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143-606: The Strait of Magellan ( Spanish : Estrecho de Magallanes ), also called the Straits of Magellan , is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and Tierra del Fuego to the south. The strait is considered the most important natural passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The strait is approximately 570 km (310 nmi; 350 mi) long and 2 km (1.1 nmi; 1.2 mi) wide at its narrowest point. In 1520,
286-610: A Spanish-based creole language called Chavacano developed in the southern Philippines. However, it is not mutually intelligible with Spanish. The number of Chavacano-speakers was estimated at 1.2 million in 1996. The local languages of the Philippines also retain significant Spanish influence, with many words derived from Mexican Spanish , owing to the administration of the islands by Spain through New Spain until 1821, until direct governance from Madrid afterwards to 1898. Selk%27nam people The Selk'nam , also known as
429-677: A campaign of extermination against them, with the complicity of the Argentine and Chilean governments. Large companies paid sheep farmers or militia a bounty for each Selk'nam dead, which was confirmed by the presentation of a pair of hands or ears or, later, a complete skull. They were given more for the death of a woman than a man. The predicament of the Selk'nam worsened with the establishment of religious missions, which disrupted their livelihood through forcible relocation, and inadvertently brought with them deadly epidemics. Repression against
572-470: A comparative list of 150 Selk'nam- Tehuelche words, as he believed that there were connections to the Tehuelche people and language to the north. German anthropologist Robert Lehmann-Nitsche published the first scholarly studies of the Selk'nam, although he was later criticised for having studied members of the Selk'nam people who had been abducted and were exhibited in circuses. A common comment about
715-603: A considerable number of words from Arabic , as well as a minor influence from the Germanic Gothic language through the period of Visigoth rule in Iberia. In addition, many more words were borrowed from Latin through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church. The loanwords were taken from both Classical Latin and Renaissance Latin , the form of Latin in use at that time. According to
858-522: A dramatic change in the pronunciation of its sibilant consonants , known in Spanish as the reajuste de las sibilantes , which resulted in the distinctive velar [x] pronunciation of the letter ⟨j⟩ and—in a large part of Spain—the characteristic interdental [θ] ("th-sound") for the letter ⟨z⟩ (and for ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩ ). See History of Spanish (Modern development of
1001-415: A few books on the subject, including Selk'nam tales, collected by the missions, and a dictionary of the Selk'nam (Ona) language. Due to early contact by missionaries, much more information was collected about the Selk'nam people than about other people of the region. Austrian priest and ethnologist Gusinde tried also to collect information about other local people, but he found their numbers much reduced. He
1144-482: A first language by Spaniards and educated Filipinos ( Ilustrados ). Despite a public education system set up by the colonial government, by the end of Spanish rule in 1898, only about 10% of the population had knowledge of Spanish, mostly those of Spanish descent or elite standing. Spanish continued to be official and used in Philippine literature and press during the early years of American administration after
1287-578: A guanaco cape, and buried as soon as possible. There was also a tradition of specifically burying individuals in the hollows or roots of trees, and making sure the deceased could not be seen once they had been place there. There is no tradition of grave goods. Photographs of Selk'nam people taken by the missionaries are displayed at the Martin Gusinde Anthropological Museum in Puerto Williams . There are also
1430-478: A long history in the territory of the current-day United States dating back to the 16th century. In the wake of the 1848 Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty , hundreds of thousands of Spanish speakers became a minoritized community in the United States. The 20th century saw further massive growth of Spanish speakers in areas where they had been hitherto scarce. According to the 2020 census, over 60 million people of
1573-469: A means for the company to avoid questioning and a strategy to lower its controversial profile. Special attention was paid to these events after the intervention of the Salesian missionaries, who condemned the actions of the ranchers while themselves unintentionally contributing to the extermination of native cultures. Beginning in the 1890s, the situation of the Selk'nam became severe. As the territories of
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#17327646838961716-578: A more ancient period than collections made by Darwin on HMS Beagle and other naturalists, and therefore were of great scientific interest. Many of these fossils were collected with the aid of hydrographer Richards R. N. and deposited in the British Museum . The Admiralty compiled advice to mariners of the strait in 1871. Chile took possession of the Strait of Magellan on May 23, 1843. President Manuel Bulnes ordered this expedition after consulting
1859-571: A people in Chile, and much of the English language literature. Settlement, gold mining and farming in the region of Tierra del Fuego were followed by the Selk'nam genocide . While the Selk'nam are closely associated with living in the northeastern area of Tierra del Fuego archipelago, they are believed to have originated as a people on the mainland. Thousands of years ago, they migrated by canoe across
2002-508: A primarily Hassaniya Arabic -speaking territory, Spanish was officially spoken as the language of the colonial administration during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Today, Spanish is present in the partially-recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as its secondary official language, and in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf ( Algeria ), where the Spanish language is still taught as
2145-570: A sanctuary for humpback whales , is located in this area. This part of the strait lies on the elongated Magallanes-Fagnano Fault , which marks a plate boundary between the South American Plate and the Scotia Plate . This fault continues southward under Almirantazgo Fjord and then below Fagnano Lake . Possibly, new tourism industries could be established in the eastern part of the strait for watching southern right whales , as
2288-617: A second language features characteristics involving the variability of the vowel system. While far from its heyday during the Spanish protectorate in Morocco , the Spanish language has some presence in northern Morocco , stemming for example from the availability of certain Spanish-language media. According to a 2012 survey by Morocco's Royal Institute for Strategic Studies (IRES), penetration of Spanish in Morocco reaches 4.6% of
2431-531: A second language, largely by Cuban educators. The number of Spanish speakers is unknown. Spanish is also an official language of the African Union . Spanish was an official language of the Philippines from the beginning of Spanish administration in 1565 to a constitutional change in 1973. During Spanish colonization , it was the language of government, trade, and education, and was spoken as
2574-550: A source of warmth in shelters as they would arrange themselves to sleep tightly against and around the Selk'nam. The Selk'nam spoke a Chon language . Missionary José María Beauvoir compiled a dictionary of the Selk'nam language. One source states that the last fluent native speakers died in the 1980s. For special occasions, such as initiation ceremonies, weddings, and funerals, Selk'nam would decorate their bodies with paint, especially their faces. The main colors employed in decoration are red, black, and white. Selk'nam religion
2717-517: A survey expedition to the strait from 1866 to 1869. The naturalist on the voyage was Robert Oliver Cunningham . Charles Darwin requested the Lords of the Admiralty to ask Mayne to collect several boatloads of fossils of extinct quadruped species. Admiral Sulivan had previously discovered an astonishingly rich accumulation of fossil bones not far from the strait. These remains apparently belonged to
2860-416: Is cognate to the root word of satisfacer ("to satisfy"), and hecho ("made") is similarly cognate to the root word of satisfecho ("satisfied"). Compare the examples in the following table: Some consonant clusters of Latin also produced characteristically different results in these languages, as shown in the examples in the following table: In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish underwent
3003-666: Is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe . Today, it is a global language with about 500 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain , and about 600 million when including second language speakers. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries , as well as one of the six official languages of
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#17327646838963146-470: Is described by the French explorer, engineer, and hydrographer François Froger [ fr ] in his A Relation of a Voyage (1699). In the 18th century further explorations were done by English explorers John Byron and James Cook . The French sent Louis Antoine de Bougainville and Jules Dumont d'Urville . By 1770 the focus of a potential conflict between Spain and Britain had shifted from
3289-603: Is difficult to navigate due to frequent narrows and unpredictable winds and currents. Maritime piloting is now compulsory. The strait is shorter and more sheltered than the Drake Passage , the often stormy open sea route around Cape Horn , which is beset by frequent gale -force winds and icebergs . Along with the Beagle Channel , the strait was one of the few sea routes between the Atlantic and Pacific before
3432-498: Is enormous tidal energy potential in the strait. The strait is prone to Williwaws , "a sudden violent, cold, katabatic gust of wind descending from a mountainous coast of high latitudes to the sea". The place names of the area around the strait come from a variety of languages. Many are from Spanish and English, and several are from the Ona language , adapted to Spanish phonology and spelling. Examples include Timaukel (a hamlet at
3575-454: Is estimated that about 486 million people speak Spanish as a native language , making it the second most spoken language by number of native speakers . An additional 75 million speak Spanish as a second or foreign language , making it the fourth most spoken language in the world overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi with a total number of 538 million speakers. Spanish is also
3718-484: Is generally thought to have displaced a related non-seafaring people, the Haush that once occupied most of the main island. The Selk'nam, Haush, and Tehuelche are generally thought to be culturally and linguistically related peoples physically distinct from the sea-faring peoples. According to a Selk'nam myth the strait was created along with the Beagle Channel and Fagnano Lake by slingshots falling on Earth during
3861-761: Is heavily influenced by Venezuelan Spanish. In addition to sharing most of its borders with Spanish-speaking countries, the creation of Mercosur in the early 1990s induced a favorable situation for the promotion of Spanish language teaching in Brazil . In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President , making it mandatory for schools to offer Spanish as an alternative foreign language course in both public and private secondary schools in Brazil. In September 2016 this law
4004-518: Is plain that the Ona is an aggressive warrior toward the whites only because of ill-treatment. […] Damnable ill-treatment on the part of the whites is at the bottom of all the Ona aggressiveness – and Ona suffering. The Selk'nam genocide was the genocide of the Selk'nam people from the second half of the 19th to the early 20th century. The genocide spanned a period of between ten and fifteen years. The Selk'nam had an estimated population of 4,000 people around
4147-619: Is possible that Tierra del Fuego was connected to the mainland in the Early Holocene (c. 9000 years BP ) much in the same way that Riesco Island was back then. A Selk'nam tradition recorded by the Salesian missionary Giuseppe María Beauvoir relate that the Selk'nam arrived in Tierra del Fuego by land, and that the Selk'nam were later unable to return north as the sea had flooded their crossing. Selk'nam migration to Tierra del Fuego
4290-554: Is presumed that the boat wrecked in the same storm that forced the remaining party to leave the area. Overall a total of 16–17 men perished in it. While by 1676 rumours about English bases in Western Patagonia had been dispelled, that year new rumours appeared claiming that England was preparing an expedition to settle the Straits of Magellan. The focus of Spanish attention to repel tentative English settlements shifted from
4433-732: Is related to Castile ( Castilla or archaically Castiella ), the kingdom where the language was originally spoken. The name Castile , in turn, is usually assumed to be derived from castillo ('castle'). In the Middle Ages , the language spoken in Castile was generically referred to as Romance and later also as Lengua vulgar . Later in the period, it gained geographical specification as Romance castellano ( romanz castellano , romanz de Castiella ), lenguaje de Castiella , and ultimately simply as castellano (noun). Different etymologies have been suggested for
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4576-844: Is spoken by very small communities in Angola due to Cuban influence from the Cold War and in South Sudan among South Sudanese natives that relocated to Cuba during the Sudanese wars and returned for their country's independence. Spanish is also spoken in the integral territories of Spain in Africa, namely the cities of Ceuta and Melilla and the Canary Islands , located in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 km (62 mi) off
4719-813: Is the de facto national language of the country, Spanish is often used in public services and notices at the federal and state levels. Spanish is also used in administration in the state of New Mexico . The language has a strong influence in major metropolitan areas such as those of Los Angeles , Miami , San Antonio , New York , San Francisco , Dallas , Tucson and Phoenix of the Arizona Sun Corridor , as well as more recently, Chicago , Las Vegas , Boston , Denver , Houston , Indianapolis , Philadelphia , Cleveland , Salt Lake City , Atlanta , Nashville , Orlando , Tampa , Raleigh and Baltimore-Washington, D.C. due to 20th- and 21st-century immigration. Although Spanish has no official recognition in
4862-519: The Council of the Indies the possibility of establishing contacts between Chile and Seville through the strait. García Jofré de Loaiza was the second captain to navigate the strait and the first to discover that Tierra del Fuego was an island. Valdivia then dispatched Francisco de Ulloa to survey and explore the strait, facilitating navigation from Spain to Chile. In October 1553, Ulloa sailed from
5005-463: The Hain involved tests for young males for courage, resourcefulness, resisting temptation, resisting pain and overcoming fear. It also included prolonged instructional courses to train the young men in the tasks for which they would be responsible. Before European encounter, the various rites of the Hain lasted a very long time, perhaps even a year on occasion. It would end with the last fight against
5148-520: The Haush (Manek'enk), another related nomadic culture who lived in the south-eastern part of the island, and the Yahgan (Yámana), an unrelated group who could be found along the southern coast. In late 1599, a small Dutch fleet led by Olivier van Noort entered the Strait of Magellan and had a hostile encounter with Selk'nam which left about forty Selk'nam dead. It was the bloodiest recorded event in
5291-798: The Onawo or Ona people , are an indigenous people in the Patagonian region of southern Argentina and Chile , including the Tierra del Fuego islands. They were one of the last native groups in South America to be encountered by migrant Europeans in the late 19th century. In the mid-19th century, there were about 4,000 Selk'nam; in 1916 Charles W. Furlong estimated there were about 800 Selk'nam living in Tierra del Fuego; with Walter Gardini stating that by 1919 there were 279, and by 1930 just over 100. Until 2020, they were considered extinct as
5434-540: The Spanish expedition of the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan , after whom the strait is named, became the first Europeans to discover it. Magellan's original name for the strait was Estrecho de Todos los Santos ("Strait of All Saints"). The King of Spain, Emperor Charles V , who sponsored the Magellan-Elcano expedition, changed the name to the Strait of Magellan in honor of Magellan. The route
5577-568: The Spanish as a First Foreign Language (SAFFL) initiative in March 2005. Spanish has historically had a significant presence on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba , Bonaire and Curaçao ( ABC Islands ) throughout the centuries and in present times. The majority of the populations of each island (especially Aruba) speaking Spanish at varying although often high degrees of fluency. The local language Papiamentu (Papiamento on Aruba)
5720-508: The Spanish–American War but was eventually replaced by English as the primary language of administration and education by the 1920s. Nevertheless, despite a significant decrease in influence and speakers, Spanish remained an official language of the Philippines upon independence in 1946, alongside English and Filipino , a standardized version of Tagalog . Spanish was briefly removed from official status in 1973 but reimplemented under
5863-555: The Strait of Magellan . Their territory in the early Holocene probably ranged as far as the Cerro Benítez area of the Cerro Toro mountain range in Chile. Traditionally, the Selk'nam were nomadic people who relied on hunting for survival, though they were also recorded as engaging in occasional fishing during low tides. They dressed sparingly despite the cold climate of Patagonia . They shared Tierra del Fuego with
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6006-548: The United Nations . Spanish is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese ; the world's fourth-most spoken language overall after English , Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani ( Hindi - Urdu ); and the world's most widely spoken Romance language. The country with the largest population of native speakers is Mexico . Spanish is part of the Ibero-Romance language group , in which
6149-405: The "worst" spirit. Usually Hain s were started when there was enough food (for example a whale was washed onto the coast), a time when all the Selk'nam from all the groups would gather at one place, in male and female camps. "Spirits" sometimes went to female encampments to scare them, as well as moving around and acting in ways that related to their characters. The last Hain was held in one of
6292-480: The 13th century. Spanish colonialism in the early modern period spurred the introduction of the language to overseas locations, most notably to the Americas. As a Romance language, Spanish is a descendant of Latin. Around 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is Latin in origin, including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek. Alongside English and French , it is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout
6435-532: The 1530s Charles V divided South America and whatever was to be south of it into a series of grants to different conquistadors . The strait of Magellan and the area south of it went to Pedro Sánchez de la Hoz . In 1530 and 1531 the Fuggers held rights to trade through the strait of Magellan. While European trade with Asia through this route was thought to be possible, the Fuggers never developed this route. Andrés de Urdaneta who had first hand experience of
6578-415: The 1880s but saw their numbers reduced to 500 by the early 1900s. In 1879, the presence of significant gold deposits in the sands of the main rivers of Tierra del Fuego were reported. Hundreds of colonialists and foreign newcomers came to the island in search of fortune, conflicting with the indigenous population. However, resources of the metal depleted rapidly. Ranching became the center of controversy in
6721-404: The 2021–2022 school year alone. The local business process outsourcing industry has also helped boost the language's economic prospects. Today, while the actual number of proficient Spanish speakers is around 400,000, or under 0.5% of the population, a new generation of Spanish speakers in the Philippines has likewise emerged, though speaker estimates vary widely. Aside from standard Spanish,
6864-595: The 20th century, Spanish was introduced to Equatorial Guinea and the Western Sahara , and to areas of the United States that had not been part of the Spanish Empire, such as Spanish Harlem in New York City . For details on borrowed words and other external influences upon Spanish, see Influences on the Spanish language . Spanish is the primary language in 20 countries worldwide. As of 2023, it
7007-642: The Chamber of Deputies of Chile adjusted the law, recognizing the Selk'nam as one of the indigenous peoples of Chile. Then on 5 September 2023 the National Congress of Chile recognised the Selk’nam as one of the 11 original peoples of Chile, accepting them as a living community of Chile. Members of parliament issued a statement declaring their regret over the role the Chilean and Argentinean states played in
7150-521: The Chilean libertador Bernardo O'Higgins , who feared an occupation by Great Britain or France. The first Chilean settlement, Fuerte Bulnes , was situated in a forested zone on the north side of the strait, and was later abandoned. In 1848, Punta Arenas was founded farther north, where the Magellanic forests meet the Patagonian plains. In Tierra del Fuego, across the strait from Punta Arenas,
7293-654: The Equatoguinean education system and is the primary language used in government and business. Whereas it is not the mother tongue of virtually any of its speakers, the vast majority of the population is proficient in Spanish. The Instituto Cervantes estimates that 87.7% of the population is fluent in Spanish. The proportion of proficient Spanish speakers in Equatorial Guinea exceeds the proportion of proficient speakers in other West and Central African nations of their respective colonial languages. Spanish
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#17327646838967436-705: The Iberian Peninsula. These languages included Proto-Basque , Iberian , Lusitanian , Celtiberian and Gallaecian . The first documents to show traces of what is today regarded as the precursor of modern Spanish are from the 9th century. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era , the most important influences on the Spanish lexicon came from neighboring Romance languages — Mozarabic ( Andalusi Romance ), Navarro-Aragonese , Leonese , Catalan/Valencian , Portuguese , Galician , Occitan , and later, French and Italian . Spanish also borrowed
7579-491: The Magellanic colony. The colonial authorities were aware of the indigenous group's plight, but sided with the ranchers' cause over the Selk'nam, who were excluded from their worldview based on "progress" and "civilization." Ranchers typically exercised their own judgement, including the financing of violent campaigns. Considerable numbers of foreign men were hired, and quantities of arms were imported for these campaigns, with
7722-540: The Old Spanish sibilants) for details. The Gramática de la lengua castellana , written in Salamanca in 1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija , was the first grammar written for a modern European language. According to a popular anecdote, when Nebrija presented it to Queen Isabella I , she asked him what was the use of such a work, and he answered that language is the instrument of empire. In his introduction to
7865-474: The Pacific coast of Patagonia to the Straits of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego . Such a change, from the western archipelagoes to the strait, meant that any English settlement could be approached by Spain by land from the north, which was not the case for the islands in western Patagonia. In February 1696, the first French expedition under the command of M. de Gennes reached the Strait of Magellan. The expedition
8008-532: The Panama Canal opened in 1914, the Strait of Magellan was the main route for steamships traveling from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. It was often considered safer than the Drake Passage separating Cape Horn from Antarctica , as the Drake Passage is notorious for turbulent and unpredictable weather, and is frequented by icebergs and sea ice . Ships in the strait, protected by Tierra del Fuego to
8151-408: The Selk'nam from Europeans was on their height, where in early records they were recorded as "giants", with the ethnographer Frederick Cook writing in 1897–1899 that their average height was six foot, with instances of individuals six and a half foot tall. Relations with Europeans in the Beagle Channel area in the southern area of the island of Tierra del Fuego were somewhat more cordial than with
8294-443: The Selk'nam persisted into the early twentieth century. Chile moved most of the Selk'nam in their territory to Dawson Island in the mid-1890s, confining them to a Salesian mission. Argentina finally allowed Salesian missionaries to aid the Selk'nam and attempt to assimilate them, with their traditional culture and livelihoods then completely interrupted. Later conflicts between governor Manuel Señoret [ es ] and
8437-425: The Selk'nam, in what is now called the Selk'nam genocide . Salesian missionaries worked to protect and preserve Selk'nam culture. Father José María Beauvoir [ es ] explored the region and studied the native Patagonian cultures and languages between 1881 and 1924. He compiled a 4,000-word vocabulary of the Selk'nam language, and 1,400 phrases and sentences, which was published in 1915. He included
8580-419: The Selk'nam. They were intended to provide housing and food for the natives, but closed due to the small number of Selk'nam remaining; they had numbered in the thousands before Western colonization, but by the early twentieth century only a few hundred remained. Alejandro Cañas estimated that in 1896 there was a population of 3,000 Selk'nam. Martín Gusinde , an Austrian priest and ethnologist who studied them in
8723-600: The Spanish southward in Chile halted after the conquest of the Chiloé Archipelago in 1567. The Spanish are thought to have lacked incentives for further conquests south. The indigenous populations were sparse and did not engage in the sedentary agricultural life of the Spanish. The harsh climate in the fjords and channels of Patagonia may also have deterred further expansion. Even in Chiloé the Spanish encountered difficulties, having to abandon their initial economic model based on gold mining and "hispanic-mediterranean" agriculture. In 1578 English navigator Francis Drake crossed
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#17327646838968866-424: The Spanish-speaking world, Spanish is called not only español but also castellano (Castilian), the language from the Kingdom of Castile , contrasting it with other languages spoken in Spain such as Galician , Basque , Asturian , Catalan/Valencian , Aragonese , Occitan and other minor languages. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the official language of
9009-418: The Strait of Magellan made the Chiloé Archipelago key in protecting western Patagonia from foreign intrusions. Valdivia, reestablished in 1645 , and Chiloé acted as sentries, and as hubs where the Spanish collected intelligence from all over Patagonia. In 1599 it took five ships under Simon de Cordes and his pilot William Adams four months to traverse the strait; Sebalt de Weert returned before reaching
9152-416: The Strait of Magellan. Argentina had previously claimed all of the strait, or at least the eastern third of it. In the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984 between Chile and Argentina the conflicts between two countries were settled and Argentina ratified the strait as Chilean. In 1840, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company became the first to use steamships for commercial traffic in the strait. Until
9295-502: The U.S. population were of Hispanic or Hispanic American by origin. In turn, 41.8 million people in the United States aged five or older speak Spanish at home, or about 13% of the population. Spanish predominates in the unincorporated territory of Puerto Rico , where it is also an official language along with English. Spanish is by far the most common second language in the country, with over 50 million total speakers if non-native or second-language speakers are included. While English
9438-399: The administration of Ferdinand Marcos two months later. It remained an official language until the ratification of the present constitution in 1987, in which it was re-designated as a voluntary and optional auxiliary language. Additionally, the constitution, in its Article XIV, stipulates that the Government shall provide the people of the Philippines with a Spanish-language translation of
9581-400: The area as an unrepeatable feat. By contrast, conquistador Pedro de Valdivia , in a letter to Charles V , considered the strait a threat through which rival conquistadors could arrive to challenge his claims. In 1544 Valdivia commissioned Captain Juan Bautista Pastene to explore the coast from Valparaiso to the Strait of Magellan, and installed his personal secretary Juan de Cárdenas in
9724-403: The area were nomadic hunter-gatherers . The Tehuelche were the only non-maritime culture in the area; they fished and gathered shellfish along the coast during the winter and moved into the southern Andes in the summer to hunt. The tribes of the region saw little European contact until the late 19th century. Later, European-introduced diseases decimated portions of the indigenous population. It
9867-449: The border as defined in the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984 between Chile and Argentina . Immediately west are Primera Angostura and Segunda Angostura , narrows formed by two terminal moraines of different ages. The Primera Angostura is the closest approach of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego to mainland South America. Farther west lies Magdalena Island , part of Los Pingüinos Natural Monument . The strait's southern boundary in
10010-437: The city of Valdivia in the first expedition to enter the strait from the west. Ulloa reached Woods Bay , but faced with the steep coastline and lack of provisions and fearing entrapment in the strait during the winter, he turned around, returning to Chilean ports in February 1554. Valdivia himself never actually reached the strait, as he was killed in 1553 attempting to conquer Araucanía , about 1600 km (994 miles) north of
10153-566: The classic hispanus or hispanicus took the suffix -one from Vulgar Latin , as happened with other words such as bretón (Breton) or sajón (Saxon). Like the other Romance languages , the Spanish language evolved from Vulgar Latin , which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans during the Second Punic War , beginning in 210 BC. Several pre-Roman languages (also called Paleohispanic languages )—some distantly related to Latin as Indo-European languages , and some that are not related at all—were previously spoken in
10296-708: The command of Luis de Mendoza ; and La Santiago (75 tons, 32 crew members), under command of Juan Rodríguez Serrano ( João Rodrigues Serrão ). Before the passage of the strait (and after the mutiny in Puerto San Julián ), Álvaro de Mesquita became captain of the San Antonio , and Duarte Barbosa of the Victoria . Later, Serrão became captain of the Concepcion (the Santiago , sent on a mission to find
10439-500: The consonant written b (a bilabial with plosive and fricative allophones). In modern Spanish, there is no difference between the pronunciation of orthographic b and v . Typical of Spanish (as also of neighboring Gascon extending as far north as the Gironde estuary , and found in a small area of Calabria ), attributed by some scholars to a Basque substratum was the mutation of Latin initial f into h- whenever it
10582-462: The construction of the Panama Canal . Land adjacent to the Strait of Magellan has been inhabited by indigenous Americans for at least 13,000 years. Upon their arrival to the region, they would have encountered native equines ( Hippidion ), the large ground sloth Mylodon , saber toothed cats ( Smilodon ) the extinct jaguar subspecies Panthera onca mesembrina , the bear Arctotherium ,
10725-404: The country's constitution. In recent years changing attitudes among non-Spanish speaking Filipinos have helped spur a revival of the language, and starting in 2009 Spanish was reintroduced as part of the basic education curriculum in a number of public high schools, becoming the largest foreign language program offered by the public school system, with over 7,000 students studying the language in
10868-474: The early 20th century, wrote in 1919 that only 279 Selk'nam remained. In 1945 the Salesian missionary, Lorenzo Massa, counted 25. In May 1974, Ángela Loij , the last known Selk'nam of non-mixed ancestry, died. Comunidad Rafaela Ishton was formed in the 1980s to fight for recognition and the rights of Selk'nam in Argentina, and in 1994 were recognised as an indigenous people by the government. In 1998,
11011-649: The east follows first the shoreline of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, then the northern end of the Canal Whiteside and the shoreline of Dawson Island . The western part of the strait leads northwest from the northern end of the Magdalena Channel to the strait's Pacific entrance. This is flanked on the south by Capitán Aracena Island , Clarence Island , Santa Inés Island , Desolación Island (Cabo Pilar), and other smaller islands, and on
11154-607: The east side of Tierra del Fuego), Carukinka (the end of the Almirantazgo Fjord), Anika (a channel located at 54° 7' S and 70° 30' W), and Arska (the north side of the Dawson Island). Magellan named the strait Todos los Santos , as he began his voyage through the strait on November 1, 1520, the day of "All Saints" ( Todos los Santos in Spanish). Charles V renamed it Estrecho de Magallanes . Magellan named
11297-430: The end. In 1616, Dutch travelers, including Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire , discovered Cape Horn and recognized the southern end of Tierra del Fuego. Years later, a Spanish expedition commanded by brothers Bartolomé and Gonzalo Nodal verified this discovery making in the way also the first circumnavigation of Tierra del Fuego. After this there would be 150 years before the next ship from Spain would traverse
11440-505: The establishment of a British base in strait to aid travel between the British Isles and Australia . The 1837 French expedition of Dumont D'Urville surveyed the area of Puerto del Hambre and the navigational conditions in the Strait of Magellan. In a report the expedition recommended that a French colony be established at the strait to support future traffic along the route. Richard Charles Mayne commanded HMS Nassau on
11583-556: The existence of 2,761 people who recognised themselves as Selk'nam throughout the country, 294 of them in the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands . In the 2017 Chilean census 1,144 people declared themselves to be Selk'nam. The descendants of the previously considered extinct Selk'nam people are in the process of cultural reappropriation and recreation and do not consider themselves or their people as extinct. The Corporación Selk'nam campaigned for an amendment to Indigenous Law 19.253, and on 27 June 2020
11726-462: The expedition to produce a written account of the lands discovered in order to solidify his claims before the King. Although Pastene's expedition reached only the 41st parallel south , well short of the strait, it discovered San Pedro Bay and the mouth of Valdivia River , where Valdivia would later found the city that bears his name . As Valdivia consolidated his claims, he mentions in a 1548 letter to
11869-424: The faces of the individuals marrying, another tradition observed by Gusinde among the Selk'nam was related to marriage proposals, where a man would have a bow made and silently present it to the woman he wished to marry in front of the elders of her family. After the death of an individual, it was the duty of their family to light a large fire and engage in singing and dancing. The individual would then be wrapped in
12012-423: The fight of Taiyín with a witch who was said to have "retained the waters and the foods". The first European contact in this area was evidently the voyage of Ferdinand Magellan . (A report by António Galvão in 1563 that mentions early charts showing the strait as " Dragon's Tail " has led to speculation that there might have been earlier contact, but this is generally discounted.) Magellan led an expedition in
12155-683: The following table: Spanish is marked by palatalization of the Latin double consonants ( geminates ) nn and ll (thus Latin annum > Spanish año , and Latin anellum > Spanish anillo ). The consonant written u or v in Latin and pronounced [w] in Classical Latin had probably " fortified " to a bilabial fricative /β/ in Vulgar Latin. In early Spanish (but not in Catalan or Portuguese) it merged with
12298-452: The forces of change were against the indigenous tribes, who continued to have high fatality rates as their cultures were disrupted. Lucas Bridges' book, Uttermost Part of the Earth (1948), provides sympathetic insight into the lives of the Selk'nam and Yahgan. In recording the stories of a multitude of Europeans living in Tierra del Fuego, the journalist John Randolph Spears wrote that: It
12441-466: The former British colony of Belize (known until 1973 as British Honduras ) where English is the sole official language, according to the 2022 census, 54% of the total population are able to speak the language. Due to its proximity to Spanish-speaking countries and small existing native Spanish speaking minority, Trinidad and Tobago has implemented Spanish language teaching into its education system. The Trinidadian and Tobagonian government launched
12584-521: The goal of eliminating the Selk'nam, who were perceived as a major obstacle to the success of colonists' investments. Farm employees later confirmed the routine nature of such campaigns . The shareholders of the Company for the Exploitation of Tierra del Fuego ( Spanish : Sociedad Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego ) strove to hide their actions towards native tribes from the public. This was both
12727-604: The grammar, dated 18 August 1492, Nebrija wrote that "... language was always the companion of empire." From the 16th century onwards, the language was taken to the Spanish-discovered America and the Spanish East Indies via Spanish colonization of America . Miguel de Cervantes , author of Don Quixote , is such a well-known reference in the world that Spanish is often called la lengua de Cervantes ("the language of Cervantes"). In
12870-404: The guanaco hunted by Selk'nam were then used in the construction of shelters, bags, and clothing. The Selk'nam were also known to engage in fishing during low tides using spears, where the majority of seafood procured were eels, though more rarely caught seafood such as róbalos were more valued. In the south of the island birds made up a portion of the Selk'nam diet. Later research has brought
13013-418: The head of the Salesian mission José Fagnano only served to worsen, rather than improve, conditions for the Selk'nam. Long disputes between civil authorities and priests did not allow a satisfactory solution to the indigenous issue. Governor Señoret favored the ranchers' cause, and took little interest in the incidents that took place in Tierra del Fuego. Two Christian missions were established to preach to
13156-564: The island on the south side of the strait Tierra del Fuego , which the Yaghan people called Onaisín in the Yaghan language . Magellan also gave the name Patagones to the mainland Indians, and their land was subsequently known as Patagonia. Bahía Cordes is named for the Dutch pirate Baltazar de Cordes . Spanish language Spanish ( español ) or Castilian ( castellano )
13299-540: The land on behalf of the King of Spain. Magellan's chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta , called it the Patagonian Strait , and others Victoria Strait , commemorating the first ship that entered. Within seven years, it was being called Estrecho de Magallanes in honor of Magellan. The Spanish Empire and the Captaincy General of Chile considered the strait the southern boundary of their territory. In
13442-594: The language is also known as Castilian ( castellano ). The group evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century, and the first systematic written use of the language happened in Toledo , a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile , in
13585-549: The language's hegemony in an intensely centralising Spanish state were established from the 18th century onward. Other European territories in which it is also widely spoken include Gibraltar and Andorra . Spanish is also spoken by immigrant communities in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom , France , Italy , and Germany . Spanish is an official language of the European Union . Today,
13728-408: The late 19th century. These newcomers developed a great part of the land of Tierra del Fuego as large estancias (ranches), depriving the natives of their ancestral hunting areas. The Selk'nam, who did not have a concept of private property, considered the sheep herds to be game and hunted the sheep. The ranch owners regarded this as poaching, and paid armed groups or militia to hunt down and kill
13871-546: The latter. Its major port is Punta Arenas , a transshipment point for Chilean mutton situated on the Brunswick Peninsula . Exemplifying the difficulty of the passage, it took Magellan 38 days to complete the crossing. The eastern opening is a wide bay on the border of Chile and Argentina between Punta Dúngeness on the mainland and Cabo del Espíritu Santo ("Cape of the Holy Spirit") on Tierra del Fuego,
14014-694: The majority of the Spanish speakers live in Hispanic America . Nationally, Spanish is the official language—either de facto or de jure —of Argentina , Bolivia (co-official with 36 indigenous languages), Chile , Colombia , Costa Rica , Cuba , Dominican Republic , Ecuador , El Salvador , Guatemala , Honduras , Mexico (co-official with 63 indigenous languages), Nicaragua , Panama , Paraguay (co-official with Guaraní ), Peru (co-official with Quechua , Aymara , and "the other indigenous languages"), Puerto Rico (co-official with English), Uruguay , and Venezuela . Spanish language has
14157-610: The males found out at the initiation rite. The contemporary ceremonies used this interplay in somewhat of a joking way. After the first day, related ceremonies and rituals took place. Males showed their strength in front of women by fighting spirits (who were other men but the women supposedly did not know it) in some theatrical fights. Each spirit was played with traditional actions, words and gestures, so that everyone could identify it. The best spirit actors from previous Hain s were called again to impersonate spirits in later Hain s. Apart from these dramatic re-enactments of mythic events,
14300-499: The massacres of Indigenous people. The missions and early 20th-century anthropologists collected information about Selk'nam culture, religion and traditions while trying to help them preserve their culture. A large part of the traditional diet of Selk'nam according to early accounts, was made of the guanaco which they hunted using bows and arrows as well as with bola s. The guanaco of Tierra del Fuego were recorded as being larger than their Patagonian counterparts. The hide of
14443-463: The missions in the early 20th century, and was photographed by missionary Martin Gusinde . It was a shorter and smaller ceremony than used to be held. The photographs show the "spirit" costumes the Selk'nam created and wore. Gusinde's The Lost Tribes of Tierra Del Fuego (2015) was published in English by Thames & Hudson , and in French and Spanish by Éditions Xavier Barral . Beyond decorating
14586-423: The north began to be largely occupied by farms and ranches, many indigenous people, beset by hunger and persecuted by colonists, started to flee towards the extreme south of the island. This region was already inhabited by indigenous groups who had a strong sense of ownership over the land. Consequently, the fights for control of territory intensified. The large ranchers tried to drive out the Selk'nam, then began
14729-501: The north by Brunswick Peninsula , Riesco Island , Muñoz Gamero Peninsula , Manuel Rodriguez Island , and other minor islands of the Queen Adelaide Archipelago . Two narrow channels connect the strait with Seno Otway and Seno Skyring . A broader channel, Smyth Channel , leads north from the strait between Muñoz Gamero Peninsula and Manuel Rodriguez Island. Francisco Coloane Marine and Coastal Protected Area ,
14872-402: The north coast of the strait. Opposite Pecket Bay is Gente Grande Bay ( Spanish : bahía Gente Grande ) in Tierra del Fuego. On the Atlantic side, the strait is characterized by semidiurnal macrotides with mean and spring tide ranges of 7.1 and 9.0 m, respectively. On the Pacific side, tides are mixed and mainly semidiurnal, with mean and spring tide ranges of 1.1 and 1.2 m, respectively. There
15015-734: The northwest of the African mainland. The Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands traces its origins back to the Castilian conquest in the 15th century , and, in addition to a resemblance to Western Andalusian speech patterns, it also features strong influence from the Spanish varieties spoken in the Americas, which in turn have also been influenced historically by Canarian Spanish. The Spanish spoken in North Africa by native bilingual speakers of Arabic or Berber who also speak Spanish as
15158-400: The number of observations in the area has increased in recent years. In the more well-defined northeastern course of the strait various bays stand out in its geography. Pecket Bay ( Spanish : bahía Pecket ) is a shallow and somewhat closed bay in the strait located near where Brunswick Peninsula is as narrowest. San Gregorio Bay ( Spanish : bahía San Gregorio ) is an open bay located in
15301-654: The other hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. However, from 1713 to 1923, it called the language castellano . The Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (a language guide published by the Royal Spanish Academy) states that, although the Royal Spanish Academy prefers to use the term español in its publications when referring to the Spanish language, both terms— español and castellano —are regarded as synonymous and equally valid. The term castellano
15444-429: The passage to adulthood, was called Hain . Nearby indigenous peoples, the Yahgan and Haush , had similar initiation ceremonies. Young males were called to a dark hut. There they would be attacked by "spirits", who were men dressed as supernatural beings. Children were taught to believe in and fear these spirits during childhood and were threatened by them in case they misbehaved. The boys' task in this rite of passage
15587-465: The passage, was caught in a storm and wrecked ). San Antonio , charged to explore Magdalen Sound, failed to return to the fleet, instead sailing back to Spain under Estêvão Gomes , who imprisoned the captain Mesquita. Magellan's ships entered the strait on All Saints' Day , 1 November 1520. Magellan named the strait Estrecho de Todos los Santos ("Strait of All Saints") and planted a flag to claim
