A brief history of Spanish - Ilan Stavans

[@Bl4ckDrg0n]

I would think the reason for so little change in so much time and population of this language is because it is pronounced as it's written. So there's very little room for interpretation.

[@Tribuneoftheplebs]

I think another reason is the centralizing functions of the catholic church

[@Bl4ckDrg0n]

@@Tribuneoftheplebs but mass used to be in latin... 🤔

[@CDexie]

@@Bl4ckDrg0n Well, I guess it could serve the same purpose indirectly, as mass may have been in Latin, but the people actually going to it were speaking, and remained speaking , the same language

[@etc2954]

@@CDexie also la Real Academia de Español (RAE, The Royal Academy of Spanish) helps standardize Spanish. The closest thing in English would be the Oxford Dictionary but they take more of an observer approach than the RAE which is more authoritative on what's correct and incorrect Spanish

[@YouWinILose]

And yet Argentine Spanish, Mexican Spanish, and Castilian Spanish have very distinct pronunciations. It's not that. If anything, it's media. Whether you're in the south of Argentina or on the Caribbean shore of Central America you are familiar with Mexican films, Mexican telenovelas, Mexican KZbinrs, Mexican TikTokers, Mexican singers, etc. Spanish speakers practice a common version of Spanish every day online. Obviously there's lots of content from elsewhere, but if you're getting your hair cut in Colombia it's a Mexican show on the tv.

[@juanangm95]

Just a couple inaccuracies I've found throughout the video, for those who may care: 1:18 The Gothic language didn't become part of German: Gothic was East Germanic as explained in the video, while modern German evolved from West Germanic dialects. The Gothic language simply died. 2:00 Portugal never unified under the rule of the Catholic Kings, and Castilian didn't become a "state" language under their rule. Dynastic union didn't mean true political centralism in Spain until the Bourbons a few centuries later, and Castilian didn't become widely used and known by people like Catalans, Galicians and Basques until very recently in History. Still nowadays millions of Spanish citizens speak a language other than Castilian as their first language. Also the pre dynastic union map erases (part of) the Kingdom of Aragon.

[@Vack91]

Also, some of the words displayed as coming from the Visigoths aren’t from that era, as far as I know. Like “vagón” that was just borrowed from English, that comes from Dutch, but not because of the Visigoths; or “feudo”, that comes from latin, that can also be traced back to Germanic origin.

[@PalomaGN-PoppieS]

I understand that the talk is for the "general public" who knows little about the history of Spain. However, there are more inaccuracies than those you mention, juangm95: the capital under the Catholic King & Queen was not Madrid. It was Philip II, their great-grandson, who decided to move the capital to Madrid. Moreover, there is a theory which suggests that Castillian became "the common language of Spain" partially because it was Castille -or rather Queen Isabella- who financed the trips to "The Indies", but also because Castillian had kind of become the " common language" among different language communities in the Peninsula, for "trading". How much truth the theory holds is worth analysing.

[@juanangm95]

@@PalomaGN-PoppieS Thank you so much for sharing your historical knowledge!

[@seanwalker6052]

@@PalomaGN-PoppieS I didn't hear that they named Madrid as the capital, just that the city was in the region. I can see how someone might infer, bc it's the capital now, but the video didn't specifically say that. I figure the mention of Madrid was for geographic context.

[@PalomaGN-PoppieS]

@@seanwalker6052 Admittedly, they do say "home to Madrid" not that Madrid was the capital. In those days Madrid was a "villa" or "village" of no significance. Context and co-text are essential to understand and infer meaning, as you suggest, but I'm not sure that the geographic context you mention is helpful for the listener. That there are inaccuracies in what purports to be "a brief history of Spanish", as @juanangm95 suggested, cannot be denied.

[@ourmonarchy326]

Just another information you need to know. I am Moroccan, and our country is very close to Spain, and thus we used to get in touch with Spanish media everyday, as well as Spanish language. The southern part of our country, alongside with the Rif, were Spanish colonies in 20th century, and thus we still use Spanish words like "kuzina", "semana", "adios", "grazias" and "manana" when we speak to other Arabic speakers - which made them confused a lot. We tend to be considered as the Spaniards of the Arab world by the others, because of our distinct culture and because of our lively style of living ahaha.

[@wazzup233]

You're talking about Western Sahara isn't it when it was annexed by Morocco in 1975.

[@r-pu4md]

El Sáhara no es Marruecos.

[@HSingingTree]

@@wazzup233no there’s another section just north of the Western Sahara that was Spanish too

[@AngelRodriguez-zs9bi]

Marruecos NO fue colonia española. Algunos territorios (Ceuta, Melilla, etc.) era ESPAÑOLES antes de que hubiera algo llamado Marruecos. Posteriormente la zona del norte de Marruecos fue considerada Protectorado español (que no es tampoco una colonia) durante unas décadas. Los saharuhies eran ESPAÑOLES a todos los efectos con sus DNI, etc hasta que Marruecos se anexionó, ilegítimamente esos territorios.

[@younessalibane7504]

The Spanish here are talking like if they have got any right in Africa. A group of colonizers lecturing on legitimacy LOL

[@perceivedvelocity9914]

Spain was colonized and then became a colonizer themselves. The Spanish language keeps a record of what happened to Spain and what Spain did to the new world.

[@TunaBear64]

Couldn't be more accurate

[@wren_.]

you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain -spain

[@CarlosE213]

@@wren_. Spaniards colonize, English conquers.

[@victorien3704]

They weren't colonised. Al andalus was independent and most were iberians who spoke arabic.

