Spanish Language: History and Geographical Distribution

The Spanish language is a Romance language that originated in the northern area of Spain and later spread throughout the Kingdom of Castile. Today’s official Spanish language, as spoken in Spain, is still referred to as Castilian Spanish. Throughout Spain’s colonial history, the Spanish language was also exported to Spain’s overseas territories which include all countries of Latin America with the exception of Brazil. Spanish has a rich literary tradition, both in Spain and Latin America.

Spanish is the official language of 21 countries. Argentina, Bolivia (co-official with Quechua and Aymara), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea (co-official French), Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay (co-official Guaraní), Peru (co-official with Quechua and Aymara), Puerto Rico (co-official with English), Spain (co-official in some regions with Catalan, Galician and Basque), Uruguay, and Venezuela.

In addition, Spanish is one of the official languages of the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the South American Community of Nations, and the European Union.

Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers of any country: more than 100 million Mexicans boast Spanish as their native language. The importance of the Spanish language in Brazil, whose official language is Portuguese, has grown as well due to Brazil’s proximity and increasing trade relationships with the surrounding Spanish-speaking nations. Since 2005 Brazil now makes Spanish available as a foreign language in the country’s secondary schools.

Historically Spanish was also very influential in the Philippines where it was the country’s official language for more than 300 years. Although Spanish lost its official status in 1987, many Philippine languages still feature numerous Spanish loanwords.

Spanish is also spoken in Africa, including the Canary Islands (an autonomous community of Spain), the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and in Equatorial Guinea where it shares its official status with French.

It is estimated that the combined total of native and non-native Spanish speakers is 400–480 million, probably making it the third most spoken language by total number of speakers.

In the United States, 42.7 Million people are Hispanics according to the 2005 census. Some 32 million people (12% of the whole population) aged 5 years or older speak Spanish at home. In total, the U.S. contains the world's fifth-largest Spanish speaking population. About 2 million French residents are also Spanish speakers. It is estimated that around 245,000 people in Canada are of Hispanic origin.

Spanish is also one of six official working languages of the United Nations and one of the most used global languages. It is spoken most extensively in the Americas, Spain and to a small extent in Africa and Asia Pacific. It is also the second most widely spoken language in the United States.

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