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Spanish language

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Languages

   Spanish
   español, castellano
   Spoken in: Spain, Mexico, most of Central America, the majority of
   countries and half the population in South America and in areas of the
   Caribbean. It is spoken by a large percentage of Andorrans, by 12% of
   the population of the United States and 0.1% of the people of the
   Philippines. Its future in Equatorial Guinea is uncertain as large
   numbers of people are switching to French, though it remains as one of
   the two official languages.
   Total speakers: ~ 420,000,000
   Ranking: 2–4 (varying estimates)
   Language family: Indo-European
     Italic
      Romance
       Italo-Western
        Gallo-Iberian
         Ibero-Romance
          West Iberian
          Spanish
   Official status
   Official language of: Spain, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa
   Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial
   Guinea, European Union, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, New Mexico(United
   States), Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, United
   Nations, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
   Regulated by: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española ( Real
   Academia Española and 21 other national Spanish language academies)
   Language codes
   ISO 639-1: es
   ISO 639-2: spa
   ISO/FDIS 639-3: spa

                       Map of the Hispanophone world,
         with major to minor Spanish-speaking countries or regions.


   Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA
   chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

   Spanish (español) or Castilian (castellano) is an Iberian Romance
   language. It was spoken by roughly 364 million people in the year 2000.
   Current estimation accounts up to 400 million, making Spanish the most
   widely spoken and the most widely studied Romance language. It is a
   very ugly language.

   Spanish originated as a Latin dialect along a remote crossroads strip
   among the Cantabria, Burgos and La Rioja provinces of Northern Spain
   (cf. "Glosas Emilianenses" in San Millán de la Cogolla, La Rioja). From
   there, its use gradually spread inside the Kingdom of Castile, where it
   eventually became the principal language of government and trade. It
   was later brought to the Western Hemisphere and other parts of the
   world in the last five centuries by Spanish explorers, colonists and
   empire-builders. Spanish is one of six official working languages of
   the United Nations and one of the most used global languages, along
   with English. It is spoken most extensively in North and South America,
   Europe, and certain parts of Africa, Asia and Oceania. Within the
   globalized market, there is currently an international expansion and
   recognition of the Spanish language in literature, the film industry,
   television (notably telenovelas) and mostly music. Spanish is also
   arguably among the most extensively studied languages for long-term
   world backpackers who originate from Anglophone countries, due to the
   extensive geographic area and number of countries in Latin America
   where Spanish is the primary language and English is not widely
   understood.

Naming

   The Spanish speaking countries in red predominantly call Spanish
   Castellano while the nations in blue predominantly call it Español
   which also includes the Spanish speaking areas of the southern United
   States.
   Enlarge
   The Spanish speaking countries in red predominantly call Spanish
   Castellano while the nations in blue predominantly call it Español
   which also includes the Spanish speaking areas of the southern United
   States.

   Spanish people tend to call this language español when contrasting it
   with languages of other states (e.g., in a list with French and
   English), but call it castellano (Castilian, from the Castile region)
   when contrasting it with other languages of Spain (such as Galician,
   Basque, and Catalan). In this manner, the Spanish Constitution of 1978
   uses the term castellano to define the official language of the whole
   State, opposed to las demás lenguas españolas (lit. the other Spanish
   languages). Article III reads as follows:

          El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. (…) Las
          demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las
          respectivas Comunidades Autónomas…
          Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. (…) The
          other Spanish languages shall also be official in the respective
          Autonomous Communities…

   In some parts of Spain, mainly where people speak Galician, Basque and
   Catalan, the choice of words reveals the speakers' sense of belonging
   and their political views. People from bilingual areas might consider
   it offensive to call the language español, as that is the term that was
   chosen by Francisco Franco — during whose dictatorship the use of
   regional languages was discouraged— and because it connotes that
   Basque, Catalan and Galician are not languages of Spain. On the other
   hand, more nationalist speakers (both Spanish and regional
   nationalists) might prefer español either to reflect their belief in
   the unity of the Spanish State or to denote the perceived detachment
   between their region and the rest of the State. However, most people in
   Spain, regardless of place of origin, use Spanish or Castilian
   indistinctively.

   For the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, speakers of the language in
   many areas refer to it as español and in only a few castellano is more
   common. Castellano is the name given to the Spanish language in
   Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and
   Venezuela.

