The 5 Languages of Spain

Spain is more linguistically diverse than what one might think of first. But only reviewing the headline news over decades already reveals a lot. Above all, Spanish is generally called Castellano (Castillian) throughout Spain.

Remember the 2017 Catalan independence referendum and the swift response of the central government of Madrid effectively taking over power and turning back the clock on regional autonomy? Perhaps you remember Catalan politicians ending up in jail or fleeing abroad? Carles Puigdemont has been living in volontary exile in Belgiium for several years. Only by 2024 he was allowed back to enter Spain after his arrest warrant was lifted.

We need to look back a little further in time to find the militant ETA (the Bask liberation movement, including an armed paramilitary secret army). Their most important assault has been the assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco in 1973. He was Spain's prime minister under the Franco regime.

These events illustrate how language and culture are intertwined with authonomy, seperatist movements and the political call for independence. But let us focus on the regional languages now.

This is a video from the channel Story Learning of Olly Richards. Regional languages included in the video are Galician (Galego), Catalan, Bask and Aranés. That is a local variant of Occitan also spoken north of the Pyrenées in France. 

"Dialects"

Furthermore, there are a couple of regional languages which are fading away since they are considered dialects. Asturo-Leonés has been spoken historically in Asturias and Leon, but the reconquista carried it much further south into Extremadura. Paradoxically, this regional language got an official status in the North-east of Portugal, where it is known as Mirandés (spoken in and around Miranda do Douro.)

Aragonés also lost its status as a regional language and is rarely heard in public. In Valencia, the local Valenciano is a dialect of Catalan. It is still locally spoken. The Andalucian dialects have evolved from the Mozarabe (the dialects of Christians living under Muslim rule) with Castillian largely influencing and replacing them.

Northern Spain

The North of Spain is where there is most linguistic diversity. Combining regional languages and dialects, the only regions where Castillian is originally spoken are Cantábria, Logroño and the eastern provinces of Castilla y León. Thereof only Cantábria is a coastal region, facing the Atlantic.

Castillian has gained importance and ultimately dominance only since the Reyes Católicos (Ferdinand de Aragón and Isabella de Castilla) adopted it as the language of the royal court in the 15th century. It would take until the early 17th century before reading and writing in Castillian gained traction. The two volumes of the novel "Don Quijote de la Mancha" of Miguel de Cervantes date from 1605 and 1615. 

Teaching at Univeristies

Throughout Europe the teaching language at universities has predominantly been Latin, not only during the middle ages but till well after the renaissance. By the 18th century, the choice for Castillian over other regional languages had since long been made. Latin was progressively phased out at universities as more publications in Spanish became available. It is also illustrative that the Real Academia Española was founded in 1713.