Spain’s dominance in the 16th century worldwide contributed to the Spanish language being one of the most spoken languages today.
Absolutely. Experts pinpoint three different periods in which other languages have heavily influenced the Spanish language.
The first period back goes back to the origins when Latin was the primary influence.
The second period took place around 700 B.C. when the Arabs invaded Spain, and the language adopted many of their words and mannerisms. Today, about 4,000 Spanish words are related to the Arabic language.
The last period is taking place right now and comes from the English language, with words related to new cultural and technological waves. Spanish speakers borrow words from the English language like jeans, [computer] mouse, email, click, link, etc.
Spanish is the second most spoken native language globally, with almost 500 million speakers. Only Mandarin Chinese dominates Spanish with over 1.2 billion Mandarin Chinese speakers.
Extra info: Native English speakers use to be in second place. Things changed between the ’60s and ’80s. In 1963, U.S. citizens made up 5% of the world’s population. Today they make up about 3% of the world’s population. The U.S. did not shrink, but populations outside the U.S. more than doubled between 1960 and 1980. But English still dominates as the language most spoken as a second language globally with over 978.2 million.
In recent years, the Spanish language has risen by 800% online, bringing it to the 3rd most widespread language on the internet behind Mandarin and English. This evidence shows that the demand for Spanish is increasing. Forecasts indicate that 10% of the world’s population will understand Spanish in a few generations, whereas the number currently is 6%. Now that is an increase.
An estimated 18 million students are currently studying Spanish as a foreign language. Learning Spanish in schools, universities, and online is also grown in popularity.
Extra info: Many international companies and organizations, including the U.N., have adopted Spanish as one of their official languages. It means Spanish is becoming a critical language to know for the global economic market.
Spanish is the official language to 21 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela. It is also the official language of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory. Spanish is also commonly spoken in the United States, Belize, Andorra, and Gibraltar, even though it is not their official language.
Extra info: English is spoken in 112 countries; the English language is most widespread in the number of countries that speak it. French is second with 60 countries speaking the language, and Arabic is third, with 57 countries who communicate in Arabic. Spanish comes in fourth.
Maybe, if the growth projections stay as they are today, the U.S. will become the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world by 2050. Today Mexico is currently the largest Spanish-speaking country globally, with more than 120 million Spanish speakers.
Extra info: Although the United States does not have an official language, the de facto national language is English. Today the United States has the world’s fifth-largest Spanish-speaking population. Will that change by 2050? Only time will tell.
Hopefully, you do, but if not. I hope this information will be a good incentive to learn. Spanish is said to be one of the easiest languages to learn. According to a study carried out by the U.S. Foreign Service Institute.
With LingoHut free lessons, you will be able to become comfortable communicating in Spanish in no time. Give it a try and see for yourself!