Country factsheets
June 2011
SPAIN
1. Overview
Population
Official languages
Recognised
co-official
languages, alongside with
Spanish, in the constituent
communities where they
are spoken
Other languages
Foreign languages spoken
46.951.532 (01/01/2010)1
Spanish (español or castellano, Castilian) is spoken all
over the country and so is the only language with
official status nationwide.
Basque (euskera) in the Basque Country and Navarre;
Catalan (català) in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands;
Valencian (valencià), a distinct variant of Catalan, is
official in the Valencian Community; Galician (galego) in
Galicia.
There are also some other surviving Romance minority
languages such as the Astur-Leonese group, which
includes two languages in Spain: Asturian which has
protected status in Asturias, and Leonese, which is
protected in Castile and León. Aragonese is recognized
in Aragon2. Aranese is a local Occitan dialect spoken
(and co-official) in Valle de Arán.
In the North African Spanish city of Melilla, Amazigh is
spoken by a significant part of the population.
In the tourist areas of the Mediterranean coast and the
islands, English and German are widely spoken by
tourists, foreign residents, and tourism workers. Other
languages: Arabic, Romanian, Bulgarian, Chinese, etc.
are spoken by immigrant communities
2. Language family and main characteristics of the Spanish and co-official
languages
Spanish or Castilian (Spanish: español or castellano) is a Romance language in
the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in
the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade
in the Iberian peninsula. It was taken most notably to the Americas as well as to
Africa and Asia Pacific with the expansion of the Spanish Empire between the
fifteenth and nineteenth centuries
Today, 329 million people speak Spanish as a native language (more native speakers
than English), making it the world's second most spoken language in terms of native
speakers. Mexico contains the largest population of Spanish speakers3. The U.S. has
the world's second-largest Spanish-speaking population The latest numbers issued
1
Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística,
http://www.ine.es/censo2001/serie_hi.xls.
Series históricas de datos censales:
2
Unlike Basque, Catalan/Valencian and Galician, these languages do not have any official
status. This might be due to their very small number of speakers, a less significant written
tradition in comparison to Catalan or Galician, and lower self-awareness of their speakers
3
According to Wikipedia, out of 113 billions of Mexico inhabitants, approximately 103 billions are
Spanish mother tongue speakers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language
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Country factsheets
June 2011
by the U.S. Census Bureau show that there are now 50.5 million Hispanics living in
the United States of America, constituting the largest minority and 16.3% of the total
population of the country4. Most of them speak Spanish as a first or second
language.
Catalan (Catalan: català) is a Romance language, the national and official language
of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of the
Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencià
(Valencian).
Galician (Galician: galego) is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch,
spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, as well
as in small bordering zones in the neighbouring autonomous communities of Asturias
and Castile and León and in Northern Portugal. Galician and Portuguese were, in
medieval times, a single language which linguists call Galician-Portuguese, Medieval
Galician, or Old Portuguese, spoken in the territories initially ruled by the medieval
Kingdom of Galicia.
Basque (Basque: euskara) is the language of the Basque people, who inhabit the
Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern
France. It is the mother tongue of approximately one fifth of Basques, 632,000 out
of nearly 3,000,000. Of the native speakers, about 566,000 live in the Spanish part
of the Basque country and the rest live in the French part.
3. National language system
3.1. Legal basis
Attempts to regulate multilingualism in Spain have generated many rules and
regulations in the regional government level and on occasion in central government.
The cornerstone of the entire structure rests on the 1978 Constitutional dictum
(Article 3.1) that Castilian is the official language of the state and that all Spanish
citizens have a duty to know it, but that the "other Spanish languages" share the
same official status in their respective communities, as stated in their Charters
(Article 3.2). This legal construct was designed based on the idea that Spain's
linguistic diversity is a manifestation of "wealth" and an item of "cultural heritage" as
a value in its entirety. This means that the 1978 Constitution was designed to
respect and protect the diversity of the system as a whole, not merely its constituent
parts. The use of Spanish (Castilian) and co-official languages is protected both by
Spanish Constitution and Estatutos (Home Rules) of the 6 autonomous Communities
with a co-official Spanish language different from Castilian.
