document_title: The Rocky Horror Picture Show

question_text: who plays janet in the rocky horror picture show

text: The Rocky Horror Picture Show

text: Plot[edit]

text: A criminologist narrates the tale of the newly engaged couple Brad Majors and Janet Weiss who find themselves lost and with a flat tire on a cold and rainy late November evening, somewhere near Denton, Texas. Seeking a telephone, the couple walk to a nearby castle where they discover a group of strange and outlandish people who are holding an Annual Transylvanian Convention. They are soon swept into the world of Dr. Frank N. Furter, a self-proclaimed "sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania". The ensemble of convention attendees also includes servants Riff Raff, his sister Magenta, and a groupie named Columbia.

text: In his lab, Frank claims to have discovered the "secret to life itself". His creation, Rocky, is brought to life. The ensuing celebration is soon interrupted by Eddie (an ex-delivery boy, both Frank and Columbia's ex-lover, as well as partial brain donor to Rocky) who rides out of a deep freeze on a motorcycle. Eddie then proceeds to seduce Columbia, get the Transylvanians dancing and singing and intrigue Brad and Janet. When Rocky starts dancing and enjoying the performance, a jealous Frank kills Eddie with an ice pick. Columbia screams in horror, devastated by Eddie's death. Frank justifies killing Eddie as a "mercy killing" to Rocky and they depart to the bridal suite.

text: Brad and Janet are shown to separate bedrooms, where each is visited and seduced by Frank, who poses as Brad (when visiting Janet) and then as Janet (when visiting Brad). Janet, upset and emotional, wanders off to look for Brad, who she discovers, via a television monitor, is in bed with Frank. She then discovers Rocky, cowering in his birth tank, hiding from Riff Raff, who has been tormenting him. While tending to his wounds, Janet becomes intimate with Rocky, as Magenta and Columbia watch from their bedroom monitor.

text: After discovering that his creation is missing, Frank returns to the lab with Brad and Riff Raff, where Frank learns that an intruder has entered the building. Brad and Janet's old high school science teacher, Dr. Everett Scott, has come looking for his nephew, Eddie. Frank suspects that Dr. Scott investigates UFOs for the government. Upon learning of Brad and Janet's connection to Dr. Scott, Frank suspects them of working for him. Frank, Dr. Scott, Brad, and Riff Raff then discover Janet and Rocky together under the sheets in Rocky's birth tank, upsetting Frank and Brad. Magenta interrupts the reunion by sounding a massive gong and stating that dinner is prepared.

text: Rocky and the guests share an uncomfortable dinner, which they soon realize has been prepared from Eddie's mutilated remains. Janet runs screaming into Rocky's arms, provoking Frank to chase her through the halls. Janet, Brad, Dr. Scott, Rocky, and Columbia all meet in Frank's lab, where Frank captures them with the Medusa Transducer, transforming them into nude statues. After dressing them in cabaret costume, Frank "unfreezes" them, and they perform a live cabaret floor show, complete with an RKO tower and a swimming pool, with Frank as the leader.

text: Riff Raff and Magenta interrupt the performance, revealing themselves and Frank to be aliens from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania. They stage a coup and announce a plan to return to their home planet. In the process, they kill Columbia and Frank, who has "failed his mission". An enraged Rocky gathers Frank in his arms, climbs to the top of the tower, and plunges to his death in the pool below. Riff Raff and Magenta release Brad, Janet, and Dr. Scott, then depart by lifting off in the castle itself. The survivors are then left crawling in the dirt, and the narrator concludes that the human race is equivalent to insects crawling on the planet's surface, "lost in time, and lost in space... and meaning".

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Tim Curry as Dr. Frank N. Furter, a scientist
Susan Sarandon as Janet Weiss, a heroine
Barry Bostwick as Brad Majors, a hero
Richard O'Brien as Riff Raff, a handyman
Patricia Quinn as Magenta, a domestic
Nell Campbell as Columbia, a groupie (credited as Little Nell)
Jonathan Adams as Dr. Everett V. Scott, a rival scientist
Peter Hinwood as Rocky Horror, a creation
Meat Loaf as Eddie, an ex-delivery boy
Charles Gray as the Criminologist, an expert
Jeremy Newson as Ralph Hapschatt
Hilary Farr as Betty Munroe (credited as Hilary Labow)

text: Production[edit]

text: Concept and development[edit]

text: Richard O'Brien was living as an unemployed actor in London during the early 1970s. He wrote most of The Rocky Horror Show during one winter just to occupy himself.[7][8] Since his youth, O'Brien had loved science fiction and B horror movies. He wanted to combine elements of the unintentional humour of B horror movies, portentous dialogue of schlock-horror, Steve Reeves muscle flicks, and fifties rock and roll into his musical.[9] O'Brien conceived and wrote the play set against the backdrop of the glam era that had manifested itself throughout British popular culture in the 1970s.[10] Allowing his concept to come into being, O'Brien states "glam rock allowed me to be myself more".[11]

text: O'Brien showed a portion of the unfinished script to Australian director Jim Sharman, who decided to direct it at the small experimental space Upstairs at the Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, Chelsea, London, which was used as a project space for new work.[7] O'Brien had appeared briefly in a stage production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar, directed by Sharman, and the two also worked together in Sam Shepard's The Unseen Hand. Sharman would bring in production designer Brian Thomson.[12] The original creative team was then rounded out by costume designer Sue Blane, musical director Richard Hartley, and stage producer Michael White, who was brought in to produce. As the musical went into rehearsal, the working title, They Came from Denton High, was changed just before previews at the suggestion of Sharman to The Rocky Horror Show.[7][13]

text: Having premiered in the small sixty-seat Royal Court Theatre, it quickly moved to larger venues in London, transferring to the 230-seat Chelsea Classic Cinema on Kings Road on 14 August 1973, before finding a quasi-permanent home at the 500-seat King's Road Theatre from 3 November 1973, running for six years.[14] The musical made its U.S. debut in Los Angeles in 1974 before being played in New York City as well as other cities.[12] Producer and Ode Records owner Lou Adler attended the London production in the winter of 1973, escorted by friend Britt Ekland. He immediately decided to purchase the U.S. theatrical rights. His production would be staged at his Roxy Theatre in L.A.[15] In 1975, The Rocky Horror Show premiered on Broadway at the 1,000-seat Belasco Theatre.[16]

text: Filming and locations[edit]

text: The film was shot at Bray Studios and Oakley Court, a country house near Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, and at Elstree Studios[17] for post production,[18] from 21 October to 19 December 1974. Oakley Court, built in 1857 in the Victorian Gothic style, is known for a number of Hammer films.[19][20] Much of the location shooting took place there, although at the time the manor was not in good condition.[21] Much of the cast were from the original London stage production, including Tim Curry, who had decided that Dr Frank N. Furter should speak like the Queen of England, extravagantly posh.[11] Fox insisted on casting the two characters of Brad and Janet with American actors, Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon.[12]  Filming took place during autumn, which made conditions worse. During filming, Sarandon fell ill with pneumonia.[9] Filming of the laboratory scene and the title character's creation occurred on 30 October 1974.[22]

text: The film is both a parody and tribute to many of the science fiction and horror movies from the 1930s up to the 1970s.[7] The film production retains many aspects from the stage version such as production design and music, but adds new scenes not featured in the original stage play.[12] The film's plot, setting, and style echo those of the Hammer Horror films, which had their own instantly recognizable style (just as Universal Studios' horror films did).[23] The originally proposed opening sequence was to contain clips of various films mentioned in the lyrics, as well as the first few sequences shot in black and white, but this was deemed too expensive and scrapped.[12]

text: Costumes, make-up, and props[edit]

text: In the stage productions, actors generally did their own make-up; however, for the film, the producers chose Pierre La Roche, who had previously been a make-up artist for Mick Jagger and David Bowie, to redesign the make-up for each character.[24] Production stills were taken by rock photographer Mick Rock, who has published a number of books from his work.[25] In Rocky Horror: From Concept to Cult, designer Sue Blane discusses the Rocky Horror costumes' influence on punk music style, opining "[It was a] big part of the build-up [to punk]." She states that ripped fishnet stockings, glitter, and coloured hair were directly attributable to Rocky Horror.[7]

text: Some of the costumes from the film had been originally used in the stage production. Props and set pieces were reused from old Hammer Horror productions and others. The tank and dummy used for Rocky's birth originally appeared in The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958). These references to earlier productions, in addition to cutting costs, enhanced the cult status of the film.[26]

text: Costume designer Sue Blane was not keen on working for the film until she became aware that Curry, an old friend, was committed to the project. Curry and Blane had worked together in Glasgow's Citizens Theatre in a production of The Maids, for which Curry had worn a woman's corset. Blane arranged for the theatre to loan her the corset from the other production for Rocky Horror.[27] Blane admits that she did not conduct research for her designing, had never seen a science fiction film, and is acutely aware that her costumes for Brad and Janet may have been generalizations.

