Spanish

Español / Castellano

Information - Información

Family: Borean, Eurasiatic, Nostratic, Indo-European, Italo-Celtic, Italic, Latin, Romance, Western Romance, Ibero-Romance, Western Iberian, Old Spanish, Early Modern Spanish

Region: Spain, North America, South America and West Africa

Ethnicity: 

Speakers: 

Time Period: 10th century - Present

Writing System: Latin (Spanish Alphabet)

Language Status: Safe

All Spanish dialects (except for exoplanets) in some regions are not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Falkland Island Spanish dialect is classified as Definitely Endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Philippine Spanish dialect is classified as Severely Endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Berbanian, Reinachan, and Delphian Spanish are classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Spanish (español or castellano, Castilian) is a Romance language spoken by half a billion people, mainly in the Americas, Western Africa and Spain. With official status in 20 countries, it is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese; the world's fourth-most spoken language overall after English; and the world's most widely spoken Romance language. The country with the largest population of native speakers is Mexico.


This language was introduced in Worldcraft, Two Lights, Regalia Students, Rescris, No Way to Seaway, Weather Dragons, and Equation.

Etymology - Etimología

The term castellano is related to Castile (Castilla or archaically Castiella), the kingdom where the language was originally spoken. The name of Castile, in turn, is usually assumed to be derived from castillo ('castle').


In the Middle Ages, the language spoken in Castile was generically referred to as Romance and later also as Lengua vulgar. Later in the period, it gained geographical specification as Romance castellano ("romanz castellano", "romanz de Castiella"), "lenguaje de Castiella", and ultimately simply as castellano (noun).


Specifically, it may derive from a Punic cognate ī shāpān (𐤀𐤉 𐤔𐤐𐤍) of Hebrew ī shāfān (אׅי שָׁפָן) meaning 'island of the hyrax', referring to the European rabbit (Phoenician-Punic and Hebrew are both Canaanite languages and therefore closely related to each other). Some Roman coins of the Emperor Hadrian, born in Hispania, depict Hispania and a rabbit, not a hyrax that not native to this region.

Pronunciations - Pronunciaciones

Vowel


Consonants


Words - Palabras

Phrases - Frases





Examples - Ejemplos

Coming soon.

Users - Usuarios / Usuarias