[@perceivedvelocity9914]

@@victorien3704 Yes, they were attempting to colonize Europe. The Battle of Tours stopped the invasion attempt. The Spanish language contains loan words that were added during the period of occupation.

[@Jrld87]

Que hermoso la mezcla de idiomas, el enriquecimiento de las lenguas y su constante evolucion.

[@csgto7676]

English Plz

[@elvixpro7693]

@@csgto7676 How beautiful is the mixture of languages, their enrichment and constant evolution.

[@monami7092]

Interesting; I would like a video about how fast languages evolved.

[@julian.16]

Christopher Colombus aqjjqaja

[@excapegaming5423]

@@redneckshaman3099 didnt need to know

[@jh1-o9o]

(Edit: Chévere, I guess TedEd listens to comments and modifies the videos if there’s a mistake. When I originally posted this comment on the day the video launched [and the other similar comments from other people], at this time stamp the entire Iberian peninsula was under Spanish flag colors at the 1:52 mark. Now they’ve changed it an Portugal is separated throughout the video. Now they just need a video on Portunhol lol) What happens at 1:52 in this video is really inaccurate (non-Castilian Romance languages don’t disappear and Portugal doesn’t become Spain) and I’m disappointed as a fan of both Spain and Portugal that the video misrepresents the history and the languages of both. The richness and importance of Castilian language/Spanish stands on its own without having to negate an entire country (Portugal) and especially the non-Castilian languages in Spain.

[@Claraboia]

Has a portuguese citizen it trully made me sick to see that happen. It just helps to the misinformation that exists regarding both countries and denies a whole different language and county older even than Spain. I trully did not think i would see something like this in TedEd.

[@milomhoek]

Completely agree with you

[@noblesse6785]

Its always the same thing is ridicules why do people always merge Portugal to Spain, Its a hole f country wtf

[@GreatGwiaz]

I mean Portugal was in a personal union with Spain in 1580-1640. They also don't make the animations, they hire an animation studio, who likely did that

[@noblesse6785]

@@GreatGwiaz that is no valid excuse to exclude a hole country?? I don't see people merging Canada to the US and I'll tell you right now talk with any Irish or Scottish person and they don't feel particularly happy when they merge them together with England ether. Any Portuguese person seeing this feels diminished and insulted

[@clydegoodrich6720]

This clip addresses something I've asked about myself for years: Spanish is my 2nd language (born & raised in Georgia); my studies began in the 9th grade. I kept at it, and then in college, I took the Don Quijote course, -- page by page.🎉 While it was definitely not "easy," I began to pick up speed and comprehension along the way, plus it was fascinating! My concurrent studies of Shakespeare were a mammoth chore and a struggle and not meaningful or enjoyable in any way. A colleague of mine later on was amazed that I identified with Cervantes but not the English bard 😮. I lived, studied, and worked subsequently in México and Colombia, and that cemented my proclivity toward Spanish, especially the evolution of the language, which is what brought me to this video. Thank you!

[@drtelich]

People always forget but Equatorial Guinea is also a spanish-speaking country - 74% of the entire population speak it.

[@charliegnu]

Same with the Philippines, Spanish was one of the official languages until the 80s.

[@ozzo870]

Shame that you guys didnt cover the Philippines' effect on the Spanish language. Its kind of a weird exception. Colonized by Spain but the only former Spanish colony that doesnt speak Spanish as its official language. The closest language to Spanish the Philippines has is a Spanish Creole language called Chavacano. That wouldve have been neat to add when you talked about how colonialism mixes the colonizer language with the indigenous languages.

[@notneean]

there are only a handful of words in Spanish mixed into the filipino (tagalog?? Idk) so it kinda confused me that they didnt add it into the video

[@craiyohn]

Probably because the topic is colonized countries/areas contributing to the Spanish language itself not the other way around.

[@Sid-mj1qf]

I can understand your emotion as a Filipino but, calling out Ted-ED like this is uncalled for. They mentioned about the influence of South American native languages on Spanish. This is just a 5-minute video and Ted cannot inject every aspect of history into videos without compromising the duration...it is our curiosity to dig deeper and understand more about the summary the video shows.

[@yabuki2502]

of course they wont cover the filipino genocide

[@cupcakemcsparklebutt9051]

@@Sid-mj1qf explain pla

[@jorgeamadosoriaramirez8953]

The answer as to why Spanish has not fragmented can be found, at least partly, in the network of Spanish Language Academies, which regulate and prescribe "correct" or "international" Spanish in collaboration with each other. This ensure that Spanish remains one language even though it keeps getting new vocabulary from each region it is spoken to. Chilean Spanish is the most different one to the other dialects, imo. Also, in addition to Spanglish, Portuñol is another border fusion of languages between Spanish and Portuguese, and it is regularly spoken in Northern Uruguay, Southern Brazil and parts of Paraguay and Misiones, Argentina. Just adding info to the video....

[@felipevasconcelos6736]

I don’t think these institutions actually control the language in the long term, at least not directly. Perhaps having Spanish Academies that prescribes the same orthography and formal dialect does make Spanish dialects less closed off, and thus less likely to diverge, but I think just not having one country that dominates the hispanosphere is the dominant factor.

[@CarlosE213]

This hypothesis is kind of a common baseless place, the RAE, the Spanish Language Academy, is not an institution telling people what's wrong or right, or stoping changes in the language, it's just a notary that register the evolution of the language, in fact it's one of its basis that they constantly have to clarify because misunderstandings like your hypothesis, if you want to understand more about the RAE rol in spanish there's an interesting KZbin channel you can watch: kzbin.info

[@nicolasvergara6444]

Weon la wea loca

[@poetz123]

Portunhol is also widely spoken in border villages in Portugal and in Spain.

