The history of the Spanish language in Spain and the origin of the dialects of Spain begin with the linguistic evolution of Vulgar Latin.
The Spanish Language can be traced back to the Indo-European language family. Around 2000 years before Christ, Celt Iberians spoke an early Celtic language. The inhabitants of this region, an area later referred to by scholars as Hispania, started learning Latin from the Romans. The combination of the Celtic language and Latin evolved into what is referred to by many as Vulgar Latin. Vulgar Latin was an adapted form of Latin that used phrases and words that were different from traditional Latin but became the kind of Latin more spoken by the common villagers.
It is estimated that approximately 3000-4000 words in today’s Spanish are derived from Arabic because the region called Hispania was temporarily taken over by an Arabic-speaking group.
In Latin America, the Spanish language came in the 15th century; Christopher Columbus sailed to the Americas and brought with him the Castilian Spanish language. As a result of what scholars refer to as “hispanización”, Spanish was established as a primary language in this region.
During the early stages of what is referred to as “hispanización”, there were many challenges, as the local languages were starkly different, making communications difficult. Until the Catholic Church stepped in, it was unclear whether Spanish would survive in the region. Hence, the Catholic Church was instrumental in the expansion of the use of Spanish. Learning intuitions to teach children Catholicism in Spanish were established.
Despite the efforts of the Spaniards to impose the language on the natives, the sheer dominance in numbers caused the language to blend with the local dialects. In particular, natives from Mexico and Peru were able to significantly influence the language spoken today in Latin America.