text: "When I designed Rocky, I never looked at any science fiction movies or comic books. One just automatically knows what spacesuits look like, the same way one intuitively knows how Americans dress. I had never been to the United States, but I had this fixed idea of how people looked there. Americans wore polyester so their clothes wouldn't crease, and their trousers were a bit too short. Since they're very keen on sports, white socks and white T-shirts played an integral part in their wardrobe. Of course, since doing Rocky I have been to the United States and admit it was a bit of a generalization, but my ideas worked perfectly for Brad and Janet."[27]

text: The budget for the film's costumes was US$1,600,[27] far more than the stage production budget, but having to double up on costumes the film production was expensive. For filming, corsets for the finale had to be doubled for the pool scene, with one version drying while the other was worn on set. While many of the costumes are exact replicas from the stage productions, other costumes were new to filming, such as Columbia's gold sequined swallow-tail coat and top hat and Magenta's maid's uniform.[27]

text: Blane was amazed by the recreation and understanding of her designs by fans.[27] When she first heard that people were dressing up, she thought it would be tacky, but was surprised to see the depth to which the fans went to recreate her designs. Rocky Horror fan Mina Credeur, who designs costumes and performed as Columbia for Houston’s performance group, states that "the best part is when everyone leaves with a big smile on their face", noting that there's "such a kitschiness and campiness that it seems to be winking at you".[28] The film still plays at many theatre locations and Rocky Horror costumes are often made for Halloween, although many require much time and effort to make.[29]

text: Title sequence[edit]

text: The film starts with the screen fading to black and oversized, disembodied female lips appear overdubbed with a male voice,[26][30] establishing theme of androgyny to be repeated as the film unfolds.[31] The opening scene and song, "Science Fiction/Double Feature", consists of the lips of Patricia Quinn (who appears in the film later as the character Magenta (in addition to the latter, appeared as 'Trixie' the Usherette in the original London production who sang the song)), but has the vocals of actor and Rocky Horror creator, Richard O'Brien (who appears as Magenta's brother Riff Raff). The lyrics refer to science fiction and horror films of the past and list several film titles from the 1930s to the 1960s, including The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Flash Gordon (1936), The Invisible Man (1933), King Kong (1933), It Came from Outer Space (1953), Doctor X (1932), Forbidden Planet (1956), Tarantula (1955), The Day of the Triffids (1962), Curse of the Demon (1957), and When Worlds Collide (1951).[7] A second film poster was created using a set of red, lipstick painted lips with the tagline "A Different Set of Jaws", a spoof of the poster for the film Jaws (which was also released in 1975).[26] The lips of Former Playboy model Lorelei Shark are featured on the poster.[32]

text: Music[edit]

text: The soundtrack was released in 1975 by Ode Records and produced by Richard Hartley. The album peaked at No. 49 on the Billboard 200 in 1978.[33] It reached No. 12 on the Australian albums chart[34] and No. 11 on the New Zealand albums chart.[35] The album is described as the "definitive version of the [Rocky Horror] score."[36]

text:
"Science Fiction/Double Feature" – The Lips (those of Patricia Quinn; voice of Richard O'Brien)
"Dammit Janet" – Brad, Janet, and Chorus
"There's a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)" – Janet, Brad, Riff Raff, and Chorus
"The Time Warp" – Riff Raff, Magenta, The Criminologist, Columbia, and Transylvanians
"Sweet Transvestite" – Frank
"The Sword of Damocles" – Rocky and Transylvanians
"I Can Make You a Man" – Frank with Brad, Janet, Riff Raff, Magenta, and Columbia
"Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul" – Eddie and Transylvanians
"I Can Make You a Man (Reprise)" – Frank, Janet, and Transylvanians
"Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" – Janet with Magenta, Columbia, Rocky, Brad, Frank, and Riff Raff
"Once in a While" (deleted scene) – Brad
"Eddie" – Dr. Scott, The Criminologist, Janet, Columbia, Frank, Rocky, Brad, Riff Raff, and Magenta
"Planet Schmanet Janet (Wise Up Janet Weiss)" – Frank
"Planet Hot Dog" – Janet, Brad, and Dr. Scott
"Rose Tint My World" – Columbia, Rocky, Janet, and Brad
"Fanfare/Don't Dream It, Be It" – Frank with Brad, Janet, Rocky, and Columbia
"Wild and Untamed Thing" – Frank with Brad, Janet, Rocky, Columbia, and Riff Raff
"I'm Going Home" – Frank and Chorus
"The Time Warp (Reprise)" – Riff Raff and Magenta
"Super Heroes" (only present in the original UK release) – Brad, Janet, and Chorus
"Science Fiction/Double Feature (Reprise)" – The Lips

text: Release[edit]

text: The film opened in the United Kingdom at Rialto Theater in London 14 August 1975 and in the United States on 26 September at the UA Westwood in Los Angeles, California. It did well at that location, but not elsewhere.[37] Before the midnight screenings' success, the film was withdrawn from its eight opening cities due to very small audiences, and its planned New York City opening on Halloween night was cancelled.[38] Fox re-released the film around college campuses on a double-bill with another rock music film parody, Brian De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise (1974), but again it drew small audiences.[38]

text: With Pink Flamingos (1972) and Reefer Madness (1936) making money in midnight showings nationwide, a Fox executive, Tim Deegan, was able to talk distributors into midnight screenings,[31] starting in New York City on April Fools' Day of 1976.[38] The cult following started shortly after the film began its midnight run at the Waverly Theater in New York City.,[37] then spread to other counties in NYC, and to Uniondale, L.I. Rocky Horror was not only found in the larger cities but throughout the United States where many attendees would get in free if they arrived in costume. The western division of the film's release included the U.A. Cinemas in Fresno and Merced, the Cinema J. in Sacramento, California, and the Covell in Modesto. In New Orleans, an early organised performance group was active with the release there as well as in such cities as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Chicago (at the Biograph Theater). Before long nearly every screening of the film was accompanied by a live fan cast.[37]

text: The film is considered to be the longest-running release in film history.[39] It has never been pulled by 20th Century Fox from its original 1975 release, and it continues to play in cinemas.[40][41]

text: Home media[edit]

text: A Super 8 version of selected scenes of the film was made available.[42] In 1983, Ode Records released "The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Audience Par-Tic-I-Pation Album", recorded at the 8th Street Playhouse. The recording consisted of the film's audio and the standardised call-backs from the audience.[43]

text: A home video release was made available in 1987 in the UK.[44] In the US, the film (including documentary footage and extras) was released on VHS in November 8, 1990, retailing for $89.95.[45]

text: The film was released on DVD in 2000 for the film's 25th anniversary. A 35th Anniversary edition Blu-ray was released in the US on 19 October 2010. The disc includes a newly created 7.1 surround sound mix, the original theatrical mono sound mix, and a 4K/2K image transfer from the original camera negative. In addition, new content featuring karaoke and a fan performance were included.[46]

text: Reception, reaction and legacy[edit]

text: Critical reception[edit]

text: Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert noted that when first released, The Rocky Horror Picture Show was "ignored by pretty much everyone, including the future fanatics who would eventually count the hundreds of times they'd seen it". He considered it more a "long-running social phenomenon" than a movie, rating it 2.5 out of 4 stars.[47] Bill Henkin noted that Variety thought that the "campy hijinks" of the film seemed labored, and also mentioned that the San Francisco Chronicle's John Wasserman, who had liked the stage play in London, found the film "lacking both charm and dramatic impact". Newsweek called the film "tasteless, plotless and pointless" in 1978.[48]

text: Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 80% based on 41 reviews, with the critical consensus reading "Rocky Horror Picture Show brings its quirky characters in tight, but it's the narrative thrust that really drives audiences insane and keeps 'em doing the time warp again".[49] A number of contemporary critics find it compelling and enjoyable because of its offbeat and bizarre qualities; the BBC summarised: "for those willing to experiment with something a little bit different, a little bit outré, The Rocky Horror Picture Show has a lot to offer".[50] The New York Times called it a "low-budget freak show/cult classic/cultural institution" and considered the songs featured in the film to be "catchy".[51] Geoff Andrew of Time Out noted that the "string of hummable songs gives it momentum, Gray's admirably straight-faced narrator holds it together, and a run on black lingerie takes care of almost everything else", rating it 4 out of 5 stars.[52] Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader on the other hand considered the wit to be "too weak to sustain a film" and thought that the "songs all sound the same".[53]

text: In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[54][55]

text: Cult phenomenon[edit]

text: New York City origins[edit]

text: The Rocky Horror Picture Show helped shape conditions of cult film's transition from art-house to grind-house style.[56] The film developed a cult following in 1976 at the Waverly Theatre in New York, which developed into a standardised ritual. According to J. Hoberman, author of Midnight Movies, it was after five months into the film's midnight run when lines began to be shouted by the audience. Louis Farese Jr., a normally quiet teacher who, upon seeing the character Janet place a newspaper over her head to protect herself from rain, yelled, "Buy an umbrella, you cheap bitch". Originally Louis and other Rocky Horror pioneers, including Amy Lazarus, Theresa Krakauskas, and Bill O'Brian, did this to entertain each other, each week trying to come up with something new to make each other laugh. This quickly caught on with other theater goers and thus began this self-proclaimed "counter point dialogue", which became standard practice and was repeated nearly verbatim at each screening.[8] Performance groups became a staple at Rocky Horror screenings due in part to the prominent New York City fan cast.[37] The New York City cast was originally run by former schoolteacher and stand-up comic Sal Piro and his friend Dori Hartley. Hartley who portrayed Dr. Frank N. Furter, was one of several performers, including Will Kohler as Brad Majors, Nora Poses as Janet, and Lilias Piro as Magenta in a flexible rotating cast.[37] The performances of the audience was scripted and actively discouraged improvising, being conformist in a similar way to the repressed characters.[57]

text: On Halloween in 1976, people attended in costume and talked back to the screen, and by mid-1978, Rocky Horror was playing in over 50 locations on Fridays and Saturdays at midnight. Newsletters were published by local performance groups, and fans gathered for Rocky Horror conventions.[38] By the end of 1979, there were twice-weekly showings at over 230 theatres.[38] The National Fan Club was established in 1977 and later merged with the International Fan Club. The fan publication The Transylvanian printed a number of issues, and a semi-regular poster magazine was published as well as an official magazine.[56]

text: Los Angeles, Hollywood[edit]

text: The Los Angeles area performance groups originated in 1977 at the Fox Theatre, where Michael Wolfson won a look-alike contest as Frank N. Furter, and won another at the Tiffany Theater on Sunset Boulevard. Wolfson's group eventually performed in all of the L.A. area theaters screening Rocky Horror, including the Balboa Theater in Balboa, The Cove at Hermosa Beach, and The Sands in Glendale. He was invited to perform at the Sombrero Playhouse in Phoenix, Arizona.

text: At the Tiffany Theatre, the audience performance cast had the theater's full cooperation; the local performers entered early and without charge. The fan playing Frank for this theatre was a transgender performer,[37] D. Garret Gafford, who was out of work in 1978 and trying to raise the funds for a gender reassignment while spending the weekends performing at the Tiffany.[58] Presently, the live action rendition of The Rocky Horror Picture Show is available for attendance in various locations in Los Angeles, typically Saturday nights at Midnight.

