Languages of Spain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Languages of Spain are the languages spoken or once spoken in the territory of the country of Spain.

1 Modern
2 Historically
3 Variants
4 Further information
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Modern

Image:Spain languages.PNG The most prominent of the languages of Spain is Spanish, which nearly everyone in Spain can speak and is also called in Spain and South America castellano — "Castilian". Other languages figure prominently in many regions: Basque (Euskara) in the Basque Country and Navarre; Catalan in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands and (in the same dialect continuum) Valencian in Valencia; and Galician in Galicia. Spanish is official throughout the country; the rest of these have co-official status in their respective regions and all are major enough that there are numerous daily newspapers in these languages and (especially for Catalan, Basque and Galician) a significant book publishing industry. Many citizens in these regions consider their regional language as their primary language and Spanish as secondary; these languages cover broad enough regions to have multiple distinct dialects. (Spanish itself also has distinct dialects around the country, with the Andalusian dialect being closer to the Spanish of the Americas, which it heavily influenced.)

In addition, there is strong and growing support for other regional languages, some of them in danger of extinction. These include Asturian in Asturias and León province, Aragonese in Aragon, and Aranese, a dialect of Gascon spoken only in the tiny Val d'Aran, but enough of a live language to be co-official and used in the public schools there.

With the exception of Basque, which appears to be a language isolate, all of these are Romance languages.

Arabic or Berber are spoken by the Muslim population of Ceuta and Melilla and by recent immigrants (mainly from Morocco and Algeria) elsewhere.

During the 1939–1975 dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, all languages except Castilian were largely banned, as Franco wanted to create a united Spain and crush any forms of separatism, especially the Basque, Catalan and (to a lesser extent) Galician movements. (See Language politics in Spain under Franco.)