TRANSLATE FROM / TO SPANISH

Services of translation from / into Spanish in our translation agency are performed by certified professional translators of Spanish language.

We provide translation from / into Spanish for both enterprises, including state organizations, and for private individuals as well. Our services involve all types of written / oral translation from / into Spanish, including simultaneous interpretation.

SOME FACTS

Spanish language, member of the Romance group of the Italic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. The official language of Spain and 19 Latin American nations, Spanish is spoken as a first language by about 330 million persons and as a second language by perhaps another 50 million. It is the mother tongue of about 40 million people in Spain, where the language originated and whence it was later brought by Spanish explorers, colonists, and empire-builders to the Western Hemisphere and other parts of the world during the last five centuries. It is the native language of over 17 million people in the United States, and is one of the official languages of the United Nations.

Spanish is a descendant of the Vulgar Latin brought to the Iberian peninsula by the soldiers and colonists of ancient Rome (see Latin language). Thus the Spanish vocabulary is basically of Latin origin, although it has been enriched by many loan words from other languages, especially Arabic, French, Italian, and various indigenous languages of North, Central, and South America. The oldest extant written records of Spanish date from the middle of the 10th cent. A.D.

The Spanish language employs the Roman alphabet, to which the symbols ch, ll, n, and rr have been added. The tilde placed over the n (n) indicates the pronunciation ni, as in English pinion. The acute accent is used to make clear which syllable of a word is to be stressed when the regular rules of stress are not followed. The acute accent is also employed to distinguish between homonyms, as in se (“I know”) and se (“self”).

There are a number of Spanish dialects; however, the Castilian dialect was already the accepted standard of the language by the middle of the 13th cent., largely owing to the political importance of Castile. There are several striking differences in pronunciation between Castilian and major dialects of Latin American Spanish. In the former, c before e and i, and z before a, o, and u, are pronounced th, as in English think; in the latter, they are sounded as s in English see. Moreover, the alphabetical symbol ll in Castilian is pronounced as lli in English billion; but in Latin American Spanish, as y in English you. On the whole, however, the differences between the Spanish dialects of Europe and of Latin America with reference to pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar are relatively minor.

One interesting feature of Spanish is that there are two forms of the verb “to be”: estar, which denotes a relatively temporary state, and ser, which denotes a relatively permanent condition and which is also used before a predicate noun. Reflexive verbs often perform the same function in Spanish that passive verbs do in English. Because the inflection of the Spanish verb indicates person very clearly, subject pronouns are not necessary. A another peculiarity of Spanish is the use of an inverted question mark (?) at the beginning of a question and of an inverted exclamation point (?) at the beginning of an exclamation.

SPANISH: a language of Spain
SIL code: SPN
ISO 639-1: es
ISO 639-2: spa

Population 28,173,600 in Spain, 72.8% of the population (1986). Population total all countries 322,200,000 to 358,000,000 first language users (1999 WA--source for the second figure), 417,000,000 including second language users (1999 WA).

Region Central and southern Spain and the Canary Islands. Also spoken in 43 other countries including Andorra, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Finland, France.

Alternate names ESPANOL, CASTELLANO, CASTILIAN

Dialects ANDALUSIAN, MURCIAN, ARAGONESE, NAVARRESE, CASTILIAN, CANARY ISLANDS SPANISH, AMERICAN SPANISH.

Classification Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Western, Gallo-Iberian, Ibero-Romance, West Iberian, Castilian.

Comments Leonese has similarities to Asturian, and may be extinct. 89% lexical similarity with Portuguese, 85% with Catalan, 82% with Italian, 76% with Sardinian, 75% with French, 74% with Rheto-Romance, 71% with Rumanian. Most mother tongue speakers of other languages in Spain use Spanish as second language. The Aragonese dialect of Spanish is different from the Aragonese language. Official language. Dictionary. Grammar. SVO; prepositions; genitives, relatives after noun heads; articles, numerals before noun heads; adjectives before or after noun heads depending on whether it is evaluative or descriptive; question word initial; (C(C))V(C); nontonal. Christian. Bible 1553-1979.

