page_title: Spanish language
section_title: Names of the language and etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Spanish language / Names of the language and etymology
caption_attribution_description: English: Most commonly used names given to the Spanish Language (the term for "Spanish" is in blue and "Castilian" is in red) Español: Los términos de mayor uso para referirse al idioma español ("español" en azul y "castellano" en rojo) Italiano: Termini di uso più comune in riferimento alla lingua spagnola (Spagnolo) Türkçe: İspanyolca' ya dünyada verilen isimler (İspanyolca)
context_page_description: Spanish or Castilian is a Romance language that originated in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe and today is a global language with more than 483 million native speakers, mainly in Spain and the Americas. It is the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese, and the world's fourth-most spoken language, after English, Mandarin Chinese and Hindi.
  Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century, and the first systematic written use of the language happened in Toledo, a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile, in the 13th century. Beginning in 1492, the Spanish language was taken to the viceroyalties of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania and the Philippines.
caption: Map indicating places where the language is called castellano (in red) or español (in blue)
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