Spanish (español) is an Indo-European, Romance language that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade. It was taken to Africa, the Americas, and Asia Pacific with the expansion of the Spanish Empire between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Today, between 322 and 400 million people speak Spanish as a native language,Universidad de México <Instituto Cervantes ("El Mundo" news) making it the world's second most-spoken language by native speakers (after Mandarin Chinese).

It is estimated that the combined total of native and non-native Spanish speakers is approximately 500 million, likely making it the third most spoken language by total number of speakers (after English and Chinese).Universidad de México <Instituto Cervantes ("El Mundo" news)
Today, Spanish is an official language of Spain, most Latin American countries, and Equatorial Guinea; 20 nations speak it as their primary language. Spanish also is one of six official languages of the United Nations. Mexico has the world's largest Spanish-speaking population, and Spanish is the second most-widely spoken language in the United States and the most popular studied foreign language in U.S. schools and universities. Global internet usage statistics for 2007 show Spanish as the third most commonly used language on the Internet, after English and Chinese.

Naming and origin

main: Names given to the Spanish language Spaniards tend to call this language lang: español (Spanish) when contrasting it with languages of other states, such as French and English, but call it lang: castellano (Castilian), that is, the language of the Castile region, when contrasting it with other languages spoken in Spain such as Galician, Basque, and Catalan. This reasoning also holds true for the language's preferred name in some Hispanic American countries. In this manner, the Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term lang: castellano to define the official language of the whole Spanish State, as opposed to lang: las demás lenguas españolas (lit. the other Spanish languages). Article III reads as follows: