Lengua

In America, we have one official language. English. However, recently America's common languages have been expanding and we have been considering making Spanish another official language of the United States. In Spain, the official language is Spanish, as you may have guessed. However, there are different dialects of Spanish found in different regions of Spain. Dialects are similar to the accents that are found throughout different parts of North America. It is a different way of speaking, with different words, but is still based on the common Spanish language. The official dialect in Spain is called Castellan, or castellano. The different dialects of Spanish are Basque, Galician, and Catalan. These are all co-official in certain areas of Spain. When I traveled to Spain, I was a pretty experienced Spanish speaker, since I had taken AP Spanish in high school at the time of my visit. Much to my surprise, when I arrived and was out in Barcelona, I found it extremely difficult to understand what people were saying to me. I thought I would have an easy time conversing with my boyfriend's family and friends. But since they were speaking Catalan, I could barely comprehend what they were saying. The word I learned in Spanish class for water was agua. In Barcelona, it was aigua. The world for blue that I learned was azul. In Barcelona, it was blava. Catalan is also known for the thick lisp that comes with speaking it. This means that these specific Spanish speakers pronounce their S's as th's.

"Spanish Language." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 27 Oct 2007.