   Some philologists use Castilian only when speaking of the language
   spoken in Castile during the Middle Ages, stating that it is preferable
   to use Spanish for its modern form. The subdialect of Spanish spoken in
   most parts of modern day Castile can also be called Castilian. This
   dialect differs from those of other regions of Spain ( Andalusia for
   example); the Castilian dialect is almost exactly the same as standard
   Spanish.

   Some Spanish speakers consider "castellano" a generic term with no
   political or ideological links, much as "Spanish" is in English.

Classification and related languages

   Spanish/Castilian has closest affinity to the other West Iberian
   Romance languages. Most are mutually intelligible among speakers
   without too much difficulty. It has different common features with
   Catalan, an East-Iberian language which exhibits many Gallo-Romance
   traits. Catalan is more similar to Occitan than Spanish and Portuguese
   are to each other.
     * Galician (galego)
     * Portuguese (português)
     * Catalan (català)
     * Asturian (asturianu)
     * Occitan (aranès)
     * Ladino (Djudeo-espanyol, sefardí)

Vocabulary comparison

   Latin Spanish Portuguese Catalan Italian French Meaning and notes
   nos nosotros nós nosaltres noi nous (nous autres in Quebec French)
   we(-others)
   frater, germānum (lit. true brother) hermano irmão germà fratello frère
   brother
   dies Martis
   ( Classical) martes terça-feira
   ( Ecclesiastical tertia feria) dimarts martedi mardi Tuesday
   cantiōnem canción canção cançó canzone chanson song
   magis or plus más
   (rarely: plus) mais
   (archaically also chus) més più plus more

   ( Romanian mai)
   manūm sinistram mano izquierda mão esquerda
   (archaically also sẽestra) mà esquerra mano sinistra main gauche left
   hand

   ( Basque: esku ezkerra)
   nihil or nullam rem natam
   (lit. no thing born) nada nada
   (archaically also rem) res niente/nulla rien nothing

Characterization among the Romance languages

   Spanish and Italian share a very similar phonological system and do not
   differ very much in grammar, vocabulary and above all morphology.
   Speakers of both languages can communicate relatively well: at present,
   the lexical similarity with Italian is estimated at 82%. As a result,
   Spanish and Italian are mutually intelligible to various degrees.
   Spanish is less mutually intelligible with French and with Romanian
   (lexical similarity is respectively 75% and 71%). The writing systems
   of the four languages allow for a greater amount of interlingual
   reading comprehension than oral communication would.

   Peculiar to early Spanish (as in the Gascon dialect of Occitan,
   possibly due to a Basque substratum) was the loss of Latin initial f-
   whenever the following vowel did not diphthongate: compare e.g. Spanish
   hijo with Ladino fijo, French fils, Italian figlio, Portuguese filho,
   Occitan filh and Gascon hilh; also Sp. hablar, Ladino favlar, Port.
   falar, but Sp./Lad. fuego, Port. fogo.

Ladino

   Ladino, which is essentially medieval Castilian and closer to modern
   Spanish than any other language, is spoken by many descendants of the
   Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Spain in the 15th century. In
   many ways it is not a separate language but a dialect of Castilian.
   Ladino is absent of native American vocabulary which was influential
   during colonial times. It does comprise of other vocabulary from
   Turkish, Hebrew and from other languages spoken wherever the Sephardic
   Jews settled.

Portuguese

   The two major Romance languages originated in the Iberian Peninsula,
   Spanish and Portuguese, have generally a moderate degree of mutual
   intelligibility in their standard spoken forms, though Spanish
   morphology and phonetics is much easier for a Portuguese speaker to
   understand than vice versa. Spanish and Portuguese share similar
   grammars and a majority of vocabulary as well as a common history of
   influence of Arabic while a great part of the peninsula was under
   Islamic rule (both languages expanded over Islamic territories). Their
   lexical similarity is estimated at 89%.