text: San Francisco[edit]

text: In 1978 San Francisco, Rocky Horror moved from an earlier location to the Strand Theatre located near the Tenderloin on Market Street.[59] The performance group there, Double Feature/Celluloid Jam, was the first to act out and perform almost the entire film, unlike the New York cast at that time. The Strand cast was put together from former members of an early Berkeley group, disbanded due to less than enthusiastic management. Frank N. Furter was portrayed by Marni Scofidio, who, in 1979, attracted many of the older performers from Berkeley. Other members included Mishell Erickson and her twin sister Denise Erickson as Columbia and Magenta, Kathy Dolan as Janet, and Linda "Lou" Woods as Riff Raff. The Strand group performed at two large science fiction conventions in Los Angeles and San Francisco, were offered a spot at The Mabuhay, a local punk club, and performed for children's television of Argentina.[37]

text: Fan following[edit]

text: Rocky Horror is one of the last few western rites left that pertain to the carnivalesque.[60] Annual Rocky Horror conventions are held in varying locations lasting days. Tucson, Arizona has been host a number of times, including 1999 with "El Fishnet Fiesta", and "Queens of the Desert" held in 2006.[61] Vera Dika wrote that to the fans, Rocky Horror is ritualistic and comparable to a religious event, with a compulsive, repeated cycle of going home and coming back to see the film each weekend.[8] The audience call backs are similar to responses in church during a mass.[8] Many theatre troupes exist across the United States that produce shadow-cast performances where the actors play each part in the film in full costume and props as the movie plays on the big screen in a movie theatre.[62][63]

text: The film has a global following and remains popular.[64] Subcultures such as Rocky Horror have also found a place on the Internet.[65] Audience participation scripts for many cities are available to download on the Internet.[26] The Internet has a number of Rocky Horror fan-run websites with various quizzes and information specializing in different content allowing fans to participate at a unique level.[31]

text: Cultural influence[edit]

text: The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been featured in a number of other feature films and television series over the years. Episodes of The Simpsons, The Venture Bros., The Boondocks, Glee, The Drew Carey Show, That '70s Show, and American Dad! spotlight Rocky Horror, as do films such as Vice Squad (1982), Halloween II (2009), and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012).[45] The 1980 film Fame featured the audience reciting their callback lines to the screen and dancing the Time Warp,[66] the dance from the stage show and film, which has become a novelty dance at parties.[67] Director Rob Zombie cited Rocky Horror as a major influence on his film House of 1000 Corpses (2003),[68] while the film's fan culture of cosplaying and audience participation during screenings laid the groundwork for the similarly influential cult following surrounding Tommy Wiseau's The Room (2003).[69][70]

text: "The Rocky Horror Glee Show" aired on 26 October 2010, as part of the second season of the TV series Glee, which recreated several scenes from the film, including the opening credits. It featured Barry Bostwick and Meat Loaf in cameo roles.[71]

text: "Bisexuality, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Me", by Elizabeth Reba Weise, is a piece in Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out (1991), an anthology edited by Loraine Hutchins and Lani Ka'ahumanu which is one of the seminal books[72][73] in the history of the modern bisexual rights movement.[74]

text: The Rocky Horror Picture Show remains a cultural phenomenon in both the U.S. and U.K.[75][76] Cult film participants are often people on the fringe of society that find connection and community at the screenings,[77] although the film attracts fans of differing backgrounds all over the world.[78]

text: Sequels[edit]

text: In 1979, Richard O'Brien wrote a projected sequel to the film entitled Rocky Horror Shows His Heels. This script would have featured the return of all of the characters from the original film, and O'Brien wished to largely use the original production team to make the new film, however Jim Sharman did not wish to revisit the original concept so directly, and Tim Curry did not wish to reprise his role.

text: Instead, in 1981, Sharman reunited with O'Brien to film Shock Treatment, a stand-alone feature that was not a direct sequel to the original film.[2] This film as originally conceived and written in 1980 under the title The Brad and Janet Show, using most of the songs from the original Rocky Horror Shows His Heels project with lyrical adjustments, and depicting the characters' continuing adventures in the town of Denton, however these plans had to be adjusted due to a Screen Actor's Guild strike. The eventual production would entail the entire film being shot within a sound stage. Shock Treatment was poorly received by critics and audiences upon release (in no small part due to the principal cast of Curry, Sarandon and Bostwick not returning) but over time has built a small cult following, though not nearly as strong as the first film.[79]

text: Ten years later, O'Brien wrote another script intended as a direct sequel to the cult classic entitled Revenge of the Old Queen.[80] Producer Michael White had hoped to begin work on the production and described the script as being "in the same style as the other one. It has reflections of the past in it."[81] Revenge of the Old Queen had apparently commenced pre-production, however after studio head Joe Roth was ousted from Fox in 1993, the project was shelved indefinitely. Although the script has not been published, bootleg copies can be read on the Internet, and one song from the project's original demo tape circulates among fans. The script is currently owned by Fox, which produced the two original films. Most individuals associated with the project, including O'Brien, agree that the film will probably never be made, owing to the failure of Shock Treatment and the aging of the original cast.[82]

text: Between 1999 and 2001, Richard O'Brien was working on a third attempted sequel project with the working title Rocky Horror: The Second Coming[83], first to be made as a stage production, with an option to create a film if met with success. This script would largely integrate plot elements from Rocky Horror Shows His Heels, but with all-new songs. O'Brien completed a first draft of this script (which was read by Terry Jones[84]) but had difficulties finalizing anything beyond the first act, and little more has been heard of this project since the mid-2000s.

text: In 2015, O'Brien produced Shock Treatment for the theatrical stage. The production premiered at the King’s Head theatre in Islington, London in the United Kingdom in the spring of 2015.[85][86]

text: Remake[edit]

text: On 10 April 2015, it was announced that the Fox Broadcasting Company would air a modern-day reimagining of the film, titled The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again.[87][88] On 22 October 2015, it was announced that the role of Dr. Frank N. Furter would be played by actress Laverne Cox.[89] Ryan McCartan and Victoria Justice play the roles of Brad and Janet, alongside Reeve Carney as Riff Raff and singer/model Staz Nair as Rocky.[90] Adam Lambert portrays Eddie.[91] Tim Curry, who portrayed Dr. Frank N. Furter in the film, portrays the Criminologist.[92] On 1 February 2016, it was announced that Broadway veteran Annaleigh Ashford would portray Columbia.[93] On 5 February 2016, Ben Vereen joined the cast as Dr. Everett von Scott.[94]

text: Kenny Ortega, best known for the High School Musical franchise and Michael Jackson's This Is It (2009), directed, choreographed and executive-produced the remake; Lou Adler, who was an executive producer of the original film, has the same role for the new film. The film premiered on Fox on 20 October 2016.[95]


document_title: Mount Doom

question_text: what mountain was used as mount doom in lord of the rings

root

text: Mount Doom

text: History[edit]

text: When Sauron began searching Middle-earth during the Second Age for a permanent dwelling place, his attention was immediately drawn to Mordor, and especially to Orodruin, whose power he believed he could use to his advantage. He subsequently established his kingdom based around Orodruin and "used the fire that welled there from the heart of the earth in his sorceries and his forging". The most famous of Sauron's creations forged at Mount Doom is the One Ring. In The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf explains that the materials of which the Ring is made are so durable and the enchantments with which it is imbued so powerful that it can only be destroyed in the Cracks of Doom where it was made.

tag: p

text: Orodruin is more than just an ordinary volcano; it responds to Sauron's commands and his presence, lapsing into dormancy when he is away from Mordor and becoming active again when he returns.[1] When Sauron is defeated at the end of the Third Age, the volcano erupts violently.[2]

text: Concept and creation[edit]

text: According to Tolkien, Mount Doom corresponds to the volcano of Stromboli in Sicily.[3] However, some writers have compared various 21st century eruptions of Mount Etna to Mount Doom.[4][5]

text: The phrase "crack of doom" is the modern English for the Old English term for Ragnarök, the great catastrophe of Norse mythology. The term became used for the Christian Day of Judgement, as by William Shakespeare in Macbeth (Act 4, scene 1, line 117).[6] This appealed to Tolkien, who was a Professor of Old English. Another possible source of the name is a long story by Algernon Blackwood.[7]

text: Reviewer Bart Higgins noted the similarity between Tolkien's Mount Doom and the volcanic caverns under Venus depicted in Perelandra by Tolkien's friend C.S. Lewis. "In both cases, the book reaches a cataclysmic scene of a struggle in an underground cavern, ending with an evil being falling into volcanic fire and being consumed. Since it is well known that Tolkien and Lewis frequently shared with each other their respective works in progress, it is reasonable to assume that the resemblance is no coincidence".[8]

text: Adaptations[edit]

text: In Peter Jackson's film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, Orodruin was represented by two active volcanoes in New Zealand: Mount Ngauruhoe and Mount Ruapehu. In long shots, the mountain is either a large model or a CGI effect, or a combination. The production was not permitted to film the summit of Ngauruhoe because the Māori hold it to be sacred, but some scenes on the slopes of Mount Doom were filmed on the slopes of Ruapehu.[9]

text: Namesakes[edit]

text: The International Astronomical Union names all mountains on Saturn's moon Titan after mountains in Tolkien's work.[10]  In 2012, they named a Titanian mountain "Doom Mons" after Mount Doom.[11]

text: Swedish melodic death metal band Amon Amarth, whose lyrics deal primarily with Viking culture and Norse mythology, are named after the mountain.


document_title: Spanish language

question_text: where does spanish rank in terms of the number of native speakers

question_tokens: where does spanish rank in terms of the number of native speakers

text: Spanish language

text: Estimated number of speakers[edit]

text: It is estimated that more than 437 million people speak Spanish as a native language, which qualifies it as second on the lists of languages by number of native speakers.[22] Instituto Cervantes claims that there are an estimated 477 million Spanish speakers with native competence and 572 million Spanish speakers as a first or second language—including speakers with limited competence—and more than 21 million students of Spanish as a foreign language.[23]

text: Spanish is the official or national language in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, and 19 countries in the Americas. Speakers in the Americas total some 418 million. In the European Union, Spanish is the mother tongue of 8% of the population, with an additional 7% speaking it as a second language.[24] Spanish is the most popular second language learned in the United States.[25] In 2011 it was estimated by the American Community Survey that of the 55 million Hispanic United States residents who are five years of age and over, 38 million speak Spanish at home.[26]

text: Names of the language[edit]

text: This section may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. You can help. The discussion page may contain suggestions. (December 2014)

tag: table

text: In Spain and in some other parts of the Spanish-speaking world, Spanish is called not only español (Spanish) but also castellano (Castilian), the language from the kingdom of Castile, contrasting it with other languages spoken in Spain such as Galician, Basque, Asturian and Catalan.

text: The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the official language of the whole Spanish State in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas (lit. "the other Spanish languages"). Article III reads as follows:

text: El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. ... Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas...

text: Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. ... The other Spanish languages as well shall be official in their respective Autonomous Communities...

text: The Spanish Royal Academy, on the other hand, currently uses the term español in its publications, but from 1713 to 1923 called the language castellano.