As for the co-official languages:
Catalan:
Article 6 of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, approved by a referendum held in
Catalonia on 18 June 2006, regulates linguistic matters in an extremely detailed
matter:
"Article 6. Catalonia’s own language and official languages 1. Catalonia’s own
language is Catalan. As such, Catalan is the language of normal and
preferential use in Public Administration bodies and in the public media of
4
Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/24/us-census-hispanics-idUSTRE72N5OC20110324
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Country factsheets
June 2011
Catalonia, and is also the language of normal use for teaching and learning in
the education system.2. Catalan is the official language of Catalonia, together
with Castilian, the official language of the Spanish State. All persons have the
right to use the two official languages and citizens of Catalonia have the right
and the duty to know them. The public authorities of Catalonia shall establish the
necessary measures to enable the exercise of these rights and the fulfilment of
this duty. In keeping with the provisions of Article 32, there shall be no
discrimination on the basis of use of either of the two languages. […]"
The Statute was challenged by a submission to the Constitutional Court by the
Popular Party and some Regional autonomous governments on grounds of possible
unconstitutional nature. In June 2010, the Constitutional Court finally made its
ruling, declaring 14 of the 223 articles unconstitutional and interpreting 27 of them 5.
The Court accepted Article 6.2 that makes knowledge of the Catalan language
compulsory, but declared the words 'and preferential' (“y preferente”) in Article 6.1
unconstitutional.
Galician:
Article 5 of the Statute of Autonomy of Galicia, approved on 6 April 1981 establishes
that both Galician and Castilian are official languages in Galicia and all citizens have
the right to know and use them. Another article establishes that, in order to become
a judge, magistrate or court secretary, the knowledge of Galician language will be
considered a merit.
Basque:
Article 6 of the Basque Statute of Autonomy of 18 December 1979 establishes that
both Euskera (Basque) and Castilian are official languages in Euskadi (Basque
Country) and that all its citizens have the right to know and use both languages.
Since 2007, the Spanish Sign Language has an official status acknowledged by law 6.
3.2. Languages in the public administration and in the judiciary
Castilian (or Spanish) is an official language everywhere in the country, while the
other languages are co-official in the regions where they are spoken. Theoretically
co-official languages have equal legal status as languages of the public
administration and judiciary in their respective autonomous communities. The Courts
and their staff use Castilian nationwide, but in the Autonomous Communities which
have their own languages (Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Galicia and the
Basque Country), that language may also be used without objection by anyone on
the grounds of their not knowing that language.
All other participants in the trial may use Castilian or the language of the
Autonomous Community where the trial is held for their documents and oral
statements. The court will appoint an interpreter if anyone does not know the
language of the Autonomous Community.
Foreigners taken to court have a right to an interpreter.
5
http://www.elpais.com/elpaismedia/ultimahora/media/201006/28/espana/20100628elpepuna
c_1_Pes_PDF.pdf
6
Ley 27/2007, de 23 de octubre, por la que se reconocen las lenguas de signos españolas y se regulan los medios
de apoyo a la comunicación oral de las personas sordas, con discapacidad auditiva y sordociegas (Ley LLSS-MACO).
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June 2011
3.3. Education and training
3.3.1. Education and training in official and minority languages
As Spain is a highly decentralised country, very similar, as to substance, to Federal
States, the central government has only the competence to establish the minimum
requirements and each Regional Autonomous Community is competent for detailed
regulation in its own territory.
The Spanish school system is currently based on three cycles: pre-primary (0-6
years), primary (6-12 years) with three levels of two years each (6/8, 9/10 and
11/12)l and secondary, with two levels: lower-secondary (or Compulsory Secondary
Education - Educación Secundaria Obligatoria with 4 courses 12/16 years) and
upper-secondary school (or Bachillerato, non compulsory), with two courses (17/18
years).
There are different linguistic models as far as education system is concerned:
a) Teaching exclusively in Castilian
b) Castilian as general teaching language + another Spanish language taught as
any other matter
c) Bilingual teaching (Castilian / another Spanish language)
d) Another Spanish language as general teaching language + Castilian taught as
any other matter
The last two models are obviously applied only in the Autonomous Communities with
a co-official language.