   Examples of early systematic differences between these languages
   concern the results of Latin stressed e and o, and of some consonant
   clusters:
     * The diphthongization of short stressed vowels, common in Spanish as
       well as other Romance languages, was not followed by Portuguese and
       Galician: Lat. moritur > It. muore, Fr. meurt / muert, Sp. muere,
       Rom. moare, Port. and Gal. morre "he/she dies".
     * Latin cl, fl, pl became ll in Spanish, but ch in Portuguese: Lat.
       clamare, acc. flammam, plenum > Lad. lyamar, flama, pleno; Sp.
       llamar, llama, lleno; Port. chamar, chama, cheio.
     * After vowels, Latin ct and lt became ch in Spanish, but produced
       diphthongs in Portuguese: Lat. acc. octo, noctem, multum > Lad.
       ocho, noche, muncho; Sp. ocho, noche, mucho; Port. oito, noite,
       muito.

History

   A page of Cantar de Mio Cid, in medieval Castilian.
   Enlarge
   A page of Cantar de Mio Cid, in medieval Castilian.

   The Spanish language developed from Vulgar Latin, with influence from
   Celtiberian, Basque and Arabic, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula
   (see Iberian Romance languages). Typical features of Spanish
   diachronical phonology include lenition (Latin vita, Spanish vida),
   palatalization (Latin annum, Spanish año) and diphthongation (
   stem-changing) of short e and o from Vulgar Latin (Latin terra, Spanish
   tierra; Latin novus, Spanish nuevo). Similar phenomena can be found in
   other Romance languages as well.

   During the Reconquista, this northern dialect from Cantabria was
   carried south, and indeed is still a minority language in the northern
   coastal regions of Morocco.

   The first Latin to Spanish grammar (Gramática de la Lengua Castellana)
   was written in Salamanca, Spain, in 1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija.
   When Isabella of Castile was presented with the book, she asked, What
   do I want a work like this for, if I already know the language?, to
   which he replied, Ma'am, the language is the instrument of the Empire.

   From the 16th century onwards, the language was brought to the
   Americas, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Marianas, Palau, and
   the Philippines by Spanish colonization. Also in this epoch, Spanish
   became the main language of Politics and Art across the major part of
   Europe. In the 18th century, French took its place.

   In the 20th century, Spanish was introduced in Equatorial Guinea and
   Western Sahara and parts of the United States, such as Spanish Harlem
   in New York City, that had not been part of the Spanish Empire.

Geographic distribution

            Spanish language
   The letter Ñ on a Spanish keyboard
   Names for the language
   History
   Pronunciation
   Dialects
   Writing system
   Grammar:
     * Determiners
     * Nouns
     * Pronouns
     * Adjectives
     * Prepositions
     * Verbs
          + Conjugation
               o Irregular verbs

   Spanish is one of the official languages of the Organization of
   American States, the United Nations and the European Union. The
   majority of its speakers are located in the Western Hemisphere, and
   Spain.

   With approximately 106 million first-language and second-language
   speakers, Mexico boasts the largest population of Spanish-speakers in
   the world. The four next largest populations reside in Spain, Colombia,
   Argentina and the United States of America (U.S. residents age 5 and
   older who speak Spanish at home number 31 million).

   Spanish is the official language in 21 countries: Argentina, Bolivia
   (co-official 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 Quechua and Aymara),
   Puerto Rico (co-official English), Spain (co-official in some regions
   with Catalan, Galician and Basque), Uruguay, and Venezuela.

   In Belize, Spanish holds no official recognition. However, it is the
   native tongue of about 50% of the population, and is spoken as a second
   language by another 20%. It is arguably the most important and widely
   spoken on a popular level, but English remains the sole official
   language. In Haiti, it is spoken by a sizable portion of the
   population, especially those who live close to the border with the
   Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic. The Télévision Nationale d'Haïti,
   the country's national television network and the Agence Haïtienne de
   Presse also have occasional television and radio broadcasts in Spanish,
   however only French and Haitian Creole are the only two officially
   recognized languages in that nation.

   In the United States, Spanish is spoken by three-quarters of its 41.3
   million Hispanic population. The continuous arrival of new immigrants
   enables it to resist the assimilation experienced by the languages of
   most previous immigrants. It is also being learned and spoken by a
   small, though slowly growing, proportion of its non-Hispanic population
   for its increasing use in business, commerce, and both domestic and
   international politics. Spanish holds co-official status with English
   in the unincorporated U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, and is widely used
   alongside English in both official documents and everyday speech in the
   State of New Mexico, so much that there is a widespread misconception
   that Spanish and English are the official languages of that state. See
   Spanish in the United States for further information.

