INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY AND CULTURE OF SPAIN

The Languages of Spain
 

Indo-European and Romance Languages
Taxonomy
Homo sapiens sapiens
Homo erectus and Neanderthal Man
Adam and Eve
Garden of Eden
Tower of Babel (Genesis)
Ursprache
Pharaoh Psammetichus
James IV of Scotland
Emperor Frederick II
Johann Herder
Bow-Wow Theory
Communication as instinct: Social Insects (bees, ants)
Speech as Learned Behavior: Whales, primates (esp. humans)
Chimpanzee (Bonobo): highest form of primate outside of humans; man’s closest living relative
DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid)
Gregor Mendel
Gene Theory of Inheritance (1865)
Charles Darwin (co-founders of the Theory of Evolution)
Science of Genetics
Mutation
James Watson and Francis Crick: the double helix structure of DNA
Recominant DNA research (Genetic Engineering)
Cloning and the Human Genome
DNA Clock
Natural chimpanzee communication
Food Bark
Allen and Beatrix Gardner
Washoe
American Sign Language
Yerkes Primate Center
Sue Savage-Rambaugh
Konzi
Computer-based learning
Lexagram
Some other primates (chimpanzees) have been shown to have some rudimentary to use language, negating the claim that language use is an exclusive human trait.  Nevertheless, humans are the preeminent users of language and the only species to have developed numerous complex languages.
Language categories:
1.  Living Languages
2.  Dead Languages
3.  Academic/Religious Languages
4.  Lost Languages
Indo-European Languages:  One of the world's major language family's.  Most European languages, including the Romance Languages, are members of this family.  Indo-European has the widest geographical spread of any language family, due in part to the European Age of Colonization that took European languages across the globe.
Romance Languages:  Family of languages based on Latin, therefore "Roman-like."  Since Latin is simply one branch of Indo-European, all languages that grow out of Latin are also Indo-European.
List of major Romance Languages:
1.  Spanish including several variants (Catalan, Galician)
2.  Italian
3.  French
4.  Portuguese
5.  Rumanian
Pre-Roman languages from the Iberian Peninsula:
1.  Primitive speech of the Iberian Tribes (unknown except for Basque))
2.  Celtic (speech that had arrived with earlier Indo-European invaders)
3.  Phoenician: arrived by sea from the Near East
4.  Greek:  arrived by sea from Greece
Conquest by Germanic Visigoths did not displace Latin speech; instead, the conquerors adopted the speech of the conquered.
In the Middle Ages, Latin evolved into various forms of Romance speech that jointly occupied the Iberian Peninsula
Medieval Romance languages:  
In the north:  Galician, Asturian-Leonese, Castilian (or Castellano), Aragonese, and Catalan.
In the west:  Portuguese (largely grew out of Galician)
In the south:  Mozarabic (speech used by the many Christian who had reconciled themselves to living under Islamic rule.)
Over the centuries, the region of Castile has taken over the leading role in Spanish history.  One indication of this is the fact that its form of Romance speech has tended to eclipse or swallow up the others.  Today, Castellano is a synonym for Spanish.
However, even today, there are other Romance languages still used on a regional basis:
Catalan:  language of eastern Spain, the provinces of Catalonia (around Barcelona) and Valencia.
Galician:  language of Galicia in the far northwest of the peninsula
Basque:  although not a Romance language like the others co-existing on the peninsula, it is a "Spanish language" in the sense of being a language spoken in a small region of north-central Spain.
Summary:  What is Spanish?
1.  Living language
2.  Expanding rather than dying out
3.  Derived principally from Latin
4.  Therefore, a member of both the Romance and Indo-European language families
5.  Adding to its linguistic complexity are elements derived from the various languages brought onto the Peninsula by other societies (Celts, Greeks, Phoenicians/Carthaginians, Germans, French, Arabs and north African Berbers)
6.  The main, but not the only Romance speech still spoken in Spain (others include Portuguese, Catalan, Galician)
7.  In north-central Spain, one language (Basque/Eukara) is still spoken that is not linguistically related to the Romance languages