[@matheusGMN]

@@CarlosE213 well, it's a logical conclusion, even if it's not mandatory or their work is only notary, I know however for a fact, because I'm Brazilian, that Portuguese has an agreement in place to make the language standardized across nations, although there has been some resistance to it, while growing up I learned things in the new ortographic accord method, I wouldn't be surprised if there's something similar happening with Spanish, even if informally, because it can benefit everyone (I mean, for Brazil this accord is specially a big deal because we have another agreement with Portugal that Brazilians and Portuguese have full rights as if they were citizens in eachother's countries, and thus keeping the language understandable between sides is useful)

[@wyffio]

3:46 It's fun how nobody noticed that they forgot Equatorial Guinea, the only country in Africa that speaks fluent spanish

[@rottengal]

they also forgot to add the Philippines and they left out the land that the United States stole from Mexico 💀

[@theshlauf]

@@rottengal For that part I think they were going for modern borders rather than the total area the Spanish empire controlled at it's height.

[@ElMamuco]

Exactly the comment I was looking for

[@jaumejoseoranies7948]

I have heard children speak fluent Spanish from Western Sahara (which was Spanish until 1974) and their parents or grand parents even had Spanish identification card (DNI) expelled in Villacisneros (nowadays Al-Aaiun or al-ʿAyūn, Laayoune in English).

[@SinCityRaider81]

Spanish is the second most spoken language among native speakers, and the fourth most spoken language in the world. Le pido a Dios que los bendiga a todos, y sus familias.

[@piedrablanca1942]

y una de las únicas 3 lenguas globales

[@IJGR98]

El español y el portugués de Latinoamérica son muy diversos cada uno, aún así cada acento es muy interesante y bonito.

[@soccernatic]

Eu concordo com você. Ambos diferentes mas bonitos do seu jeito. Acredito que também pode entender o que escrevo sem o google tradutor. 🙃

[@rainbowcat9361]

Translation Spanish and Portuguese are very similar and also have there differences in Latin America they even have their own aceents it’s all very beautiful and interesting

[@kevinstachovak8842]

El Espanol Colombiano es muy puro, or so I've heard. Sed Latine mater lingua est. Le Francais est magnifique aussi

[@raguaviva]

Papa, son casi iguales, y si sabes uno el otro lo aprendes en 2 semanas.

[@IJGR98]

@@soccernatic así es. :)

[@andrecarvalho7645]

And me thinking, as a Portuguese, that Portugal was never part of Spain… even during the Iberian Union, there were two countries sharing the same King and not an unified country. Well, at least I have to give it to TED for fulfilling Isabella’s dream… at least in fiction… (By the way, Castilian was never spoken in Portugal…)

[@jh1-o9o]

I agree, I was so confused about this map I had to watch the video twice, I can’t believe they don’t even say the words Portugal or Portuguese until one cursory mention at the end and then the map just “dissolves” Portugal once castellano comes into play. Even in a short video like this they could have had an accurate map, like they take the time to color out the Basque Country but never explain why. I know the video is trying to do a good thing, however I hate to say it but it’s videos like this that make people from the US not as aware of geography as they could be. :(

[@poetz123]

Idiotas, a sério. Fiquei fodido quando vi que eles colocaram castelhano em todas as partes da península ibérica. Eu tenho este canal em boa consideração, mas depois deste vídeo já não sei.

[@Playtoallwins]

@@jh1-o9o Plus at the time Spain was still fighting the Muslims Portugal already was a soberain country with there own language.

[@harharharharharharharharha240]

But it was still part of the Spanish kingdom idk what ur trying to say

[@andrecarvalho7645]

@@harharharharharharharharha240 Portugal was never part of the Spanish Kingdom… the Iberian Union was a 60 year period (ended in 1640) with 3 kings (the Philips) that occupied both thrones (the Portuguese and the Spanish), but the countries remained separate entities. Only the last one tried to unify the crowns and he was kicked out of Portugal (December 1st, 1640) - sorry Catalunya…

[@JaimeDeLonetDelgado]

Sorry to be picky but spanish WASN'T spoken in Portugal in 1492 as your animation shows. Only in 1580 did the spanish forced rule of Portugal and even then it lasted only 60 years. No significant changes occurred. Language wise. *Edited before "forced rule" it read "conquered".

[@MsLaraCaroline]

Also found weird that they included Portugal in the animation

[@bit0494]

Actually Spain and Portugal shared a king and nothing else

[@anonimenric]

Neither in Catalonia!

[@LuisMiguelMarado]

Spain did not conquer Portugal. It was a matter of the succession in Portugal which happened to go to a person who happened to (also) be the Spanish king.

[@JaimeDeLonetDelgado]

@@LuisMiguelMarado Although I grant you that Portugal maintain a level of autonomy (akin a vassal kingdom) it was still a conquest in the straight sense. The battle of Alcântara was a bloodbath (estimates vary but at least half of the Portuguese forces were dead or captured). The defeated forces went to porto trying to regroup and met another spanish army. A lot of small battles ensued with the latest in 1582. Not to mention Portugal had to pay a huge treasure to Philip the 2nd at his arrival in Lisboa, then he proceeded to send paintings and works of art to Madrid, the soldiers were even allowed to ransack the vicinity. Administrative affairs conducted in Portugal still had to send the legislative work to Madrid.

[@tonyrosetti2738]

To be fair, the transition from Latin to Romance languages took a thousand years.

[@guillermoblanco286]

But it's been 500 and not much has changed.