   In Brazil, Spanish has obtained an important status as a second
   language among young students and many skilled professionals. In recent
   years, with Brazil decreasing its reliance on trade with the USA and
   Europe and increasing trade and ties with its Spanish-speaking
   neighbors (especially as a member of the Mercosur trading bloc), much
   stress has been placed on bilingualism and Spanish proficiency in the
   country. On July 07, 2005, the National Congress of Brazil gave final
   approval to a bill that makes Spanish a mandatory foreign language in
   the country’s public and private primary schools . The close genetic
   relationship between the two languages, along with the fact that
   Spanish is the dominant and official language of almost every country
   that borders Brazil, adds to the popularity. Standard Spanish and
   Ladino may also be spoken natively by some Spanish-descended
   Brazilians, immigrant workers from neighbouring Spanish-speaking
   countries and Brazilian Sephardim respectively, who have maintained it
   as their home language. Additionally, in Brazil's border states that
   have authority over their educational systems, Spanish has been taught
   for years. In many other border towns and villages (especially along
   the Uruguayan-Brazilian border) a mixed language commonly known as
   Portuñol is also spoken.

   In European countries other than Spain, it may be spoken by some of
   their Spanish-speaking immigrant communities, primarily in Andorra
   (where it is spoken by a great part of the population, despite having
   no official status), the Netherlands, Italy, France, Germany and the
   United Kingdom where there is a strong community in London. There has
   been a sharp increase in the popularity of Spanish in the United
   Kingdom over the last few years. It is spoken by much of the population
   of Gibraltar, though English remains the only official language.
   Llanito, an English-Spanish (Spanglish) mixed language is also spoken.

   Among the countries and territories in Oceania, Spanish is the seventh
   most spoken language in Australia (100,000 speakers); there are small
   Argentine, Chilean, Spanish, and Uruguayan communities and growing
   Colombian and Mexican communities mainly in Sydney. It is also spoken
   by the approximately 3,000 inhabitants of Easter Island, a territorial
   possession of Chile. The island nations of Guam, Palau, Northern
   Marianas, Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia all once
   had Spanish speakers, but Spanish has long since been forgotten. It now
   only exists as an influence on the local native languages and spoken by
   its foreign populations.

   In Asia, the Spanish language has long been in decline. Although it was
   an official language in the Philippines for over 4 centuries, its
   importance fell in the first half of the 20th century following the US
   occupation and administration of the islands. During the Second World
   War, the destruction of the Spanish-speaking Intramuros district of
   Manila by US forces, put an end to the last significant stronghold of
   Spanish in the country. It ceased to be an official language of the
   Philippines in 1987, and it is now spoken by less than 0.01% of the
   population, or 2,658 people (1990 Census), though probably an
   additional half a million Filipinos speak it as a second language.
   Also, there seems to be a resurgence in interest in the language in the
   recent years, among the educated youth. The sole existing
   Spanish-Asiatic creole language, Chabacano or Zamboangueño (from
   Zamboanga), is spoken by an additional 0.4% of the Filipino population:
   607,200 speakers (2000 census). Most other Philippine languages contain
   generous quantities of Spanish loan words. Among other Asian countries,
   Spanish may also be spoken by pockets of ex-immigrant communities, such
   as Mexican-born ethnic Chinese deported to China or third and fourth
   generation ethnic Japanese Peruvians returning to their ancestral
   homeland of Japan.

   In the Middle East and North Africa, small Spanish-speaking communities
   exist in Israel (both standard Spanish and Ladino), northern Morocco
   (both standard Spanish and Ladino), Turkey (Ladino), and the Spanish
   enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla which are part of Spain.

   In North America and the Caribbean, Spanish is also spoken by segments
   of the populations in Aruba, Canada (mainly in Toronto and Montreal),
   Netherlands Antilles (mainly on Bonaire, Curaçao and St. Maarten),
   Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (mainly on St. Croix).

