ABSTRACT
Spanish is a Romance language of the Italic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It is the official language of the Kingdom of Spain, where it is spoken by about 50 million, and of a long chain of Latin American countries, running from Mexico to Argentina, as well as the Central African state of Equatorial Guinea, giving a total of well over 350 million native speakers, with second-language speakers raising this to 400 million. This figure also includes the Spanish-speaking population of Puerto Rico, large numbers of speakers across many areas of the southern United States, where the language co-exists with English almost as a second official language, and a few enclaves in North Africa. It is by far the most widely distributed of the descendants of Latin, and is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
