A Brief History of the Spanish Language

Asia

The region with the least Spanish speakers, Asia has hosted the Spanish language since the sixteenth century, when Spanish explorers colonized the Philippines and set about imposing their rule and spreading Christianity. Here, Spanish was spoken primarily by the elite – businesspeople, intellectuals, missionaries and the local court. But despite the populace being educated in Spanish throughout the nineteenth century, and Spanish being the location’s main tongue until the mid-twentieth century, American control of the islands and nationalist sentiments served to drastically reduce the number of Spanish speakers in the Philippines. Briefly in 1973, then finally in 1987, Spanish lost its title as the Philippines’ official language.

Today, the language is enjoying something of a renaissance in the country, and the various Philippine languages borrow a proportion of their vocabulary from Spanish – Tagalog, for instance, has been shown to contain between 20% and 33% words of Spanish origin. What’s more, Chavacano – spoken by 700,000 people – is a common creole tongue that’s largely based on Spanish.

Africa

While there aren’t many Spanish-speaking countries across Africa – there is just one–the continent was only truly opened up to Europeans after anti-malarial treatments were developed in the nineteenth century, long after the height of Spanish colonization – Spanish speakers can flex their linguistic muscles in Equatorial Guinea.

Located on the western coast of the continent, Spanish, Portuguese and French are the official languages, thanks to the 1778 ceding of the territory from Portugal to Spain, the latter of which relinquished control of Equatorial Guinea in 1968.

Equatoguinean Spanish is similar to that spoken in Spain and Latin America. Although, owing to both the country’s inherent geographical isolation, and forced political isolation between 1968 and 1979 during to the dictatorship of Francisco Macías Nguema – known as one of the most brutal dictators in African history – the language has developed in a truly interesting, independent way.

Influenced over the centuries by local tribal languages, Equatoguinean Spanish is spoken by some 68% of the country, yet the language contains a large number of dialects and accents, many of which are drawn along tribal or ethnic lines. The influence of French, Portuguese and German is also apparent – the French “R” is used by some speakers, for example.

Europe

The Spanish language’s home, Spain, only developed the language known today in the Middle Ages – prior to this, Latin had been the primary tongue spoken, due to the influence of Roman rule. During this time, the various kingdoms of Spain, moving south in order to rid the peninsula of Moorish Arabs, developed a variety of Latin dialects.

The kingdom of Castile, once a minor kingdom, grew to prominence on the back of the Reconquista, and the dialect spoken – Castilian – became the language of the administration, culture and history as King Alfonso X began the process of standardizing the language of his realm.

In 1492, when the Reconquista was completed, Castilian was named as the official dialect of Spain, and became one of the first European languages to have an officially-defined system of grammar. Unlike most European languages though, Spanish was influenced greatly by Arabic, and today thousands of words can trace their origins to the centuries of Islamic rule.

Today, Spanish is spoken in the European countries of Portugal and Andorra, and by a large number of people in the British territory of Gibraltar, mainly thanks to the proximity of both countries to Spain.

The Americas

When Christopher Columbus reached the Americas in 1492, the continents of North and South America were first introduced to the Spanish Language. With religious conversion as the goal, the Catholic Church was invested in having the natives learn Spanish.

As the children taught in the institutions reached adulthood, Spanish was cemented as the primary language, but the influence of local tribal languages meant that the Latin American version of Spanish differed from Castilian at the local level. The Andalusian origin of the first explorers influenced the pronunciation patterns in Latin America from the outset. And in fact, 11 million people in Latin America still speak their indigenous languages.

As you can see, with such a rich history and a future that looks “linguistically bright,” learning Spanish can not only be a rewarding personal experience for you, but also a smart move professionally as the language becomes more popular by the day. Experience the fun when you learn Spanish with Rosetta Stone. Try our hands-on interactive demo and see what makes Rosetta Stone the most award-winning language-learning program.