SED English 212- Language, Culture and

Society

The Spanish Language

Group 4

Kristine Joy Rillera

Ninalie Romano
Rachel Joy Saldo
Lovely Daun Sanchez
Jay Mark Sogelio
Yumira Mae Suguitan
Mary Joy Taccaban
Delmar Tangangeo
Trisha Rain Villa
Marjorie Urmata
 SED English 212- Language, Culture and Society

The Spanish Language

Classification of the Language

Spanish is a member of the Indo-European family of languages,

which originated approximately 5,000 years ago in the Black Sea region
(McWhorter 2003). As farming and the sedentary lifestyle it demanded spread
throughout Europe and Central Asia, Indo-European gradually spread as well.
While speakers of Indo-European migrated throughout the two continents,
they naturally lost contact with one another, and new innovations in language
splintered Indo-European into several distinct language branches. Of these
branches, Latin (the language of the Roman Empire) was one of the most
prominent.

As the Roman Empire gained power during the fourth century B.C.,
Latin gradually began to spread throughout the Italian peninsula and then
throughout the Mediterranean region. Varying development in the different
areas Latin touched eventually resulted in several distinct but related regional
dialects, commonly known as the Romance languages. And Spanish is a
member of this Romance language family (McWhorter 2003).

1. Romance Languages

The Romance languages,

less commonly Latin or Neo-Latin
languages, are the modern
languages that evolved from Vulgar
Latin between the third and eighth
centuries. Originated in Old Latium,
Southern, Western and Eastern
Europe; now also spoken in a vast
majority of the American countries,
in parts of Africa and in parts of Southeast Asia and Oceania.
 It was perhaps the simplest to identify and the easiest to account for
historically. Not only do Romance languages share a good proportion of basic
vocabulary—still recognizably the same in spite of some phonological
changes—and a number of similar grammatical forms, but they can be traced
back, with but few breaks in continuity, to the language of the Roman Empire.
So close is the similarity of each of the Romance languages to Latin as
currently known from a rich literature and continuous religious and scholarly
tradition that no one doubts the relationship. For the nonspecialist, the
testimony of history is even more convincing than the linguistic evidence:
Roman occupation of Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, Gaul, and the Balkans
accounts for the “Roman” character of the major Romance languages. Later
European colonial and commercial contacts with parts of the Americas, of
Africa, and of Asia readily explain the French, Spanish, and Portuguese
spoken in those regions.

2. Indo-European Languages

The Indo-European languages are a language family native to western

and southern Eurasia. It comprises most of the languages of Europe together
with those of the northern Indian subcontinent and the Iranian Plateau. The
Indo-European family is divided into several branches or sub-families, of
which there are eight groups with languages still alive today: Albanian,
Armenian, Balto-Slavic, Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Indo-Iranian, and Italic;
and another six subdivisions which are now extinct.
 Indo-European is a family of languages that first spread throughout
Europe and many parts of South Asia, and later to every corner of the globe
as a result of colonization. The term Indo-European is essentially
geographical since it refers to the easternmost extension of the family from
the Indian subcontinent to its westernmost reach in Europe. The family
includes most of the languages of Europe, as well as many languages of
Southwest, Central and South Asia. With over 2.6 billion speakers (or 45% of
the world’s population), the Indo-European language family has the largest
number of speakers of all language families as well as the widest dispersion
around the world.

The cradle of the Indo-Europeans may never be known but an ongoing

scholarly debate about the original homeland of Proto-Indo-European (PIE),
may someday shed light on the ancestors of all Indo-European languages as
well as the people who spoken it.

There are two schools of thought:

Some scholars (e.g., Marija Gimbutas) propose that PIE originated in

the steppes north of the Black and Caspian Seas (the Kurgan hypothesis).
Kurgan is the Russian word of Turkic origin for a type of burial mound over a
burial chamber. The Kurgan hypothesis combines archaeology with linguistics
to trace the diffusion of kurgans from the steppes into southeastern Europe,
providing support for the existence ot a Kurgan culture that reflected an early
presence of Indo-European people in the steppes and southeastern Europe
from the 5th to the 3rd millenium BC.

