Spanish languages

Romans stayed in Spain for a long time. When they arrived in the Peninsula, they found different cities and peoples with different habits, cultures and languages.

 The Romans spoke Latin, the official Italian language in the time, so they made everybody in their Empire speak Latin too. Latin became the international language of the time. So many cities and villages in all Europe started to speak Latin.

 In Spain, the Romans conquered almost the entire Peninsula. In these conquered territories, people had to speak Latin, but they mixed it with their own original languages, and this is how Castilian, Galician, Portuguese and Catalan languages were born. This is also why they are so similar! Because of the Latin they all have in common.

These languages have changed since that period, but Latin is still present in the majority of their words.

What about the Basque language? Why is it so different to the rest of languages spoken in the Peninsula? Well, we said earlier that the Romans conquered ‘almost’ the entire Peninsula, but not quite! The Basque People, in the North, never surrendered to the Roman invaders. Therefore their language was never influenced by Latin.

Latin was the international language in Roman times. People from different countries and cultures could communicate by speaking this language. What would you say the international language is today?

Task taken from: http://www.educa.madrid.org/web/colegio1/aicole/sos5P/contenidos/10_ancient_history/ancient_history.pdf