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Did you know this about... Spanish?

01In terms of numbers of speakers Spanish is the world’s second most spoken language with 332 million speakers.
Spanish is official language in 21 sovereign states. These comprise: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela.

02"Silbo Gomero" also known as "el silbo" ('the whistle'), is a whistled language spoken by inhabitants of La Gomera in the Canary Islands. It is structured in such a way that the islanders are able to mimic the spoken language of the region – Castilian Spanish – through whistles. While there have been reports of other whistling languages in the world, Silbo Gomero is the only one that is fully developed and practiced by an entire community. The language is being taught to small school children in a bid to keep it alive.

03Las Glosas Emilianenses (Glosses of Saint Emilianus) was the first written Spanish record dating back to 964. It is the first known document, consisting of notes in both Spanish and Basque in the margins of a religious manuscript in Latin. The first literary work fully written in Spanish was El Cantar del Mio Cid, an anonymous poem from the 12th century.

04Spanish is considered a pro-drop language, where the subject of the sentence may be absent. For example the following sentences are both grammatically correct, even if the subject ― "yo" is not included: (1) "yo tengo un gato" (I have a cat) (2) "tengo un gato".

05Spain has had many different names throughout its history. The North African inhabitants who first crossed the Straits of Gibraltar called it Iberia, which meant land of rivers ("Iber" meant river). When the Greeks invaded the peninsula, they called it "Hesperia", meaning “land of the setting sun” (since it was then the westernmost point of the European continent). When the Carthaginians came to the land around 300 BCE, they called it "Ispania", which meant “land of the rabbits”. Later, the Romans took over and Latinized the name to "Hispania". Over time, this changed to "España".

06In contrast to names in other languages, that as a general rule are not translated, in Spanish the names of Royalty are translated. With this, if up until now Catherine Middleton was called so, from the point at which she married Prince William (el príncipe Guillermo), she must now be referred to using the Spanish version, "Catalina". It has been the same case for all members of Royalty throughout time, for example, in Spanish, Henry VIII, King of England, was referred to as "Enrique VIII", Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was referred to as "Francisco Fernando", and the most up-to-date examples being "la reina Isabel" (Queen Elizabeth), "Carolina de Mónaco" (Caroline Princess of Monaco) and "Margarita II de Dinamarca" (Margrethe II of Denmark).

07The famous Spanish poem Cantar del mio Çid tells the story of the legendary El Cid, a Spanish hero in the war between the Christians and Moors. The poem was based on a real man, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1043-1099). He actually was a mercenary who fought on both sides. His name “El Cid” comes from the Arabic "al sayyid" meaning “the lord.”

08The Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española), created in the 18th century, is widely considered the arbiter of standard Spanish. It produces authoritative dictionaries and grammar guides. Although its decisions do not have the force of law, they are widely followed in both Spain and Latin America. Among the language reforms promoted by the Academy have been the use of the inverted question mark and exclamation point (¿ and ¡). Although they have been used by people who speak some of the non-Spanish languages of Spain, they are otherwise unique to the Spanish language. Similarly unique to Spanish and a few local languages that have copied it is the ñ, which became standardized around the 14th century.
www.rae.es

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