Deep Story

EP.20- Spanish's Surprising Global Impact and Future

• MPT

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-The Story of Spanish

Unlock the secrets of the Spanish language's evolution and its unexpected global dominance. Ever wondered how ancient civilizations like the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans contributed to the dynamic language spoken by millions today? Join us as we traverse the fascinating timeline of Spanish, from its ancient roots on the Iberian Peninsula through the transformative influences of the Visigoths and the Umayyad Caliphate. We'll uncover the captivating journey of Latin's transformation, melding with local dialects to birth a rich and diverse linguistic heritage that defied eras of political upheaval and cultural upheaval.

In our captivating discussion, we explore Spanish's monumental impact on the world today, revealing surprising facts such as the United States' position as the second largest Spanish-speaking country, despite the language's unofficial status. We'll also shine a light on Ladino, the unique Judeo-Spanish dialect thriving within Israel's Sephardic Jewish community. With insights from the Cervantes Institute, we delve into predictions for Spanish's future, with potential to surpass Mandarin as the most spoken language globally by 2045. Celebrate the artistic and literary prowess of Spanish, a language that continues to be a vibrant conduit of cultural expression and human connection.

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Speaker 1:

Let's be real here, say it, dig it and analyze it. That's Deep Story. Thanks for tuning into Deep Story. I'm MPT, you know. Language is like that ancient game of telephone different cultures pass it around and by the end it's a beautiful mess of history and influence. Take Spanish, for example. It's the world's second most spoken native language, but it didn't just pop out of nowhere. Oh no, it's got a backstory juicier than a soap opera.

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Let me set the scene Before the Phoenicians and Greeks showed up to the Iberian Peninsula to do their whole colonization thing, and way before the Carthaginians rolled in and claimed some territory, the place was already buzzing with life. The Greeks called it Iberia and the Phoenicians they had their own name for it, spain. And no, they didn't have a focus group to agree on that. These early folks had their own unique cultures and languages, like a linguistic mosaic nobody asked to organize. Now, when the colonizers arrived, they weren't just bringing olives and amphoras, they were also shaking up the local scene. They mingled with the native tribes, which sounds lovely, until you realize it was less of a cultural exchange and more of a takeover. But hey, silver lining, those interactions influenced trade, culture and, yes, even language. The Iberians, for instance, adopted the Phoenician alphabet to write their non-Indo-European language. Talk about ancient life hacks.

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Fast forward to 128 BC. The Romans landed during the Second Punic War to battle it out with the Carthaginians. Spoiler alertry it wasn't a quick win. The coastal regions of Iberia were like sure Rome, let's do this civilization thing. But the inland folks? They were the original holdouts. Think rural resistance. Before it was cool. Rome didn't fully conquer these areas until the 19th century BC, and even then the early romanization was pretty shallow. It's like when someone says they've moved to the city but still doesn't know how to parallel park. But here's the kicker Rome didn't force Latin down anyone's throat. Instead they made it the language of government and business. It was like saying you can keep your local tongue, but if you want to file your taxes or trade goods, better learn some Latin. The cities fully Romanized, the countryside not so much. Bilingualism hung on there like that one landline phone you refuse to get rid of.

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And let's talk about the Latin itself. On one hand you had your classical Latin, all polished and fancy, fancy like the Ivy League version of a language that was for the poets, scholars and bureaucrats. Then there was vulgar Latin, basically the people's Latin. It was simpler, less strict and a total melting pot. Thanks to soldiers, slaves, traders and anyone else, the empire picked up along the way. If Classical Latin was Shakespeare, vulgar Latin was texting with autocorrect off.

Speaker 1:

So that's how Spanish started cooking on the linguistic stovet of Iberia, with ingredients from Phoenicians, romans and everybody in between, and, honestly, that's why it's such a flavorful language today. You know, figuring out which words in modern Spanish came directly from vulgar Latin is like trying to separate spaghetti from marinara sauce. It's messy business. Researchers estimate there are about 150 to 200 words in Spanish that came from Celtic, iberian, celtiberian or even Ancient Basque languages. And yes, that includes the kind of words you'd use in a medieval version of Scrabble. Now Vulgar Latin, that's a different story. Over 70% of modern Spanish vocabulary has its roots there. That's the real heavy hitter. Plus, spanish borrowed a decent chunk of words from Greek. So basically, spanish has been freeloading off its neighbors for centuries.

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Jump to the 5th century and the Western Roman Empire is doing its best impression of a collapsing Jenga tower. The Suyibi vandals and Alans started carving out their little kingdoms in Spain. It was a two-century experiment in who could play king of the hill. But let's be real. The Visigoths were the big deal here. They rolled in, took over and stuck around for three centuries. By the time they settled down, they'd already adopted Latin as their main language, probably thinking when in Rome the Visigoths kept the Roman administrative system running, which meant Latin stayed the language of government, culture and the church. But everyday Latin in the cities it started breaking apart into regional dialects. Like someone forgot to update the group chat. Add in some Germanic influence from the Visigoths language and you've got the start of something interesting. Fun fact only about 3% of modern Spanish vocabulary comes from Gothic. But hey, that's still better representation than most ancient tribes get.

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And then, 7th happened the Umayyad caliphate's army, complete with Berbers who'd recently converted to Islam, rolled into Spain and absolutely crushed the Visigoths at the Battle of Guadalupe. Or you know, probably somewhere in modern-day Jerez. Probably somewhere in modern-day Jerez Geography's tricky, when no one kept receipts. In no time. The Umayyads controlled nearly the whole Visgothic kingdom, except for some rugged northern areas where the locals were like Nah, we're good.

