Catalonia

Languages

/ Gracetopher Kirk / Leave a comment

As you may have noticed, I keep referring to Castellano instead of Spanish. This is because I have been informed that I do not speak Spanish. I speak Castellano. Castellano is the language of Castilla, a central region of Spain, but since the Castillians took over everything a few hundred years ago, everyone in spain Speaks Castellano now. But not exclusively.

Castellano is the only official language for Spain as a whole, but in the various different territories there are various more languages that have official recognition as well (and some that aren’t official but are spoken nonetheless). In addition to Castillan the current Romance languages spoken are Catalan in Catalonia, Aranese in small parts of north-western Catalonia, and Galician which is spoken in Galicia (basically the midway point between Portugese and Castellano). And then there’s Euskera. The language of the Basque country (where I am). It’s not a Romance language and doesn’t resemble Castellano at all….. It is in fact the last remaining pre Indo-European language in existance.

If I may be pardoned for using wikipedia, there is a graphic which beautifully illustrates the languages spoken in the Iberian peninsula over the past 1000 years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Linguistic_map_Southwestern_Europe.gif

Good Thing I’m Not One of Those People…

/ Gracetopher Kirk / 1 Comment

You know. The people who sit around complaining “Yur in ‘Murica. Speak English” Because I’ve been in Catalunia, the Basque Country, and France without knowing the languages of said countries. I do make the effort whenever possible; at least in Catalunia and the Basque Country I can speak Castellano, but the world is a massive place full of so many languages that I do not speak. I feel as though my world would be so much smaller if I only associated with people who spoke English in countries where English is the primary language. Even if I were to include all the languages where Castellano is spoken, my world would be so much smaller.

Add to that the fact that it is stressful and scary to go somewhere where you don’t speak the language, and far from being angry at people who come to the USA without knowing so much as a word of English, I have developed a great respect for them.