This article takes an in-depth look at the languages of Spain including Basque, Galician, and Catalan, and where each one is spoken.

1. Exploring The Languages of Spain
If we asked you to name which languages were spoken in Spain, we know what your first guess
would be.
Spanish, right?
And you’d be perfectly correct: it’s the nation’s official language and 99% of Spaniards speak it.
But on the streets of regional Spain, you’ll hear more than just Spanish.
Did you know that Spain actually has four official languages?
That’s right. Let’s take a look at them.
Which Languages Are Spoken in Spain?

2. As we mentioned, there’s Spanish (also known as castellano), which is the official language
throughout the whole country as declared in the Constitution. But there are three others that have
official status in various regions:
• Galician (known as galego)
• Catalan (also called català)
• and Basque (known as euskara).
For much of the 20th
Century (during the Francoist regime), regional languages in Spain were
repressed. Since the end of the dictatorship, the languages have seen a resurgence in popularity
and are now embraced as an integral part of the Spanish nation.
Let’s have a deeper look into these languages.
Catalan
Catalan is the co-official language (with Spanish) of the Autonomous Communities of Catalonia
and Valencia, in Spain’s Eastern regions, and also Autonomous Community of the Balearic
Islands.
Català is the second most spoken language in Spain behind Spanish itself. 4.1 million people
speak it as a first language, and more than 10 million in total know it. That’s around a quarter of
the entire population of Spain!
It’s a Romance language, so is related to Spanish, and even more closely related to the Occitan
language spoken in southern France. The Catalan ethnic group reaches beyond eastern Spain
with southern France, Andorra and parts of Sardinia in Italy also home to native Catalan
speakers.
On the streets of Barcelona or Valencia, you’re more likely to hear Catalan than Spanish. It’s an
important part of the regional identity and Catalonians, Valencians and Balearic Island natives
are proud to consider it a part of their culture.
In Catalonia, Catalan is the main language of education, so as a result, most people find they
prefer to use Catalan in their day-to-day lives.
73% of people in the region speak Catalan, with 95% understanding it. Among young people,
only 3% of Catalonians have no knowledge of the regional language.

3. Galician
Galego is the language of 2.4 million people in the autonomous community of Galicia (where it
shares official status with Spanish), in the north-west of Spain.
It’s closely related to Portuguese, with the two languages sharing the same roots. Some linguists
treat them as dialects of the same language, and they are, for the most part, mutually intelligible.
However, there are significant differences in vocabulary between Portuguese and galego that
cause many speakers to regard it as a separate language.
Galicians are proud of their language and heritage, butthere isn’t a strong separatist movement in
Galicia, as there is in Catalonia and the Basque Country.
Schools provide bilingual education in Galician and Spanish, unlike in the Basque Country and
Catalonia, where there is almost no education delivered in Spanish.
This means that around 30% of Galicians speak only galego in their day-to-day lives.
The Basque Language

4. Basque is the language of the Basque Country, the ancestral home of the Basque people, that
spans both north-central Spain and southwestern France. The Spanish Autonomous Communities
of Basque Country and Navarre are where it has co-official status with Spanish.
Unlike Galician and Catalan, Basque is not a Romance language, it actually pre-dates the
Romanization of Europe. This means it’s a language isolate: it isn’t related to any other known
living language.
There are around one million Basque speakers throughout the world, with around 750,000 native
speakers in the Spanish Basque Country. The language has been heavily promoted through
policy since the end of the Francoist era.
Most students receive monolingual education in Basque, and the number of speakers is
increasing. Specifically, it thrives among young people: nearly 60% of speakers are in the 16-24
age category.
Because it’s a language isolate, Basque grammar is totally different to the other languages
spoken in Spain, which are all related.
It uses a case system meaning that words change with suffixes depending on their role in the
sentence. Pronouns, conjunctions and articles are also marked by suffixes. This can make for
some intimidating-looking long words in Basque, similar to the structure of Turkish and Finnish
words.
Comparing the Languages of Spain
So that you can see the difference between all four of Spain’s major languages, here’s an
example of text from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
With this comparison, you can clearly see how Spanish, Catalan and Galician all have the same
Indo-European, Romance origin. You can also see how Basque is completely unrelated to the
others:
Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales en dignidad y derechos y, dotados como están de
razón y conciencia, deben comportarse fraternalmente los unos con los otros. (Spanish)
Tots els éssers humans neixen lliures i iguals en dignitat i en drets. Són dotats de raó i de
consciència, i han de comportar-se fraternalment els uns amb els altres. (Catalan)
Tódolos seres humanos nacen libres e iguais en dignidade e dereitos e, dotados como están de
razón e conciencia, díbense comportar fraternalmente uns cos outros. (Galician)
Gizon-emakume guztiak aske jaiotzen dira, duintasun eta eskubide berberak dituztela; eta
ezaguera eta kontzientzia dutenez gero, elkarren artean senide legez jokatu beharra dute.
(Basque)

5. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and in rights. They are endowed with reason
and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. (English)
How do all these languages coexist?
The co-official status with Spanish means that residents have the right to access public services
in either Spanish or the local language, whichever they feel most comfortable with.
In all three regions, though, the local language is legally the lingua propia – the first language of
local government and services.
In all the regions, large urban areas are where you’re most likely to hear Spanish, whereas in
rural towns, local languages tend to be more commonly used. This makes sense, as people from
other, monolingual regions of Spain often move to cities for work.
For anyone moving to a Spanish city for work, you’ll need to learn phrases for the business
world. Check out this article for the phrases you’ll need to survive your first few meetings in
Spain.
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6. Bio
Siobhan Wood is a marketing professional who works with language schools to get more people
learning languages! Having spent twenty years studying French, Spanish and more, she knows
the common roadblocks that people create that prevent them from following their dream of
learning another tongue. Contact her for help with your school’s marketing.