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Did all the spanish speaking countries originally speak spanish?

Did all the spanish speaking countries originally speak spanish?

2
votes

Did all the spanish speaking countries originally speak spanish, or did they "adopt" the language while Spain controled them? snake

(Look at the cute snake surprised !!!!)

14926 views
updated Aug 20, 2010
posted by Katherine-Smolen
Sorry 2 make the "originally" part so confusing!! >. - Katherine-Smolen, Aug 19, 2010

7 Answers

4
votes

Originally? How far in time do you call "originally"? In Spain, before Spanish there was Gothic, Arabic, vulgar Latin,... and before that you had Basque, Iberian Celtic, Tartessian, Phoenician,...

In all the Latin American countries there were countless languages before Spanish, many of them still in use. In Mexico alone, you had entire families of languages: Mayan, Uto-Aztecan (eg. Nahuatl), Algonquian, Manguean,... In South America there were probably over 1500 languages before Columbus arrived.

updated Aug 19, 2010
posted by lazarus1907
2
votes

It depends on what you mean.

Most of the American countries (central and south) were Spanish speaking at the time of their independence from Spain, but before the Spanish colonized those areas in the last 500 years or so, indigenous groups such as the Incans, the Olmecs, the Mayans, the Aztecs, and others had each their own languages.

¡Buena Suerte!

updated Aug 19, 2010
posted by knuckleboy
2
votes

None of the Spanish-speaking countries originally spoke Spanish. Prior to the conquest and colonization of the New World, there were many different indigenous groups in Latin America and many different languages were spoken. Spain itself is where Spanish originated, but prior to Spanish there was Latin, which was another language imposed on the peninsula. There were foreign languages spoken on the peninsula in ancient history such as Phoenecian and Greek. There were also native languages there, few of which remain to this day. Basque is one of the few remaining native languages in Spain, and its origin is unknown.

updated Aug 19, 2010
posted by wenc3
1
vote

Just to give you an idea -

Bolivia has about 30 indigenous "peoples" who were here before the Spanish arrived.

Today they still speak about 30 different languages - the main ones are Aymara - Quechua and Guarani. Spanish is the "universal" language here.

updated Aug 19, 2010
posted by ian-hill
1
vote

I am sure that if we go far enough back in time, we get to a point where everyone spoke some variant of your basic "grunt", "eek", "ungawa!!".

So yes, just about how long ago are we talking about?

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updated Aug 19, 2010
posted by Gekkosan
Right, "originally" is real confusing. No one spoke any modern language originally. o.O - rabbitwho, Aug 19, 2010
1
vote

No....if you go back far enough, none of the Spanish speaking countries originally spoke Spanish, including the area that is now called Spain.

If you are interested in the history of the Spanish language you might find this article to be a good starting point: History of Spanish

updated Aug 19, 2010
edited by Izanoni1
posted by Izanoni1
1
vote

None of the countries in the Americas had Spanish as their native language before "La Conquista" during the 16th century.

updated Aug 19, 2010
posted by 005faa61