ABSTRACT
In this chapter we will investigate how the Spanish language developed from its early Latin origins in the Iberian Peninsula to a world language today. In doing this we will need to see how its status has always gone hand-in-hand with the status of the communities where the language is spoken. As we have seen in Chapter 1 the prestige and importance of a language mirrors the power and influence of its speakers. Throughout we will be asking how far the existence of Spanish defines separate identities, shaping their sense of nation and confirming the frontiers of their imagined communities. Or will the role of the Spanish language emerge less as an intrinsic value and more as a useful tool with which to construct national identity? Does Spanish perform a Herderian role in Spanish or Spanish-American national consciousness? Or, instead, will we see Spanish being deliberately selected, consciously created as an artificial construct, named and classified for political purposes as Hobsbawm, Billig and Gellner, amongst others, suggest is the role of language in nation-building?
