Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and it is also used as an official language by the European Union, Organization of American States, Union of South American Nations, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, African Union and many other international organizations. Spanish is also the third most used language on internet websites after English and Chinese. Spanish does not feature prominently as a scientific language however, it is better represented in areas like humanities and social sciences. Alongside English and French, it is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world. Around 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is derived from Latin, including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek. Īs a Romance language, Spanish is a descendant of Latin, and has one of the smaller degrees of difference from it (about 20%) alongside Sardinian and Italian. Spanish colonialism in the early modern period spurred on the introduction of the language to overseas locations, most notably to the Americas. The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century, and the first systematic written use of the language happened in Toledo, a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile, in the 13th century.

Spanish is part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The largest population of native speakers is in Mexico. It is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese the world's fourth-most spoken language overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani ( Hindi- Urdu) and the world's most widely spoken Romance language. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries. Today, it is a global language with about 486 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain. Spanish ( español or idioma español), or Castilian ( castellano), is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Culturally important or secondary language (> 20% of the population) or presence of Spanish-based creole

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