[@liukang3545]

thousand of years LOL... spanish based on vulgar latin, not classical latin.... thats around 5-600 years

[@Kat.brush1]

@@liukang3545You made a mistake, Vulgar Latin and Classical Latin are the same language; with time that the Roman settlers expended through Europe, their language was adopted towards the people they subjugated, this process by itself turned out to last at least 600 years. Spanish itself, as the other Romance Languages started to differ from Vulgar Latin (thus Latin) after the fall of the Rome domain of Danubian-Europe. Which, counting to this day - 1570~ years

[@micahbush5397]

I'd like to see a similar overview of French, and hopefully learn more about why it's so different from other Romance languages (because seriously, it's pretty weird compared to Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese).

[@laurab326]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2O3iHV4rdybmLc good video that explains why!

[@paulovictorbarros3822]

I'd argue that romanian is the most "different" romance language. My first language is potuguese and I can understand a bit of what is being said, but not much compared to spanish, italian, french, catalan, galician and other latin based languages.

[@micahbush5397]

@@paulovictorbarros3822 Right, but Romania is quite far from the other nations that speak Romance languages and had obviously different influences, so it makes sense that it would be much different.

[@micahbush5397]

@Bryan Villafuerte But France, Portugal, Spain, and Italy are much closer together. My point is, why is French so different from Spanish and Italian when it borders Spain and Italy? (A greater degree of Germanic influences, I'd guess?)

[@mrtrollnator123]

​@@micahbush5397 yeah I think you're right. When I hear German, it sounds a lot like french

[@jay23cr]

Missed Guinea Ecuatorial. And like some else below already mentioned, my language has a fixed sound for every letter regardless of where it is put in a text or word, while for example French is a smorgasburg of sound variations and pronunciations. But I would add music, literature and Mexican soap operas, El Chavo, and Spanish movies about Spanish folkore that have taught us all since childhood the European variation of our mother tongue as well.

[@HugoParedes]

I wasn’t aware that Portugal became Spanish from 1942🤔

[@frikativos]

Portugal? Never heard of it. Just joking. This is a terrible mistake from the video. Portugal does exist!!

[@eucalipto042]

In 1047 the bishop of Braga was already using a language similar to Portuguese, and in 1290 the Lisbon university was already teaching Portuguese, so makes no sense the 1492 part of the video...

[@jaumejoseoranies7948]

From 12th September 1580 to 1st December 1640 the king of Portugal was the same as Castilian's but it does not make "Portugal became Spanish [Spaniard]". As Canada or Australia are not British in spite of having the same king.

[@mambojambo6335]

The way the map of the Iberian peninsula is shown is a massive simplification of what languages are spoken in the region. Not only that, it also neglects that to this day and especially in the past, Galician, Basque, Catalan, Asturian, to name a few, were spoken in tandem with castillian. Even today in modern-day Spain, the word "castillian" is used as much as "Spanish". Films posters mentioned that itself is dubbed in "castillian", for example. Calling it "Spanish" was something the castillian crown did as a means to legitimise its enforcement of castillian over the kingdoms it held, as well as calling it "Spain". Last but the not least, the way the map is shown implies that Spanish was spoken in Portugal for centuries starting in the 1500s and this was simply not the case. In fact, it's incredibly wrong. Even during the brief Iberian Union (60years), castillian was spoken by some of the nobility and that was it. A brief history is one thing, stating wrong facts and heavily misrepresenting other languages and their cultures is just bad and misinformation.

[@Bajolzas]

1:51 last time I checked, Portugal was not a part of Spain, nor did it speak spanish...

[@Liberty7628]

It doesn’t show Portugal being part of Spain or speaking Spanish???? Are you blind?

[@Bajolzas]

@@Liberty7628 the video was edited, it used to show the Portugal area and its coat of arms being turned into Spanish ones...

[@Bajolzas]

@@Liberty7628 also I don't get 24 likes for "being blind"

[@Liberty7628]

@@Bajolzas Ah that explains it.

[@DannyBPlays]

If you make a video about languages, you're 100% guaranteed to have the "well actually" commenters

[@roman-alvarado-ea]

El español es un idioma universal, y los que tenemos la dicha de hablarlo, debemos de sentirnos orgullosos por eso. ¡Qué viva el idioma español! 🇪🇦🇬🇹🇲🇽👍👍👍

[@MarkyV-oe5pn]

🇮🇹

[@tranvietphu1298]

"Where did Spanish come from ?" Me: "Spain"

[@Adrian75226]

Correct! 😀

[@SecretFil]

The part you cover at 1:40 is wrong in that, though all of what is now Spain was unified into one country, Portugal was not, and remained independent until much later, where they were shortly conquered by the Spanish before gaining back their independence. The map you show misrepresents this by absorbing the whole Iberian peninsula into one, and, later, said map even says that the Portuguese residents spoke Spanish, with the speech bubble placed on Portuguese territory, even though the Portuguese have never stopped speaking Portuguese.

[@Malik-Ibi]

That's correct

[@l0rdcroissant]

strange cause that's not what they teach in school in Portugal

[@l0rdcroissant]

@VladLen I think it use to be is what I like to think hahaha, now if I do watch, I watch some videos for amusement :D

[@luishernandezblonde]

Spanish is one of my favourite languages, and the fact it changes little is really another amazing fact.

[@MariaFM6]

Portugal never spoke Spanish, not even when (while still INDEPENDENT), it was ruled by the same king as Spain, and EVEN LESS IN THE 1800s. This is highly inaccurate! Specially considering that Portugal has been a country for longer than Spain, this is just insulting.

[@sergio3674]

That's not the only mistake over the video. I don't consider it that much insulting but disappointing as Ted pretends to be a serious channel.

[@jh1-o9o]

@@sergio3674 Yes, I love Ted and this video is super disappointing

[@AM-yi4dd]

Very cool, especially what you said about the unity of the Spanish language. I never thought about it like that.

