Spanish, the second most important language in the world and the third most spoken language with more than 450 million speakers, has its origin in the centuries of Roman occupation, when the Iberian Peninsula was part of the Roman empire (Spainand Portugal).
After the collapse of the Roman empire, the evolution of lain produced this Romance language after barbarian invasions (V century) and Muslim invasions (VIII century) of the Iberian Peninsula. Nevertheless, I am sure most people learning Spanish in Spain already know about it.
Dialects of Castilian in Spain by 1950
During the al-Ándalus, name given to the territory of the Península set up under Muslim power in the middle ages, different Christian kingdoms were formed with several romance languages: the Catalan, the Navarre-Aragonese, the Castilian, the Astur-leonese and the Galician-Portuguese, all with Latin influences. After the union of several modalities in the XI century, the Romance Castilian dialect took shape, Spanish, in the oldcountyofCastille(current Cantabria and north of Burgos).
After that, Spanish developed as time went by. Alfonso X El Sabio had a crucial role in this progress, as he obtained the official recognition of Spanish during his reign (XIII century) after he created literary pieces in a language until then considered incorrect. Spanish spread gradually during the Christian Reconquista of the Muslim territory in the peninsula which finalised in 1492. Also, the Spanish language spread outside theIberian peninsula and arrived to the American continent after its conquest and colonisation in the XVI century.
Spanish is now present in the five continents and its knowledge is more and more generalised. So, if you think about undertaking a course to improve your knowledge of Spanish, do not hesitate and come to learn Spanish in Spain, country of origin of this language.
Image dialects in Spain. Martorell. http://bit.ly/sWR612
Tags: learn spanish in spain