Also spoken in:
Andorra Language name SPANISH
Population 24,600 in Andorra, 60% of population (1986).
Alternate names CASTILIAN
Comments Bible 1553-1979.


Argentina Language name SPANISH
Population 33,000,000 in Argentina (1995 estimate).
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Belize Language name SPANISH
Population 80,477 in Belize (1991 census).
Alternate names ESPANOL, CASTELLANO
Comments Radio programs, TV. Bible 1553-1979.


Bolivia Language name SPANISH
Population 3,483,700 in Bolivia (1995 estimate).
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Chile Language name SPANISH
Population 13,800,000 in Chile, including 25% Spanish, 66% mestizo (1995).
Alternate names ESPANOL, CASTELLANO
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Colombia Language name SPANISH
Population 34,000,000 in Colombia (1995 estimate).
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Costa Rica Language name SPANISH
Population 3,300,000 in Costa Rica (1995 estimate).
Alternate names ESPANOL, CASTELLANO
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Cuba Language name SPANISH
Population 10,000,000 in Cuba (1995 estimate).
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Dominican Republic Language name SPANISH
Population 6,886,000 in Dominican Republic (1995 estimate), 87% of the population.
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Ecuador Language name SPANISH
Population 9,500,000 in Ecuador (1995 estimate).
Comments National language. Christian. Bible 1553-1979.


El Salvador Language name SPANISH
Population 5,900,000 in El Salvador (1995), or 92.3% of the population (1982 Barrett).
Alternate names ESPANOL, CASTELLANO
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Equatorial Guinea Language name SPANISH
Population 11,500 in Equatorial Guinea (1993 Johnstone).
Comments Official language. Bible 1553-1979.


France Language name SPANISH
Alternate names CASTILLIAN
Comments Bible 1553-1979.


Gibraltar Language name SPANISH
Comments Bible 1553-1979.


Guatemala Language name SPANISH
Population 4,673,000 in Guatemala (1995 estimate).
Alternate names ESPANOL, CASTELLANO
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Honduras Language name SPANISH
Population 5,600,000 in Honduras (1996).
Alternate names ESPANOL, CASTELLANO
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Mexico Language name SPANISH
Population 86,211,000 first language speakers in Mexico (1995), 88% of the population.
Alternate names ESPANOL, CASTELLANO
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Morocco Language name SPANISH
Population 20,000 in Morocco (1993 Johnstone).
Comments Bible 1553-1979.


Nicaragua Language name SPANISH
Population 4,347,000 in Nicaragua (1995 estimate).
Alternate names ESPANOL, CASTELLANO
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Panama Language name SPANISH
Population 2,100,000 in Panama (1995 estimate).
Alternate names ESPANOL, CASTELLANO
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Paraguay Language name SPANISH
Population 110,000 in Paraguay (1979 estimate).
Comments Used in education and government. National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Peru Language name SPANISH
Population 20,000,000 in Peru (1995 estimate).
Alternate names ESPANOL, CASTELLANO
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Philippines Language name SPANISH
Population 2,658 (1990 census).
Comments Formerly the official language. Used by a few families as mother tongue. Christian. Bible 1553-1979.


Puerto Rico Language name SPANISH
Population 3,437,120 speakers in Puerto Rico, 90% of the population (1996).
Comments Some dialects are considered to be archaic. National language. Bible 1553-1979.


Trinidad and Tobago Language name SPANISH
Comments Users seem to be second language users only. Frequent contact with Venezuelan fishing communities that lie nine miles off the coast of Trinidad. Bible 1553-1979.


Uruguay Language name SPANISH
Population 3,000,000 in Uruguay (1995 estimate).
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.


USA Language name SPANISH
Population 22,400,000 in USA, 8.9% of the population (1990 census).
Alternate names ESPANOL, CASTELLANO
Comments Population has increased 61% or more since 1970. Official language. Bible 1553-1979.


Venezuela Language name SPANISH
Population 21,480,000 in Venezuela (1995 estimate).
Comments National language. Bible 1553-1979.