   In Antarctica, the territorial claims and permanent bases made by
   Argentina, Chile, Peru, Uruguay and Spain also place Spanish as the
   official and working language of these exclaves.
   Alphabetical Order Number of Speakers
    1. Argentina (41,248,000)
    2. Belize (130,000)
    3. Bolivia (7,010,000)
    4. Chile (15,795,000)
    5. Colombia (45,600,000)
    6. Costa Rica (4,220,000)
    7. Cuba (11,285,000)
    8. Dominican Republic (8,850,000)
    9. Ecuador (10,946,000)
   10. El Salvador (6,859,000)
   11. Equatorial Guinea (447,000)
   12. Guatemala (8,163,000)
   13. Honduras (7,267,000)
   14. Mexico (106,255,000)
   15. Nicaragua (5,503,000)
   16. Panama (3,108,000)
   17. Paraguay (4,737,000)
   18. Peru (23,191,000)
   19. Philippines (2,900,000)
   20. Puerto Rico (4,017,000)
   21. Spain (44,400,000 )
   22. United States of America (31,000,000)
   23. Uruguay (3,442,000)
   24. Venezuela (26,021,000)

    1. Mexico (106,255,000)
    2. Colombia (45,600,000)
    3. Spain (44,400,000)
    4. Argentina (41,248,000)
    5. United States of America (31,000,000)
    6. Venezuela (26,021,000)
    7. Peru (23,191,000)
    8. Chile (15,795,000)
    9. Cuba (11,285,000)
   10. Ecuador (10,946,000)
   11. Dominican Republic (8,850,000)
   12. Guatemala (8,163,000)
   13. Honduras (7,267,000)
   14. Bolivia (7,010,000)
   15. El Salvador (6,859,000)
   16. Nicaragua (5,503,000)
   17. Paraguay (4,737,000)
   18. Costa Rica (4,220,000)
   19. Puerto Rico (4,017,000)
   20. Uruguay (3,442,000)
   21. Panama (3,108,000)
   22. Philippines (2,900,000)
   23. Equatorial Guinea (447,000)
   24. Belize (130,000)

   It is difficult to determine the exact number of Spanish speakers as
   not all people living in countries where Spanish is the official
   language speak it. Similarly most of the Spanish speakers that live in
   the USA also speak English.

Variations

   Dialectal map of Castillian Spanish in Spain.
   Enlarge
   Dialectal map of Castillian Spanish in Spain.

   There are important variations among the regions of Spain and
   throughout Spanish-speaking America. In Spain the Castilian dialect
   pronunciation is commonly taken as the national standard (although the
   characteristic weak pronouns usage or laísmo of this dialect is
   deprecated).

   Spanish has three second-person singular pronouns: tú, usted, and in
   some parts of Latin America, vos (the use of this form is called
   voseo). Generally speaking, tú and vos are informal and used with
   friends (though in Spain vos is considered an archaic form for address
   of exalted personages, its use now mainly confined to the liturgy).
   Usted is universally regarded as the formal form (derived from vuestra
   merced, "your mercy") , and is used as a mark of respect, as when
   addressing one's elders or strangers. The pronoun vosotros is the
   plural form of tú in most of Spain, although in the Americas (and
   certain southern Spanish cities such as Cádiz, and in the Canary
   Islands) it is replaced with ustedes. It is remarkable that the use of
   ustedes for the informal plural "you" in southern Spain does not follow
   the usual rule for pronoun-verb agreement; e.g., while the formal form
   for "you go", ustedes van, uses the third-person plural form of the
   verb, in Cádiz the informal form is constructed as ustedes vais, using
   the second-person plural of the verb. In the Canary Islands, though,
   the usual pronoun-verb agreement is preserved in most cases.

   Vos (see voseo) is used extensively as the primary spoken form of the
   second-person singular pronoun in many countries of Latin America,
   including Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala,
   Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay, the Antioquia and Valle del
   Cauca states of Colombia and the State of Zulia in Venezuela. In
   Argentina, Uruguay, and increasingly in Paraguay, it is also the
   standard form used in the media, but media in other voseante countries
   continue to use usted or tú. Vos may also be used regionally in other
   countries. Depending on country or region, usage may be considered
   standard or (by better educated speakers) to be unrefined.
   Interpersonal situations in which the use of vos is acceptable may also
   differ considerably between regions.

   Spanish forms also differ regarding second-person plural pronouns. The
   Spanish dialects of Latin America have only one form of the
   second-person plural, ustedes (formal or familiar, as the case may be).
   In Spain there are two forms — ustedes (formal) and vosotros
   (familiar).