text: The Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (a language guide published by the Spanish Royal Academy) states that, although the Spanish Royal Academy prefers to use the term español in its publications when referring to the Spanish language, both terms—español and castellano—are regarded as synonymous and equally valid.[27]

text: Two etymologies for español have been suggested. The Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary derives the term from the Provençal word espaignol, and that in turn from the Medieval Latin word Hispaniolus, 'from—or pertaining to—Hispania'.[28] Other authorities[29][30] attribute it to a supposed mediaeval Latin *hispaniōne, with the same meaning.

text: History[edit]

text: The Spanish language evolved from Vulgar Latin, which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans during the Second Punic War, beginning in 210 BC. Previously, several pre-Roman languages (also called Paleohispanic languages)—unrelated to Latin, and some of them unrelated even to Indo-European—were spoken in the Iberian Peninsula. These languages included Basque (still spoken today), Iberian, Celtiberian and Celtic.

text: The first documents to show traces of what is today regarded as the precursor of modern Spanish are from the 9th century. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era, the most important influences on the Spanish lexicon came from neighboring Romance languages—Navarro-Aragonese, Leonese, Catalan, Portuguese, Galician, Occitan, and later, French and Italian. Spanish also borrowed a considerable number of words from Arabic, as well as a minor influence from Germanic languages through the migration of tribes and a period of Visigoth rule in Iberia. In addition, many more words were borrowed from Latin through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church.

text: According to the theories of Ramón Menéndez Pidal, local sociolects of Vulgar Latin evolved into Spanish, in the north of Iberia, in an area centered in the city of Burgos, and this dialect was later brought to the city of Toledo, where the written standard of Spanish was first developed, in the 13th century.[32] In this formative stage, Spanish developed a strongly differing variant from its close cousin, Leonese, and, according to some authors, was distinguished by a heavy Basque influence (see Iberian Romance languages). This distinctive dialect spread to southern Spain with the advance of the Reconquista, and meanwhile gathered a sizable lexical influence from the Arabic of Al-Andalus, much of it indirectly, through the Romance Mozarabic dialects (some 4,000 Arabic-derived words, make up around 8% of the language today).[33] The written standard for this new language was developed in the cities of Toledo, in the 13th to 16th centuries, and Madrid, from the 1570s.[32]

text: The development of the Spanish sound system from that of Vulgar Latin exhibits most of the changes that are typical of Western Romance languages, including lenition of intervocalic consonants (thus Latin vīta > Spanish vida). The diphthongization of Latin stressed short e and o—which occurred in open syllables in French and Italian, but not at all in Catalan or Portuguese—is found in both open and closed syllables in Spanish, as shown in the following table:

text:
Latin
Spanish
Ladino
Aragonese
Asturian
Galician
Portuguese
Catalan
Gascon / Occitan
French
Sardinian
Italian
Romanian
English

petra
piedra
pedra
pedra/pèira
pierre
perda
pietra
piatrǎ
'stone'

terra
tierra
terra
tèrra
terre
terra
țară
'land'

moritur
muere
muerre
morre
mor
morís
meurt
mòrit
muore
moare
'dies (v.)'

mortem
muerte
morte
mort
mòrt
mort
mòrti
morte
moarte
'death'

text: Spanish is marked by the palatalization of the Latin double consonants nn and ll (thus Latin annum > Spanish año, and Latin anellum > Spanish anillo).

text: The consonant written u or v in Latin and pronounced [w] in Classical Latin had probably "fortified" to a bilabial fricative /β/ in Vulgar Latin. In early Spanish (but not in Catalan or Portuguese) it merged with the consonant written b (a bilabial with plosive and fricative allophones). In modern Spanish, there is no difference between the pronunciation of orthographic b and v, with some exceptions in Caribbean Spanish.[citation needed]

text: Peculiar to Spanish (as well as to the neighboring Gascon dialect of Occitan, and attributed to a Basque substratum) was the mutation of Latin initial f into h- whenever it was followed by a vowel that did not diphthongize. The h-, still preserved in spelling, is now silent in most varieties of the language, although in some Andalusian and Caribbean dialects it is still aspirated in some words. Because of borrowings from Latin and from neighboring Romance languages, there are many f-/h-doublets in modern Spanish: Fernando and Hernando (both Spanish for "Ferdinand"), ferrero and herrero (both Spanish for "smith"), fierro and hierro (both Spanish for "iron"), and fondo and hondo (both Spanish for "deep", but fondo means "bottom" while hondo means "deep"); hacer (Spanish for "to make") is cognate to the root word of satisfacer (Spanish for "to satisfy"), and hecho ("made") is similarly cognate to the root word of satisfecho (Spanish for "satisfied").

text: Compare the examples in the following table:

text:
Latin
Spanish
Ladino
Aragonese
Asturian
Galician
Portuguese
Catalan
Gascon / Occitan
French
Sardinian
Italian
Romanian
English

filium
hijo
fijo (or ijo)
fillo
fíu
fillo
filho
fill
filh/hilh
fils
fillu
figlio
fiu
'son'

facere
hacer
fazer
fer
facer
fazer
fer
far/faire/har (or hèr)
faire
fairi
fare
a face
'to do'

febrem
fiebre
febre
fèbre/frèbe/hrèbe (or
herèbe)
fièvre
(calentura)
febbre
febră
'fever'

focum
fuego
fueu
fogo
foc
fuòc/fòc/huèc
feu
fogu
fuoco
foc
'fire'

text: Some consonant clusters of Latin also produced characteristically different results in these languages, as shown in the examples in the following table:

text:
Latin
Spanish
Ladino
Aragonese
Asturian
Galician
Portuguese
Catalan
Gascon / Occitan
French
Sardinian
Italian
Romanian
English

clāvem
llave/clave
clave
clau
llave
chave
chave
clau
clé
crai
chiave
cheie
'key'

flamma
llama/flama
flama
chama
chama/flama
flama
flamme
framma
fiamma
flamă
'flame'

plēnum
lleno/pleno
pleno
plen
llenu
cheo
cheio/pleno
ple
plen
plein
prenu
pieno
plin
'plenty, full'

octō
ocho
güeito
ocho/oito
oito
oito (oito)
vuit/huit
uèch/uòch/uèit
huit
otu
otto
opt
'eight'

multum
mucho
muy
muncho
muy
muito
mui
munchu
mui
moito
moi
muito (muito)
mui (arch.)
molt
molt (arch.)
moult (arch.)
(meda)
molto
mult
'much,
very,
many'

text: In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish underwent a dramatic change in the pronunciation of its sibilant consonants, known in Spanish as the reajuste de las sibilantes, which resulted in the distinctive velar [x] pronunciation of the letter ⟨j⟩ and—in a large part of Spain—the characteristic interdental [θ] ("th-sound") for the letter ⟨z⟩ (and for ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩). See History of Spanish (Modern development of the Old Spanish sibilants) for details.

text: The Gramática de la lengua castellana, written in Salamanca in 1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija, was the first grammar written for a modern European language.[35] According to a popular anecdote, when Nebrija presented it to Queen Isabella I, she asked him what was the use of such a work, and he answered that language is the instrument of empire.[36] In his introduction to the grammar, dated 18 August 1492, Nebrija wrote that "... language was always the companion of empire."[37]

text: From the sixteenth century onwards, the language was taken to America and the Spanish East Indies via Spanish colonization of America. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, author of Don Quixote, is such a well-known reference in the world that Spanish is often called la lengua de Cervantes ("the language of Cervantes").[38]

text: In the twentieth century, Spanish was introduced to Equatorial Guinea and the Western Sahara, and to areas of the United States that had not been part of the Spanish Empire, such as Spanish Harlem in New York City. For details on borrowed words and other external influences upon Spanish, see Influences on the Spanish language.

text: Grammar[edit]

text: Most of the grammatical and typological features of Spanish are shared with the other Romance languages. Spanish is a fusional language. The noun and adjective systems exhibit two genders and two numbers, in addition articles and some pronouns and determiners have a neuter gender in singular. There are about fifty conjugated forms per verb, with 3 tenses: past, present, future; 2 aspects for past: perfective, imperfective; 4 moods: indicative, subjunctive, conditional, imperative; 3 persons: first, second, third; 2 numbers: singular, plural; 3 verboid forms: infinitive, gerund, and past participle. Verbs express T-V distinction by using different persons for formal and informal addresses. (For a detailed overview of verbs, see Spanish verbs and Spanish irregular verbs.)

text: Spanish syntax is considered right-branching, meaning that subordinate or modifying constituents tend to be placed after their head words. The language uses prepositions (rather than postpositions or inflection of nouns for case), and usually—though not always—places adjectives after nouns, as do most other Romance languages.

text: The language is classified as a subject–verb–object language; however, as in most Romance languages, constituent order is highly variable and governed mainly by topicalization and focus rather than by syntax. It is a "pro-drop", or "null-subject" language—that is, it allows the deletion of subject pronouns when they are pragmatically unnecessary. Spanish is described as a "verb-framed" language, meaning that the direction of motion is expressed in the verb while the mode of locomotion is expressed adverbially (e.g. subir corriendo or salir volando; the respective English equivalents of these examples—'to run up' and 'to fly out'—show that English is, by contrast, "satellite-framed", with mode of locomotion expressed in the verb and direction in an adverbial modifier).

text: Subject/verb inversion is not required in questions, and thus the recognition of declarative or interrogative may depend entirely on intonation.

text: Phonology[edit]

text: This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

text: The Spanish phonemic system is originally descended from that of Vulgar Latin. Its development exhibits some traits in common with the neighboring dialects—especially Leonese and Aragonese—as well as other traits unique to Castilian. Castilian is unique among its neighbors in the aspiration and eventual loss of the Latin initial /f/ sound (e.g. Cast. harina vs. Leon. and Arag. farina).[39] The Latin initial consonant sequences pl-, cl-, and fl- in Spanish typically become ll- (pronounced [ʎ], [j], [ʝ], [ʒ], or [d͡ʒ]), while in Aragonese they are preserved, and in Leonese they present a variety of outcomes, including [tʃ], [ʃ], and [ʎ]. Where Latin had -li- before a vowel (e.g. filius) or the ending -iculus, -icula (e.g. auricula), Modern Spanish produces the velar fricative [x] (hijo, oreja, where neighboring languages have the palatal lateral [ʎ] (e.g. Portuguese filho, orelha; Catalan fill, orella).

