Spanish, also called Castilian, is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region ofSpain and today has hundreds of millions of native speakers around the world. It is usually considered the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese.

　　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, then capital of the Kingdom of Castile, in the 13th century. Beginning in the early 16th century, Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania and thePhilippines.

　　Around 75% of modern Spanish is derived from Latin. Ancient Greek has also contributed substantially to Spanish vocabulary, especially through Latin, where it had a great impact.

　　Spanish vocabulary has been in contact from an early date with Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula.

With around 8% of its vocabulary being Arabic in origin, this language is the second most important influence after Latin. It has also been influenced by Basque as well as by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages.It also adopted words from non-Iberian languages such as Gothic language from the Visigothsin which many Spanish names and surnames have a Visigothic origin. It has absorbed vocabulary from other languages, particularly the Romance languages French, Italian, Occitan, and Sardinian, as well as from Nahuatl, Quechua, and other indigenous languages of the Americas.

　　Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. It is also used as an official language by the European Union, the Organization of American States, the Union of South American Nations, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, and by many other international organizations.