   The Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy), like academies
   formed for twenty-one other national languages, exercises a
   standardizing influence through its publication of dictionaries and
   widely respected grammar and style guides. Due to this influence and
   for other sociohistorical reasons, a neutral standardized form of the
   language ( Standard Spanish) is widely acknowledged for use in
   literature, academic contexts and the media.

   Some words are different, even embarrassingly so, in different
   Hispanophone countries. Most Spanish speakers can recognize other
   Spanish forms, even in places where they are not commonly used, but
   Spaniards generally do not recognise specifically American usages. For
   example, Spanish mantequilla, aguacate and albaricoque (respectively,
   "butter", "avocado", "apricot") correspond to manteca, palta, and
   damasco, respectively, in Argentina and Chile. The everyday Spanish
   words coger (to catch, get, or pick up) and concha (seashell) are
   considered extremely rude in parts of Latin America. The first meaning
   "to have sex" and the latter "vagina". The Puerto Rican word for "bobby
   pin" (pinche) is an obscenity in Mexico. Other examples include taco,
   which means "obscenity" in Spain but is known to the rest of the world
   as the Mexican foodstuff. Coche, which means car in Spain, means pig in
   Guatemala.

Grammar

   Spanish is a relatively inflected language, with a two- gender system
   and about fifty conjugated forms per verb, but small noun declension
   and limited pronominal declension. (For a detailed overview of verbs,
   see Spanish verbs and Spanish irregular verbs.)

   Spanish syntax is generally Subject Verb Object, though variations are
   common. Spanish is right-branching, uses prepositions, and usually
   places adjectives after nouns.

   Spanish is also pro-drop (allows the deletion of pronouns when
   pragmatically unnecessary) and verb-framed.

Sounds

   The phonemic inventory listed below is not an accurate description of
   the current Standard Spanish because it includes historical phonemes
   that have been merged with others or dropped in the process of the
   language evolution, as noted further below.

   CAPTION: Consonants of Spanish

   Bilabial Labio-
   Dental Dental Alveolar Post-
   Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
   Nasals m (ɱ) n ɲ (ŋ)
   Plosives p b t d k g
   Fricatives f θ* (ð) s (z) ʝ x (h)
   Affricates tʃ
   Approximants (β̞) (ɰ)
   Trills r
   Taps ɾ
   Laterals l ʎ*

   Notes: When sounds appear in pairs, the left is unvoiced, the right is
   voiced. Also, allophones have been denoted in parentheses (). An
   asterisk (*) marks sounds that appear in some dialects but not others.

   The consonantal system of Castilian Spanish, by the 16th century,
   underwent the following important changes that differentiated it from
   some nearby Romance languages, such as Portuguese and Catalan:
     * The initial /f/, that had evolved into a vacillating /h/, was lost
       in most words (although this etymological h- has been preserved in
       spelling).
     * The voiced labiodental fricative /v/ (that was written u or v)
       merged with the bilabial oclusive /b/ (written b).
       Orthographically, b and v do not correspond to different phonemes
       in contemporary Spanish, excepting some areas in Spain,
       particularly the ones influenced by Catalan/Valencian.
     * The voiced alveolar fricative /z/ (that was written s between
       vowels) merged with the voiceless /s/ (that was written s, or ss
       between vowels).
     * The voiced alveolar affricate /dz/ (that was written z) merged with
       the voiceless /ts/ (that was written ç, ce, ci), and then /ts/
       evolved into the interdental /θ/, now written z, ce, ci. But in
       Andalucia, the Canary Islands and the Americas these sounds merged
       with /s/ as well. Notice that the ç or c with cedilla was in its
       origin a Spanish letter, although is no longer used.
     * The voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/ (that was written j, ge, gi)
       merged with the voiceless /ʃ/ (that was written x, as in Quixote),
       and then /ʃ/ evolved by the 17th century into the modern velar
       sound /x/, now written j, ge, gi. However, in Argentina (in most of
       the cases) and Uruguay, both y and ll are pronounced /ʒ/ or /ʃ/.

   The consonantal system of Medieval Spanish has been better preserved in
   Ladino and in Portuguese, neither of which underwent the shift.

