I come from Spain and Patricia comes from Argentina
Aquí tenéis, a continuación, una introducción sobre el español que espero os anime a aprenderlo, si todavía no os habéis decidido. Pero antes quiero, al mismo tiempo, que conozcáis un poco más de nosotros, vuestros tutores, Francesc y Patricia, en concreto de dónde somos y nuestra realidad linguística. Como sabéis, el español se habla en muchos países, pero fundamentalmente se dice que existen dos grandes grupos o variedades: El español de España o europeo y el español de Latinoamérica. Yo vengo de España, pero mi lengua materna no es el español, sino el catalán, aunque soy bilingue. Podéis leer un poco más sobre las otras lenguas que se hablan en España en la siguiente dirección:
http://spanish.about.com/library/weekly/aa050701a.htm. De igual forma, Patricia, aunque también hablante de español, su variedad es diferente, ya que proviene de Argentina. Podéis leer sobre las peculiaridades del idioma en Argentina en la dirección
http://spanish.allinfo-about.com/articles/ar-vos.html
Pero, nos gustaría que ahora vosotros os presentarais. Decidnos cuál es vuestro nombre, de dónde sois, por qué queréis aprender el español, etc. ¡Adelante ahora os toca a vosotros!
Come on! Introduce yourself!
Para terminar, presentamos a la protagonista por excelencia: La lenguage española.
Introduction about the Spanish language
Spanish 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.
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.
English words of Spanish origin include cargo, siesta, sombrero, mesa, hacienda, patio, armada, guerrilla, junta, plaza, canyon, rodeo, pueblo, adobe, vaizilia, armadillo, tornado, embargo, and bonanza.
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.).
Language Family
Family: Indo-European
Subgroup: Romance
Copyright © Kenneth Katzner, The Languages of the World, Published by Routledge.