15730-533: The population. Many northern Moroccans have rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, with Spanish being particularly significant in areas adjacent to Ceuta and Melilla. Spanish also has a presence in the education system of the country (through either selected education centers implementing Spain's education system, primarily located in the North, or the availability of Spanish as foreign language subject in secondary education). In Western Sahara , formerly Spanish Sahara ,
15873-463: The proportionality of food resources in these early accounts into question. The Selk'nam were also known to employ the Fuegian dog , a domesticated form of the culpeo , in hunting efforts. While Julius Popper did not observe the dogs being of use in hunts, Antonio Coiazzi did record their use in hunting and this has been supported by later research. All sources agree that the dogs also provided
16016-435: The provincial Legislature of Tierra del Fuego recognised a treaty signed in 1925 between the president of Argentina, Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear , and the Selk'nam people. Law 405 restored 35,000 hectares of 45,000 designated in the treaty to the Selk'nam people, with the remaining 10,000 hectares retained for the future establishment of the municipality of Tolhuin . The 2010 National Population Census in Argentina revealed
16159-480: The ranchers. Thomas Bridges , who had been an Anglican missionary at Ushuaia , retired from that service. He was given a large land grant by the Argentine government, where he founded Estancia Harberton . Lucas Bridges , one of his three sons, did much to help the local cultures. Like his father, he learned the languages of the various groups and tried to provide the natives with some space in which to live their customary lives as "lords of their own land." However
16302-637: The service of the Spanish King, Emperor Charles V , to reach the Spice Islands . His ships became the first to navigate the strait in 1520. The five ships included La Trinidad (110 tons, 55 crew members), under the command of Magellan; La San Antonio (120 tons, 60 crew members) under the command of Juan de Cartagena ; La Concepción (90 tons, 45 crew members) under the command of Gaspar de Quesada ( Juan Sebastián Elcano served as boatswain); La Victoria (85 tons, 42 crew members) under
16445-453: The south and the coast of continental South America to the north, crossed with relative ease, and Punta Arenas became a primary refueling port that provided coal for steamships in transit. The Strait's curving channel, with widths varying between 1.9 and 22 miles (3 to 35 km), experiences unpredictable winds and tidal currents, leading sailing ships to prefer the Drake Passage, where they had more room to maneuver.) in 1900, Joshua Slocum
16588-497: The strait by his participation in the Loaísa expedition , argued before viceroy Antonio de Mendoza in the 1550s for the establishment of an Asia–Mexico trade route and presented arguments against the establishment of rival route of direct trade between Spain and Asia through the strait of Magellan. According to Urdaneta, climate would made passage through the strait possible only during summer and that therefore ships would need to stay
16731-634: The strait is connected with other sheltered waterways via the Smyth Channel . This area is similar to the Inside Passage of Alaska . South of Cape Froward, the principal shipping route follows the Magdalena Channel . The climate is generally foggy and cold, and the course is convoluted with several narrow passages. It is several hundred miles shorter than the Drake Passage , but sailing ships , particularly clipper ships , prefer
16874-567: The strait to Falkland Islands . From 1826 to 1830, the strait was explored and thoroughly charted by Phillip Parker King , who commanded the British survey vessel HMS Adventure . In consort with HMS Beagle , King surveyed the complex coasts around the strait. A report on the survey was presented at two meetings of the Geographical Society of London in 1831. In connection to these explorations Robert FitzRoy came to suggest
17017-500: The strait until then. James Cook described meeting a people in Tierra del Fuego in 1769 that used pieces of glass in their arrowheads. Cook believed the glass had been a gift from the French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville , indicating potentially several early contacts. Glass arrowheads became an ever more common occurrence among the Selk'nam as their interactions with Europeans became more common. The Selk'nam had little contact with ethnic Europeans until settlers arrived in
17160-584: The strait, creating fear on the Pacific coast that an attack was imminent. In order to seal the passage, the Viceroy of Peru, Francisco de Toledo , sent a squadron with two ships under Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa . They carefully explored the strait, trying to ferret out English invaders, while surveying locations for future fortifications. Pigafetta had described the strait as a hospitable area with many good ports, " cedar " wood, and abundant shellfish and fish. In 1584, Sarmiento de Gamboa founded two colonies in
17303-477: The strait. In October 1557, Governor García Hurtado de Mendoza sent another exploratory squad of 70 men under the command of Juan Ladrillero . They were charged with mapping the coastline and surveying the region's flora, fauna, and ethnography. On August 16, 1558, Ladrillero arrived in the Atlantic Ocean , becoming the first navigator to cross the Strait of Magellan in both directions. Colonization by
17446-534: The strait. Almost 40 years later, on January 17, 2014, Hunter Wright became the youngest person to swim across the strait at age 17. In June 2004, the USS Ronald Reagan was the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to navigate the strait. The strait is approximately 570 km (310 nmi; 350 mi) long and 2 km (1.1 nmi; 1.2 mi) wide at its narrowest point ( Carlos III Island , west of Cape Froward ). The northwestern portion of
17589-502: The strait. At Evangelistas sixteen men of the party disappeared on February 17 including the son of Pascual de Iriarte. The ill-fated men had attempted to reach one of the islets to install a metal plaque indicating the King of Spain's ownership of the territory. Viceroy of Peru Baltasar de la Cueva issued orders to the governments of Chile , Chiloé and Río de la Plata to inquire about the men who disappeared at Evangelistas Islets. However no information about their fate came forth and it
17732-475: The strait. By 1620, one hundred years after European discovery, at least 55 ships had traversed the strait including 23 Spanish, 17 English and 15 Dutch. John Narborough 's 1670 explorations in Patagonia caused the Spanish to launch various maritime expeditions to western Patagonia from 1674 to 1676. In the last and largest one , Pascual de Iriate led a party to Evangelistas Islets at the western entrance to
17875-576: The strait. Meanwhile, Sánchez de la Hoz was executed in Chile by Francisco de Villagra , one of Valdivia's men. The first map of the Pacific Ocean , Maris Pacifici from 1589, depicts the strait as the only route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Contemporaries differed in their estimation of the strait's significance. In Europe it was viewed by some as an opportunity and a strategic location to facilitate long-range trade, though Antonio Pigafetta seemed to have understood his voyage through
18018-409: The strait: Nombre de Jesús and Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe. The latter was established on the north shore of the strait with 300 settlers. That winter, it became known as Puerto del Hambre , or "Port Famine", as most of the settlers died of cold or starvation. When Sir Thomas Cavendish landed at the site of Rey Don Felipe in 1587, he found only ruins of the settlement. The Spanish failure to colonize
