Fiesta Nacional de España: The Languages of Spain, Part 2

On Friday we started our look at the languages of Spain as Saturday was the Fiesta Nacional de España, Spain's national day. We covered two of Spain's regional languages, Catalan/Valencian and Galician, and today we'll be continuing our linguistic journey with more of the recognised, regional, and immigrant languages found in modern-day Spain.

Regional Languages

Basque

Whilst only spoken by around 1% of Spain's population, the Basque language, known as Euskara in Basque, is interesting as it's a language isolate. We discussed the interesting nature of Basque as a language isolate back in May. Since Basque is a language isolate, it is also the only non-Romance language with official status in Spain.

Aranese

Aranese is considered to be a dialect of Gascon, a type of Occitan. However, it does hold co-official language status in the Spanish region of Catalonia along with Catalan. It was given co-official status as recently as 2010 and, as a result, is the newest of Spain's regional co-official languages.

Today there are only around 5,000 speakers of Aranese, and whilst there are estimated to be between 100,000 and 800,000 speakers of Occitan, Aranese is not considered endangered as the language has seen somewhat of a revival since it has been taught alongside Spanish in schools since 1984.

Aragonese

Though the name may sound similar to Aranese, the Aragonese language is another distinct Romance language with around 10,000 speakers. It doesn't hold co-official language status but it is recognised as a language native to the region of Aragon.

Astur-Leonese

Astur-Leonese is a group of mutually intelligible languages. Central Asturian is the principal dialect of the Astur-Leonese languages and is spoken natively in central Asturias by around 100,000 people and understood by around 450,000 people. Western Asturian, also known as Leonese, is spoken in western Asturias as well as Castile and León, principally in the province of León.

The language is also present in parts of Portugal, where the Mirandese dialect is used. There are around 15,000 people who speak this form of Astur-Leonese.

Due to its geographical proximity to other languages, Astur-Leonese also has various dialects that are considered transitional languages between Astur-Leonese and other Romance languages. As you approach Galicia, you are more likely to encounter Galician-Asturian, which has been proposed to be either a dialect of Galician, a dialect of Astur-Leonese, or its own distinct language, known as Eonavian. Eonavian is spoken by around 45,000 people.

Sede de Caja Cantabria, Santander.

In Cantabria, the transition language between Astur-Leonese and Castilian Spanish is known as montañés, or Cantabrian. Only 3,000 people are considered to be speakers of Cantabrian.

In the region of Extremadura, there is another transitional language between Astur-Leonese and Spanish, but here it is known as Extremaduran or estremeñu. This version of the language is said to have around 200,000 speakers, but it is very difficult to measure as there is not a clear consensus on the boundary between the Spanish spoken in Extremadura, castúo, and estremeñu.

Immigrant Languages

Spain has various speakers of immigrant languages principally owing to immigration across Europe, and because of Spain's historic empire, many speakers of Latin American Spanish. Languages such as Arabic, Romanian, English, French, German, Italian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Portuguese, and Javanese are also spoken by immigrant populations and communities.

Part 1 | Part 2

Fiesta Nacional de España: The Languages of Spain, Part 1

Today we'll be looking at the languages spoken in Spain as tomorrow is the country's national day, known as the Fiesta Nacional de España in Spain's principal official language, Spanish. Since we covered the Spanish language as one of our first language profiles, we felt today would be best suited looking at the other languages spoken in Spain.

Regional Languages

Since Spain is made up of autonomous communities, certain languages, particularly those native to a certain region, can hold co-official status with the national language, Spanish, also known as Castillian Spanish.

Catalan/Valencian

The Catalan language is principally spoken in the autonomous community of Catalonia, known as Catalunya in Catalan. The Catalan language is a descendant of Vulgar Latin, which was spoken in the regions surrounding the Pyrenees during the time of the Roman Empire.

As a relative of Occitan, which is principally spoken in France, Catalan shares more similarities with other Gallo-Romance languages such as French and Italian than it does with its geographical neighbours on the Iberian peninsula, such as Spanish and Portuguese.

The Mediterranean coast seen from Vinaròs, a town in the
Valencian Community near its border with Catalonia.

In the Valencian Community, the language is known as Valencian, or to use its endonym, valencià. This has been subject to much debate amongst those in the Valencian Community and Catalonia and as it stands, both Catalan and Valencian are considered the same language and different languages. Some linguists even believe that they are immensely similar languages that just so happened to evolve identically side-by-side and become mutually intelligible, though we're a bit sceptical of that last one.

The Catalan/Valencian language has a total of 7.2 million native speakers and the regions where it is spoken are home to some of the highest levels of bilingualism in Europe, not to mention being the largest communities where the main spoken language is not a national official language.

Galician

Galician, which is another language that may or may not be a language, is spoken principally in Galicia. As a close descendant of Portuguese or arguably a dialect of the language, Galician shares many qualities with the Portuguese language.

In the 13th century, the language known as Galician Portuguese diverged to become what some linguists say is now the Portuguese language and the Galician language. Other linguists believe that the two are part of a dialect continuum that includes Galician, Portuguese and rural dialects of both languages which are mutually intelligible between one another.

In Galicia, around 58% of the population are said to speak Galician as their first language, while over 3 million people are said to speak the language natively worldwide.

On Monday we'll be back with more regional languages of Spain and some of the prominent immigrant languages that have shaped the culture, history, and modern lifestyle of the country.

Part 1 | Part 2