General
Spanish（西班牙语） is the most widely spoken of the Romance languages, both in terms of number of speakers and the number of countries in which it is the dominant language. Besides being spoken in Spain, it is the official language of all the South American republics except Brazil and Guyana, of the six republics of Central America, as well as of Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Additionally it is spoken in the Balearic and Canary islands, in parts of Morocco and the west coast of Africa, and also in Equatorial Guinea. In the United States it is widely spoken in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California (in New Mexico it is co-official with English), in New York City by the large Puerto Rican population, and more recently in southern Florida by people who have arrived from Cuba. A variety of Spanish known as Lad mo is spoken in Turkey and Israel by descendants of Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492. All told there are about 350 million speakers of Spanish. chiina3view
Pronunciation and usage of Spanish naturally vary between countries, but regional differences are not so great as to make the language unintelligible to speakers from different areas. The purest form of Spanish is known as Castilian, originally one of the dialects that developed from Latin after the Roman conquest of Hispania in the 3rd century A.D). After the disintegration of the Roman Empire, Spain was overrun by the Visigoths, and in the 8th century the Arabic-speaking Moors conquered all but the northernmost part of the peninsula. In the Christian reconquest, Castile, an independent kingdom, took the initiative and by the time of the unification of Spain in the 15th century, Castilian had become the dominant dialect. In the years that followed, Castilian—now Spanish—became the language of a vast empire in the New World.
Spanish is spoken/used in the following countries:
Argentina, Aruba (Dutch), Balearic Islands, Belize (British Honduras), Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Canary Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Diego Garcia (U.K. & U.S.), Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), Gibraltar (U.K.), Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Morocco, Nevis, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico (U.S.), Spain, St. Kitts (& Nevis) Independent, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, Virgin Islands (U.S.).
Description above is from: http://www.worldlanguage.com/Languages/Spanish.htm
External Links
Links below are from: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/languages/1-6-4-7.html
- Instituto Cervantes exists to promote the Spanish language; their website includes plenty of material for students and teachers of Spanish, plus up-to-date information about cultural events.
- Enhance your reading and comprehension skills with Aula de lengua.
- Explore Buñuel's filmography in depth with their excellent centenary pages.
- Yahoo en español - Spanish-language version of the famous web directory, or try Yahoo España or Yahoo México for a more country-specific view.
News & media on-line
- El Mundo is one of Spain's most popular newspapers, which also has La Revista on-line, its Sunday supplement with a good range of full-text articles.
- El Periódico - Catalunyan daily paper (in Castillian).
- ABC Electrónico - right-leaning daily news from Spain.
- Latin American countries are also well-represented; see for example La Jornada from Mexico, Clarín from Argentina, El Tiempo from Colombia, El Mercurio from Chile and Puerto Rico's Televicentro news summaries.
- Google Noticias España allows you to search and browse hundreds of continuously updated news sources.
- TVE Internacional television schedules - as seen in the Sussex Language Institute. EuroTV carry more concise schedules.
- Canal13 from Chile offers live TV on the internet.
- Spanish Radio Stations on the Internet - lots of Spanish-language radio stations which you can listen to live online.
- BBC Mundo is the Spanish-language website of the BBC World Service - lots of features to read and hear in RealAudio, plus a live feed.
Teaching resources
- Tecla is a magazine (including exercises) written for learners and teachers of Spanish, with a searchable subject index of past issues. It is produced weekly during term-time by the Consejería de Educación, Embajada de España.
- diccionarios.com provides access to bilingual dictionaries from Vox, including their English<->Spanish offering.
- Tomísimo is an English-Spanish bilingual learners' dictionary that makes finding words easy by automatically searching in both languages.
- Viaje al pasado: los aztecas - el perfecto simple y el imperfecto en la narración y la descripción. Attractive interactive multimedia site providing a broad context for all verb forms. Includes animations which explain use of verb forms, 45 exercises and two adventure games in pre-Hispanic Mexico.
- The Spanish CALL Project has lots of exercises, grammar and links. See also Ejercicios de lengua española - a collection of on-line grammar exercises from Juan Ramón de Arana.
- comunicativo.net - free resources for teachers of Spanish. Communication activities, lesson plans, self correcting grammar exercises, worksheets, chat and so on.
- Comp-jugador performs on-line conjugations of about 10,000 Spanish verbs.
- Learn Spanish - a free online tutorial.
- Web Spanish Lessons - three lessons, including (Mexican) audio, from Tyler Chambers who has also made available a small English/Spanish dictionary as part of the Internet Dictionary Project.
- Spanish Food Dictionary
- MundoHispano is a MOO for learners of Spanish - it's a multi-user interactive system, a virtual environment where students can practice their Spanish while sharing ideas and experiences with other Spanish speakers and learners. Click here to take the plunge (beware - your Spanish will need to be at least intermediate level!).
- What is a MOO? Have a look at The Purpose of MOOs for more details.
Literature
- Proyecto Sherezade has contemporary short stories in Spanish by authors from all over the world, plus vocabulary and grammar exercises, comprehension questions etc.
- Literatura Argentina Contemporánea - extensive details and excerpts of many Argentinian authors.
Sources for further research...
- Linred - Lingüística en la Red is an Internet journal on theoretical and applied linguistics, with a slant towards issues in Spanish as a Foreign Language.
- Recursos - a guide to resources for Spanish studies from the University of Brighton Language Centre.
- About.com Guide to Spanish Language - original articles, lessons, exercises and lots of links, plus bulletin board and chat room.
- Sí, Spain - a fine resource from the Spanish Embassy in Ottowa, Canada, covering Spain's current affairs, its historical, linguistic and cultural development.
- Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC) at the University of Texas is a comprehensive directory of Latin American web resources organised by country and by subject.
- Universia.net has lots of well-presented information on Hispanic higher education.
