20+ interesting facts & stats about Spanish
• November, 25 2024
From its humble beginnings on the Iberian Peninsula to its present status as a rival to English’s global sway, Spanish is absolutely soaring. And that’s a rise backed by a rich and surprising history. So, buckle up as we unveil 20+ interesting facts about this extraordinary language.
Thinking of learning Spanish and becoming part of the story? Then don’t hesitate to take a look at our Spanish language courses at our friendly new school in Barcelona.
Facts about the number of speakers:
Let’s have a look at some stats that tell the story of Spanish’s impressive stature on the international stage.
2nd most native speakers
While Mandarin Chinese takes the crown for the most native speakers, Spanish holds the second-place position. With approximately 500 million native speakers, or 6% of the world’s population, it's a language that flows from the bustling streets of Madrid to the high-octane megalopolis of Mexico City.
600 million+ speakers
When you add second-language speakers to the native speakers, the total number of Spanish speakers surges by 20% to 600 million, or 7.5% of the world’s population. As part of this extra 100 million non-native speakers, we’re pleased to count several of Iberia Language Academy’s staff.
Official in 20 countries
Spanish may play second fiddle to Mandarin Chinese by native speakers but it’s spoken in more places - holding official status in 20 countries! It's the language of government, education, and daily life in Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and plenty more.
Crossing 6 continents
Not only does Spanish hold official status in 20 countries but it’s also an official or recognized language across 6 continents. It will not surprise you that Spanish is official in Europe and South America. Yet, it may surprise you to learn that the language is recognised as an official (or semi-official) tongue in North America (United States), Africa (Equatorial Guinea), Southeast Asia (Philippines), and even Oceania (Kapingamarangi, Micronesia).
Spain: not where most Spanish speakers live!
Spanish is a language that hints at Spain. Yet, the nation with the most Spanish speakers is not Spain but Mexico, with around 128 million speakers. By 2050, it’s projected that the United States will overtake Mexico and be home to the highest population of native Spanish speakers in the world. Nevertheless, the US is already only just behind Spain with around 42m native speakers compared to 44m.
A language on the rise
The number of native Spanish speakers worldwide is impressive but it grew by 3 million just in 2022-23. As the Hispanic population in the United States expands and the language gains popularity in other parts of the world, Spanish is set to become even more influential in the years to come. This bodes well for aspiring learners of the language looking for opportunities.
Facts about the Spanish language’s origins
Spanish, as we enjoy it today, has been knocked into shape by an assortment of influences over the ages. Let’s take a closer look at the journey and its beginnings.
Rooted in Romance
Spanish is a Romance language, a descendant of Latin, the spoken language of the Roman Empire. This linguistic lineage connects it to other Romance languages like French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian. These languages share common roots, making it easier for speakers of one Romance language to learn another.
Arabic influence
Despite being a Latin language, that’s not the full picture and there’s more linguistic fusion afoot. Due to the historical presence of Arabic in the Iberian Peninsula, Spanish vocabulary contains a significant number of words with Arabic origins.
Imagine you were to move to Barcelona to study Spanish and had to find a flat. During the hunt, you’d learn the word ‘alquiler’ (to rent) which is derived from the Arabic word al-kirra. You may consider several neighborhoods or ‘barrios’ which is a word rooted in the Arabic ‘barri’. There are loads of other everyday examples, such as algódon which is the Spanish word for cotton (from al-qutn) or naranja, which comes from nāranja.
First standards
The first written norms of Spanish were proposed in the 13th century by the one known as Alfonso X, the Wise - a king of several Kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula at the time. It’s postulated that his standards for the written language were drawn from the speech of the upper classes of Toledo.
Related to English
While Spanish and other romance languages are like siblings, Spanish and English are more like cousins as they’re both ‘Indo-European’ languages. The languages in this family are divided into several branches (or sub-families), of which there are eight that contain languages still alive today. Here, Spanish and English diverge because while Spanish sprouts from the Romance branch, English emerges from the Germanic one.
Facts about the Spanish language’s grammar
Learning any language from the straightforward grammar of English can feel tricky but it’s also an enriching adventure. Here are some of Spanish’s mind-expanding challenges.
