Spanish Language | Sociolinguistics

In general, languages tend to spread in the same way. Sometimes people migrate and bring their language, culture, and behavior with them. However, this is actually not a phenomenon that causes language to spread to every corner of the world. Throughout history, a number of languages have spread through religions, business, tourism, even certain field. Latin, for example, was used throughout Europe when it was used to spread Catholicism. There are also many countries that speak Arabic because it is the language of Islam and Qur'an. Thus, this section would like to discuss regarding to language of Spain, Spanish, which is the second most popular language in the world.

Spain, which is officially called as the Kingdom of Spain or in Spanish Reino de España, is a country in Southwestern Europe with its territory across the Strait of Gibraltar and the Atlantic Ocean. Spain is the largest country in Southern Europe, the second-largest country in Western Europe and the European Union, and the fourth-largest country by area on the European continent with an area of 505,990 km2 (195,360 sq mi). Its population exceeding 47.3 million, Spain is the sixth-most populous country in Europe, and the fourth-most populous country in the European Union. Its capital and largest city is Madrid; other major urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza, Málaga, and Bilbao.

Furthermore, Spain is legally multilingual country, and the constitution establishes that the nation will protect "all Spaniards and the peoples of Spain in the exercise of human rights, their cultures and traditions, languages and institutions. Spanish (español)— recognised in the constitution as Castilian (castellano)—is the official language of the entire country, and it is the right and duty of every Spaniard to know the language. Spanish is a Romance language (Indo-European family) spoken as a first language by some 360 million people worldwide. In the early 21st century, Mexico had the greatest number of speakers (more than 85 million), followed by Colombia (more than 40 million), Argentina (more than 35 million), the United States (more than 31 million), and Spain (more than 30 million).

As we can see from the data above, Spanish is growing to become one of the most important languages of the world. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world, by the number of native speakers, behind Chinese. It shows that there are more people speaking Spanish as their first language than those whose mother tongue is English. It is also one of the official languages of the United Nations and the European Union. Spanish is also the official language of 21 countries in the world, including Puerto Rico, which is part of the United States of America. In fact, Spanish was once the official language of the Philippines, but not anymore. It is also the 3rd largest language used on the internet. The use of Spanish on the internet has grown by 800% in recent years.

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