HISTORY OF THE SPANISH LANGUAGE area of men at arms and where high culture - expressed
The history of the Spanish language usually dates back
to the pre-Roman period since it is possible that the
pre-Roman languages of the Iberian Peninsula exerted
an influence on Hispanic Latin that would give the
peninsular Romance languages several of their
characteristics. The history of the Spanish language is
conventionally divided into three periods: Medieval
Spanish, Middle Spanish, and Modern Spanish.
Spanish is a Romance language, derived from Vulgar
Latin, which belongs to the Italic subfamily within the
Indo-European group. It is the main language in Spain
and 19 American countries, and is also official in
Equatorial Guinea. It is also called Castilian because it
has its origin in the medieval kingdom of Castile.
The Romanization of Hispania and the Germanic
peoples
The conquest and colonization of Hispania (from 218
BC. C.) caused the loss of the pre-Roman languages ?
except Basque? and its replacement by Vulgar Latin ,
which was a spoken modality different from that found
in literary texts.
In the 5th century the Germanic peoples invaded the
Iberian Peninsula, but did not alter the linguistic map,
since they were Romanized. However, words of
Germanic origin, such as shelter, truce, guardian, were
incorporated into the language.
Origin of Spanish
Castilian is the result of the evolution that Latin
experienced in a small territory in the upper Ebro, in the
southeast of Cantabria and the north of León.
Castilian showed an innovative character compared to
the rest of the Romance dialects because the region in
which it was formed had been little Romanized, was an
in Latin - had little presence.
The features that differentiate Castilian are:
 The initial Latin f- , preserved in the other
dialects, in Spanish was transformed into
aspirated h and finally stopped being
pronounced: farina Þ flour.
 The short and stressed Latin vowels e and o
became diphthongs in Spanish: ventu Þ wind ;
focus Þ fire .
 The initial Latin groups pl -, cl -, fl -, evolved to ll
-: plorare Þ cry, clamare Þ call, flamma Þ flame.
 The Latin syllable cul after a stressed syllable
ended up becoming j : speculu Þ mirror.
 The Latin consonant group - ct - evolved to ch :
factu Þ fact ; nocte Þ night
Expansion of Castilian in the Middle Ages
In its expansion, Castilian prevailed over other dialects,
such as the Mozarabic languages of the south of the
Peninsula, as the Reconquista advanced, or Leonese and
Aragonese, as Castile joined the kingdoms of León and
Aragon.
As the conquests progressed, they moved southwards?
to Burgos and then to Toledo? the centers of influence
of Castilian, while the changes that had begun to take
place in northern Spanish spread.
The Spanish of the Golden Ages
During the 16th and 17th centuries the language was
polished and fixed until it acquired a configuration very
similar to what it has today. The printing press
contributed decisively to the graphic, lexical and
syntactic standardization of the cultured standard of
Spanish.
Phonetics was regularized, with the current vowel and
consonant systems practically established, while many
morphosyntactic hesitations were defined.
The linguistic norm of the time varied between that of
Toledo, where the Court was; that of Burgos, whose
linguistic uses were considered outdated; and that of
Seville, which was the capital of overseas trade. Finally,
the discretion (?good taste?) of writers and cultured
people was adopted as a model, regardless of their
geographical origin.

Illustration
In 1713, the Royal Spanish Academy was founded,
under the motto "Clean, fix and give splendor", with the
aim of providing Castilian with a definitive standard and
avoiding misuse and foreign elements that could
adulterate the language.
To carry out its work, the Royal Academy wrote a
Dictionary of Authorities (1726-1739), an Orthography
(1741) and a Grammar (1771). The writing we currently
use comes, with slight variations, from that adopted by
the Royal Academy in the 18th century and is
characterized, unlike other languages, by being
phonetic , that is, by trying to represent the words as
they are pronounced.
Contemporary Spanish
Since the 19th century, various factors have definitely
influenced the leveling of the official language over
dialects, such as the improvement of communications
or the implementation of compulsory schooling. This
leveling was reinforced since the beginning of the 20th
century due to radio and, currently, television.
The disappearance of traditional rural languages has
been due to successive waves of emigration from the
countryside to the cities in the last two centuries. This
has led to the abandonment of a traditional type of life
and the forgetting of a series of words that
characterized it, such as threshing, whitewashing,
badila, which many people find outdated.
The History of Spanish in Latin America
Understanding the origin of the Spanish language is
essential to recognize the subtle differences in the
Spanish spoken in different regions. In the 15th century,
Christopher Columbus sailed to America and took the
Spanish language with him. As a result of what
intellectuals call "Hispanization", Spanish became
established as the primary language in the region.
During the early stages of the so-called "Hispanization"
there were many challenges, since the local languages
were absolutely different and communication was very
difficult. Until the Catholic Church intervened, it was not
certain whether Spanish would survive in the region.
Hence, the Catholic Church was of preponderant
importance for the expansion of the use of Spanish in
the region. Particularly the Jesuits and the Franciscans,
who established educational institutions to teach
children Catholicism in Spanish. As children and
adolescents grew, the Spanish language began to
expand and spread. As Catholicism grew, so did the use
of Spanish as the primary form of communication.
Despite the efforts of the Spanish to impose the
language on the natives, sheer predominance in
quantity caused the language to mix with local dialects.
Particularly, the native Mexicans and Peruvians were
able to significantly influence the language currently
spoken in Latin America.
Certain influences from Spanish explorers from
Andalusia helped shape the pronunciation of Latin
American Spanish against Castilian. That is why certain
words in Spanish and Latin American Spanish sound
quite different, even with identical spelling. The
combination of all these historical and sociological
events has caused the evolution of Latin American
Spanish that is currently spoken in Central and South
America.
Latin American Spanish
In Latin America, the Spanish language has variants or
dialects in the different areas where it is spoken due to
the enormity of the territory, as well as historical
differences. It is possible to observe the development of
the different variants of Latin American Spanish in the
various geographical areas: Amazonian Spanish,
Bolivian, Caribbean, Central American, Andean, Chilean,
Colombian, Ecuadorian, Mexican, Northern Mexican,
Paraguayan, Peruvian, Puerto Rican and Argentine.