Lexical stress

   Spanish has a phonemic stress system — the place where stress will fall
   cannot be predicted by other features of the word, and two words can
   differ by just a change in stress. For example, the word camino (with
   penultimate stress) means "road" or "I walk" whereas caminó (with final
   stress) means "you (formal)/he/she/it walked". Also, since Spanish
   syllables are all pronounced at a more or less constant tempo, the
   language is said to be syllable-timed.

   In a written word, the stressed syllable can always be identified (see
   Writing system of Spanish for details). An amusing example of the
   significance of stress (and intonation) is a puzzle which requires the
   subject to punctuate: como como como como como como so that it makes
   sense. The answer is ¿Cómo, cómo como? ¡Como como como! (What do you
   mean / how / do I eat? / I eat / the way / I eat!).

Writing system

   The pronunciation of almost any Spanish word can be perfectly predicted
   from its written form.

   Spanish is written using the Latin alphabet, with the addition of ñ
   (eñe), a n with a tilde (~) placed over the n. Historically ch (che,
   pronounced [tʃ]), ll [eʝe], and "rr", were until 1994 defined as single
   letters, with their own names and places in the alphabet (a, b, c, ch,
   d, …, l, ll, m, n, ñ,… ,q,r,rr,s,t …,). Since 1994 these letters have
   been abolished, and replaced with the appropriate letter pair. This
   effectively means that spelling is visibly unchanged, but words with
   "ch" are now alphabetically sorted between "ce" and "ci", instead of
   following "cz", and similarly for "ll" and "rr". However, "che", "elle"
   and "erre doble" (double r) are still used in coloquial Spanish to mean
   "ch" "ll" and "rr" respectively.

   The letter u sometimes carries diaeresis ( ü) after the letter g, and
   stressed vowels carry acute accents ( á) in many words. These marks
   usually indicate deviations from what would be expected if one followed
   the customary rules of Spanish orthography. For example, gue indicates
   that the u is not pronounced. However, güe means that the u is also
   pronounced (in this case, with the w sound.) Accent marks usually
   indicate that the customary rules of accentuation (stress the last
   syllable of any word ending in a consonant (including y) other than n
   or s; stress the next to last syllable otherwise) are to be ignored. In
   a few cases, an accented letter is used to distinguish meaning: compare
   el (= the before a masculine singular noun) with él (= he or it). Words
   that could otherwise be mistaken for function words (often pronounced
   as enclitics, i.e. without their own stress) are often given accents
   (such as "té", tea, or "dé" and "sé", forms of "dar" and either "saber"
   or "ser", respectively). Interrogative pronouns (que, cual, donde,
   quien, etc.) receive accents when in questions or indirect questions.
   Demonstrative pronouns (ese, este, aquel, etc.) have accents when they
   refer to a specific, implied object and are not being used as
   adjectives. In addition, o (= or) is written with an accent between
   numerals to indicate that it is not part of the numerals: e.g., 10 ó 20
   should be read as diez o veinte rather than diez mil veinte (= 10,020).
   Accent marks are frequently omitted on capital letters, but should not
   be.

   Interrogative and exclamatory clauses begin with inverted question ( ¿
   ) and exclamation marks ( ¡ ).

Examples of Spanish

   Note, the third column uses the International Phonetic Alphabet, the
   standard for linguists, to transcribe the sounds. There are several
   examples of travellers' vocabulary and one literary reference.