Other scholars (e.g., Gamkrelidze and Ivanov) suggest that PIE

originated around 7,000 BC in Anatolia, a stretch of land that lies between the
Black and Mediterranean seas. It lies across the Aegean Sea to the east of
Greece and is thus usually known by its Greek name Anatolia (Asia Minor).
Today, Anatolia is the Asian part of modern Turkey.
Branches of the Indo-european Language Family
West Iberian

West Iberian is a branch of the Ibero-Romance languages that

includes the Castilian languages. According to historical linguistic analysis,
these languages are significantly closer to each other in historical terms than
to any other living language in the peninsula — including Catalan, the other
major Romance language of the Iberian Peninsula.

Speakers of West Iberian languages generally claim that they are all
mutually intelligible to some extent. It is certainly true that a speaker of any of
them can learn to read any other just by practicing, without formal study of the
grammar. Bilingualism is quite common along the internal language
boundaries of this group.

Until a few centuries ago, they formed a dialect continuum covering the
western, central and southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula — excepting the
Basque and Catalan speaking regions. This is still the situation in a few
regions, particularly in the northern part of the Peninsula, but due to the
differing sociopolitical histories of these languages (independence of Portugal
since the early 12th century, though briefly interrupted in the 16th and the
17th centuries; unification of Spain in the 15th century under the Catholic
Kings, who privileged Spanish over the other Iberian languages), Spanish and
Portuguese have tended to overtake and to a large extent absorb their sister
languages, while they kept diverging from each other.

Iberian Romance

The Iberian Romance, Ibero-Romance[2] or sometimes Iberian

languages[note 1] are a group of Romance languages that developed on the
Iberian Peninsula, an area consisting primarily of Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar
and Andorra, and in southern France which are today more commonly
separated into West Iberian and Occitano-Romance language groups.
Some of the Spanish words are from Arabic. For instance, Ojala hopefully
comes from “Ma Sha Allah” which means should God will it.

The Iberian Romance, or Ibero-Romance, languages are a branch of

Romance languages. They were first spoken in Iberia. There are two
branches of Iberian Romance languages, Occitano-Romance and West
Iberian. The main two languages in the branch are Spanish (Castilian) and
Portuguese. They came from a dialect of Vulgar Latin spoken in Iberia after
the Roman Empire ended. Spanish and Portuguese spread to Latin America
during the colonial era.

Castilian Languages

The Castilian languages are Castilian (Spanish) and its closest

relatives. Besides derivatives of Spanish such as Judaeo-Spanish and
Amazonic Spanish, this refers principally to Extremaduran, a partially mutually
intelligible language that is often considered merely a peculiar dialect by other
speakers of Spanish.

The language can be called either “Spanish” or “Castilian.” Both terms

are correct, although political issues or local custom may dictate which is used.
The name “Castilian” derives from the Kingdom of Castile (meaning “Land of
Castles”), one of several kingdoms that spread across the Iberian peninsula
during the Middle Ages. The term “Spanish” is a more recent one that first
referred to Spain as a country and was later applied to its predominant
language as well.

Castilian as a language of higher learning in the 15th century, Old

Castilian, or Old Spanish, began to evolve into what is now Modern Spanish --
- the difference being mainly one of pronunciation (the devoicing and shifting
of sibilant consonants). Someone who can read Modern Spanish can learn to
read Old Spanish with very little difficulty. The difference is much less stark
than between Old English and Modern English. Beginning at the end of the
15th century, the expansion of the Spanish Empire took Spanish beyond
Spain’s borders --- to Central Europe, the Americas, parts of Africa, and
several island groups in the Pacific, among other locations. It became an
important language for government and trade. In Africa, Spanish is now the
official language of only Equatorial Guinea, and it is no longer spoken by
many people in the Pacific. In the Americas, however, the descendants of the
original Spaniards continued to use Spanish; and in the 19th century, as the
colonies overthrew Spanish rule, the new leaders encouraged the population
to become fluent in Spanish in order to strengthen national unity. Today it’s
the official language of most of the South American countries.

