There are more than 400 million personnel whose mother tongue is Spanish, thus being the second most spoken language in the world after Chinese
Spanish is a romance language and, as such, evolved from vulgar Latin. It originated in the Iberian Peninsula, which today houses Spain and Portugal. The Castilian continuation of Vulgar Latin (from the Spanish region of Castile), mixed with Arabic after the Muslim conquest ended up forming the standardized Spanish language in the 11th century. The Andalusian dialect appeared at the same time.
Spanish is the official language of the following 20 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela: besides Puerto Rico. Although it is not the official language, Spanish is also spoken in the United States, Belize, Andorra and Gibraltar
