The History of the Spanish Language

• published: 26 Apr 2013
• views: 86449

http://www.pimsleurapproach.com/learn-spanish/ Everyone is buzzing about the growing importance of the Spanish language in the globalized world. It's easy to see why: Spanish is an official language in 21 countries, its prevalence in the US means some say the US is actually a bilingual country, and by 2050, 900 million people will speak Spanish. That's 10% of the world's population, number crunchers. It's impressive progress for a language that began life in the dying embers of the Roman empire. Like French and Italian, Spanish is a Romance language, derived from Latin. But a lesser-known facts about Spanish's pedigree is that Arabic also exerted a heavy influence on the language- 4,000 words worth, in fact. Later, a certain C. Columbus took the language across the Atlantic. Spanish borrowed liberally from the native languages of South America, while each South American country gave Castilian Spanish their own flavor. Phew! The more than 2,000 years of Spanish language history is a lot to take in. That's why we've neatly condensed it into a whirlwind, globetrotting guide of less than 3 minutes. Whether you want to more about the language you already speak, or you want to find out more before joining the millions of people already learning Spanish, sit back and enjoy the video!