| A direct descendent of Latin, Spanish belongs to the | | | | Extremaduran and Northern Spanish. Over twenty |
| Romance group of languages together with | | | | more are spoken in the Latin American lands. |
| Portuguese, French, Romanian and Italian. Spanish is | | | | Spanish uses the Latin alphabet to which it added the |
| the most popular of this group, having almost four | | | | letter "ñ" (eñe). Another particularity of the |
| hundred million native speakers across the globe. | | | | Spanish alphabet is that the digraphs "ch" and "ll" are |
| It is used in Spain, in the Americas and to a smaller | | | | considered single letters, each of them representing a |
| extent in Africa and Asia Pacific, thus gathering over | | | | single phoneme. |
| five hundred million speakers worldwide and climbing to | | | | The language of explorers and of the powerful |
| the fourth position in the top of the most widely | | | | Inquisition, Spanish began to be more extensively used |
| spoken languages. | | | | in diplomacy only in the 18th century. That was also the |
| Spanish is the official language of twenty independent | | | | period when Spanish grammar was formalized. Ever |
| countries (including Argentina, Colombia, Bolivia, | | | | since the language has continued to develop, |
| Paraguay, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Chile, Costa Rica and | | | | borrowing more and more foreign words. |
| Peru) and one of the six official working languages of | | | | Famous for its speakers (writers like Garcia Marquez, |
| the United Nations. | | | | Llosa and Cervantes) but also for the beautiful |
| Although called 'Castilian' in the Spanish Constitution of | | | | countries it is spoken in, Spanish has become one of |
| 1978 (name taken from the region of Castile), the | | | | the most popular languages in the world. More and |
| generic name of the language remains 'Spanish'. In | | | | more students sign up for Spanish language courses |
| Spain the Castilian dialect is regarded as the national | | | | nowadays and the people's interested in it is shown in |
| standard and it is based on pronouncing the words | | | | the massive request for translations from and into |
| exactly as they are written. Here one can find several | | | | Spanish. |
| dialects such as: Canarian, Andalusian, Murcian, | | | | |