In the United States, the term “Castilian” or “Castilian Spanish” usually

refers to the dialect that is the official language of Spain, where it’s used in
television and radio broadcasts. It is understood throughout the country,
although there are marked regional differences.

Castilian originated as a northern Spanish dialect. In the 12th century,

it became the official language of Castile and León. Differences in accent and,
to a lesser extent, vocabulary can be found. The most noticeable distinction is
in how c is pronounced before an I or an e.
Another, Modern Spanish/Castilian evolved from several dialects of Latin
spoken in Iberia during the 8th or 9th century. In the 13th century, King
Alfonso X (known as "Alfonso the Wise") was the first king to use Castilian
extensively.

SPANISH LANGUAGE ORIGIN

Spanish originated in the Iberian Peninsula as a dialect of spoken Latin,

which is today called “Vulgar Latin”, the combination of Celtic language and
Latin. Vulgar Latin was an adapted form of Latin that used phases and words
that were different from traditional Latin. Latin remained the dominant and
official language of the region when the Visigoths (a Germanic group) took
over the region called Hispania.
 This continued until the Moors, an Arabic –speaking group, who also
conquered the region. Arabic became the dominant language, except for in
certain regions dominated by the Christians. In such regions, Vulgar Latin
remained the official language. As the groups started to reclaim Moorish
Spain, Vulgar Latin returned as the dominant language in every region. While
Vulgar Latin was dominant, it took on a different form, integrating Arabic and
forms of a related dialect called Mozarabic.

Mozarabic language, also called AJAMI is an archaic dialect of Spanish

that was spoken in those parts of Spain under the Arab occupation from the
early 8th century until about 1300. Mozarabic retained many archaic Latin
forms and borrowed many words from Arabic. It is estimated that
approximately 3000-4000 words in today’s Spanish are derived from Arabic.

Castilian dialects of Spanish started to take form around the 13th

century with King Alfonso X, or referred to as the Learned King of Castile and
Leon. Toledo (a city in Castile La mancha , Spain) became the cultural
epicenter for the king and his Scholars. In Toledo, the scholars created works
in Castilian Spanish and then they began a series of translations became the
basis for the dissemination of Information in a significant part of Western
Europe. The king soon declared Castilian as the official language for
government documents and decrees.

The dominance of the Castilian dialect continued to grow as the

catholic kingdoms took over most regions of Spain.Soon thereafter appeared
the Art of the Castilian Language, a work that helped shape and standardized
the Spanish Language after Isabella (queen of Castile) and Ferdinand (king of
Aragon) declared Castilian Spanish to be the official dialect of Spain. Castilian
Spanish then quickly became the official language for all educational
materials and official documents in all of Spain. And the certain Regions
maintained different dialects, most notably Andalusian, that spoken in and
around the Seville.
SPANISH WRITING SYSTEM

For many years this was the official Spanish alphabet:

a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll, m, n, ñ, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z

 “ch” are listed in separate section after the rest of the letter “c” words.

 “ll” words beginning with “ll” are listed after the rest of “l” words.

How Spanish got its ñ

In 2010 the Real Academia Española (RAE), which is basically on

charge of the official Spanish Language, decided that “ch” and “ll” should no
longer be considered distinct letter.

a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, ñ, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z

El Alfabeto Española (Spanish Alphabet) uses Roman Letters like the

english alphabet.It has additional letter which is enye (ñ) that looks like a
regular en (n) with tilde on top.

Example:

España (Spain) señorita (Miss)

niño/niña (child masculine/child feminine) mañana (morning/tomorrow

To confuse the issue, some Spanish-language sources consider "rr" a

separate letter and others don't count the "k" or the "w" since they almost
always appear in words that originated outside of the Spanish language.
Fun Fact: the letter “e” is the most common letter in both English and Spanish.
The letter “w” is the least used letter in Spanish.

Capitalization

There is a difference between capitalization in Spanish and English.