text: Segmental phonology[edit]

text: The Spanish phonemic inventory consists of five vowel phonemes (/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/) and 17 to 19 consonant phonemes (the exact number depending on the dialect[40]). The main allophonic variation among vowels is the reduction of the high vowels /i/ and /u/ to glides—[j] and [w] respectively—when unstressed and adjacent to another vowel. Some instances of the mid vowels /e/ and /o/, determined lexically, alternate with the diphthongs /je/ and /we/ respectively when stressed, in a process that is better described as morphophonemic rather than phonological, as it is not predictable from phonology alone.

text: The Spanish consonant system is characterized by (1) three nasal phonemes, and one or two (depending on the dialect) lateral phoneme(s), which in syllable-final position lose their contrast and are subject to assimilation to a following consonant; (2) three voiceless stops and the affricate /tʃ/; (3) three or four (depending on the dialect) voiceless fricatives; (4) a set of voiced obstruents—/b/, /d/, /ɡ/, and sometimes /ʝ/—which alternate between approximant and plosive allophones depending on the environment; and (5) a phonemic distinction between the "tapped" and "trilled" r-sounds (single ⟨r⟩ and double ⟨rr⟩ in orthography).

text: In the following table of consonant phonemes, /θ/ and /ʎ/ are marked with an asterisk (*) to indicate that they are preserved only in some dialects. In most dialects they have been merged, respectively, with /s/ and /ʝ/, in the mergers called, respectively, seseo and yeísmo. The phoneme /ʃ/ is in parentheses () to indicate that it appears only in loanwords. Each of the voiced obstruent phonemes /b/, /d/, /ʝ/, and /ɡ/ appears to the right of a pair of voiceless phonemes, to indicate that, while the voiceless phonemes maintain a phonemic contrast between plosive (or affricate) and fricative, the voiced ones alternate allophonically (i.e. without phonemic contrast) between plosive and approximant pronunciations.

text:
Consonant phonemes[41]

Labial
Dental
Alveolar
Palatal
Velar

Nasal

m

n

ɲ

Stop
p
b
t
d

tʃ
ʝ
k
ɡ

Continuant
f
θ*
s

(ʃ)
x

Lateral

l

ʎ*

Flap

ɾ

Trill

r

text: Prosody[edit]

text: Spanish is classified by its rhythm as a syllable-timed language: each syllable has approximately the same duration regardless of stress.[42][43]

text: Spanish intonation varies significantly according to dialect but generally conforms to a pattern of falling tone for declarative sentences and wh-questions (who, what, why, etc.) and rising tone for yes/no questions.[44][45] There are no syntactic markers to distinguish between questions and statements and thus, the recognition of declarative or interrogative depends entirely on intonation.

text: Stress most often occurs on any of the last three syllables of a word, with some rare exceptions at the fourth-last or earlier syllables. The tendencies of stress assignment are as follows:[46]

text:
In words that end with a vowel, stress most often falls on the penultimate syllable.
In words that end with a consonant, stress most often falls on the last syllable, with the following exceptions: The grammatical endings -n (for third-person-plural of verbs) and -s (whether for plural of nouns and adjectives or for second-person-singular of verbs) do not change the location of stress. Thus, regular verbs ending with -n and the great majority of words ending with -s are stressed on the penult. Although a significant number of nouns and adjectives ending with -n are also stressed on the penult (joven, virgen, mitin), the great majority of nouns and adjectives ending with -n are stressed on their last syllable (capitán, almacén, jardín, corazón).
Preantepenultimate stress (stress on the fourth-to-last syllable) occurs rarely, only on verbs with clitic pronouns attached (guardándoselos 'saving them for him/her/them/you').

tag: ul

text: In addition to the many exceptions to these tendencies, there are numerous minimal pairs that contrast solely on stress such as sábana ('sheet') and sabana ('savannah'); límite ('boundary'), limite ('[that] he/she limits') and limité ('I limited'); líquido ('liquid'), liquido ('I sell off') and liquidó ('he/she sold off').

text: The orthographic system unambiguously reflects where the stress occurs: in the absence of an accent mark, the stress falls on the last syllable unless the last letter is ⟨n⟩, ⟨s⟩, or a vowel, in which cases the stress falls on the next-to-last (penultimate) syllable. Exceptions to those rules are indicated by an acute accent mark over the vowel of the stressed syllable. (See Spanish orthography.)

text: Geographical distribution[edit]

text:
Official or co-official language

  1,000,000+

  100,000+

  20,000+

text: Spanish is the primary language of 20 countries worldwide. It is estimated that the combined total number of Spanish speakers is between 470 and 500 million, making it the second most widely spoken language in terms of native speakers.[48][49]

text: Spanish is the third most spoken language by total number of speakers (after Mandarin and English). Internet usage statistics for 2007 also show Spanish as the third most commonly used language on the Internet, after English and Mandarin.[50]

text: Europe[edit]

text: In Europe, Spanish is an official language of Spain, the country after which it is named and from which it originated. It is widely spoken in Gibraltar, although English is the official, international language.[51] It is also commonly spoken in Andorra, although Catalan is the official language.[52]

text: Spanish is also spoken by small communities in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany.[53] Spanish is an official language of the European Union. In Switzerland, which had a massive influx of Spanish migrants in the 20th century, Spanish is the native language of 2.2% of the population.[54]

text: The Americas[edit]

text: Hispanic America[edit]

text: Most Spanish speakers are in Hispanic America; of all countries with a majority of Spanish speakers, only Spain and Equatorial Guinea are outside the Americas. Nationally, Spanish is the official language—either de facto or de jure—of Argentina, Bolivia (co-official with Quechua, Aymara, Guarani, and 34 other languages), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico (co-official with 63 indigenous languages), Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay (co-official with Guaraní),[55] Peru (co-official with Quechua, Aymara, and "the other indigenous languages"[56]), Puerto Rico (co-official with English),[57] Uruguay, and Venezuela. Spanish has no official recognition in the former British colony of Belize; however, per the 2000 census, it is spoken by 43% of the population.[58][59] Mainly, it is spoken by the descendants of Hispanics who have been in the region since the seventeenth century; however, English is the official language.[60]

text: Due to their proximity to Spanish-speaking countries, Trinidad and Tobago and Brazil have implemented Spanish language teaching into their education systems. The Trinidad government launched the Spanish as a First Foreign Language (SAFFL) initiative in March 2005.[61] In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President, making it mandatory for schools to offer Spanish as an alternative foreign language course in both public and private secondary schools in Brazil.[62] In September 2016 this law was revoked by Michel Temer after impeachment of Dilma Rousseff.[63] In many border towns and villages along Paraguay and Uruguay, a mixed language known as Portuñol is spoken.[64]

text: United States[edit]

text: According to 2006 census data, 44.3 million people of the U.S. population were Hispanic or Hispanic American by origin;[65] 38.3 million people, 13 percent, of the population over five years old speak Spanish at home.[66] The Spanish language has a long history of presence in the United States due to early Spanish and, later, Mexican administration over territories now forming the southwestern states, as well as Florida, which was Spanish territory until 1821.

text: Spanish is by far the most common second language spoken and taught in the country, and with over 50 million total speakers, the United States is now the second largest Spanish-speaking country in the world after Mexico.[67] While English is the de facto national language of the country, Spanish is often used in public services and notices at the federal and state levels. Spanish is also used in administration in the state of New Mexico.[68] The language also has a strong influence in major metropolitan areas such as those of Los Angeles, Miami, San Antonio, New York, San Francisco, Dallas, and Phoenix; as well as more recently, Chicago, Las Vegas, Boston, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Nashville, Orlando, Tampa, Raleigh and Baltimore-Washington, D.C. due to 20th- and 21st-century immigration.

text: Africa[edit]

text: In Africa, Spanish is official (along with Portuguese and French) in Equatorial Guinea, as well as an official language of the African Union. In Equatorial Guinea, Spanish is the predominant language when native and non-native speakers (around 500,000 people) are counted, while Fang is the most spoken language by number of native speakers.[69][70]

text: Spanish is also spoken in the integral territories of Spain in North Africa, which include the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla, the Plazas de soberanía, and the Canary Islands archipelago (population 2,000,000), located some 100 km off the northwest coast of mainland Africa.

text: Within Northern Morocco, a former Spanish protectorate that is also geographically close to Spain, approximately 20,000 people speak Spanish as a second language, while Arabic is the de jure official language. A small number of Moroccan Jews also speak the Sephardic Spanish dialect Haketia (related to the Ladino dialect spoken in Israel). Spanish is spoken by some small communities in Angola because of the Cuban influence from the Cold War and in South Sudan among South Sudanese natives that relocated to Cuba during the Sudanese wars and returned in time for their country's independence.[71]

text: In Western Sahara, formerly Spanish Sahara, Spanish was officially spoken during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Today, Spanish in this disputed territory is maintained by populations of Sahrawi nomads numbering about 500,000 people, and is de facto official alongside Arabic in the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, although this entity receives limited international recognition.[72][73]

text: Asia-Pacific[edit]

text: Spanish is present on Easter Island, as it was annexed as a Chilean province in 1888.

text: Spanish was an official language of the Philippines from the beginning of Spanish rule in 1565 to a constitutional change in 1973. During Spanish colonization (1565–1898), it was the language of government, trade and education, and spoken as a first language by Spaniards and educated Filipinos. In the mid-nineteenth century, the colonial government set up a free public education system with Spanish as the medium of instruction. This increased use of Spanish throughout the islands led to the formation of a class of Spanish-speaking intellectuals called the Ilustrados. Until the Philippine independence in 1898, Spanish was spoken by around 10% of the population as their first and only language. Around 60% of the population spoke Spanish as their second or third language, that makes a total of 70%.[74]

text: Despite American administration after the defeat of Spain in the Spanish–American War in 1898, the usage of Spanish continued in Philippine literature and press during the early years of American rule. Gradually, however, the American government began increasingly promoting the use of English, and it characterized Spanish as a negative influence of the past. Eventually, by the 1920s, English became the primary language of administration and education.[75] But despite a significant decrease in influence and speakers, Spanish remained an official language of the Philippines when it became independent in 1946, alongside English and Filipino, a standardized version of Tagalog.