Regarding specifically Catalonia, in July 2009 the Catalan Autonomous Parliament
has approved a new Educational Law that consolidates the use of Catalan as the
main teaching language in Catalonia's education system, both in primary and
secondary education. The act establishes that all educative activities and classroom
lessons must be conducted in Catalan. Only Spanish Language and its Literature and
Foreign Language subjects shall not be conducted in Catalan. On 16 October 2009
the Popular Party (right) lodged an appeal before the Constitutional Court against
this law on the grounds that it imposes Catalan as the only tuition language. The
Constitutional Court Ruling of June 2010 doesn't affect the current status of Catalan
as main language for education. Actually, the law reflects a state of things that has
been unchanged for the past 30 years and had been carried by general consent of all
parties at that time. Curiously enough, the educational reality seems to go the other
way round: it has been reported by the press that schools in areas where Catalan is
more widely spoken are asking for a greater presence of Spanish language in their
curriculums, whereas schools in areas where Spanish is more widely spoken are
asking to reinforce the presence of Catalan.
In some universities located in the regions with a co-official language, tuition can or
must be given in those languages. In Catalonia universities are adopting the concept
of "linguistic security" according to which national and foreign (Erasmus) students
should know beforehand which the tuition language for each subject is. These are
established in the linguistic management plans of each universities.
3.3.2. Language learning
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June 2011
On 3rd May 2006, the Government and its allied political parties passed an organic
law (Ley orgánica 2/2006, de 3 de mayo, de Educación)7, based on three main
principles: a) providing a quality education to all Spanish citizens, b) the need for all
actors in the education community to cooperate in order to achieve this objective
and c) a strong commitment with the educational objectives set by the European
Union.
This law aims inter alia at "improving the foreign languages learning, increasing the
mobility and reinforcing the European cooperation"…
To this effect, the law introduces some new developments: a first foreign educative
language experience in the second level of pre-primary school (3-6 years) and giving
the option of a second foreign language from 10 years onwards (before the law, this
option begun at first year of the secondary education - 12 years). Nevertheless it
must be recalled that in the Spanish system the second foreign language is only
optional at all levels (from 10 to 18 years) except for some schools.
Some pilot projects concerning bilingual teaching (Spanish/English, Spanish/French
and Spanish/German) in primary and secondary education have been recently
developed by some Regional Autonomous Communities. They are supported by
language institutions such as the British Council, Institut Français, Goethe Institut,
etc.
A particularity of the Spanish system are the Official Schools for Languages (Escuelas
Oficiales de Idiomas), public bodies created in 1911, nowadays depending on the
Regional Autonomous Governments. They are specialized in languages teaching to
the general public (aged from 16 years old or 14 when they learn a language which
is different from that learnt by the pupil at secondary compulsory school). The role
played by this kind of national education system schools in the long life language
learning is indeed very important.
3.4. Language education for immigrants

Immigrant pupils have the same educational opportunities as Spanish citizens in
all educational stages:
- compulsory education: 6-16 years
- voluntary (but free of charge for parents) education: 3-6 years
- voluntary education (free of charge in some autonomous communities): 0-6
years

There is a legal framework (in the autonomous community concerned) in order
to provide Spanish or co-official languages courses for immigrants of all ages.

Some autonomous communities support NGO or immigrant associations in their
efforts to maintain their own mother tongue and cultural identity.
3.3.5. Translator and interpreter training
There are more than 20 faculties of translation and interpretation in Spain. Some of
them have developed their own master programmes (see below under 7, EMT).
7
http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Admin/lo2-2006.html
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Country factsheets
June 2011
3.4. Languages and the media
Written press throughout Spain is mainly published in Spanish. Regional newspapers
and regional editions of big national newspapers may have some articles written in
the regional language. One Barcelona based newspaper, AVUI, is totally written in
Catalan. Regional languages are oftener used by radio and TV programmes in the
concerned regions, mainly on radio and TV channels owned by regional
Governments.
In the specific case of the cultural sector, Catalan legislation (Act 1/1998 on
Linguistic Policy) establishes language quotas for licensed radio and television
broadcasting. In order to promote the composition, performance and production of
Catalan music, radio and television broadcasting companies also have to guarantee
that music programmes will provide adequate exposure to songs performed by
Catalan artists, which must account for at least 25% of the material broadcast.
3.5. Language institutions
The Real Academia Española (“Royal Spanish Academy”)8, or RAE, is the official
institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid,
Spain, but is affiliated with national language academies in twenty-one Spanishspeaking nations through the Association of Spanish Language Academies..