[@richardgonzalez6409]

Spanish my beautiful native language. Descendants of emperor's, kings and caliphs. The tongue of conquerors and artists. A language of power and peace. And one that honestly has the most convoluted and most complex grammatical rules I have ever seen in a Language.

[@funcisco]

In Paraguay, Spanish is mixed with the local indigenous language of Guarani. That mix is called Jopará, and since more than 90% of the population is bilingual in Guarani and Spanish, almost everyone can speak and understand Jopará. It's like Spanglish or Portuñol, except those languages tend to be used by people who speak one language better than the other, as opposed to bilingual people. Sometimes when speaking Spanish, Paraguayans might borrow loan words and auxiliary/functional words from Guarani that mean nothing in Spanish, out of habit, like "ko", "pio", "hina", etc. Same goes for speaking Guarani and borrowing Spanish loan words like "pero" or "la". It's all considered Jopará.

[@1KamaronConClase]

It's always interesting to watch all the different cultures that make our spanish culture. Great video!

[@JoseMartinez-vc5nv]

Amo ser hispanohablante. Amo el español. Gracias por recordarme lo hermoso de nuestra lengua

[@piedrablanca1942]

es lo mejor

[@yorn3934]

sin duda, una bella lengua que nos hermana :)

[@Blaqjaqshellaq]

The displacement of American languages by Spanish (and Portuguese) was a more gradual process than you may think. At the time of independence, the European languages dominated the towns and coastal regions, but indigenous languages were still common in the rural interior.

[@MaynorPinto]

Not to mention the fact the Spanish missionaries worked really hard in codifying and studying these native languages.

[@JotaTeJT]

As a portuguese guy I got triggered from minute 1:52 till 4:07, everytime my country was considered to speak spanish or to be part of Spain (Which was only kinda true from 1580 to 1640, just 60 of all the 879 years of Portugal's existence)

[@piedrablanca1942]

Portugal solo es un departamento rebelde de España

[@Maestro_kenobe]

One of the reasons of the stability of Spanish is the Real Academia de la Lengua that sets the grammar and rules of use. Spanish had dictionaries earlier than English for example.

[@iagoOmbuena]

Hello, I’m from Spain and I love your vídeos

[@PhoenixBeI]

The Spanish language has something that, as far as I know, no other language has: the Real Academia de la Lengua Española. This is an organization in Spain that dictates how the language most be treated from pronunciations to spelling and to grammar. And these decisions get passed down all the way to schools all over Latin America. As a result, even though there are particular idiosyncrasies depending on where the language is spoken, there is no such thing as Spanish dialects with 2 exceptions. 1) Argentina. There, colloquial Spanish is an adaptation of the conjugation for vos and vosotros. Therefore, as an example, the conjugation "teneis" became "tenés." But when it comes to more formal writing, standard Spanish is used. 2) Spanglish, as you mentioned. And, indeed it's becoming a new language on its own. I live in California, and as a native Spanish speaker, I cringe when I hear the things that pass as Spanish here. Not only are new words being invented (such as "aseguranza" for "seguro," as a translation of "insurance."), but a mix of English and Spanish grammar is happening. As much as it hurts my ears, I'm eager to see how Spanglish will develop with time.

[@circuloviciosamente]

There are 22 Real Academia de la Lengua Española academies (Spain, Latin American countries and Puerto Rico). All decisions are made in common. Nobody dictates the language.

[@dorkwell]

Not on as large of a scale as Spanish, but my wife is Lithuanian and they have a language commission of some kind which makes formal decisions and boundaries on Lithuanian. They have a historically important language, so they maintain it quite strictly and like to stick to their conventions as much as possible. For example, as she is still a citizen, she isn't allowed to change her last name to the one we made when we married, as it isn't a Lithuanian name. There are exceptions where you can change an ending of a name to a more "Lithuanian ending", but this surname has a W in it, which isn't in their alphabet at all 😂

[@Drahko12]

Dude in Puerto Rico reggaeton is creating a new Spanish language for the island. I was one of the few puertorricans during travels that spoke outside the norm😂 and other Latinos were confused I guess due to the stereotype. People questioned my nationality because I supposedly spoke proper Spanish vs the puertorrican urban Spanish. A lot of the reggae music has added words that are mixed between Taino English and Spanish. So aside from Spanglish add puertorrican urban Spanish

[@circuloviciosamente]

@@Drahko12 Sí nos reunimos y hablamos en cada jerga de cada ciudad latina poco o nada nos vamos entender. Pero salvo que no se tenga una formación escolarizada, eso es superable.

[@CarlosE213]

it's not true, in fact "RAE" has corrected that missconception several times, by no means, the RAE's work is to "dictates how the language most be treated from pronunciations to spelling and to grammar", it is BS and a lie. If you want to correct your conception, please follow RAE in social media, some times they are hilarious correcting people about their real porpuse, or this channel: kzbin.info not official but good.

[@Adrian75226]

Excellent video and I like that Spain has shared its language with so many people in the world and greetings from Ecuador! 🤚😀🇪🇨

[@belle_pomme]

They didn't share the language, they ENFORCED their language and killed off the indigenous languages. Latin America is technically still colonized in terms of their culture and language.

[@leonperez9405]

Well “sharing”is a diplomatic way to put it..😂

[@willianrom]

In 2 min and 37 seconds shows a map, however there is a mistake in this map, because actually some countries in South America don't speak Spanish, such as Brazil, Guyana and French Guiana.

[@medusagorgon9]

aww This was wonderful! Merci! I learned quite a few things here, which enriched what I did know. The narrators voice was perfect. I enjoyed hearing the pronunciation of several words he mentioned. Much appreciated.