text: Spanish was removed from official status in 1973 under the administration of Ferdinand Marcos, but regained its status as an official language two months later under Presidential Decree No. 155, dated 15 March 1973.[76] It remained an official language until 1987, with the ratification of the present constitution, in which it was re-designated as a voluntary and optional auxiliary language.[77] In 2010, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo encouraged the reintroduction of Spanish-language teaching in the Philippine education system.[78] But by 2012, the number of secondary schools at which the language was either a compulsory subject or an elective had become very limited.[79] Today, despite government promotions of Spanish, less than 0.5% of the population report being able to speak the language proficiently.[80] Aside from standard Spanish, a Spanish-based creole language—Chavacano—developed in the southern Philippines. The number of Chavacano-speakers was estimated at 1.2 million in 1996. However, it is not mutually intelligible with Spanish.[81] Speakers of the Zamboangueño variety of Chavacano were numbered about 360,000 in the 2000 census.[82] The local languages of the Philippines also retain some Spanish influence, with many words being derived from Mexican Spanish, owing to the control of the islands by Spain through Mexico City until 1821, and then directly from Madrid until 1898.[83][84]

text: Spanish was also used by the colonial governments and educated classes in the former Spanish East Indies, consisting of modern-day Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, and Micronesia, in addition to the Philippines. Spanish loan words are present in the local languages of these territories as a legacy of colonial rule.[85][86] Today, Spanish is not spoken officially in any of these former Spanish territories.

text: Spanish speakers by country[edit]

text: The following table shows the number of Spanish speakers in some 79 countries.

text:
Country
Population[87]
Spanish as a native language speakers[88]
Native speakers or very good speakers as a second language[89]
Total number of Spanish speakers (including limited competence speakers)[89][90][91]

 Mexico
123,518,270[92]
114,501,436 (92.7%)[93]
121,665,496 (98.5%)[91]

 United States
321,442,019[94]
40,489,813[95] (13.3%)[96]
42,926,496[23] (82%[97] of the 57.4 mill. Hispanics[98] + 2.8 mill. non Hispanics[99])
58,008,778[23] (40,5 million as a first language, 15 million as a second language,[100] 7.8 million students[90] and some of the 9 million undocumented Hispanics not accounted by the Census[101])[102][103][104][105][106][107]

 Colombia
49,460,000[108]
48,610,000 (850,000 with other mother tongue)[109]
49,064,320 (99.2%)[91]

 Spain
46,539,026[110]
42,879,004 (92,1%)[23]
45,998,324 (98.8%)[91]

 Argentina
44,044,811[111][113]
42,062,795 (95.5%)[114]
43,780,542 (99.4%)[91]

 Venezuela
31,431,164[115]
30,332,920 (1,098,244 with other mother tongue)[116]
31,053,990 (98.8%)[91]

 Peru
31,826,018[117]
26,765,681 (84.1%)[118][119]
28,643,416 (86.6%)[91]

 Chile
18,373,917[120]
18,092,317 (281,600 with other mother tongue)[121]
18,245,300 (99.3%)[91]

 Ecuador
16,608,000[122]
14,700,000[123]
16,292,448 (98.1%)[91]

 Guatemala
17,005,000[87]
10,203,000 (60%)[124]
14,692,320 (86.4%)[91]

 Cuba
11,390,000[87]
11,390,000[125]
11,321,660 (99.4%)[91]

 Dominican Republic
10,767,000[87]
9,300,000[126]
10,723,932 (99.6%)[91]

 Bolivia
11,145,770[127]
6,464,547 (58%)[128]
9,797,132 (87.9%)[91]

 Honduras
8,866,351[129]
8,658,501 (207,750 with other mother tongue)[130]
8,777,687 (99.0%)[91]

 France
65,635,000[131]
477,564 (1%[132] of 47,756,439[133])
1,910,258 (4%[134] of 47,756,439[133])
6,685,901 (14%[135] of 47,756,439[133])

 El Salvador
6,581,940[136]
6,090,000[137]
6,562,194 (99.7%)[91]

 Brazil
206,120,000[138]
460,018[139]
460,018[139]
6,056,018 (460,018 native speakers + 96,000 limited proficiency + 5,500,000 can hold a conversation)[139]

 Nicaragua
6,218,000[87]
5,727,876 (490,124 with other mother tongue)[140]
6,031,460 (97.0%)[91]

 Italy
60,795,612[141]
255,459[142]
1,037,248 (2%[134] of 51,862,391[133])
5,704,863 (11%[135] of 51,862,391[133])

 Costa Rica
4,890,379[143]
4,806,069 (84,310 with other mother tongue)[144]
4,851,256 (99.2%)[91]

 Paraguay
6,854,536[145]
3,907,086 (57%)[146]
4,763,903 (69.5%)[91]

 Panama
3,764,166[147]
3,263,123 (501,043 with other mother tongue)[148]
3,504,439 (93.1%)[91]

 Uruguay
3,480,222[149]
3,330,022 (150,200 with other mother tongue)[150]
3,441,940 (98.9%)[91]

 Puerto Rico
3,474,182[151]
3,303,947 (95.1%)[152]
3,432,492 (98.8%)[91]

 Morocco
34,378,000[153]
6,586[154]
6,586
3,415,000[154][155] (10%)[156]

 United Kingdom
64 105 700[157]
120,000[158]
518,480 (1%[134] of 51,848,010[133])
3,110,880 (6%[135] of 51,848,010[133])

 Philippines
101,562,305[159]

438,882[160]
3,016,773[161][162][163][164][165][166][167]

 Germany
81,292,400[168]

644,091 (1%[134] of 64,409,146[133])
2,576,366 (4%[135] of 64,409,146[133])

 Equatorial Guinea
1,622,000[169]
1,683[170]
918,000[91] (90.5%)[91][171]

 Romania
21,355,849[172]

182,467 (1%[134] of 18,246,731[133])
912,337 (5%[135] of 18,246,731[133])

 Portugal
10,636,888[173]

323,237 (4%[134] of 8,080,915[133])
808,091 (10%[135] of 8,080,915[133])

 Canada
34,605,346[174]
439,000[175]
643,800 (87%[176] of 740,000[177])[23]
736,653[90]

 Netherlands
16,665,900[178]

133,719 (1%[134] of 13,371,980[133])
668,599 (5%[135] of 13,371,980[133] )

 Sweden
9,555,893[179]
77,912 (1%[132] of 7,791,240[133])
77,912 (1% of 7,791,240)
467,474 (6%[135] of 7,791,240[133])

 Australia
21,507,717[180]
111,400[181]
111,400
447,175[182]

 Belgium
10,918,405[183]

89,395 (1%[134] of 8,939,546[133])
446,977 (5%[135] of 8,939,546[133])

 Benin
10,008,749[184]

412,515 (students)[90]

 Ivory Coast
21,359,000[185]

341,073 (students)[90]

 Poland
38,092,000

324,137 (1%[134] of 32,413,735[133])
324,137 (1% of 32,413,735)

 Austria
8,205,533

70,098 (1%[134] of 7,009,827[133])
280,393 (4%[135] of 7,009,827[133])

 Algeria
33,769,669

223,422[154]

 Belize
333,200[186]
173,597[154]
173,597[154]
195,597[154] (62.8%)[187]

 Senegal
12,853,259

205,000 (students)[90]

 Denmark
5,484,723

45,613 (1%[134] of 4,561,264[133])
182,450 (4%[135] of 4,561,264[133])

 Israel
7,112,359

130,000[154]
175,231[188]

 Japan
127,288,419
100,229[189]
100,229
167,514 (60,000 students)[90]

 Gabon
1,545,255[190]

167,410 (students)[90]

  Switzerland
7,581,520
150,782 (2,24%)[191][192]
150,782
165,202 (14,420 students)[193]

 Ireland
4,581,269[194]

35,220 (1%[134] of 3,522,000[133])
140,880 (4%[135] of 3,522,000[133])

 Finland
5,244,749

133,200 (3%[135] of 4,440,004[133])

 Bulgaria
7,262,675

130,750 (2%[134] of 6,537,510[133])
130,750 (2%[135] of 6,537,510[133])

 Bonaire and  Curaçao
223,652
10,699[154]
10,699[154]
125,534[154]

 Norway
5,165,800
21,187[195]

103,309[90]

 Czech Republic
10,513,209[196]

90,124 (1%[135] of 9,012,443[133])

 Hungary
9,957,731[197]

83,206 (1%[135] of 8,320,614[133])

 Aruba
101,484[198]
6,800[154]
6,800[154]
75,402[154]

 Trinidad and Tobago
1,317,714[199]
4,100[154]
4,100[154]
65,886[154] (5%)[200]

 Cameroon
21,599,100[201]

63,560 (students)[90]

 Andorra
84,484
33,305[154]
33,305[154]
54,909[154]

 Slovenia

35,194 (2%[134] of 1,759,701[133])
52,791 (3%[135] of 1,759,701[133])

 New Zealand

21,645[202]
21,645
47,322 (25,677 students)[90]

 Slovakia
5,455,407

45,500 (1%[135] of 4,549,955[133])

 China
1,339,724,852[203]

30,000 (students)[204]

 Gibraltar
29,441[205]
22,758 (77.3%[206])

 Lithuania
2,972,949[207]

28,297 (1%[135] of 2,829,740[133])

 Luxembourg
524,853
4,049 (1%[132] of 404,907[133])
8,098 (2%[134] of 404,907[133])
24,294 (6%[135] of 404,907[133])

 Russia
143,400,000[208]
3,320[154]
3,320[154]
23,320[154]

 Western Sahara
513,000[209]
n.a.[210]

22,000[154]

 Guam

19,092[211]

 US Virgin Islands

16,788[212]
16,788[154]
16,788[154]

 Latvia
2,209,000[213]

13,943 (1%[135] of 1,447,866[133])

 Turkey
73,722,988[214]
1,134[154]
1,134[154]
13,480[154][215]

 Cyprus

2%[135] of 660,400[133]

 India
1,210,193,422[216]

9,750 (students)[217]

 Estonia

9,457 (1%[135] of 945,733[133])

 Jamaica
2,711,476[218]
8,000[219]
8,000[219]
8,000[219]

 Namibia

3,870[220]

 Egypt

3,500[221]

 Malta

3,354 (1%[135] of 335,476[133])

 European Union (excluding Spain)
460,624,488[222]
2,397,000 (934,984 already counted)[223]

Total
7,430,000,000 (Total World Population)[224]
458,020,633[2][23] (6.2 %)[225]
493,678,906 [23] (6.6 % )
542,309,889 [2][23][226] (7.3 %)[227]

text: Dialectal variation[edit]

text: There are important variations (phonological, grammatical, and lexical) in the spoken Spanish of the various regions of Spain and throughout the Spanish-speaking areas of the Americas.

