Castilian, which contains many words ofArabic origin, began as adialect spoken in northern Spain. It became the language of the court of the kingdoms of Castile and León in the 12th century, and the dominance of Castile within Spain allowed it to become the official language of the state.

There are differences in accent and, to a lesser extent, in vocabulary in Castilian as it is spoken in various regions of thecountry. The most significant difference is in the pronunciation ofc beforei ore. In northern Castile, where the language is said to be spoken in its purest form, this is pronounced as an Englishth; in southern and western Spain it is pronounced as an Englishs. The prominence of people from these latter regions in the colonization of Latin America led to their pronunciation becoming the standard in American Spanish. The Cervantes Institute promotes theSpanish language and Spanishculture in many countries.

Catalan

Catalan is closely related toOccitan (Provençal), a language spoken in southernFrance. It is spoken by more than four-fifths of the population inCatalonia,Valencia, and theBalearic Islands. But there are differences in the wayCatalan is spoken in these three regions, and in the 1980s there were politically motivated disputes as to whether Valencian was a Catalan dialect or a distinct language.Catalan literature, which has a long and distinguished history, flourished especially during the Middle Ages. However, it declined after the 15th century beforereviving again in the period known as the Renaixença (“Renaissance”), which began in the mid-19th century.

Galician

Spoken inGalicia, in the northwestern corner of Spain, the Galician language (Gallego) is closely related toPortuguese, although it has been influenced by Castilian Spanish throughout the modern period. It was the language of courtly literature until the 14th century, when it was displaced by Castilian. From then until the late 19th century, when a literary revival began, its use was limited to everyday speech, and it was more common in the countryside than in the cities due to a tradition of spoken Galician at home. Most of the population of Galicia isbilingual in Galician and Castilian.

Euskera

Euskera is the most distinctive language spoken in Spain. Neither a Romance nor anIndo-European language, it predates the arrival of the Romans in Spain. Until the end of the 19th century, Euskera was spoken mostly in the countryside, and, unlike the otherpeninsular languages, it had no significant literary tradition. In the 20th century, especially after it became the official language of theBasque Country (Euskera: Euskadi; Spanish: País Vasco) in 1978, Euskera grew in popularity and was increasingly used in literature, journalism, and the electronic media. Moreover, it has been the regional government’s policy to extend its use in education andpublic administration. About one-third of the region’s population speaks Euskera, and another one-sixthcomprehends it. The largest proportion of Euskera speakers live in the province ofGuipúzcoa.

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Human landscape

The impact on the Spanish landscape of some 35,000 years of human occupation has been bothdiverse and profound. Human activity in prehistoric times undoubtedly led to changes in vegetation, soils, microrelief, and microclimate. However, influences from northernEurope (Celtic), the eastern Mediterranean (Phoenician, Ligurian, and eventually Roman), andNorth Africa (Iberian) contributed more obviously to what was to become the “traditional landscape” of Spain. Thus, most of Spain’s major towns have ancient origins: they began asCeltiberian settlements (Soria); asPhoenician colonies (Cádiz) and Phoenician or Greek trading emporiums (Tarragona,Ampurias, andMálaga); and as Roman commercial centers along the Mediterranean coast or military and administrative centers in the north and west, at nodal points in the road system (Mérida,León, andZaragoza [Saragossa]). Such towns were surrounded by zones of intensive, irrigated agriculture (thebarros ofÉvora,Portugal, thevegas of Mérida andZaragoza, thehuertas of the east coast).

The Romanlegacy of a gridiron town plan is preserved in many northern centers (e.g., inBarcelona and Zaragoza) but has been largely obliterated in the cities of the south and east by Muslim urban elements. In towns such asValencia,Córdoba(Cordova),Toledo,Almería,Granada, andSevilla (Seville), the marketplace, mosque, and high-walled domesticcompounds, often with watered gardens, dominate an intricate alley network. Like their Romanantecedents, these earlymedieval Muslim centers were surrounded by rich agriculturalhuertas; in both towns andhuertas water usage was rigorously controlled by institutions such as the Tribunal de las Aguas de la Vega de Valencia.

After theReconquista (Reconquest), the establishment of isolated single farms (alquerías) within thehuertas increased. InCastile and León, medieval urban settlement developed from Christian military foundations in an open landscape of extensivedry farming. Centers such asPamplona,Burgos,Soria,Valladolid, andSalamancacomprised a series of walled nuclei until new squares and broad streets were laid out in the 17th century. Rural settlement in León and in the mountains of northernAndalusia focused on theecclesiastical granges of the Reconquista, developing into small villages. In Castile and León, castles similarly gave rise to clusters of hamlets. Much of this rural settlement was the result of spontaneous peasant colonization based on a now largely lost communal farming (open-field) system. In contrast, inCastile–La Mancha (Castilla–La Mancha), lowerAragon,Andalusia,Extremadura, and parts of theAlentejo, Portugal, the rural settlement pattern testifies to the more-organized resettlement schemes of the Reconquista in the southern Meseta. Here the four great Christian military orders (theHospitallers, theTemplars, theOrder of Santiago, and theOrder of Calatrava)acquired vast territories, which they defended with fortresses and huge, widely spaced villages, the latter sometimes now so large as to take on an urban aspect (agrotowns). Among these, in parts of Andalusia and Alentejo, are the courtyard farms (cortijos,montes) of thelatifundios (very large estates).