[@tomasalvim1022]

A note should be added that Portugal did not become part of Spain in 1492. The Iberian union was later, and did not represent a language union as suggested in this video. Pretty disappointed at the misinformation.

[@snowcold5932]

1:53 well that's just rude for Portugal a padeira de aljubarrota is spinning in her grave

[@ander__h8446]

1385

[@dressbitch]

This made me want to continue taking my Spanish lessons in Duolingo. I'm halfway to level 3 in Spanish

[@sanggremiag]

❤❤❤

[@robertovazquez8512]

I understand that the contribution of Arabic to Spanish is closer to 4 thousand words and roots. As it happens in English where you have words with the same meaning that come from Anglo-Saxon or from Latin such as Face and Visage the same happens in Spanish with words that comes from Latin or Arabic. For example pool in Spanish can be called piscina ( from Latin) or alberca (from Arabic). Another example is the word for oil is oleo (Latin) or aceite (Arabic). As you can see most words that come from Arabic in Spanish start with “al” or “a” due to the inclusion of the Arabic article”al”.

[@fjordhellas4077]

What’s fascinating is that Arabic ended up not only influencing Spanish and Portuguese but also other European languages because during their Reign over the Iberian Peninsula, they were perhaps the most advanced and sophisticated civilizations of the time while our European kingdoms were literally living in the dark ages. The Arabs gave us so many words related to science , mathematics, architecture, design and irrigation. Check out the French Historian Jean Pruvost who recently a book ‘ Nos Ancêtres les Arabes ‘ ( Our Ancestors, the Arabs’) where he starts by saying that we think we’re speaking French and using French concepts while in reality they are Arabic like une tasse de café sans sucre ( a cup of coffee without sugar ) there are 3 Arabic words: tasse, café and sucre … spinach, orange, pistachio almond, pepper ciphers, algorithms, almanac etc.. are beyond Spanish and they’re all words that the Arabs brought us, not to mention Modern Medicine by the father of modern medicine Avicenna or Ibn Sina and the list is long. We owe them a lot but our Western educational systems are so arrogant and dishonest. I had to wait to go to college to learn all that.

[@depthhistory]

What an amazing magic trick! You made Portugal disappear from the Iberian peninsula.

[@sebas346]

Great video! It would have been interesting to also see Equatorial Guinea or the Philippines mentioned as countries where Spanish is still (or was) spoken. The Chavacano language in the Philippines is an interesting example of Spanish mixed with local languages.

[@TheXTrunner]

Very true, important to mention other Spain colonies

[@canchero724]

@ManolisLoukopoulos United states now has more Spanish speakers than Spain itself. Absolutely needed to be on tbe map

[@nunyabiznes33]

Spanish didn't supplant the native languages there though

[@juliuscaesart]

Or Visayans

[@antalitok1087]

Haha I love how they forgot about Portugal, at 1492 they’re showing the entire peninsula as Spain😅

[@bhimsharma9226]

Opening a conversation and brings it to an end is essential part of our everyday language

[@MsAnubisia]

...Did Portugal vanish from that map of the Iberian peninsula?

[@letsgobrandon987]

Nobody cares about Portugal

[@RenoDW]

I love history videos in TEDEd so much

[@0Sildar0]

En 4:05 pudieron haber añadido en Africa a Guinea Ecuatorial también, es un idioma oficial del país y el mas hablado

[@Adrian75226]

Tienes razón!

[@elderlight]

Love the animation on the video, very enjoyable to watch

[@hugo4389]

Kinda sure that we don't speak Spanish in Portugal nor did we spoke in 1492. But then again what do I know I'm just a guy from Portugal...

[@simonsuarez5314]

What a beautiful and informative video! The history of languages is interesting to me in general, but it was super cool to see a video about Spanish - my second language. Learning Spanish has helped me understand my mother tongue (English) a little better. Shout out to my second language! :) Muchas gracias por este video.

[@Pmp174]

I think in general the Spanish speaking population is better at conserving control of the language as well as fully adopting changes and slang across the hispanic world. While we have different slang most of us have kind of picked up one another’s words. There is also a lot more pride with Spanish than other languages.

[@AnahuacMex]

The internet helps prevent Spanish from being fragmented

[@Myguelsaurus]

Its a really valuable language if you can unlock more than 20 countries by speaking it

[@perthdude21]

2:30 Were indigenous peoples forced to speak Spanish? Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that indigenous peoples were allowed to speak their languages during the colonial period. If I'm wrong, let me know. I thought that even missionaries proselytised in indigenous languages? I thought that the reason Spanish became the native language of most people in Spanish America was because Spanish was the language of power and prestige, and there was a social pressure to speak Spanish and that speaking indigenous languages may have had a stigma attached, contributing to a decrease in the number of speakers. I was under the impression that there was a social force that led to the massive decrease in the number of speakers of indigenous languages, and that it's not that people were forced to stop speaking their languages by law or threats of violence. I also was under the impression that while this phenomenon started in the colonial period, a lot of it happened after independence from Spain. But if I'm wrong about any of this, let me know. I do know that in the 20th century in Central America, certain indigenous peoples stopped speaking their languages out of fear, because their people had been conflated with communists, and communist sympathisers were killed. But this is long after independence from Spain. Not all indigenous languages became extinct. Nahuatl and Quechuan languages have millions of speakers nowadays.

[@BoneViolyn]

fun fact for those that dont know, the indigenous population of spain was Celtic speaking tribes.

