Languages of Spain
The most prominent of the
languages of Spain is, of course,
Spanish (which nearly everyone in
Spain can speak and is also called in Spain and South America
castellano â€" "Castilian"). Other languages figure prominently in many regions:
Basque (
Euskara) in the
Basque Country and
Navarre;
Catalan in
Catalonia and the
Balearic Islands and (in the same
dialect continuum)
Valencian in
Valencia; and
Galician in
Galicia. Spanish is official throughout the country; the rest of these have co-official status in their respective regions and all are major enough that there are numerous daily newspapers in these languages and (especially for Catalan, Basque and Galician) a significant book publishing industry. Many citizens in these regions consider their
regional language as their primary language and Spanish as secondary; these languages cover broad enough regions to have multiple distinct dialects. (Spanish itself also has distinct dialects around the country, with the
Andalusian dialect being closer to the Spanish of
the Americas, which it heavily influenced.)
In addition, there is strong and growing support for other regional languages, some of them in danger of extinction. These include
Asturian in
Asturias and
León province,
Aragonese in
Aragon, and
Aranese, a dialect of
Gascon spoken only in the tiny
Val d'Aran, but enough of a live language to be co-official and used in the
public schools there.
With the exception of Basque, which appears to be a
language isolate, all of these are
Romance languages.
Arabic or
Berber are spoken by the Muslim population of
Ceuta and
Melilla and by recent immigrants (mainly from Morocco and Algeria) elsewhere.
Other languages have been extensively spoken in the territory of modern Spain:
*
Andalusi Arabic*
Celtic languages*
Guanche*
Galician-Portuguese*
Gothic language*
Iberian language*
Judeo-Catalan*
Latin language*
Ladino*
Mozarabic languages
*
Romany languageThere are also variants of these languages proper to Spain, either dialect, cants or pidgins:
*
Barallete*
Bron*
Caló*
Cheli*
Fala dos arxinas*
GacerÃa*
GermanÃa*
Inglés de escalerilla*
Mingaña*
Aragonese language*
Astur-Leonese language**Asturian language
**
Extremaduran language**Leonese language
*
Basque language (Euskara)
*
Catalan language**
Valencian*
Fala language*
Galician (Gallego)
*
Gascon language**
Aranese language*
Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish, Sefardi, etc.)
*
Occitan language*
Spanish language (
castellano)
**
Names given to the Spanish language*
Signed languages**
Spanish Sign Language (
Lengua de Signos Española, LSE).
**
Catalan Sign Language (
Lengua de Signos Catalana, LSC).
**
Valencian Sign Language (
Lengua de Signes en la Comunitat Valenciana, LSCV).
*
Language politics in Francoist Spain