 Days of the week and months of the year

Example: Hoy es miercoles, 5 de enero

Today is Wednesday, January 5

 Seasons of the year

Example: Se acerca el Verano

 Personal titles

Example:

señor (Mr.)

señorita (Miss)

dr. (Doctor)

profesor (Professor)

 Book or Movie Titles

Example: Harry Potter y el niño maldito

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Ele Nuevo libro del conocimiento

The New Book of Knowledge

 Name of Cities or Countries

Example:

Filipinas (Philippines)

Reino Unido (UK)

Estados Unidos de America (United States of America)

 Language Name

Example: Yo Hablo español

 I speak español

El ingles es la lengua franca del mundo

English is the Lingua Franca of the world

Points to Ponder:

 For many years the official alphabet of Spanish includes ch, ll, and ñ
which contains 29 letters.
 But in 2010 the Real Academia Española, which is basically in charge
of the official Spanish language, decided that "ch" and "ll" should no
longer be considered distinct letters.
 El Alfabeto español uses Roman Letters in writing like English
Alphabet but it has an additional letter which is the enye (ñ).
 "Alphabet" is el alfabeto in Spanish, but you can also say el
abecedario which is a word made up of the first three letters of the
alphabet (like saying "ABCs").
 Alfabetizar means "to alphabetize" but it can also mean "to teach
reading and writing."

 (Ñ) enye is like a regular N with tilde on top.

 The letter "ñ" is not a variation of "n," but a distinct letter. The
word pino will appear before the word piña in a dictionary because "n"
comes before "ñ" in the alphabet.

 In Spanish capitalization, only the name of cities or country is capitalize.

 The days of the weekm months and seasons of the year are not
capitalize
 Personal titles such as dr., señora, señorita, and don are not
capitalized
 Book and movie titles are capitalize but only the first to words of it.

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION OF THE LANGUAGE

Today, the Spanish language is used by approximately 332 million

speakers, and it is second only to Chinese as the most commonly spoken
language in the world. In the Americas, Spanish is the most widespread first
language, and native Spanish speakers can also be found throughout Europe,
the United States, the Pacific Islands, and even Africa (Ostler 2005).

Spanish is also one of the most frequently spoken second languages,

and people throughout the world have learned it for its usefulness in personal
and professional communication. Yet, Spanish was not always the dominant
mode of communication that it is today. Less than 600 years ago, Spanish
was nothing more than a native dialect spoken in the Castilian region of Spain.
However, through years of exploration, conquest, and forcible conversion, the
residents of that tiny region managed to build their language from a little-
known dialect to a worldwide vernacular.

Today, the Americas take that claim as being home to the most
Spanishlanguage speakers in the world. Here are some facts:

 Mexico has the most speakers with 110 million

 Colombia is second in line
 The USA is tied with Argentina at about 41 million
 Next, comes Venezuela, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala and Cuba
 The Americas are home to around 470 million Spanish speakers.

The Spanish language’s home, Spain, only developed the language

known today in the Middle Ages – prior to this, Latin had been the primary
tongue spoken, due to the influence of Roman rule. During this time, the
various kingdoms of Spain, moving south in order to rid the peninsula of
Moorish Arabs, developed a variety of Latin dialects.

The kingdom of Castile, once a minor kingdom, grew to prominence

on the back of the Reconquista, and the dialect spoken – Castilian – became
the language of the administration, culture and history as King Alfonso X
began the process of standardizing the language of his realm.

In 1492, when the Reconquista was completed, Castilian was named

as the official dialect of Spain, and became one of the first European
languages to have an officially-defined system of grammar. Unlike most
European languages though, Spanish was influenced greatly by Arabic, and
today thousands of words can trace their origins to the centuries of Islamic
rule.
 Today, Spanish is spoken in the European countries of Portugal and
Andorra, and by a large number of people in the British territory of Gibraltar,
mainly thanks to the proximity of both countries to Spain.