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Under Muslim rule, arabic became the official language for administration, literature and science. But the local Romance languages didn't just pack up and leave. They stuck around, evolved and eventually became distinct languages. One of these, mozarabic, was a mix of vulgar Latin and a ton of Arabic loanwords used by Christians, jews and Muslim converts living under Islamic rule. Meanwhile, up in the Christian strongholds of the Cantabrian and Pyrenees mountains, basically where Roman influence never really took off, things were chaotic. Political unity forget it. These regions became the seeds of the future Christian kingdoms, each with its own flavor, geography and linguistic quirks. This diversity, plus a good dose of inter-kingdom squabbling, helped sprout new Roman languages. Over time, these evolved into the modern languages of Spain and Portugal.

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But unlike other Roman languages from the Western Roman Empire, the dialects in medieval Iberia were surprisingly mutually intelligible, kind of like cousins at a family reunion who don't fully understand each other's slang but still manage to chat. Speakers of Nevares, aragonese, aster Leonese and Galician Portuguese could communicate, albeit with some awkward pauses. That's medieval multitasking for you. So picture this is A50 AD and King Ordonno, the first of Asturias, is out here playing matchmaker with land titles. He hands over the reins to a frontier region somewhere north of modern De Burgos, to a guy named Rodrigo. Now, was Rodrigo the king's half-brother, his brother-in-law? Nobody's quite sure. And medieval records are basically the historical equivalent of he said, she said they called the area Castile or Land of Castles.

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Because, well castles. Some historians think the name might actually come from Bardulia, land of the Bardulos tribe. Either way, it started as a border county and over time said you know what? Let's be a kingdom. That's when things got spicy. The locals in Castile were speaking a mishmash of Volga, latin Basque and maybe even Navararre's Aragonese, slowly cooking up what we'd eventually call Spanish. Meanwhile, castile itself kept yo-yoing between merging with Leon or splitting off again like two siblings who can't decide if they want to share a room. By the time, castile became the big kid on the Christian kingdom block. It was full steam ahead on the Reconquista.

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As Castile pushed south, it picked up more than just land and people. It also borrowed a ton of new words. Mozarabic gave Spanish a hefty dose of Arabic vocabulary, and French, occitan and Portuguese also left their mark. Castilian Spanish was becoming a linguistic sponge. Now let's talk about the oldest written Spanish. For the longest time folks thought it was the Glossa Femininis, scribbled by a monk somewhere between the 10th and 11th centuries. But some scholars are now side-eyeing those glosses and saying, uh, maybe they're Proto-Aragonese. Then there's the claim that a set of texts from 9th century Burgos might actually be the earliest true Spanish. You know, it's serious when the Royal Spanish Academy gets involved.

Speaker 1:

By the time, spanish was carving out its place as the main language of central Iberia, as the Leonese was still doing its thing up north, they had their own literary gems, like the furo de avalese from the eleventh century and the charter of cheese. Yes, cheese from the tenth century. Experts, of course, or just fancy late Latin, because why not argue over cheese? The real breakthrough for Spanish came around 1195 with the Song of the Sede classic. That's basically the literary equivalent of planting a flag and shouting this is Spanish. Not long after, added to the canon with Miracles of Our Lady, but the game changer Alfonso X the wise, when he took the throne of Lune and Castile in 1252, he looked at Spanish and said let's turn this up to 11. Down in Toledo, under his watchful eye, they cranked out translations and original works in history, law, literature and science, not in Latin, but in a standardized Castilian Spanish, lovingly nicknamed Alfonsín. These weren't just slapdash translations either. Alfonso's crew polished the language, beefed up the vocabulary with Arabic, occitan and Latin terms and made Castilian the de facto language of knowledge by the time Alfonso died. Spanish wasn't just a tool for storytelling. It was legit enough to write laws and science books. That's how you know. You've made it as a language.

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By the 18th century, the Bourbon dynasty in Spain was like alright, we're making Spanish the official language of administration and education, and they really pushed for it. But here's the twist while Spain was busy with its centralized policies across the Atlantic, spanish was having its glow-up moment. After independence swept through the Americas, spanish went from being the language of colonial rule to the voice of newly formed nations. Talk about a rebrand. Back in the colonial days, only about 3 million people in the Americas spoke Spanish, but just a few decades post-independence, that number doubled. Today, spanish is the official language in 19 countries in the Americas, plus Spain and Equatorial Guinea.

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Meanwhile, in the United States, spanish doesn't hold any official status at the state level, not even in New Mexico, where it's deeply ingrained in the culture. Still, the US has the second largest population of Spanish speakers in the world, right after Mexico. Who would have guessed? Oh, and fun fact, in Israel there's a vibrant Sephardic Jewish community that still speaks Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish dialect. It's like Spanish with a historical twist. In fact, since 2020, one academy in Israel has even applied to join the Association of Spanish Language Academies.

Speaker 1:

According to the Cervantes Institute, spanish is the native language of nearly 500 million people, and another 100 million or so are learning it to level up their skills. That makes it the second largest language in the world by native speakers and the fourth largest overall. Some bold predictions even claim that by 2045, spanish could take the crown as the most widely spoken language. Watch out Mandarin as the most widely spoken language. Watch out Mandarin. And let's not forget the literary heavyweights of the Spanish-speaking world. Spanish has been called one of the most beautiful languages humanity has ever created. That beauty comes from generations of brilliant writers shaping and refining it. Thanks to their creativity and mastery, spanish continues to thrive as a tool for art, culture and human connection, or, as I like to call it, the language that keeps on giving. Thank you.