13 Cool and Interesting Facts About the Spanish Language

National Hispanic Heritage Month/Mes de la Herencia Hispana. National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15th to October 15th in celebration and recognition of the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

However, there is a huge difference between culture, and the language of the culture. 

So, here are thirteen cool and interesting facts about the Spanish Language.

1. Spanish is spoken by 500 million people with a growing trend that will reach 600 million speakers by 2050.
2. Spanish was the diplomatic language up to the 18th century.
3. There have been 11 literature nobel prizes in Spanish.
4. Spanish is the second most studied language in the world in 2010. The number of people studying Spanish as a second language was more than 20 million. In three generations, 10% of the world’s population will be able to communicate in Spanish.
5. There are more than 40,000 words and conjugations in Spanish with all 5 vowels. They are called Panvocálicas or Pentavocálicas. But curiously, neither of these two terms are defined in the DRAE’.
6. After latin, the language that has had the biggest historic influence on Spanish is Arabic. Today, English exerts the most influence on Spanish.
7. Mexico conatains the largest population of Spanish speakers with 114 million followed by the United States with 50 million.
8. Some countries use the term Español and others prefer to use Castellano to refer to Spanish.
9. In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President, making Spanish language teaching mandatory in both public, and private secondary schools in Brazil.
10. The United States has almost 40 million native Spanish speakers. By 2050, it will become the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world.
11. Las Glosas Emilianenses (Glosses of Saint Emilianus) was the first written Spanish record dating back to 964. The first literary work fully written in Spanish as El Cantar del Mio Cid, an anonymous poem from the 12th century.
12. Spanish is the the following; offical language of 22 countries, 2nd largest native language in the world, 2nd language used for international communication, and 3rd most used language on the Internet.
13. The first Spanish grammar was created by Elio Antonio de Neberija and published in 1492, they same exact year that Columbus arrived in America.

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• hispanic heritage month
• language