The RAE is a major publisher of dictionaries and grammars, and has a formal
procedure for admitting words to its publications. Its website includes an online
dictionary and other resources, all in Spanish. Its most famous publication is the
Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española (Dictionary of the
Spanish Language of the Royal Spanish Academy), the "DRAE".
DGT is collaborating with the Royal Academy in the framework of the project
TERMINESP (see below, under 7).
The Instituto Cervantes9 is a public not-for-profit institution founded by the
Government of Spain in 1991 to promote Spanish language teaching and knowledge
of the cultures of Spanish speaking countries throughout the world. It is now the
largest international Spanish teaching organization, with 80 centres in more than 40
countries.
Fundéu10 is a non-profit institution whose main goal is working on the correct usage
of Spanish language, specifically in the media.
http://www.rae.es/rae.html
http://www.cervantes.es/default.htm
10
http://www.fundeu.es/
8
9
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June 2011
4. Language industry
The final report of the study on the size of the language industry in the EU, carried
out for the DGT in 2009, could not collect sufficient data to estimate the volume of
the language market in Spain.
The value of translation and interpreting activities was estimated at 388 million € in
2008, based on findings of the 2004 ACT (Agrupación de Centros Especializados en
Traducción) study.
Full text of the study:
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/publications/studies/size_of_language_industry_
en.pdf
5. Language status in international organisations
Spanish is an official language in 21 countries and in the following organizations:
United Nations (where it is one of the six official languages and it is used in almost
40 bodies of the UN System), European Union, Organization of American States,
Organization of Ibero-American States, African Union, Latin Union, Caricom, North
American Free Trade Agreement and Antarctic Treaty.
6. Sensitive issues and official position on language matters
6.1. Background
 Spain’s non-Spanish languages enjoyed different degrees of development and
use throughout their histories, but the 19th century witnessed a renaissance for
them in Spain and official recognition for some of them under the Second
Republic (1931-1939). This, however, was reversed with Franco’s rise and his
discouragement and suppression of all languages other than Spanish (19391977).
6.2. Current situation
 The role of minority languages has been a sensitive issue in the country in part
because they were suppressed during the Franco regime. Since the restoration of
democracy, Spain’s non-Spanish languages have been enjoying another
renaissance, especially under the state sponsorship of co-official languages.
 The 1978 Constitution and the various regional Statutes of Autonomy (Estatutos
de autonomía) have opened the door to a flood of regional legislation on
language, including that of the Basque Country (10/1982 Act), Galicia (3/1983
Act), Valencia (1/1983 Act), Catalonia (1/1998 Act) and Navarre (18/1998 Act).
However, this has not prevented the central government, in the exercise of its
powers, from regulating how the co-official status of regional languages works in
such practical spheres as education and schools, access to public services, local
administration, the courts, the health authorities and road signs.
 These legal provisions and their implementation have generated numerous
disputes taken first to the ordinary courts and then to the Constitutional Court
which, by its jurisprudence, has slowly established a framework for how two
languages co-exist as official. The relevant Constitutional jurisprudence (more
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Country factsheets
June 2011
than 25 sentences) are the Sentences 82, 83 and 84 of 26 June 1986, passed in
response to Bills submitted to the central government on the normalisation of the
Basque, Catalan and Galician languages. According to these Sentences, Castilian,
as the official language of the country as a whole, cannot be cast as a rival to the
regional languages given that both the regional and central governments are
equally obliged to respect and protect the multiple languages of Spain.
 The Spanish governments have sought to give some official status in the EU for
the languages of the Autonomous communities of Spain, Catalan, Galician and
Basque. The 667th Council Meeting of the Council of the European Union in
Luxembourg on 13 June 2005 decided to authorise limited use at EU level of
languages recognised by Member States other than the official working
languages. The Council granted recognition to "languages other than the
languages referred to in Council Regulation No 1/1958 whose status is recognised
by the Constitution of a Member State on all or part of its territory or the use of
which as a national language is authorised by law." The official use of such
languages will be authorised on the basis of an administrative arrangement
concluded between the Council and the requesting Member State . Differents
levels of use of co-official languages are therefore regulated regulated11 in the
Council 12, the Committee of the Regions13 (16/11/2005), the Commission14 , the
European Parliament , the European Ombudsman15 , the European Economic and
Social Committee16 (7/06/2006) and the Court of Justice17.
