Vulgar Latin
Mountaingirl 123, I like what you have written as a comment in the post I put in Answers about “Spanglish” I have to say that you are so right!
I love this forum because here, we get to share our love to the Spanish language.
It is well known that Spanish is a derivative of Latin, it arrived on the Iberian Peninsula around 2,000 years ago. On the peninsula, Latin adopted some of the vocabulary of indigenous languages, becoming Vulgar Latin. The peninsula's variety of Latin became quite rich and with plenty of changes (including the addition of thousands of Arabic words) In the 13th century, King Alfonso supported the translation of historic documents. He also made the dialect the official language for government administration. As later rulers pushed the Moors out of Spain, they continued to use Castilian as the official tongue. One of the first Spanish-Language textbooks Arte de la lengua castellana by Antonio de Nebrija, was one of the first books to define the grammar of this new European language. It is interesting to think that once upon a time “Latin” was the language of the educated people and now it is a disappearing language and that all the “vulgar Latin” dialects are now languages (Portuguese, Gallego, Castilian, Catalonian, Italian etc…) these languages are alive…and like something that it is alive…they are constantly changing. We all know that Spanish is a rich language. I really appreciate the work of the RAE (Royal Academy of the Spanish Language) and their effort to enrich and preserve our language. And I also appreciate all of you! (natives and non-natives) 
1 Answer
Yes! For those of us who are language nuts with a heavy sprinkling of history nut, this is exciting stuff!
Thanks for the excellent summary.
