Spanish is classified as a Romance language because it evolved from Latin, which was the language spoken in the Roman empire. The word “Romance” itself originates from the Latin adjective “rōmānicus,” which means “Roman.”
About 75% of Spanish vocabulary comes from Latin. Because of historical and geographical reasons, there are also many Spanish words which come from other languages such as Arabic and Basque.
When it comes to grammar, Spanish has significantly diverged from Latin, which had an extensive use of grammatical cases.
The Latin spoken in the Iberian Peninsula was influenced by the pre-existing languages of the region, such as Celtiberian, Basque, and others.
For instance, here are some examples of Spanish vocabulary words which come Basque:
| Spanish | Basque | English |
|---|---|---|
| izquierda | ezker | left |
| mochila | motxil | backpack |
| chatarra | txatarra | scrap |
| cencerro | zintzarri | cowbell |
Spanish has borrowed words from non-Latin languages, including Arabic, due to historical events in the Iberian Peninsula. The region was ruled by the Moors for many years starting from the 8th century, leading to the inclusion of Arabic words in the Spanish language that were not present in Latin.
| English | Latin | Spanish |
|---|---|---|
| oil | oleum | aceite |
| carrot | carota | zanahoria |
| blue | caeruleus | azul |
| rice | oryza | arroz |
| basil | ocimum | albahaca |
There are many similar vocabulary words between Latin and Spanish.
| English | Latin | Spanish |
|---|---|---|
| moon | luna | luna |
| water | aqua | agua |
| sea | mare | mar |
| love | amor | amor |
| table | mensa | mesa |
| peace | pax | paz |
| tree | arbor | árbol |
| alone | solus | solo |
| book | liber | libro |
| hand | manus | mano |
| friend | amicus | amigo |
| sun | solis | sol |
| warm | calidus | cálido |
| truth | veritas | verdad |
| father | pater | padre |
| mother | mater | madre |
| easy | facilis | fácil |
| cold | frigidus | frío |
| green | viridis | verde |
| wise | sapiens | sabio |
| fish | piscis | pescado |
To discover additional vocabulary, consider referring to the following compilations of frequently used terms:
A key difference between Latin and Spanish pronunciation is that the letter ‘v’ is often pronounced like a ‘b’ in Spanish - this is not the case in Latin.
In linguistics, this phenomenon is called “betacism”.
There is a famous medieval Latin saying which is a pun on this:
“Beati hispani, quibus vivere bibere est” (the English translation is “Fortunate are the Spaniards, for whom living is drinking”)
Since the Spanish often pronounce the letter ‘v’ like a ‘b’, the result is that the words “vivere” ("to live") and “bibere” ("to drink") sound alike in Spanish.
Latin distinguishes between short and long vowels, and changing the length of a vowel can lead to a different word. In linguistics terminology, this means that Latin has phonemic vowel length.
For example, in Latin, “liber” when pronounced with a short ‘i’ means “book”; and when pronounced with a long ‘i’ it means “free”.
Some Latin textbooks, as a learning aid, will use a short horizontal bar above the letter to indicate a long vowel: “liber” (book) vs. “līber” (free).
Spanish differs from Latin with respect to vowel length. In Spanish, there are typically only short vowels, and even when they are a bit lengthened in stressed syllables there is no risk of changing the meaning of the word - vowel length is not phonemic in Spanish.
Latin nouns decline (their ending changes) depending on the grammatical case which they have in a sentence.
In the first example, the Latin noun “rex” is in the nominative case. In the second example, the Latin noun has changed to “regem” to indicate the accusative case (it is the direct object of the sentence).
Grammatical cases have to a large extent disappeared from the Spanish language. In the example above, the Spanish noun “rey” has the same form in both phrases.
Another difference between Latin and Spanish has to do with grammatical articles. These correspond to the words “the”, “a”, and “an” in English.
Latin is a language in which grammatical articles don’t exist. The English phrase “I read the book” translates to “Lego librum” in Latin. The first word, “lego” is the verb, and the second word “librum” is the noun. The English article “the” has no equivalent in Latin.
The same phrase “I read the book” translates to “leí el libro” in Spanish. In this case, the English article “the” corresponds to the Spanish article “el”.
A pro-drop language is a language in which certain pronouns can be omitted when they can be inferred from the context (generally from the form of the conjugated verb).
Latin and Spanish are both pro-drop languages, so these languages can have grammatically correct sentences which do not have an explicit subject.
For example, the English phrase “I read the book” translates to:
In English (in contrast to Latin and Spanish), leaving out the subject pronoun would generally produce a grammatically incorrect sentence.
English even uses “dummy pronouns,” which refer to nothing in particular, so sentences such as “It is raining” can have a subject.
It is estimated that approximately 75% of the Spanish language's vocabulary has its origins in Latin. However, despite this strong connection to Latin, there are noticeable differences in the spelling of some words between the two languages.