[@chinchanchou]

Mayority are iberian tribws only in the norwest the celtic

[@ayushpratapsingh50]

ted ed don’t know how to thank you for all those awesome videos and knowleadge. i consider ur channel to be the best thing on internet

[@leocremonezi]

Please, could you prepare a video about the portuguese language? Amazing, as usual 👏🏻👏🏻🇧🇷🇧🇷

[@jddj2318]

Come to Brazil!!!!

[@Pikazilla]

TED clearly doesn’t think Portugal exists to begin with, if we look at the maps in this video.

[@perfectogaming5240]

No.

[@MysteryFanGirl]

I appreciated that you included and mentioned Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 in this narration , as it gets sidelined way too often

[@kevinfromsales9445]

The whole Spanish Caribbean gets ignored all the time despite being the cradle of Latin America and of the American continent.

[@piedrablanca1942]

Puerto Rico necesita INDEPENDENCIA

[@carlosingles9380]

Nuestro idioma por diverso que sea , por lejos que estemos uno de los otros siempre nos hará uno .Amo este video, muy bonito

[@salciano]

The "Catholic Kings" did not combine every regional kingdom into a unified Nation. They didn't even unify all Iberian "regional" crowns into a single State (like Portugal). As a matter of fact, a lot of these nations still exist today.

[@CarlZen]

It's a shame to see this channel spreading misinformation... Spain and Portugal aren't the same or one! Different culture, different languages, different origins, different stories. Talking about Christopher Columbus, without talking about Portugal is one of many mistakes in this video. This isn't "brief history of Spanish", it's a "fantasy history of Spanish"... (even the title is misleading, because is about the language's origin than the history itself). TED-ED you have time rectify any mistakes... Bring factual knowledge... We can be better and more... Let's go!

[@carlosoleiro3453]

So many things wrong. Portugal isn't Spain and neither speaks or ever spoke spanish! What you call spanish is castillian, the catalan and galician languages still exist and are spoke in their regions, they didn't culminate into one language. And castillian has more native speakers than english, only mandarin has more. Such a misinformed video ...

[@jh1-o9o]

Yes, I don't know why they had to dismiss the other Iberian languages but when they have the chance to tout that Castilian has more native speakers than English, they don't. Weird. 🤷‍♂

[@SeansAnimalWorld]

This is awesome! I'm currently learning Spanish, and this video came at the best time to learn the origins of some of the words I've learned!

[@diorcolon8543]

I feel that Spanish may eventually fracture among its speakers by some degree in a couple of centuries like Latin did. We can already differ certain dialects from others very quickly. This difference is more pronounced in the Caribbean were their dialects are not only pronouncing words differently, they are also being spelled differently. Despite the fact that most mainland speakers say Caribbean dialects are “uneducated accents” but they forget that Romans said the same thing about Latin speakers outside of Rome.

[@Akaruihi-A1968]

Well, the time will tell us someday.

[@basedkaiser5352]

The Carribean way of speaking Spanish is still very similar to Canarian Spanish.

[@carlosmartinezbadia2532]

For whatever reason, Spanish gained a remarkable stability very early: the claim made in the documentary that the Spanish in 1492 was "very different" from today's is plainly refuted by just reading the famous Coplas por la muerte de su padre (Verses To The Death Of His Father), written around 1476. It's basically modern Spanish with just a few spelling differences here and there, presenting no difficulty to any modern reader. By contrast, Shakespeare, who wrote about a century later, can only be read in the original by a very educated reader.

[@mjberlanga]

Mexico is not "Central America" and has not an official language. Spanish is a "de facto" language. The map is missing Equatorial Guinea in Africa where Spanish is also an official language.

[@Adrian75226]

Tienes razón y estados Unidos también no tienen un idioma oficial y solamente el inglés es considerado como su idioma nacional

[@lifetravelwalks]

In response to the question at 4:15: How has Spanish not broken apart into new languages? I wonder how much that has to do with the RAE keeping the language organized for the past 3 centuries.

[@emmacharlotte1022]

Such a great video idea! I’d love to see this as a series that delves into more languages.

[@2geekdup]

Fascinating video 💯 thank you

[@bag3lmonst3r72]

Grande, maybe you can do a history of İtalian next? İ'm learning it and there's not much coverage of its origin story.

[@Danielperezguitar]

Its basically the same as spanish, except no muslim interference and you change the visigoths for the ostrogoths.

[@bag3lmonst3r72]

@@Danielperezguitar Well there's a little more to it than that, like the La Spezia-Rimini Line, the Napoleonic occupation, and some dude called Dante, but okay.

[@tuawela9440]

Thank you so much, you just saved my live

[@pineneedle43]

In 1492 Portugal was not combined with Spain and definitely did not speak Spanish either. This represents a misleading information and one reasons why some people still think that Portugal is in of Spain, when it isn't. You shouldn't keep a video with this mistake posted.

[@piedrablanca1942]

Portugal solo es un departamento rebelde de España

[@pineneedle43]

@@piedrablanca1942 That is just a ridiculous lie

[@marvinfleurenvil9215]

They don't even mention Portugal in this video. And its clearly shaded out on the map, so how did you come to that conclusion.

[@pineneedle43]

@@marvinfleurenvil9215 Simply by reading some history book. Just because it isn't in a video doesn't mean that didn't exist for real. Just do some research.

[@marvinfleurenvil9215]

@@pineneedle43 you misunderstood me, I'm saying this is a video about the origins of the Spanish language. What does Portugal and it being separate state from Spain have to do with this video, as those facts were not mentioned, as they are not relevant to this topic at hand.

[@petebyron1957]

Spanish is the 2nd most spoken language from most studies I have read.