 Spanish public authorities and citizens frequently complain about the fact that
Spanish has a status of 'second division' language in the EU institutions. In
February 2005, letters of complaint from Spain and Italy about 'discrimination'
against their languages were prompting the Commission to reconsider its decision
to modify interpreting arrangements at press conferences. The two countries
followed up their complaints at Coreper II levelwhere they set out their
grievances with the current system. On November the 10th, during the
extraordinary session of the EU Council - Competitiveness (Internal Market,
Industry, Research and Space) - solely devoted to the EU Patent issue, Mr Diego
LÓPEZ GARRIDO, Secretary of State for the European Union in the Spanish
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, reiterated at length the rejection of
the Madrid Government of taking the 'Munich' three languages regime (English,
German, French) of the European Patent Convention (EPC) as a basis for a future
EU Patent. In particular he argued that the proposals tabled by the Belgian
Presidency would mean that after a transitory period of six years the EU Patent
most likely would be reduced to the 'Munich' three languages system which the
Spanish Government finds inacceptable. In conclusion Spain and Italy have
decided not to participate in the new European patent plan.
12
2006/C 40/02: http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/c_040/c_04020060217en00020003.pdf
13 http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/butlletins/65-34.htm (in Spanish)
14 2006/C 73/06: http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2006:073:0014:0015:EN:PDF
15 http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/activities/cooperation.faces/en/3816/html.bookmark
16 Doc. CESE 580/2006, available on line here:
http://ec.europa.eu/spain/barcelona/images/documents/catala/acord_ces_30maig.pdf
17
http://www.lehendakaritza.ejgv.euskadi.net/r4810572/es/contenidos/informacion/euskera_ue_gral/es_11
146/adjuntos/euskera_ue_tjce_es.pdf
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June 2011
7. DGT in Spain
DGT Field Office: One language officer is currently posted to the European
Commission’s Representation in Madrid.
European Master’s in Translation (EMT): The EMT is a project that encourages
European Universities to establish a common curriculum for translator training.
The EMT aims to:
– encourage universities to develop post-graduate courses in translation and provide
them with a model curriculum of a Master’s degree in translation;
– develop the labour market for translators in the new Member States;
– make DGT standards visible to the academic world across the European Union;
– promote multilingualism by strengthening the Commission’s ties with universities
involved in translation research and teaching, and train professional translators,
enhancing standards where necessary.
The partner universities for EMT in Spain are: Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Máster en
Estudis de Traducció: Estratègies i Procediments); Universidad de Salamanca (Máster
en Traducción y Mediación Intercultural); Universidad de Alcalá de Henares,
Departamento de Filología Moderna (Máster Universitario en Comunicación
Intercultural, Interpretación y Traducción en los Servicios Públicos). In the 2010 EMT
selection, two other universities became EMT partners: University of Barcelona and
University of Comillas.
University of Comillas and University of Salamanca are the partners for DG
Interpretation’s European Master's in Conference Interpreting (EMCI) in Spain.
Terminology co-operation: DGT is one of the promoters of the TERMINESP Project
(the public platform for terminology in Spanish) and the VALITERM network, in
collaboration with the Spanish Royal Academy and AETER (Spanish Association for
Terminology). Representatives of experts (academics, researchers), of the main
professional associations of translators and those of AENOR (Spanish Standards
Association, involved in TERMINESP in their own right) and of the Ministry of
Industry have attended the three Institutional Terminology and Translation Days
organised by DGT, since 2005, at the EC Representation in Madrid. The VALITER
network is being officially launched on 10 December 2010 at the EC Representation
in Madrid. A preparatory videoconference, organized by the Madrid field officer, on
the methodology for the validation process in VALITER took place on 19th November
at the Commission premises (EC Rep. Madrid – DGT Brussels – DGT
Luxembourg).The 2010 annual assembly of AETER (Spanish Association for
Terminology) took also place at the EC Representation in Madrid next 10th
December. The IV Day on Terminology and Institutional Translation will be held on
23 May at the Spanish Rep.
Juvenes Translatores: Juvenes Translatores is a translation contest for pupils of
European schools launched by DGT with the aim of disseminating understanding of
the translation profession and familiarising students with European language policy.
In 2010 196 Spanish schools participated (the highest score among all Member
States The winner, Jaime Vega Costa comes from the upper secondary school IES
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Camilo José Cela situated in Pozuelo de Alarcón, suburb of Madrid. He translated
from English into Spanish.
10