Sharon Ortega, age 15, of Galveston, Texas, for her question:
HOW DID THE SPANISH LANGUAGE EVOLVE?
Spanish is a member of the Romance group of Indo European languages, spoken chiefly in the Iberian peninsula, which includes Spain, and in Latin America. The Vulgar Latin spoken by Roman armies and settlers in ancient Spain formed the basis of the many Spanish dialects that developed in the various regions of the country during the Middle Ages.
The dialect of Castile, or Castilian Spanish, gradually became the accepted standard as Castile gained political dominance in the 13th century.
While the majority of Spanish words derive from Latin, many are taken from other sources. Many words come from pre Latin languages spoken in the area such as Greek, Basque and Celtic.
The invasion of the Visigoths early in the 5th century A.D. introduced a few Germanic words. The Muslim conquest three centuries later brought in a large number of Arabic words, many of which are easily detected by the prefixed Arabic article "al."
Beginning in the 11th century, under the influence of French ecclesiastics and pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, the Spanish vocabulary was appreciably augmented by French words and phrases.
During the 15th and 16th centuries an infusion of elements from the Italian occurred because of Aragonese domination in Italy and the great vogue of Italian poetry in Spain.
Relations between Spain and its colonies and possessions have led to the introduction of terms from American Indian languages and other sources, and scholarly activities have constantly increased the stock of borrowed words.
In its grammatical structure, Spanish is generally in conformity with French, Italian Portuguese and other Romance languages. The Spanish language was carried by Spanish colonists to the Canary Islands, the Antilles, the Philippines, southern North America, the greater part of South America and the west coast of Africa.
Today Spanish is the most widely used Romance language. Altogether, about 150 million persons speak Spanish today. In addition to being spoken in Spain and in its overseas provinces, it is also the official language of 18th Latin American republics and one of the two official languages of Puerto Rico.
Many people in the United States speak Spanish, especially in Florida and in the Southwest.
The Spanish spoken in Spain is often called Castilian Spanish. The Spanish used in Latin America is known as American Spanish. Castilian Spanish and American Spanish are basically the same but have a few differences in pronunciation and vocabulary.
When the Spanish colonists, conquerors and missionaries brought Spanish to Latin America beginning in the 1500s, their language gradually replaced many Indian languages including those of the Aztec, Inca and Maya. Today, Spanish is the official language of all Latin American republics except Brazil and Haiti.