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCED THE SPREAD OF THE LANGUAGE

The Spanish language was brought across the Atlantic to the

Americas by Spanish explorers and Conquistadors in the 16th and 17th
centuries, and it spread rapidly throughout North, Central and South America
and the Caribbean.
 Spanish Exploration

In 1492, the same year that the last Islamic stronghold in Granada fell,
Christopher Columbus began his famous westward voyage from the coast of
Spain to seek a new route to Asia. When he landed in the Americas instead,
his unintended discovery would lead to the spread of the Spanish language
throughout the New World.

 Conquest/Coalition

Spanish conquistadors arrived on American coasts to subdue the

native populations and bring wealth back to their home kingdom, they brought
their language with them. Sailors commissioned by the Spanish Crown with
important conquests included Hernán Córtez (Mexico), Franzisco Pizarro
(Inca Empire) and Ferdinand Magellan (South America, Philippines). Through
the partly violent conquests and the new territories Spanish rule, Christianity
and also the Spanish language were imposed on the new territories.

 Christianity

Missionaries also traveled to the newly discovered land, bringing with

them Latin, the language of the Catholic Church. It was generally believed
that Latin should be used for conversion purposes, but many missionaries
found that it was easier to spread understanding and faith in one or more of
the native languages. Thus, Latin, Spanish, and native languages were all
used simultaneously during the Spanish conquest of most of South and
Central America (Ostler 2005). This mix of languages gradually brought about
new forms of Spanish that were unique to the speakers in the Americas. By
the time the conquered populations had liberated themselves from Spanish
rule in the decades of the nineteenth century, these dialectical versions of
Spanish had become the official languages of the population.
VARIATION OF THE SPANISH LANGUAGE

 Official Language

It is significant to know that Spain is a country with four official

languages namely Castilian, Galician, Catalán and Vasco.The more precise
name for the Spanish we know is called the Castilian, Castellano, or
Español. In Latin American countries, the Spanish language is called Español
(Spanish). But in Spain, it is called Castellano or Castilian, which refers to the
Castile province in Central Spain which is said to be the origin of the language.

This language is spoken throughout Spain and is the country's official

language. All public signage, official business, and education are in Castilian
Spanish. However, many people do not know that aside from Castilian which
is the predominant language of Spain, there are three other fully-developed
independent languages in the country. These languages are the Gallego or
Galician, which is a language with many similarities to Portuguese, the
Catalán, and the Vasco or Basque. These languages possess the co-official
language status in their respective regions which are the Galicia, Cataluña
and Pais Vasco or Basque Country. These languages have a significant
presence in the press, books and media.

 Dialects

Along with the several languages, there is also a wealth of regional

dialects that add to Spain's linguistic varieties.

Spanish Dialects Within Spain

1. Andalusian

Andalusian is a dialect that is most commonly found in the southern

portion of Spain. A feature of this variation is that it neutralizes the difference
between the sounds produced by “the Spanish lisp.” Spanish lisp refers to the
mispronunciation of the letters S, Z and C before an E or I. However, it is not
suggested to call it a “lisp” since it will mean that every Spanish speaker has a
speech disorder. Thus, the term "cecero" is used as an alternative when
referring to the accent particular in Spain. Andalusian Spanish omits the final -
s from words and the letter d from pretty much every word.

2. Murcian

Murcian is a dialect mostly spoken in the southern region of Spain. It is

similar to Andalusian Spanish with some minor exceptions. Murcian is
considered to be a very rarely used dialect. It seems to be fading into the
other dialects of the region, so it is unlikely to will encounter a speaker of this
dialect.
According to Hernández-Campoy (2008), one of the most remarkable
features of this southern variety is the loss of postvocalic consonants in final
position — except -m and -n. However, post-vocalic /s/ dropping in final
position affects the number as /s/ is the plural marker on articles, adjectives,
and nouns.

Example:
La/una/otra casa bonita ‘The/a/another nice house’
Las/unas/otras casas bonitas ‘The/some/other nice houses’

3. Llanito

Llanito is commonly known as a combination of Andalusian Spanish

and UK English. It frequently borrows words from English, Genoese, Maltese,
Portuguese and several other Mediterranean languages. This is commonly
known as Europe’s oddest language.