For instance, while the letter 'z' is rare in Latin vocabulary, it is often used in Spanish spelling. Additionally, it is intriguing to note that many Spanish words, which derive from Latin words ending in 'x', have undergone a transformation by replacing the 'x' with 'z'.
| Spanish | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| luz | lux | light |
| feliz | felix | happy |
| voz | vox | voice |
| paz | pax | peace |
| audaz | audax | bold |
| capaz | capax | capable |
| eficaz | efficax | effective |
| cruz | crux | cross |
In other cases, the final ‘x’ in the original Latin word is changed to other letters in the derived Spanish word:
| Spanish | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| ley | lex | law |
| rey | rex | king |
| noche | nox | night |
Latin spelling differs from Spanish spelling through another pattern: it is frequent for nouns that end in ‘-tas’ in Latin to end in ‘-tad’ in Spanish. Here are some examples of this:
| Spanish | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| tranquilidad | tranquillitas | tranquility |
| libertad | libertas | freedom |
| curiosidad | curiositas | curiosity |
| variedad | varietas | variety |
| sanidad | sanitas | health |
| humanidad | humanitas | humanity |
| sociedad | societas | society |
| dificultad | difficultas | difficulty |
| dignidad | dignitas | dignity |
| seguridad | securitas | security |
| unidad | unitas | unity |
Spanish words derived from Latin terms ending in ‘-tio’ have a slightly different spelling: the ‘-tio’ ending in Latin is generally replaced by ‘-ción’ in Spanish.
| Spanish | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| comparación | comparatio | comparison |
| excepción | exceptio | exception |
| significación | significatio | significance |
| descripción | descriptio | description |
| admiración | admiratio | admiration |
| dirección | directio | direction |
| ecuación | aequatio | équation |
Another spelling difference between Latin and Spanish concerns Latin words starting with the letter ‘s’ followed by a consonant. When these words are incorporated into Spanish, it is common for the letter ‘e’ to be added at the beginning.
| Spanish | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| estrellas | stellae | stars |
| escuela | schola | school |
| esperar | spes | hope |
| espíritu | spiritus | spirit |
| escribe | scribere | write |
| estudiar | studere | study |
Spanish words which are derived from Latin words ending in ‘-lis’ typically lose the final ‘-is’. Here are some examples:
| Spanish | Latin | English |
|---|---|---|
| sol | solis | sun |
| fidel | fidelis | faithful |
| fácil | facilis | easy |
| débil | debilis | weak |
| útil | utilis | useful |
| piel | pellis | skin |
A noticeable difference between Latin spelling and Spanish spelling concerns the frequent simplification of double consonants to single consonants.
Double consonants do exist in Spanish, for example:
As a general rule, these four consonants are the only consonants that can appear doubled in Spanish spelling. (There are a few exceptions, such as in the loanwords “jazz” and “pizza”)
A way to remember these four consonants is that they are the consonants found in the name Caroline.
Latin-derived Spanish words have a different spelling from the original Latin term because of this frequent removal of the double consonants. Here are some examples of this:
| Latin | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Words that are spelled with 'ff' in Latin vs. single 'f' in Spanish: | ||
| difficilis | difícil | difficult |
| offensio | ofensa | offense |
| differo | diferente | different |
| offero | oferta | offer |
| officialis | oficial | official |
| effectus | efecto | effect |
| Words that are spelled with 'pp' in Latin vs. single 'p' in Spanish: | ||
| opportunitas | oportunidad | opportunity |
| approbare | aprobar | approve |
| appropriare | apropiado | appropriate |
| Words that are spelled with 'mm' in Latin vs. single 'm' in Spanish | ||
| communis | común | common |
| accommodo | acomodar | accommodate |
| consummatio | consumo | consumption |
| Words that are spelled with 'cc' in Latin vs. single 'c' in Spanish | ||
| acceptus | aceptable | acceptable |
| accuso | acusar | accuse |
| occupo | ocupar | occupy |
| successio | sucesión | succession |
| peccatum | pecado | sin |
| Words that are spelled with 'ss' in Latin vs. single 's' in Spanish | ||
| possessio | posesión | possession |
| necessarius | necesario | necessary |
| dissimulo | disimular | disguise |
| excessum | exceso | excess |
This comparison of Latin and Spanish shows that although there are many spelling and grammatical differences between Latin and Spanish, these two languages are closely related in terms of their vocabulary.
In terms of pronunciation - and particularly in terms of grammar - there are more significant differences between Latin and Spanish.
Despite these differences, Spanish is one of the closest languages to Latin. Italian is also very similar to Latin, but French is a bit less similar to Latin because of Gallic and Frankish influences.
This proximity to Latin is one of the factors which makes Spanish one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn. There are many English words derived from Latin, and often these are similar to the corresponding Spanish words.