18161-561: The superficially camel-like Macrauchenia , the fox-like canid Dusicyon avus and lamine camelids, including the extant vicuña and guanaco . Evidence to suggest that Mylodon , Hippidion and the lamines were hunted has been found at some sites, such as Cueva del Medio. Historically identifiable indigenous ethnic groups around the strait are the Kawésqar , the Tehuelche , the Selk'nam and Yaghan people . The Kawésqar lived on
18304-537: The term español (Spanish). According to the Royal Spanish Academy, español derives from the Occitan word espaignol and that, in turn, derives from the Vulgar Latin * hispaniolus ('of Hispania'). Hispania was the Roman name for the entire Iberian Peninsula . There are other hypotheses apart from the one suggested by the Royal Spanish Academy. Spanish philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal suggested that
18447-444: The theories of Ramón Menéndez Pidal , local sociolects of Vulgar Latin evolved into Spanish, in the north of Iberia, in an area centered in the city of Burgos , and this dialect was later brought to the city of Toledo , where the written standard of Spanish was first developed, in the 13th century. In this formative stage, Spanish developed a strongly differing variant from its close cousin, Leonese , and, according to some authors,
18590-640: The third most used language on the Internet , after English and Chinese. Spanish is the official language of Spain . Upon the emergence of the Castilian Crown as the dominant power in the Iberian Peninsula by the end of the Middle Ages, the Romance vernacular associated with this polity became increasingly used in instances of prestige and influence, and the distinction between "Castilian" and "Spanish" started to become blurred. Hard policies imposing
18733-492: The village of Porvenir emerged during the Tierra del Fuego gold rush in the late 19th century. Until the opening of the Panama Canal , the town was an important supply stop for mariners. It has been claimed that Chile's annexation of the area originated from a fear of occupation by Great Britain or France. In the Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina , Argentina effectively recognized Chilean sovereignty over
18876-532: The western part of the strait's northern coast. To the east of the Kawésqar were the Tehuelche , whose territory extended to the north in Patagonia . To the south of the Tehuelche across the strait lived the Selk'nam, who inhabited the majority of the eastern portion of Tierra del Fuego . To the west of the Selk'nam were the Yaghan people , who inhabited the southernmost part of Tierra del Fuego. All tribes in
19019-585: The whole of Spain, in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas (lit. "the other Spanish languages "). Article III reads as follows: El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. ... Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas... Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. ... The other Spanish languages shall also be official in their respective Autonomous Communities... The Royal Spanish Academy ( Real Academia Española ), on
19162-450: The winter in a more northern port. Urdaneta's preference for Mexico may have also been influenced by his links to the Pedro de Alvarado . Following Urdaneta's plans in 1565 the first Manila galleon inaugurated European trade with Asia across the Pacific. Pedro de Valdivia , the conquistador of Chile, managed to have Charles V extend his governorship all the way to the northern shores of
19305-638: The world. Spanish is well represented in the humanities and social sciences . Spanish is also the third most used language on the internet by number of users after English and Chinese and the second most used language by number of websites after English. Spanish is used as an official language by many international organizations , including the United Nations , European Union , Organization of American States , Union of South American Nations , Community of Latin American and Caribbean States , African Union , among others. In Spain and some other parts of
19448-414: Was a complex system of beliefs, with a creation myth . Temáukel was the name of the great supernatural entity who they believed kept the world order. The creator deity of the world was called Kénos or Quénos. The Selk'nam had individuals who took shaman -like roles. Such a xon ( IPA: [xon] ) had supernatural capabilities, e.g. to control weather. The Selk'nam male initiation ceremony,
19591-605: Was able to write more about traditional Selk'nam culture because it was still being lived by the Selk'nam people into the 20th century. As of 2023, the ancestral remains of 14 Selk'nam individuals are kept in the collection of the Natural History Museum Vienna . Ángela Loij (1900–1974) is considered to have been the last Selk'nam of non-mixed ancestry, a school was named in her honour in Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego . Her grand-niece Amalia Gudiño
19734-581: Was developed in the cities of Toledo , in the 13th to 16th centuries, and Madrid , from the 1570s. The development of the Spanish sound system from that of Vulgar Latin exhibits most of the changes that are typical of Western Romance languages , including lenition of intervocalic consonants (thus Latin vīta > Spanish vida ). The diphthongization of Latin stressed short e and o —which occurred in open syllables in French and Italian, but not at all in Catalan or Portuguese—is found in both open and closed syllables in Spanish, as shown in
19877-622: Was distinguished by a heavy Basque influence (see Iberian Romance languages ). This distinctive dialect spread to southern Spain with the advance of the Reconquista , and meanwhile gathered a sizable lexical influence from the Arabic of Al-Andalus , much of it indirectly, through the Romance Mozarabic dialects (some 4,000 Arabic -derived words, make up around 8% of the language today). The written standard for this new language
20020-713: Was followed by a vowel that did not diphthongize. The h- , still preserved in spelling, is now silent in most varieties of the language, although in some Andalusian and Caribbean dialects, it is still aspirated in some words. Because of borrowings from Latin and neighboring Romance languages, there are many f -/ h - doublets in modern Spanish: Fernando and Hernando (both Spanish for "Ferdinand"), ferrero and herrero (both Spanish for "smith"), fierro and hierro (both Spanish for "iron"), and fondo and hondo (both words pertaining to depth in Spanish, though fondo means "bottom", while hondo means "deep"); additionally, hacer ("to make")
20163-462: Was revoked by Michel Temer after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff . In many border towns and villages along Paraguay and Uruguay, a mixed language known as Portuñol is spoken. Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish-speaking country located entirely in Africa, with the language introduced during the Spanish colonial period . Enshrined in the constitution as an official language (alongside French and Portuguese), Spanish features prominently in
20306-549: Was the first documented person to have single-handedly sailed the strait. He experienced a 40-day hiatus in the strait due to storms and adverse weather, while piloting the gaff-rigged sloop oyster boat Spray in the first solo global circumnavigation . He wrote about the experience in Sailing Alone Around the World . In 1976, American open water swimmer Lynne Cox became the first person to swim across
20449-435: Was to unmask the spirits; when the boys saw that the spirits were human, they were told a story of world creation related to the sun and moon . In a related story, they were told that in the past women used to be disguised as spirits to control men. When the men discovered the masquerade, they, in turn, would threaten women as spirits. According to the men, the women never learned that the masked men were not truly spirits, but
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