Spanish

Spanish is one of the Romance languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century. Different dialects of Vulgar Latin were spoken across Europe and Spanish emerged from some of the dialects spoken in the Iberian Peninsula. Other languages also evolved in and around Iberia, including Catalan, Galician, Occitan, and Portuguese, which influenced the development of Spanish. The language was also influenced by Arabic with around eight percent of the vocabulary having an Arabic root.

Old Latin texts show the first precursor to modern Spanish appearing in the ninth century, which evolved into a full language during the Middle Ages. Spanish developed in the mid-north of Iberia and first used as a written language in the city of Toledo in the thirteenth century. In the fifteenth century Spanish became the language of the Spanish Empire and began to be used across the globe.

 Spanish is the second most common native language in the world and has the third highest number of total speakers. 28 countries have over a million Spanish speakers including 418 million Spanish speakers in the Americas. 

Spanish is the official language of 20 countries, 18 of which are in the Americas. In Central America, Spanish is the most common language, and it is the second most common language in North and South America after English and Portuguese respectively. Spanish is also spoken in Oceania on the Polynesian Easter Island, due to its connections with Chile. 

In Africa, Spanish is spoken in Equatorial Guinea, parts of Northern Morocco and in the Spanish territories. In Asia, Spanish is spoken in the Philippines where it was previously an official language. In the Philippines there also speak Chavacano a Spanish-based creole language.

In Europe, Spanish is spoken primarily in Spain, Gibraltar, and Andorra, though there are Spanish migrants and second language speakers across the continent. Portugal and France contain notable numbers of Spanish speakers along with Switzerland, France, and the United Kingdom.