A 27-letter alphabet
The Spanish alphabet consists of 27 letters, with the addition of the "ñ" to the familiar 26 used by English. This unique character represents a sound uncommon in English and mastering the pronunciation of "ñ" is a rite of passage for any Spanish learner. Luckily it’s not all that tricky, being comparable to the sound ‘ny’ in English, which is found in words like ‘canyon’.
100,000 words
There’s no absolute way to measure the exact number of words in a language but Spanish is one of the richest of the planet’s tongues. Authoritative Spanish dictionaries contain around 100,000 words. While this sounds like a dizzying amount, and is higher than many other languages, it is significantly lower than English, which typically contains 200,000+. This is one stat that can make you feel a little reassured about reaching fluency.
Up to 18 tenses
Spanish has a rich vocabulary that’s not far off English. However, the tenses are far higher, with around 18 tenses compared to English’s 12. Some of those commonly used like the ‘imperfect’ are not used in English, so takes a bit of getting used to. A caveat is that the total number is debatable because while many linguists consider the Spanish ‘conditional’ to be a tense, others consider it to be merely a ‘mood’.
Grammatical gender
Unlike English, Spanish assigns a grammatical gender (masculine or feminine) to all nouns. This affects the articles used (el/la, un/una) and the adjectives that describe them, which must agree in gender and number. While there are some patterns, like nouns ending in -o often being masculine and those ending in -a often being feminine, there are many exceptions. For instance, the word for language is masculine despite ending in a: ‘el idioma’. Learning all the genders can be one of the trickier aspects of Spanish grammar for native English speakers.
Facts about learning Spanish
If you’re studying Spanish, or planning to, you’re not alone. The language’s global reach means it’s in big demand as a formidable second tongue to have under your belt.
The 2nd most studied language
While English is clearly the most studied language in the world, Spanish is, by many measures, the second most studied. Over 20 million students study Spanish as their foreign language each year. Language learning app Duolingo’s 2023 report corroborated this runner-up position by placing the language just behind English and ahead of French when analysing its most studied languages.
Relatively easy to learn, from English
For English speakers, Spanish is considered one of the easiest languages to learn, requiring around 600 classroom hours to achieve proficiency according to the FSI. The relatively straightforward grammar, phonetic pronunciation, and abundance of cognates (words that share similar spellings and meanings in both languages) make it an accessible language to acquire.
30% lexical similarity to English
If you’re looking to study Spanish but are intimidated by all the new words, then there’s some good news: 30-40% of words have a related word in English. For example, school is ‘escuela’, doctor is ‘doctora’, tourist is ‘turista’. And, of course hello is ‘hola!’. Many words like ‘hotel’ are exactly the same as they are in English (although remember that in Spanish the h is silent!).
(Not) the only language spoken in Spain!
Learning Spanish in Spain? Then, you should hear that it’s not the only official language in the country. Four official languages are actually spoken in Spain. Take Barcelona, where Spanish sits alongside Catalan as the official language of the autonomous community. While two of these other languages - Catalan and Galician - are closely related to Spanish, Basque stands alone. In fact, Basque is the only surviving ‘language isolate’ in Europe and its mysterious etymology is still not fully understood.
You’ll also learn Portuguese! (Sort of)
Of the languages spoken natively outside of Spain, Portuguese is the closest relation to Spanish and shares a 90% lexical similarity. With such a close match, if you’re proficient in Spanish you may well be able to understand written Portuguese quite well too. But hold on, Portuguese pronunciation is very, very different, which means it’s not quite as convenient as being able to learn one language to almost learn another.
The Royal Spanish Academy:
Founded in 1713, the Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española) is the official institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It plays a crucial role in maintaining the language's integrity and promoting its use worldwide. Significant changes can be made each year. Earlier in the post we mentioned the 27 letters in the Spanish alphabet. There used to be 29 until 2010 when the Academy removed two (CH and LL)!
We hope we’ve left you fascinated and informed about one of the world’s great languages. If you’d like to start learning Spanish in Barcelona then a reminder that we’ve got some pretty amazing Spanish language courses for you to take a look at.
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