Brief history of the Spanish language in 10 milestones

With the advance of the Romans, Latin spread across the region and created linguistic unity. The Latin that arrived was not classic Latin but a colloquial dialect called vulgar. With the exception of Basque, the Pre-Roman languages gradually disappeared.

In 711, almost without resistance, the Arabs occupied nearly the entire Peninsula. For eight decades, their culture and language had a significant impact on the south of the Peninsula. Mozarabic, a combination of Romance languages with many Arabic terms, emerged.

Castilian Spanish emerged from Cantabria in several counties belonging to the kingdom of Leon. The first Castilian texts come from the 10th century and can be found in documents called the Silent Glosses (Glosas Silenses) and Glosses of Emilianus (Glosas Emilianenses). The Toledo School of Translators (Escuela de Traductores de Toledo) was later founded in the 12th century.

In the 15th century after the conquest of Granada, the Catholic monarchy expelled the Jews. They left the Peninsula, taking Castilian with them. This language spread to other territories in the same way and dominated over other Peninsular languages.

In the 16th century, Spanish established itself in the colonies and reached its peak. The political and economic power gained by Spain would result in cultural growth delivered by Castilian, which would later be called Spanish.

Nowadays, Spanish is the official language in 21 countries and one of the official languages of the European Union and United Nations. It is the second most common mother tongue worldwide and is spoken by more than 590 million people across the globe.