Languages
Most modern languages of Iberia descend from Vulgar Latin, except for Basque which is of unknown origin. Throughout history (and pre-history), many different languages have been spoken in the Iberian Peninsula contributing to the formation and differentiation of the contemporanean languages of Iberia, however most of them have become extinct or fallen into disuse. Basque is the only non-Indo-European surviving language in Iberia and Western Europe.
In modern times, Spanish (cf. 30 to 40 million speakers), Portuguese (cf. around 10 million speakers), Catalan (cf. around 9 million speakers), Galician (cf. around 3 million speakers) and Basque (cf. around half a million speakers) are the most widely spoken languages in the Iberian Peninsula. Out of these languages; only two, Spanish and Portuguese, have expanded beyond Iberia to the rest of world, thus becoming global languages.
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Famous quotes containing the word languages:
“Wealth is so much the greatest good that Fortune has to bestow that in the Latin and English languages it has usurped her name.”
—William Lamb Melbourne, 2nd Viscount (1779–1848)
“The trouble with foreign languages is, you have to think before your speak.”
—Swedish proverb, trans. by Verne Moberg.
“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)