Spanish
Castilian
español
castellano
Pronunciation[espaˈɲol]
[kasteˈʎano]
(pron. with yeísmo:
[kasteˈʝano])
Native toSpain, Hispanic America, Equatorial Guinea
SpeakersL1: 519 million (2025)1
L2: 117 million (2025)
Total: 636 million (2025)
Language familyIndo-European • Italic
• Latino-Faliscan
• Latin
• Romance
• Italo-Western
• Western Romance
• Gallo - Iberian ?
• Ibero-Romance
• West Iberian
• Castilian 2 3
Spanish
Early formsVulgar Latin • Proto-Romance
• Old Spanish
• Early Modern Spanish
Writing systemLatin script (Spanish alphabet)
Spanish Braille
Signed formsSigned Spanish (using signs of the local language)
Official status
Official language in• 21 countries , 1 dependent territory , and 1 partially recognized country
• Organizations including the AU , CAN , ACS , CARICOM , CELAC , EU , ALADI , Parlatino , Mercosur , OSCE , OAS , UN , USAN , OEI and WTO
Regulated byAssociation of Spanish Language Academies
Language codes
ISO 639-1es
ISO 639-2spa
ISO 639-3spa
Glottologstan1288
Linguasphere51-AAA-b
Official majority language Co-official or administrative language but not majority native language Secondary language (more than 20% Spanish speakers) or culturally important

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Footnotes

  1. “El Español en el mundo” (PDF). Instituto Cervantes. 2025.

  2. Eberhard, Simons & Fennig (2020)

  3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2022). “Castilic”. Glottolog 4.6. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2022.