Languages of Spain
Encyclopedia : L : LA : LAN : Languages of Spain
The most prominent of the languages of Spain is, of course, Spanish (which nearly everyone in Spain can speak and is also called in Spain castellano — "Castilian"). Other languages figure prominently in many regions: Basque (Euskara) in the Basque Country and Navarre; Catalan in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and Valencia (where it is known as valencià, "Valencian"); and Galician in Galicia. Spanish is official throughout the country; the rest of these have co-official status in their respective regions and all are major enough that there are numerous daily newspapers in these languages and (especially for Catalan, Basque and Galician) a significant book publishing industry. Many citizens in these regions consider their regional language as their primary language and Spanish as secondary; these languages cover broad enough regions to have multiple distinct dialects. (Spanish itself also has distinct dialects around the country, with the Andalusian dialect being closer to the Spanish of the Americas, which it heavily influenced.)
In addition, there is strong and growing support for other regional languages, some of them in danger of extinction. These include Asturian in Asturias and León province, Aragonese in Aragon, and Aranese, a dialect of Gascon spoken only in the tiny Val d'Aran, but enough of a live language to be co-official and used in the public schools there.
With the exception of Basque, which appears to be a language isolate, all of these are Romance languages.
Arabic or Berber are spoken by the Muslim population of Ceuta and Melilla and by recent immigrants (mainly from Morocco and Algeria) elsewhere.
Historically
Other languages have been extensively spoken in the territory of modern Spain:- Andalusi Arabic
- Celtic languages
- Guanche
- Galician-Portuguese
- Gothic language
- Iberian language
- Judeo-Catalan
- Latin language
- Ladino
- Mozarabic languages
- Romany language
Variants
There are also variants of these languages proper to Spain, either dialect, cants or pidgins:Further information
- Aragonese language
- Astur-Leonese language
- *Asturian language
- *Extremaduran language
- *Leonese language
- Basque language (Euskara)
- Catalan language
- *Valencian
- Fala language
- Galician (Gallego)
- Gascon language
- *Aranese language
- Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish, Sefardi, etc.)
- Occitan language
- Spanish language (castellano)
- *Names given to the Spanish language
- Signed languages
- * Spanish Sign Language (Lengua de Signos Española, LSE).
- * Catalan Sign Language (Lengua de Signos Catalana, LSC).
- * Valencian Sign Language (Lengua de Signes en la Comunitat Valenciana, LSCV).
- Language politics in Francoist Spain
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.