The Story of Spanish

The Phoenicians named the territory the land of hyraxes: I-shepan-ha, which was later Latinized by the Romans to Hispania, to finally transform into España centuries later.

[4] From there, Nadeau and Barlow trace the Spanish language from its evolution from Vulgar Latin all the way to its entrance to the New World (North America).

For example, Nadeau and Barlow explain how the Castilian King Alfonso X improved the reputation of the language and was the first to recognize that “vernacular languages needed rules.”[5] And how Arabic heavily influenced Spanish during Spain’s centuries under Muslim rule.

[6] And how when the Spanish explored the New World they lacked the words to describe all the new things they encountered and adopted many terms from native languages such aguacate (avocado) and xitomatl that became tomate (tomato).

They write, “The Spanish language is unquestionably one of the great unifying forces of the Hispanic world.”[11]