Is Spanish similar to any other language spoken on the Earth?
Is Spanish similar to any other language commonly spoken??
15 Answers
Spanish is a Romance language, so it is similar to all the other Romance languages, especially Portuguese and Italian 
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Welcome to the forum, Benzy .
How far up the IndoEuropean language tree do you want to go?
Spanish is a lot like Pig Latin, except they use "ito" instead of "ay".
Similar to English, perhaps? It all depends on what you call "similar", because Spanish and English are very similar if you compare any of them with many languages of the world, like -say- Thai. After all, English and Spanish share tens of thousands of words. Of course there are many differences too.
Yes it is similar to Italian. I am part Italian and my school didn't let us learn Italian so I do decided to learn Spanish.
The Romance languages have quite a lot in common, which is no surprise as they all have Latin as their immediate predecessor. English is a bit special. In fact it is a Germanic language, but due to the invasion by the Normands ( romanized Vikings) in 1066 the Anglo-Saxon language got mixed with a lot of Norman French, and this influence is still very much present in the ( very extensive) English vocabulary. But except for the Finnish, the Hungarian and the Basque languages all European languages belong to the Indo-European language group.
'What is the origen of the word,"romance" '
I suppose it goes back to 'Roma' or Rome, as all Romance languages are later developments of Latin, the language of the Roman Empire.
What is the origen of the word,"romance"
I am currently in Sevilla (attempting to grasp the subjunctive and the conditional!!) and a lot of the people who come to class are Italian or Portuguese.
It always amazes me, how in around 2 weeks of class, most of the Portuguese people I have met can just pick up Spanish so easily. One of the Portuguese girls I met was in class for 2 weeks (after never having learnt Spanish before), and now she is teaching refugees basic Spanish in her job!
So, I would say apart from the obvious differences in pronunciation, the term 'fake it 'til you make it' applies to many of the Italians & Portuguese learning Spanish here (and this is what they have said, not just my opinion!)
You are right, of course, though Greenland is usually considered to be part of North America. The Estonian language is related to Finnish, the languages of the two other Baltic states are Indo-European. Basque is spoken in the Pyrenees, both on the French and the Spanish side but mainly in Spain. The dialects are not considered to be separate languages, and it bears no similarities to any other language. Origins unknown. It is one of Spain's ' lenguas cooficiales'. Maltese is spoken by less than half a million people, and though the core of it is probably Semitic, it has got mixed up with quite a few languages spoken in the Mediterranean. But in contrast with the Sami languages it is recognized as a coofficial language alongside with English. The Sami languages are in theory protected by the law, but unfortunately these legal protections are seldom implemented. But in Istanbul alone with its 13 million inhabitants there are more people who speak a non-Indo-European language than in Estonia, Euskadi, Malta and Laponia put together. That part of Turkey is definitely European, but the language is of course Turkish. An Altaïc language.
But except for the Finnish, the Hungarian and the Basque languages all European languages belong to the Indo-European language group.
I'm not sure that this is entirely correct.
In Europe, in addition to the dozen or so varieties of Basque languages, there also happen to be several Uralic languages besides just Hungarian and Finnish (i.e. Estonian, several varieties of Saami/Lappish and Livonian). There also happen to be a couple of Afro-Asiatic (Cypriot Arabic and Maltese) and Altaic languages (Gagauz and Karaim) as well as at least 3 from the Eskimo-Aleut family (Greenlandic)
Similar is a relative term so, as Lazarus rightly said, it depends on what you call similar???? In some respects Spanish will be similar to the other romance languages of Italian, Portuguese, French and Romanian, yet in otherways Spanish will differ.
Any language within the Romance family, Portuguese being one the closest, also anything really from the Iberian region (except Basque), will have a close relation. Also French, Italian, that minority language from Switzerland (name escapes me), and Romanian will all have something in common with the language.
If I may add my two cents: few peope are aware of the existence of a language called el LADINO. Busca en el Internet y vas a ver quienes y donde lo hablan 
Spanish as well as french, and italian are all the main romance languages. if you are looking to study a different language, then it might be easiest to go with one of those.
