Did You Know?
Spanish is used by 417 million people around the world (352 million of whom count it as their first language), and is the most studied foreign language in the United States.
Overview:
Spanish (el español) is an Iberian Romance language, and the third or fourth most spoken language in the world. It is spoken as a first language by about 352 million people, or by 417 million including non-native speakers (according to 1999 estimates). The majority of Spanish speakers live in Latin America.
Spaniards tend to call their language español (Spanish) when contrasting it with other national languages (e.g. in a list with French and English), but call it castellano (Castilian) when contrasting it with regional languages of Spain (like Galician, Basque, and Catalan). For the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, speakers of the language in some areas refer to it as español, and in others castellano is more common.
Classification & Brief History:
Spanish is a member of the Romance branch of Indo-European languages.
The Spanish language was developed from vulgar Latin, with influence from Basque and Arabic, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. [...] During the Reconquista, this northern dialect was carried south.
The language was brought to the Americas, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Marianas, Palau and the Philippines, by the Spanish colonization beginning in the 16th century.
In the 20th century, Spanish was introduced in Equatorial Guinea and Western Sahara.
Geographic Distribution:
Spanish is one of the official languages of the United Nations, the European Union and the African Union.
With close to 100 million first-language speakers, Mexico boasts the largest population of Spanish-speakers in the world. The four next largest populations reside in Colombia (44 million), Spain (c. 41 million), Argentina (39 million) and the United States of America (c. 30 million).
Spanish is the official and most important language in 20 countries: Argentina, Bolivia (co-official Aymará), 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 Aymará), Spain (co-official Catalan, Galician, Basque and Aranese), Uruguay and Venezuela; as well as in the commonwealth of Puerto Rico (co-official English). [...]
In the United States — which has no officially recognized national language — Spanish is spoken by some three-quarters of its over 40 million Hispanic population. It is also being learnt and spoken by a small, though slowly growing, proportion of its non-Hispanic population for its increasing use in business, commerce and politics. On a federal level it shares a privileged position along with the more dominant English. On a state level, however, Spanish does hold co-official status in various states.
Spanish is also spoken in Canada, Israel (both standard Spanish and Ladino Judaeo-Spanish), northern Morocco, Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey (Ladino Judaeo-Spanish), the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Western Sahara.
In the Philippines, where its use has been in decline, Spanish ceased to be an official language in 1973. It is now spoken by less than 0.01% of the population; 2,658 speakers (1990 Census). Interestingly, despite the native and English numerals being the only counting systems used in all matters and circumstances, the Spanish decimals are still utilized by many when counting currency. Furthermore, the sole existing Spanish-Asiatic creole language, Chabacano, is spoken by 292,630 (1990 census) Filipinos. The speakers are mainly confined to various regions on island of Mindanao and a region south of Manila on the island of Luzon. Most other native Philippine languages contain generous quantities of Spanish loan words.
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Did You Know? statistics come from Wikipedia, "The free encyclopedia" and Infoplease, "All the knowledge you need"
Overview, Classification & Brief History and Geographical Distribution information adapted from Wikipedia, "The free encyclopedia"