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The history of the Spanish language in Spain and the origin of the dialects of Spain begin with the linguistic evolution of Vulgar Latin. The history of Spanish language in America starts with the colonization of America at the end of the fifteenth century. At this point the Spanish language was already firmly consolidated in the Iberian peninsula.” Besides being spoken in Spain, it is the official language of all the South American republics except Brazil and French Guyana, of the six republics of Central America, as well as of Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Additionally, the Spanish language is spoken in the Balearic and Canary islands , in parts of Morocco and the west coast of Africa, and also in Equatorial Guinea. In the United States it is widely spoken in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, New York City and in southern Florida. There are about 400 million Spanish Speakers worldwide. Pronunciation and usage of the spoken Spanish language naturally vary among countries, but regional differences are not so great as to make the language unintelligible to speakers from different areas. There is no such thing as a single 'Latin-American Spanish', there are different Spanish dialects. Each of the nineteen Latin American Spanish-speaking countries has its own accents and its own slang and popular expressions, but any of them understands and could speak and read in a neutral Spanish. This is why you will need the expertise of Trusted Translations in Latin American Spanish translations to help you decide when you should use a neutral Spanish or when you should localize your text with an specific Spanish dialect for any specific Spanish-speaking market. Some characteristics of Spanish Language Spanish language utilizes the Latin alphabet with a few special letters: vowels with acute accent (á, ú, é, í, ó), dieresis u (ü) and n with tilde (ñ). The Spanish language spelling system, due to substantial number of reforms, is almost perfectly phonemic and, therefore, is easy to learn compared to the majority of languages. The Spanish language is pronounced phonetically; however, beware of the translation trilled 'r' which is somewhat complex to reproduce. The letter 'b' and 'v' are almost indistinguishable. The letter 'h' is silent. Spanish language uses 3 letters in translation to the English alphabet: 'n' and the letter combinations 'ch' and 'll', which are treated as single translation letters. 'W' originally wasn't part of the Spanish translation alphabet; it has been included to accommodate words of foreign translation. Spanish language punctuation is very close to English, but is not the same. There are a few significant differences. For example, in Spanish, the exclamatory and interrogative sentences are preceded by inverted question and exclamation marks, for example, ¿Habla usted inglés? (Do you speak English?) or ¡Qué lástima! (What a pity!). Also, in a Spanish dialog, a change in speakers is indicated by a dash (-), while in English, each speaker's remark is placed in separate paragraphs. Formal and informal translation address: Deference and politeness is expressed by the translation between 2nd person 'tu' and 3rd person 'usted'. 'Ser' vs. 'estar': Two verbs denote the translation concept of to be. ' Ser' is used for permanent states; 'estar' is used to describe temporary things and to indicate translation. Inflection, declination and grammatical gender are important features of Spanish language.
Which Spanish I should use for my translations? |