text: The variety with the most speakers is Mexican Spanish. It is spoken by more than twenty percent of the world's Spanish speakers (more than 112 million of the total of more than 500 million, according to the table above). One of its main features is the reduction or loss of unstressed vowels, mainly when they are in contact with the sound /s/.[228][229]

text: In Spain, northern dialects are popularly thought of as closer to the standard, although positive attitudes toward southern dialects have increased significantly in the last 50 years. Even so, the speech of Madrid, which has typically southern features such as yeísmo and s-aspiration, is the standard variety for use on radio and television.[230][231][232][233] The educated Madrid variety has most influenced the written standard for Spanish.[234]

text: Phonology[edit]

text: The four main phonological divisions are based respectively on (1) the phoneme /θ/ ("theta"), (2) the debuccalization of syllable-final /s/, (3) the sound of the spelled ⟨s⟩, (4) and the phoneme /ʎ/ ("turned y"),[235]

text:
The phoneme /θ/ (spelled c before e or i and spelled ⟨z⟩ elsewhere), a voiceless dental fricative as in English thing, is maintained by a majority of Spain's population, especially in the northern and central parts of the country. In other areas (some parts of southern Spain, the Canary Islands, and the Americas), /θ/ is merged with /s/. The maintenance of phonemic contrast is called distinción in Spanish, while the merger is generally called seseo (in reference to the usual realization of the merged phoneme as [s]) or, occasionally, ceceo (referring to its interdental realization, [θ], in some parts of southern Spain). In most of Hispanic America, the spelled ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩, and spelled ⟨z⟩ is always pronounced as a voiceless alveolar "hissing" sibilant.
The debuccalization (pronunciation as [h], or loss) of syllable-final /s/ is associated with the southern half of Spain and lowland Americas: Central America (except central Costa Rica and Guatemala), the Caribbean, coastal areas of southern Mexico, and South America except Andean highlands. Debuccalization is frequently called "aspiration" in English, and aspiración in Spanish. When there is no debuccalization, the syllable-final /s/ is pronounced as voiceless "apico-alveolar" "grave" sibilant or as a voiceless alveolar "hissing" sibilant in the same fashion as in the next paragraph.

text:
The sound that corresponds to the letter ⟨s⟩ is pronounced in most of Spain as a voiceless "apico-alveolar" sibilant [s̺] (also described acoustically as "grave" and articulatorily as "retracted"), with a weak "hushing" sound reminiscent of retroflex fricatives. In most of Hispanic America (except in the Paisa region of Colombia) it is pronounced as a voiceless alveolar hissing sibilant [s], much like the most frequent pronunciation of the /s/ of English. Because /s/ is one of the most frequent phonemes in Spanish, the difference of pronunciation is one of the first to be noted by a Spanish-speaking person to differentiate Spaniards from Spanish-speakers of the Americas.[citation needed]
The phoneme /ʎ/ spelled ⟨ll⟩, palatal lateral consonant sometimes compared in sound to the sound of the ⟨lli⟩ of English million, tends to be maintained in less-urbanized areas of northern Spain and in highland areas of South America. Meanwhile, in the speech of most other Spanish-speakers, it is merged with /ʝ/ ("curly-tail j"), a non-lateral, usually voiced, usually fricative, palatal consonant, sometimes compared to English /j/ (yod) as in yacht and spelled ⟨y⟩ in Spanish. As with other forms of allophony across world languages, the small difference of the spelled ⟨ll⟩ and the spelled ⟨y⟩ is usually not perceived (the difference is not heard) by people who do not produce them as different phonemes. Such a phonemic merger is called yeísmo in Spanish. In Rioplatense Spanish, the merged phoneme is generally pronounced as a postalveolar fricative, either voiced [ʒ] (as in English measure or the French ⟨j⟩) in the central and western parts of the dialectal region (zheísmo), or voiceless [ʃ] (as in the French ⟨ch⟩ or Portuguese ⟨x⟩) in and around Buenos Aires and Montevideo (sheísmo).[236]

text: Grammar[edit]

text: The main grammatical variations between dialects of Spanish involve differing uses of pronouns, especially those of the second person and, to a lesser extent, the object pronouns of the third person.

text: Voseo[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Virtually all dialects of Spanish make the distinction between a formal and a familiar register in the second-person singular and thus have two different pronouns meaning "you": usted in the formal and either tú or vos in the familiar (and each of these three pronouns has its associated verb forms), with the choice of tú or vos varying from one dialect to another. The use of vos (and/or its verb forms) is called voseo. In a few dialects, all three pronouns are used, with usted, tú, and vos denoting respectively formality, familiarity, and intimacy.[237]

text: In voseo, vos is the subject form (vos decís, "you say") and the form for the object of a preposition (voy con vos, "I am going with you"), while the direct and indirect object forms, and the possessives, are the same as those associated with tú: Vos sabés que tus amigos te respetan ("You know your friends respect you").

text: The verb forms of general voseo are the same as those used with tú except in the present tense (indicative and imperative) verbs. The forms for vos generally can be derived from those of vosotros (the traditional second-person familiar plural) by deleting the glide [i̯], or /d/, where it appears in the ending: vosotros pensáis > vos pensás; vosotros volvéis > vos volvés, pensad! (vosotros) > pensá! (vos), volved! (vosotros) > volvé! (vos) .

text:
General voseo (River Plate Spanish)

Indicative
Subjunctive
Imperative

Present
Simple past
Imperfect past
Future
Conditional
Present
Past

pensás
pensaste
pensabas
pensarás
pensarías
pienses
pensaras
pensases
pensá

volvés
volviste
volvías
volverás
volverías
vuelvas
volvieras
volvieses
volvé

dormís
dormiste
dormías
dormirás
dormirías
duermas
durmieras
durmieses
dormí

The forms in bold coincide with standard tú-conjugation.

text: In Chilean voseo on the other hand, almost all verb forms are distinct from their standard tú-forms.

text:
Chilean voseo

Indicative
Subjunctive
Imperative

Present
Simple past
Imperfect past
Future
Conditional
Present
Past

pensáis
pensaste
pensabais
'pensarás'
pensaríais
pensís
pensarais
pensases
piensa

volvís
volviste
volvíais
'volverás'
volveríais
volváis
volvierais
volvieses
vuelve

dormís
dormiste
dormíais
'dormirás'
dormiríais
durmáis
durmieras
durmieses
duerme

The forms in bold coincide with standard tú-conjugation.

text:
The use of the pronoun vos with the verb forms of tú (vos piensas) is called "pronominal voseo". Conversely, the use of the verb forms of vos with the pronoun tú (tú pensás or tú pensái) is called "verbal voseo".
In Chile, for example, verbal voseo is much more common than the actual use of the pronoun vos, which is usually reserved for highly informal situations.

text: And in Central American voseo, one can see even further distinction.

text:
Central American voseo

Indicative
Subjunctive
Imperative

Present
Simple past
Imperfect past
Future
Conditional
Present
Past

pensás
pensaste
pensabas
pensarás
pensarías
pensés
pensaras
pensases
pensá

volvés
volviste
volvías
volverás
volverías
volvás
volvieras
volvieses
volvé

dormís
dormiste
dormías
dormirás
dormirías
durmás
durmieras
durmieses
dormí

The forms in bold coincide with standard tú-conjugation.

text: Distribution in Spanish-speaking regions of the Americas[edit]

text: Although vos is not used in Spain, it occurs in many Spanish-speaking regions of the Americas as the primary spoken form of the second-person singular familiar pronoun, with wide differences in social consideration. Generally, it can be said that there are zones of exclusive use of tuteo (the use of tú) in the following areas: almost all of Mexico, the West Indies, Panama, most of Colombia, Peru, Venezuela and coastal Ecuador.

text: Tuteo as a cultured form alternates with voseo as a popular or rural form in Bolivia, in the north and south of Peru, in Andean Ecuador, in small zones of the Venezuelan Andes (and most notably in the Venezuelan state of Zulia), and in a large part of Colombia. Some researchers maintain that voseo can be heard in some parts of eastern Cuba, and others assert that it is absent from the island.[238]

text: Tuteo exists as the second-person usage with an intermediate degree of formality alongside the more familiar voseo in Chile, in the Venezuelan state of Zulia, on the Caribbean coast of Colombia, in the Azuero Peninsula in Panama, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, and in parts of Guatemala.

text: Areas of generalized voseo include Argentina, Nicaragua, eastern Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Uruguay and the Colombian departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Risaralda, Quindio and Valle del Cauca.[237]

text: Ustedes[edit]

text: Ustedes functions as formal and informal second person plural in over 90% of the Spanish-speaking world, including all of Hispanic America, the Canary Islands, and some regions of Andalusia. In Seville, Huelva, Cadiz, and other parts of western Andalusia, the familiar form is constructed as ustedes vais, using the traditional second-person plural form of the verb. Most of Spain maintains the formal/familiar distinction with ustedes and vosotros respectively.

text: Usted[edit]

text: Usted is the usual second-person singular pronoun in a formal context, but it is used jointly with the third-person singular voice of the verb. It is used to convey respect toward someone who is a generation older or is of higher authority ("you, sir"/"you, ma'am"). It is also used in a familiar context by many speakers in Colombia and Costa Rica and in parts of Ecuador and Panama, to the exclusion of tú or vos. This usage is sometimes called ustedeo in Spanish.

text: In Central America, especially in Honduras, usted is often used as a formal pronoun to convey respect between the members of a romantic couple. Usted is also used that way as well as between parents and children in the Andean regions of Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

text: Third-person object pronouns[edit]

text: Most speakers use (and the Real Academia Española prefers) the pronouns lo and la for direct objects (masculine and feminine respectively, regardless of animacy, meaning "him", "her", or "it"), and le for indirect objects (regardless of gender or animacy, meaning "to him", "to her", or "to it"). The usage is sometimes called "etymological", as these direct and indirect object pronouns are a continuation, respectively, of the accusative and dative pronouns of Latin, the ancestor language of Spanish.

text: Deviations from this norm (more common in Spain than in the Americas) are called "leísmo", "loísmo", or "laísmo", according to which respective pronoun, le, lo, or la, has expanded beyond the etymological usage (le as a direct object, or lo or la as an indirect object).

text: Vocabulary[edit]

text: Some words can be significantly different in different Hispanophone countries. Most Spanish speakers can recognize other Spanish forms even in places where they are not commonly used, but Spaniards generally do not recognize specifically American usages. For example, Spanish mantequilla, aguacate and albaricoque (respectively, 'butter', 'avocado', 'apricot') correspond to manteca (word used for lard in Peninsular Spanish), palta, and damasco, respectively, in Argentina, Chile (except manteca), Paraguay, Peru (except manteca and damasco), and Uruguay.