Example:
English: "Man, I'm telling you (that) you can't..."
Spanish: "Hombre, te digo que no puedes..."
Llanito: "Hombre, I'm telling you que no puede..."
Spanish Dialects of Latin America

1. Rioplatense

Rioplatense, also called Rioplatense Castilian or River Plate, is mainly

spoken in Argentina and Uruguay. One of the main features of this dialect is
the medley of European words into it. You may hear words from German,
French and English in an everyday Rioplatense conversation.
Rioplatense Spanish is known as /s/-weakening variety of Spanish
(George, 2014). In Spanish, /h/ is a variant of /s/-weakening, meaning that /h/
is a sound used when speakers weaken their /s/.
Example:
/pasta/ - /pahta/

2. Mexican Spanish
Mexican Spanish is commonly spoken in Mexico and also parts of the
U.S. and Canada. Mexico, being the largest Spanish speaking country in the
world, is the heart of Spanish media and cinema.

Mexican Spanish is also sometimes referred to as “Spanglish” due to

the many English and English-Spanish hybrid words that have become part of
the vernacular.

As stated by Goldstein (2001), Mexican Spanish speakers tend to

substitute [v] for /b/.

Example:
/boka/ (mouth) - /voka/.
Another feature is that /s/ is commonly deleted.
Example:
/dos/ (two) - /do/
3. Carribean Spanish

Caribbean Spanish is spoken exclusively on the Caribbean islands.

Caribbean Spanish speakers completely drop the ‘d’ at the end of the word
and the ‘s’ sound at both the middle and ends of words.

4. Andean
Andean is a dialect used in the geographic region of the Andes in
western South America. In this region, the final letters of words are often
pronounced clearly and the sounds of j and ll are audibly different, unlike in
many other forms of Spanish.

5. Central American Spanish

Central American Spanish is spoken throughout Guatemala, Costa
Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. In this variation of
Spanish, you will hear some ‘s’ sounds morph into ‘h’ sounds.

Spanish Dialects around the World

1. Canarian Spanish
Canarian Spanish is spoken only on the Canary Islands. The dialect is
closer to Caribbean and Andalusian Spanish than Castilian: it does not use
the Spanish lisp. It also has a few peculiarities of its own, like differences in
word order and tense use.

2. Equatoguinean
Equatoguinean is spoken in Equatorial Guinea, which is the only
country in Africa with Spanish as the official language. It is strongly influenced
by the native African languages of the area, as well as French, Portuguese
and even German. As a result, pronunciation is pretty different from other
places around the world, sometimes even using a French-like r sound.
Lipski (2004) stated that the syllable- and word-final /s/ is strongly
pronounced in this dialect.
 The Key Differences between European/Peninsular Spanish
and Latin American Spanish

The Many Forms of You in Spanish

English only has one word for “you”, whether someone is talking to the
Queen or to a stranger. Unless an individual is in the American South,
wanting to indicate that he or she is talking to a group, that person will say
“you all” or “you guys”. Spanish, on the other hand, uses different pronouns to
indicate if the word “you” is singular, plural, formal or informal.In both Spain
and most of Latin America, tú is used in addressing one person informally.
When addressing one person formally, usted is utilized.

In Spain, when addressing a group of friends or peers, vosotros is the

right term, while ustedes is for a group of people you don’t know well or need
to show respect to. However, ustedes is only used in Latin America when
addressing a group. This is due to the fact that Spanish speakers in Latin
America stopped using vosotros in the 1800s.Meanwhile in Argentina,
Uruguay or Paraguay, vos is used instead of tú.

Vocabulary.
One key difference between the European or Peninsular Spanish and
Latin American Spanish is that different words can be used for the same thing,
or the same word can mean one thing in Spain but is completely different in
Latin America.
For example, the word "carro" in Spain is a cart that you push or pull to
transport things, whereas in Latin America, it's an actual car that you can drive
around in. A car in Spain is a "coche", whereas a "coche" in Latin America is a
baby stroller.
Meanwhile, a cellular phone is a teléfono móvil in Spain and a teléfono
celular in Latin America.