[@yaelvacacenteno1382]

It's a pity there isn't even a single mention on judeoespañol, the language that Sephardic Jews traditionally speak. It's intelligible for Spanish-speakers because it mainly comes from 15th century Spanish. Also, the map of 1492 is so wrong, because Portugal didn't become part of Spain on that year.

[@josuemartinez7205]

Guinea Equatorial is a Spanish speaking nation in Africa

[@thespanishlearningchannel2713]

Really interesting video, excellent presentation. Muchas gracias, Ted Ed, por este video.

[@yaxantonio3719]

Gracias por hacer este video de mi lenguage mi amigo

[@viajandonagelatina4711]

What do you think of the idea of ​​a video about the Portuguese language? Sorry for my weird english.

[@sion8]

You all forgot about Africa and the words contributed from there into Spanish! Where's Equatorial Guinea here (4:07)?

[@jaedonmason6315]

No equatorial guinea, Was it a conscious choice to not highlight it on the map?

[@Adrian75226]

No

[@kanishkchowdary9160]

The way the spread of Spanish is being gratified is troubling

[@elianes5505]

care to explain why?

[@winter3559]

Excelente video, ¡gracias TED Ed!.

[@thesenseiclub]

this is absolutely awesome video Way to go Ted Ed !

[@WiserMusa]

Fun fact: In most Spanish speaking countries, spanish is still referred as "castillian" or "castellano". You will most likely only refer to it as "español" when talking to a non native speaker

[@TunaBear64]

We usually use Castellano for the one spoken in Spain (because is quite different from American Spanish) at least nowadays

[@PhoenixBeI]

I grew up in Ecuador, and my Spanish class was called castellano. The idea that castellano and Spanish are different is a fantasy. When Spain became unified, Castillean was adopted as its official language. Therefore, Castillean became the language used in Spain, and like English comes from England and Greek from Greece and French from France, Spanish is from Spain. Therefore, Spanish and Castillean ARE THE SAME THING! The fact that "vos/vosotros"is used more in Spain, whereas "tú/ustedes" in Latin America is not important since both forms are part of the Spanish grammar. At school, we all learn how to conjugate tu/vos/usted/ustedes/vosotros. As mentioned above, the differences stem from regionalisms, such as saying "y'all" in the US South, or "hella" in Northern California. So yeah, Castillean is Spanish. The fact that people in Spain say that they speak Castillean is because that's the regional language that was adopted for the entire nation. Had it been Catalán, Spaniards would say they speak Catalan, and Catalan would be also known as Spanish.

[@3li4nM4rt1n3z]

Uh, not really. I'm native Spanish speaker and in my exprience, "español" is more common nowadays. Depends on the country, of course.

[@shanneageviaz9488]

In my country though it is called Español or Espanyol but colloquially it is referred to as kastila which means a language from castille.

[@jonoc3729]

@@PhoenixBeI In Spain we use "tú". From what I know "vos" is only used in argentina, uruguay and some parts of central america.

[@WilliamTeller]

To say "starting in the 18th century" would mean starting in the year 1700. The number in the name of the century (the 19th century, for example) is always one higher than the number that starts the century's years (19th century means the 1800s) - just for the sake of clarifying 3:26

[@antonioferreira1216]

Infografia profundamente errada porque em Portugal não se fala Espanhol.

[@piedrablanca1942]

Portugal solo es un departamento rebelde de España

[@albertoferreira9391]

@@piedrablanca1942 A ignorância é muito atrevida !!!!! :(

[@Abaramotorai]

From the Nahuatl also came tomate which is spelled tomatl (Spanish tomatillo and jitomate was xitomatl). Tomato did not come from Italy in case anyone is curious.

[@ilertargenthorne4639]

Digging the voice of the narrator!

[@DamianPA757]

one of the favourite youbtube channels of my teacher

[@akpl4210]

Minute 1:22, when Spain started to speak Arabic they turned the map to desert and cactus trees, I was wondering Ted Ed is supposed to fight stereotype with the truth!! the historical accuracy is important!! When I was in Alhambra in Granada, I was reading that water management of Arabs of that era still impress the world today, of how by little of water resources they could turn the landscapes to green!! who audit those videos anyway !!!!

[@TheTerranInformed]

This is very interesting I had never heard this story before! Thank you!!

[@HereWeald]

Heavenly narrator, fantastic.

[@AvinashRaj]

I never really knew that she could dance like this (hey) She make a man wants to speak Spanish ¿Cómo se llama? (Sí), bonita (sí) Mi casa, su casa (Shakira, Shakira)

[@HuesingProductions]

😂😂

[@arthurcampomanes2219]

Gracias Muy bonito video

[@eduaragao]

This video was awsome! I'd love a similar video for portuguese. It's curious to me that I can understand a lot of spanish, but spanish speakers don't usually understand us, even if the two languages are very similar.

[@ireneqq2300]

we do understand most words in Portuguese, from my point of view. I visited Portugal and, while i didn't dare open my mouth, i didn't have an issue with any spoken words, but rather written language.

[@TunaBear64]

Most of us can understand Portuguese with relative ease.

[@eduaragao]

Really? I used to play in some south american servers, and people never understood what I said in the chat, I had to either write in english or try to speak spanish

[@manolomartinez5033]

I can read portuguese, but your accent is weird and complicated.

[@nocrega]

The reason for that is because portuguese has a weird accent (form a perspective of a spanish) and when we speak, we usually don't have any, so it's just the bare words.

[@Arib_Malik_]

Ted Ed always creates insane education video

[@salvadordorey6578]

The iberian peninsula was never one unified country. Long before the spanish union, Portugal was already independent, until today. Spanish was never the language of Portugal, and showing an united iberian peninsula that speaks spanish is being untruthfull.