What Languages Are Spoken In Spain?

There are a number of languages used in Spain and also a number of dialects of these languages. Everyone in Spain can speak Castilian Spanish; Castilian Spanish is the official language of Spain and so is used universally throughout Spain. However, although it's the official language, Castilian isn't the only tongue that has "official" status. These other "co-official" languages are Euskara, Catalan and Galician. The co-official languages are used in different regions ("Comunidades Autónomas") of Spain.

On top of this, many of the official languages of Spain themselves have their own derived dialects.

Catalan is categorized as a romance language as it has been heavily influenced by Latin. In Spain, Catalan and its derivatives are mostly spoken in the regions of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia however it is also used in some parts of Murcia and Aragon.

Catalan came to be recognized in early Spain when it began to blossom. It soon became considered as a primary language. It has passed in and out of favor within the royal court of Spain through a number of of rulers, most notably the dictator General Franco. Since General Franco's death in the 1970s Catalan has been reinstated as one of the official languages of Spain. It should be noted also that Catalan is not exclusively "Spanish" as it is also used in France and Italy.

Euskara is widely used in the Spanish Basque region. However, it is being used in other parts of Spain due to its co-official status. Euskara is a very unusual language in that nobody is entirely certain from which historical language it is derived as it is so different from any other language in the Iberian region, and in fact the world. There have been various theories on the history of Euskara, but the origin is still unknown today. Euskara is a very enigmatic language as it is one of a kind; historians truly do not have any clues as to how it was formed. Euskara is spoken by approximately 500,000 basque natives and is is the most unique language in Spain.

The third co-official language is Gallego (Galician) spoken in the region of Galicia located in northern Spain. Like Catalan, Gallego is a romance language, however it has a very different sound to Catalan. In the past Gallego and Portuguese were the same language (the historic Kingdom of Galicia once took in the territory of Portugal). Although different languages today, Portuguese and Gallego are united by what is called a dialect continuum (i.e. they have many similarities having come from the same root language).

There are several places in Spain where dialects are used by a relative handful of people; these "languages" struggle to survive and are gradually disappearing. Most regions have dialect variances, and although the overwhelming majority of people know how to speak Spanish, many choose to use their own language. Consequently a visitor to Spain may speak to several different people and hear several completely different languages, regardless of where they are in Spain! This type of diversity has been the subject of much discussion throughout the ages as the people of each region are proud of its language and culture.

As previously discussed, the official language of Spain is Castilian. Of course many other European languages are now used in certain areas of Spain as various peoples have migrated to the south of Spain. And so it is not unusual that you will not only hear Castilian, Catalan, Gallego and Euskara (depending of course upon where you are) but you may also hear English, German, Italian and French.

Javier Melendez writes for many Spanish related websites such as the Spanish-Talk.co.uk site. His recent work is entitled "Spain and the Spanish".

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