Names Given To The Spanish Language - History of The Terms

History of The Terms

See also: History of the Spanish language, Iberian Romance languages, Spanish colonization of the Americas, History of Spain, History of South America, and Kingdom of Castile

Originally Castilian (castellano) referred to the language of the Kingdom of Castile, one of several northern kingdoms that spread across the Iberian Peninsula through the Middle Ages, from about the 8th to the 15th centuries. The first recorded example of written Castilian/Spanish is the Glosas Emilianenses, a document from the eleventh century. This protoromanic language is no longer spoken, but can be read in many texts such as El cantar de Mío Cid. This language derived from Latin and evolved into the modern Spanish.

However, the term Spanish (español) is a more recent term that first referred to Spain as a country, and then to the predominant language spoken in that country. Spain as a truly unified nation appeared centuries later than the language and the Kingdom of Castile; in fact, it was only in the late 15th century that the personal union between the Crowns of Castile and Aragon unified Spain. The actual legal unification date is disputed, but commonly agreed to have occurred not earlier than the eighteenth century. Only then did the Castilian language begin to be commonly called Spanish.

In 1492, the arrival of Christopher Columbus on a Castilian-paid expedition paved the way for the Spanish colonization of the Americas. As a result of this process, most countries in South America now speak the same language as Castile. Until about the eighteenth century, the Kingdom of Castile, and not Spain as a whole, was the colonizing power and the language used was called Castilian. Thus, some American countries formerly under the Spanish rule have retained the custom of calling it castellano, while others switched to calling it español at some point or the other, with many other different factors influencing the final choice.

In English, the term Spanish relates both to the language and to the nation. The noun used for a person from Spain is Spaniard, with the collective noun the Spanish. The term Castilian is much less widespread amongst English speakers than the term Spanish.

To understand how two terms can refer to the same language, imagine that the English language were sometimes called English after the historical nation whose language it is but also sometimes British after the modern state, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of which it is the official language. To add to the complexity, former British colonies such as British North America would have had to choose a name for the language as well as the speakers of Welsh and other non-English languages in the United Kingdom. That would resemble the situation with Spain and its historical centre, Castile.