history of Spanish

Introduction

The origins of the Spanish language can be traced back as long as 5,000 years. It is a Roman language that has been affected by many other languages. The Spaniards were about to discover what they named America. They had already formed their own language, Castilian, which later became Spanish.

Beginning

Before the coming period, beginning in the third century. The Iberian peninsula was conquered by the Romans. Several regional languages developed during this time period in what is now Spain, including Castilian, Catalan, and Galician. One of these would eventually become Spanish, although it would take another 1500 years. Those years describe the birth of what has become a global modern language. During the Roman occupation, common spoken Latin, known as “vulgar latin,” lived peacefully with indigenous languages. Approximately 75% of current Spanish is derived from Latin, including syntactic principles.

visigoths

Verbs, for example, are conjugated similarly to Latin. Nouns, like in other Roman languages, have gender. The sun, El Sol, is masculine. The moon, on the other hand, represents femininity.Following the fall of the Roman Empire, the region was conquered by a number of other empires. Beginning in the fifth century of the common era, the Visigoths arrived. They spoke an eastern Germanic language that became part of German and contributed a few words to the language that became Spanish. The Visigoths were then driven out by the Umayyad Caliphate. They spoke Arabic, which had a significant influence on current Spanish. Arabic is the source of over a thousand words. These frequently begin with “a” or “z” sounds and may include a “h.”

Role of Catholic Church

The Catholic Church established its control in 1492 through two monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand, removing Muslims and Jews, uniting the several regional kingdoms into one nation, and adopting one of the native languages as an official state language. Castellano, or Castilian, was the language of the kingdom of Castile, which was centrally located in Spain and home to Madrid. As a result, Castellano evolved into Espanol, or Spanish. However, the Spanish of 1492 was significantly different from the Spanish of today. The following year, Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, beginning the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

 The indigenous peoples of the Americas spoke about 2000 different languages. Over the next several decades, the majority of them were forced to learn Spanish at the loss of their own tongues. Nonetheless, terms from indigenous languages became transferred into Spanish. Nahuati, the language of the Aztec empire, gave us terms like “chapulin” and “coyote.” Quechua, a language spoken in the Peruvian Andes, gave rise to words beginning with “ch,” such as “cancha,” “chullo,” and “poncho.” Some of these terms describe things that did not previously exist in the Spanish lexicon, whereas others replaced existing Spanish words in Spain.

Mixture of French and Latin

 By the time Miguel de Cervantes published the first portion of “Don Quixote” in 1605, the language was perhaps more akin to modern Spanish than William Shakespeare’s plays were to modern English. Beginning in the 18th century, the French language and culture were popular in Spain and later in Hispanic America. While the two languages previously shared origins in Latin, Spanish got additional words from French during this time period.

People revolted across Central and South America in the nineteenth century to obtain independence from Spain. People in newly independent nations continued to use the language of their previous oppressors. There are approximately 415 million Hispanic Americans in the United States now. The official language of 21 countries and Puerto Rico is Spanish.

Colonial language

Only English, Mandarin, and Hindi had more speakers as of 2021. How can a language with so many speakers all over world not split into new languages like vulgar Latin? This is a difficult question to answer. Other colonial languages, such as French, have merged with indigenous languages to form entirely new ones. Some claim that Spanish, a combination of Spanish and English, is a distinct language or is on its way to becoming one. Although a person in Buenos Aires may use words that are not totally understandable to someone in Bogota or Mexico City, Spanish retains enough unity of syntax, grammar, and vocabulary to be considered a single language.

Conclusion

The evolution of the Spanish language was difficult, but necessary. The Spanish language has evolved to become the world’s second most popular language, spoken by over 420 million people in Spain, Latin America, and the United States.

References