| The Spanish language began when Southwestern | | | | of Spain and expelled the Moors in the 15th century |
| Europe's first settlers, the Iberians of Libya, got | | | | A.D. Vulgar Latin dialects, especially Castilian, now |
| together the Celts, the nomadic Aryan tribes who | | | | began to dominate. |
| migrated from the north. Together they formed the | | | | The Catholic husband-wife monarchs Isabella of |
| Celtiberian race and spoke a form of Celtic. At that | | | | Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon made Castilian the |
| time Spain was known as the Iberian Peninsula. | | | | official Spanish language dialect when they finished the |
| The Phoenicians of Lebanon followed. These great | | | | reconquest of Moorish Spain in 1492. By now, from the |
| pioneers of peaceful and productive civilization founded | | | | work of the court of scholars that had begun in the |
| Cadiz and other trading posts along the Mediterranean | | | | 1200s under King Alfonso X, the Spanish language had |
| coast. They left a profoundly rich legacy including the | | | | already been standardized based on the Castilian |
| invention of the alphabet. | | | | dialect. |
| Next came the Greeks. They founded several towns | | | | Alfonso X was known as the Learned King of Castile |
| before the Phoenicians decided to claim possession of | | | | and Leon. Headquartered in the central highlands city |
| the peninsula and called for help from Carthage. But | | | | of Toledo, he and his scholars translated histories along |
| Rome came to the Greeks' defense and this became | | | | with literary, scientific and legal works from Latin, |
| the Second Punic War. | | | | Greek and Arabic. This played a major role in the |
| The Romans conquered the entire Iberian Peninsula | | | | spread of knowledge throughout ancient Western |
| and ruled for 600 years until the collapse of the | | | | Europe. They also wrote original works and their |
| Roman Empire in the 400s A.D. They named the | | | | official documents in Castilian. |
| region Hispania, taught classical Latin to the inhabitants, | | | | And so, the Castilian dialect became Spain's written |
| and completely absorbed them in Roman culture. | | | | and educational standard. Several spoken dialects |
| When classical Latin merged with the languages of the | | | | survived, with Andalusian as the next most prominent. |
| Iberians, Celts and Carthaginians, the result was a | | | | In the end, the principal contributors of words to the |
| language called Vulgar Latin. | | | | Spanish language are Latin, English and Arabic, in that |
| Latin remained the official language of Hispania even | | | | order. Modern Spanish is laced with about 4,000 words |
| after the German Visigoth tribes invaded in the 400s | | | | having Arabic roots. Non-Latin words that both Spanish |
| A.D. But in about 719 A.D. came the attack of the | | | | and English share come from Arabic. For instance, |
| Moors. These were Arabic-speaking Islamic Muslims | | | | albacore (albacora), alcohol, algebra, guitar (guitarra), |
| from Northern Africa and they dominated most of | | | | coffee (café) and sofa among others. |
| Hispania until the late 1400s. Vulgar Latin survived only | | | | Today, Spanish is the official language of Argentina, |
| in a few remote centers of Christianity, but the | | | | Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the |
| creation of a standardized Spanish language had | | | | Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial |
| begun 200 years earlier. More about this in a moment. | | | | Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, |
| Arabic became the next largest contributor of words | | | | Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay and |
| to what was to become the Spanish language. | | | | Venezuela. Spanish is the native language of over 332 |
| Thousands of Arabic words had been added by the | | | | million people, and is widely spoken in the United States, |
| time the Christian kingdoms finally re-took possession | | | | Canada, Morocco and the Philippines. |