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Spanish (also known as Castilian) is a Romance language from the Indo-European family. According to Wikipedia, this language originated from the common Latin spoken in the Iberian Peninsula and has now become a widely used global language with around 500 million native speakers, predominantly in Spain and the Americas. It ranks as the second most spoken first language globally after Mandarin Chinese and is the fourth most spoken language overall, following English, Mandarin, and Hindi-Urdu. It also holds the title of the most spoken Romance language. Mexico is the country with the highest number of native Spanish speakers.
The language falls under the Ibero-Romance category, which developed from various dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia following the Western Roman Empire’s fall in the 5th century. The earliest Latin documents showing elements of Spanish are from the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula in the 9th century. The first widespread written usage was in Toledo, an influential city in the Kingdom of Castile, in the 13th century. The era of Spanish colonialism, especially in the early modern period, saw the language spread to new territories, especially in the Americas.
Spanish has a relatively small degree of divergence from its Latin roots, about 20%, similar to Sardinian and Italian. Latin, including its Greek borrowings, has contributed approximately 75% of the current Spanish lexicon. Spanish is a commonly taught language worldwide, alongside English and French, although it is not as prevalent in the scientific field but more so in the humanities and social sciences. It’s also the third most utilized language on the internet, succeeding English and Chinese.
Spanish is recognized as an official language by the United Nations and is used in various other international bodies, including the European Union, the Organization of American States, the Union of South American Nations, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, and the African Union.
Main page of the Spanish version of WikiRank: es.wikirank.net