ESPAÑA SPAIN


Catalunya	Barcelona	Cáceres

Area 191.000 sq. mi
Population 39,887,240 Inhabitants
Languages
	Castellano (Spanish ) throughout the country Catalá Euskera (Basc) Gallego (Gallego-Portuguese) in Autonomous Communities.

Spain is a country with a very rich History. Acting as a bridge between Africa and Europe, the Iberian soil has proven to be a fertile medium where culture flourished. From the early artists of Altamira to the modern Picasso, Spain had being the cradle of philosophers, painters, scientists, visionaries, etc., etc., who changed the World. If you are interested in knowing more, look at my next few pages. On them I try to provided a synopsis of Spanish History through Spanish Art.

This Home Page was created by Manuel I. Martin, Monday, January 11, 1999

Spanish (Español, Castellano)

Is the official language of Spain as well as all South America countries (with the exception of Brazil), the mayor part of Central America and Mexico. Spanish is the second language spoken by more people in the World, the first being Mandarin and the third English.
Spanish is a Romance language like French or Italian but it did not evolve directly from the Latin like the other Romance languages. Spanish (or more accurate Castellano) evolves from the Leonese (Romance language evolved directly form the Latin at the same time that Catalan, French, etc.) spoken at the castles (from where the name Castilla and Castellano derives) on the frontier with the Muslim Spain. Spanish is a very rich language with almost as many words with Latin origins as Arabic origins.
All three Romance languages that evolve in the Iberian peninsula also have some influences from Hebrew.

Catalá

The Catalá language belongs to the western group of Romance languages to which Spanish, Portuguese and French also belong. The Catalá language is spoken by more than 10,000,000 people. Catalá is also the official language of Andorra.
Because Catalá evolves directly from Latin and without much influence from Arabic, it appears more 'like' French or Italian than Spanish.

Euskera (Basco, Basc)

Euskera is an ancient language spoken by people in the North East of Spain and the South West of France. Euskera is a language not related to Latin, in reality it is not even an Indo-European language. Its origins are obscure but the Basc people were established in their area long before the Romans arrived to France or Spain.