustment of the Consonants” during the 15th century and still today continues to adopt foreign words from many other languages spoken throughout the world. The Spanish Empire was responsible for expanding Spanish to the Americas, as well as to Africa and Asia Pacific, between the 15th and 19th centuries.

There are around 358 million people worldwide that speak Spanish as a native language. After Mandarin Chinese, Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the world, by number of native speakers, followed by English. Additionally, Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, as well as serving as an official language of the European Union. This all gives you many reasons to learn to speak Spanish!

There are many distinctions between the various accents used to speak Spanish. The most common variation is Mexican Spanish, a variation spoken by more than 20 percent of Spanish speakers. The most notable difference is the reduction or total loss of unstressed vowels. Another difference is noted between Castilian, the accents spoken in most of Spain, and the accent used in southern Spain, the Canary Islands, and Latin American Spanish accents.