text: Relation to other languages[edit]

text: Spanish is closely related to the other West Iberian Romance languages, including Asturian, Aragonese, Galician, Ladino, Leonese, Mirandese and Portuguese.

text: It is generally acknowledged that Portuguese- and Spanish-speakers can communicate, although with varying degrees of difficulty.[239][240][241][242] Meanwhile, mutual intelligibility of the written Spanish and Portuguese languages is very high, given that the difficulties of the spoken forms are based more on phonology than on grammatical and lexical dissimilarities. Ethnologue gives estimates of the lexical similarity between related languages in terms of precise percentages. For Spanish and Portuguese, that figure is 89%. Italian, on the other hand—although its phonology is more similar to that of Spanish—is said to have a lexical similarity of 82%. Mutual intelligibility between Spanish and French or between Spanish and Romanian is lower still, given lexical similarity ratings of 75% and 71% respectively.[243][244] And comprehension of Spanish by French speakers who have not studied the language is much lower, at an estimated 45%. In general, thanks to the common features of the writing systems of the Romance languages, interlingual comprehension of the written word is greater than that of oral communication.

text: The following table compares the forms of some common words in several Romance languages:

text:
Latin
Spanish
Galician
Portuguese
Astur-Leonese
Aragonese
Catalan
French
Italian
Romanian
English

nos
nosotros/nos
nós1
nós1
nós, nosotros
nusatros
nosaltres
(arch. nós)
nous2
noi/noialtri3
noi
'we'

frater germanum
(lit. "true brother")
hermano
irmán
irmão
hermanu
chirmán
germà
(arch. frare)4
frère
fratello
frate
'brother'

dies martis (Classical)
feria tertia (Ecclesiastical)
martes
martes/terza feira
terça-feira
martes
martes
dimarts
mardi
martedì
marți
'Tuesday'

cantiō(nem)
canticum
canción
cántico
canción/cançom5
cántico
canção
cântico
canción
(or canciu)
canta
cançó
chanson
canzone
cântec
'song'

magis
plus
más
(arch. plus)
máis
mais
(arch. chus or plus)
más
más
(or més)
més
(arch. pus or plus)
plus
più
mai/plus
'more'

manus sinistra
mano izquierda6
(arch. mano siniestra)
man esquerda6
mão esquerda6
(arch. mão sẽestra)
manu izquierda6
(or esquierda;
also manzorga)
man cucha
mà esquerra6
(arch. mà sinistra)
main gauche
mano sinistra
mâna stângă
'left hand'

nihil
nullam rem natam
(lit. "no thing born")
nada
nada
(also ren and res)
nada
(neca and nula rés
in some expressions; arch. rem)
nada
(also un res)
cosa
res
rien/nul
niente/nulla
nimic/nul
'nothing'

cāseus formaticus
queso
queixo
queijo
quesu
queso
formatge
fromage
formaggio/cacio
caș7
'cheese'

text:
1. Also nós outros in early modern Portuguese (e.g. The Lusiads), and nosoutros in Galician.
2. Alternatively nous autres in French.
3. Also noialtri in Southern Italian dialects and languages.
4. Medieval Catalan (e.g. Llibre dels fets).
5. Depending on the written norm used (see Reintegrationism).
6. From Basque esku, "hand" + erdi, "half, incomplete". Notice that this negative meaning also applies for Latin sinistra(m) ("dark, unfortunate").
7. Romanian caș (from Latin cāsevs) means a type of cheese. The universal term for cheese in Romanian is brânză (from unknown etymology).[245]

text: Judaeo-Spanish[edit]

text: Judaeo-Spanish, also known as Ladino,[246] is a variety of Spanish which preserves many features of medieval Spanish and Portuguese and is spoken by descendants of the Sephardi Jews who were expelled from Spain in the fifteenth century.[246] Conversely, in Portugal the vast majority of the Portuguese Jews converted and became 'New Christians'. Therefore, its relationship to Spanish is comparable with that of the Yiddish language to German. Ladino speakers today are almost exclusively Sephardi Jews, with family roots in Turkey, Greece, or the Balkans, and living mostly in Israel, Turkey, and the United States, with a few communities in Hispanic America.[246] Judaeo-Spanish lacks the Native American vocabulary which was acquired by standard Spanish during the Spanish colonial period, and it retains many archaic features which have since been lost in standard Spanish. It contains, however, other vocabulary which is not found in standard Spanish, including vocabulary from Hebrew, French, Greek and Turkish, and other languages spoken where the Sephardim settled.

text: Judaeo-Spanish is in serious danger of extinction because many native speakers today are elderly as well as elderly olim (immigrants to Israel) who have not transmitted the language to their children or grandchildren. However, it is experiencing a minor revival among Sephardi communities, especially in music. In the case of the Latin American communities, the danger of extinction is also due to the risk of assimilation by modern Castilian.

text: A related dialect is Haketia, the Judaeo-Spanish of northern Morocco. This too tended to assimilate with modern Spanish, during the Spanish occupation of the region.

text: Writing system[edit]

text:
Spanish language

Overview

Pronunciation

stress

Orthography
Names

History

Old
Middle
Influences

Grammar

Determiners
Nouns

gender

Pronouns

personal
object

Adjectives
Prepositions
Verbs

conjugation
irregular verbs

Dialects

Peninsular
Pan-American
Standard

Dialectology

seseo
yeísmo
voseo
leísmo
loísmo

Interlanguages

Creoles
Spanglish
Portuñol

Teaching

Hispanism
Institutos
RAE

v
t
e

text: Spanish is written in the Latin script, with the addition of the character ⟨ñ⟩ (eñe, representing the phoneme /ɲ/, a letter distinct from ⟨n⟩, although typographically composed of an ⟨n⟩ with a tilde) and the digraphs ⟨ch⟩ (che, representing the phoneme /t͡ʃ/) and ⟨ll⟩ (elle, representing the phoneme /ʎ/). However, the digraph ⟨rr⟩ (erre fuerte, 'strong r', erre doble, 'double r', or simply erre), which also represents a distinct phoneme /r/, is not similarly regarded as a single letter. Since 1994 ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨ll⟩ have been treated as letter pairs for collation purposes, though they remain a part of the alphabet. Words with ⟨ch⟩ are now alphabetically sorted between those with ⟨cg⟩ and ⟨ci⟩, instead of following ⟨cz⟩ as they used to. The situation is similar for ⟨ll⟩.[247][248]

text: Thus, the Spanish alphabet has the following 27 letters and 2 digraphs:

text: The letters k and w are used only in words and names coming from foreign languages (kilo, folklore, whisky, kiwi, etc.).

text: With the exclusion of a very small number of regional terms such as México (see Toponymy of Mexico), pronunciation can be entirely determined from spelling. Under the orthographic conventions, a typical Spanish word is stressed on the syllable before the last if it ends with a vowel (not including ⟨y⟩) or with a vowel followed by ⟨n⟩ or an ⟨s⟩; it is stressed on the last syllable otherwise. Exceptions to this rule are indicated by placing an acute accent on the stressed vowel.

text: The acute accent is used, in addition, to distinguish between certain homophones, especially when one of them is a stressed word and the other one is a clitic: compare el ('the', masculine singular definite article) with él ('he' or 'it'), or te ('you', object pronoun) with té ('tea'), de (preposition 'of') versus dé ('give' [formal imperative/third-person present subjunctive]), and se (reflexive pronoun) versus sé ('I know' or imperative 'be').

text: The interrogative pronouns (qué, cuál, dónde, quién, etc.) also receive accents in direct or indirect questions, and some demonstratives (ése, éste, aquél, etc.) can be accented when used as pronouns. Accent marks used to be omitted on capital letters (a widespread practice in the days of typewriters and the early days of computers when only lowercase vowels were available with accents), although the Real Academia Española advises against this and the orthographic conventions taught at schools enforce the use of the accent.

text: When u is written between g and a front vowel e or i, it indicates a "hard g" pronunciation. A diaeresis ü indicates that it is not silent as it normally would be (e.g., cigüeña, 'stork', is pronounced [θiˈɣweɲa]; if it were written *cigueña, it would be pronounced *[θiˈɣeɲa]).

text: Interrogative and exclamatory clauses are introduced with inverted question and exclamation marks (¿ and ¡, respectively).

text: Organizations[edit]

text: Royal Spanish Academy[edit]

text: The Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy), founded in 1713,[252] together with the 21 other national ones (see Association of Spanish Language Academies), exercises a standardizing influence through its publication of dictionaries and widely respected grammar and style guides.[253] Because of influence and for other sociohistorical reasons, a standardized form of the language (Standard Spanish) is widely acknowledged for use in literature, academic contexts and the media.

text: Association of Spanish Language Academies[edit]

text: The Association of Spanish Language Academies (Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española, or ASALE) is the entity which regulates the Spanish language. It was created in Mexico in 1951 and represents the union of all the separate academies in the Spanish-speaking world. It comprises the academies of 23 countries, ordered by date of Academy foundation: Spain (1713),[255] Colombia (1871),[256] Ecuador (1874),[257] Mexico (1875),[258] El Salvador (1876),[259] Venezuela (1883),[260] Chile (1885),[261] Peru (1887),[262] Guatemala (1887),[263] Costa Rica (1923),[264] Philippines (1924),[265] Panama (1926),[266] Cuba (1926),[267] Paraguay (1927),[268] Dominican Republic (1927),[269] Bolivia (1927),[270] Nicaragua (1928),[271] Argentina (1931),[272] Uruguay (1943),[273] Honduras (1949),[274] Puerto Rico (1955),[275], United States (1973)[276] and Equatorial Guinea (2016).[277]

text: Cervantes Institute[edit]

text: The Instituto Cervantes (Cervantes Institute) is a worldwide non-profit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991. This organization has branched out in over 20 different countries with 54 centers devoted to the Spanish and Hispanic American culture and Spanish Language. The ultimate goals of the Institute are to promote the education, the study and the use of Spanish universally as a second language, to support the methods and activities that would help the process of Spanish language education, and to contribute to the advancement of the Spanish and Hispanic American cultures throughout non-Spanish-speaking countries.

text: Official use by international organizations[edit]

text: Spanish is one of the official languages of the United Nations, the European Union, the World Trade Organization, the Organization of American States, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the African Union, the Union of South American Nations, the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat, the Latin Union, the Caricom, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and numerous other international organizations.