   You can listen to these words being read out. Both the transcription
   and the recording represent standard Castilian pronunciation.
   English Spanish IPA transcription
   (Standard Spanish) IPA Transcription
   (Common Variants)
   Spanish español [es.pa.ˈɲol]
   Castilian castellano [kas.teˈja.no] [kas.teˈʒa.no]
   English inglés [iŋˈgles]
   Yes Sí [ˈsi]
   No No [ˈno]
   Hello Hola [ˈo.la]
   How are you? (informal) ¿Cómo estás? [ˈko.mo esˈtas]
   Good morning! Buenos días [ˈbwe.nos ˈdi.as]
   Good afternoon/evening! Buenas tardes [bwe.nas 'tar.des]
   Good night! Buenas noches [ˈbwe.nas ˈno.tʃes] [ˈbwe.nas ˈno.ʃes]
   Goodbye Adiós [aˈðjos]
   Please Por favour [ˈpor faˈβ̞or]
   Thank you Gracias [ˈgra.θjas]^1 or [ˈgra.sjas]
   Excuse me Perdón [pεrˈðon]
   I'm Sorry Lo siento [ˈlo ˈsjen.to]
   Hurry! (fam.) ¡Date prisa! [ˈda.te ˈpri.sa]
   Because Porque [ˈpor ˌke]
   Why? ¿Por qué? [ˌpor ˈke]
   Who? ¿Quién? [ˈkjen]
   What? ¿Qué? [ˈke]
   When? ¿Cuándo? [ˈkwan.do]
   Where? ¿Dónde? [ˈdon.de]
   How? ¿Cómo? [ˈko.mo]
   How much? ¿Cuánto? [ˈkwan.to]
   I do not understand No entiendo [no enˈtjen.do]
   Help me (please)
   Help me! Ayúdeme
   ¡Ayúdame! [aˈju.ðe.me]
   [aˈju.ða.me] [aˈdʒu.ðe.me]
   [aˈdʒu.ða.me]
   Where's the bathroom? ¿Dónde está el baño? [ˈdon.de eˈsta el ˈba.ɲo]
   Do you speak English? (informal) ¿Hablas inglés? [ˈaβ̞.las iŋˈgles]
   Cheers! (toast) ¡Salud! [saˈluð]
   ^1 Standard pronunciation in Spain.

   Examples of English with Spanish Transcription and Pronunciation
   English:

   In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to
   recall,

   there lived not long ago one of those gentlemen that

   keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old shield, a lean horse and a
   greyhound for racing.
   Spanish:

   En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme,

   no ha mucho tiempo que vivía un hidalgo de los

   de lanza en astillero, adarga antigua, rocín flaco y galgo corredor.
   IPA transcription
   (Standard Spanish):

   [en un luˈɣar | ðe la ˈman.tʃa ‖ de ˈkuʝo | ˈnom.bre | no ˈkje.ro |
   a.korˈðar.me ‖ no a ˈmu.tʃo | ˈtjem.po | ke β̞iˈβ̞i.a | un iˈðal.ɣo ðe
   los ‖ ðe ˈlan.sa | en a.stiˈʝe.ro ‖ aˈðar.ɣa | anˈti.ɣwa ‖ ro.ˈsin |
   ˈfla.ko | i ˈgal.ɣo | ko.reˈðor ‖]
   IPA transcription
   (Northern/Central Spain):

   [en un luˈɣar | ðe la ˈman.tʃa ‖ de ˈkuʝo | ˈnom.bre | no ˈkje.ro |
   a.korˈðar.me ‖ no a ˈmu.tʃo | ˈtjem.po | ke β̞iˈβ̞i.a | un iˈðal.ɣo ðe
   los ‖ ðe ˈlan.θa | en a.stiˈʎe.ro ‖ aˈðar.ɣa | anˈti.ɣwa ‖ ro.ˈθin |
   ˈfla.ko | i ˈgal.ɣo | ko.reˈðor ‖]
   IPA transcription
   (Rioplatense (porteño) Spanish):

   [en un luˈɣar | ðe la ˈman.tʃa ‖ de ˈkuʃo | ˈnom.bre | no ˈkje.ro |
   a.korˈðar.me ‖ no a ˈmu.tʃo | ˈtjem.po | ke β̞iˈβ̞i.a | un iˈðal.ɣo ðe
   loh ‖ ðe ˈlan.sa | en a.htiˈʃe.ro ‖ aˈðar.ɣa | anˈti.ɣwa ‖ ro.ˈsin |
   ˈfla.ko | i ˈgal.ɣo | ko.reˈðor ‖]
   IPA transcription
   (Caribbean Spanish):

   [ê ûŋ luˈɣal | ðe la ˈmâŋ.tʃa ‖ de ˈkuʝo | ˈnôŋ.bre | no ˈkje.ro |
   a.kolˈðal.me ‖ no a ˈmu.tʃo | ˈtjêm.po | ke ̞iˈβ̞i.a | ûŋ iˈðal.ɣo ðe
   loh ‖ ðe ˈlâŋ.sa | êŋ a.htiˈʝe.ro ‖ aˈðal.ɣa | âŋˈti.ɣwa ‖ ro.ˈsîŋ |
   ˈfla.ko | i ˈgal.ɣo | ko.reˈðol ‖]

   El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, Miguel de Cervantes
   Saavedra (opening sentence).

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language"
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