Languages of Spain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Languages of Spain[1] | |
|---|---|
| Official language(s) | Spanish |
| Regional language(s) | Official
Catalan/Valencian, Basque, Galician, Aranese Unofficial Aragonese, Astur-Leonese (Asturian, Leonese, Cantabrian, Extremaduran), Eonavian, Fala language, Tarifit, as well as some distinct varieties of Spanish and the Gomeran whistled language |
| Main foreign language(s) | English (27%) French (12%) German (2%) Maghrebi Arabic Romanian |
| Sign language(s) | Spanish Sign Language |
| Common keyboard layout(s) |
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The Languages of Spain are the languages spoken or once spoken in Spain.
Contents |
[edit] Modern
| Spanish Catalan, co-official Basque, co-official Galician, co-official | Astur-Leonese language, unofficial Aragonese, unofficial Aranese, co-official (dialect of Occitan) Extremaduran, unofficial Fala, unofficial |
The most prominent of the languages of Spain is Spanish, which nearly everyone in Spain can speak as either first or second language. Other languages figure prominently in many regions:
- Basque in parts of the Basque Country and Navarre.
- Catalan in Catalonia, eastern Aragon, and the Balearic Islands and (in the same dialect continuum), as a variant of this, Valencian in the Valencian Community.
- Galician in Galicia (to some extent, it also forms a dialectal continuum with Portuguese).
- Aranese in the Pyrenean comarca of Val d'Aran, in north-western Catalonia. It is a variety of Gascon, which in turn is a variety of the Occitan language, but has its own standard version.
Spanish is official throughout the country; the rest of these have co-official status in their respective regions, and are widespread enough to have daily newspapers and significant book publishing and media presence in these regional languages. In the case of Catalan, it is the main language used by their regional government and local administrations. Aranese is co-official alongside both Spanish and Catalan. A number of citizens in these regions consider their regional language as their primary language and Spanish as secondary.
Spanish itself also has distinct dialects around the country; for example, the Andalusian or Canarian dialects, each of these with their own subvarieties, some of them being partially closer to the Spanish of the Americas, which they heavily influenced at different degrees, depending on the regions or periods, and according to different and non-homogeneous migrating or colonization processes.
In addition to these, there are a series of seriously endangered languages, which had traditionally been disregarded or considered dialects by Romance studies until the last decades. These are:
- Astur-Leonese: Asturian in Asturias and Leonese in parts of the former Kingdom of León.
- Aragonese in Aragon (mainly Upper Aragon).
Three little sets of dialects are of difficult filiation: Fala, a variety of its own mostly adscribed to the Galician-Portuguese group; Eonavian, a dialect continuum between Asturian and Galician, closer to the latter according to several linguists; and Benasquese, a dialect continuum between Aragonese, Catalan and even Aranese, considered either as an extreme Eastern Aragonese dialect or as a transitional dialect of its own.
With the exception of Basque, which appears to be a language isolate, all of the languages present in Spain are Romance languages.
Arabic (including Ceuta Darija) or Berber (mainly Riffean) are spoken by the Muslim population of Ceuta and Melilla and by recent immigrants (mainly from Morocco and Algeria) elsewhere.
[edit] Portuguese language in Spain
Also, Portuguese is spoken in:
- San Martín de Trevejo (Sa Martin de Trevellu), Eljas (As Elhas) and Valverde del Fresno (Valverdi du Fresnu), in the Valley of Jálama (Val de Xálima), (Cáceres Province) (in the dialect called A Fala).
- Olivenza (Badajoz Province) - Although disappearing since the Spanish take over.
- Cedillo or Cedilho horn (including Herrera de Alcántara or Ferreira de Alcântara).
- Various villages in the Galician border with Portugal.
None of these situations are protected by the Spanish Government nor Regional Governments, and not even by some form of support from the Government of Portugal.
[edit] Historically
Other languages have been extensively spoken in the territory of modern Spain:
- Andalusi Arabic
- Celtic languages
- Celtiberian language
- Gallaecian language
- Lusitanian language
- Guanche
- Galician-Portuguese
- Gothic language
- Iberian language
- Judeo-Catalan
- Latin language
- Ladino
- Mozarabic languages
- Romany language
- Tartessian language
[edit] Variants
There are also variants of these languages proper to Spain, either dialect, cants or pidgins:
[edit] Further information
- Aragonese language
- Astur-Leonese language
- Basque language (Euskara)
- Catalan language
- Valencian
- Fala language
- Galician (Galego)
- Gascon language
- Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish, Sefardi, etc.)
- Occitan language
- Spanish language (castellano)
- Signed languages
- Spanish Sign Language (Lengua de Signos Española, LSE).
- Catalan Sign Language (Llengua de Signes Catalana, LSC).
- Valencian Sign Language (Llengua de Signes de la Comunitat Valenciana, LSCV).
- Language politics in Francoist Spain
[edit] See also
- Iberian languages
- Languages of Portugal
- Iberian Romance languages
- Language politics in Spain under Franco for the attempt to uniformize the languages of Spain reducing them to Spanish only.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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