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Spanish languages
Languages in Spain
Spanish is the official language for all Spain, but there are six autonomous regions that count with a second official language: Catalonia, Valencia and Balearic Islands (Catalan), Basque Country and Navarra (Euskera) and Galicia (Galician). Moreover, there’s a dialect spoken by 700.000 persons called bable. Catalan, halfway between Spanish and French, is spoken by 7.5 millions of persons; meanwhile Galician comes from Portuguese and has 2.5 million of users. These languages are understood by the majority of their respective populations, thing that curiously doesn’t happen with Euskera, ignored by half of Basque Country and Navarra inhabitants: there are 2.6 millions of persons but only a million of Euskera talkers. The peculiarities of Euskera don’t finish here, since it’s the only language of Spain that doesn’t come from Latin. It’s not similar to any, although there are a lot of studiers that relate it with Caucasian languages, in Southeast of Russia.
Catalan - The origin of Catalan can’t be dated with precision, since it appeared gradually from Latin. Unfortunately, the use of this language has been hardly restricted through History because of political issues. The last restriction of Catalan arrived with Francoism (1939-1975), when its use in society was forbidden: mass communications, offices, schools, etc. Luckily, after the dictatorship all people could use it with total freedom. Nowadays, it is very strange to hear or read something in Spanish in any public institution of Catalonia. In schools the use of both languages is more equitable, although Catalan still predominates, especially in rural zones. In audiovisual mass media Catalan is very habitual, but not in newspapers and magazines, this area is widely dominated by Spanish. Regions that speak Catalan are Catalonia, Valencia (where there’s a variant called “Valencian”), Balearic Islands (“Majorquin”), some zones of Aragon and Murcia, Andorra, Alguer (Italy) and Rosellon (France).
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