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98-924: The Purgatoire River ( Spanish : Rio de las Ánimas & Río Purgatorio ), also known as the Purgatory and Picketwire River, is in southeastern Colorado , United States . The river originates in the high mountains of the Culebra Range . Several tributaries merge near Weston in Las Animas County and the river flows east-northeastward 196 miles (315 km) to a confluence with the Arkansas River near Las Animas in Bent County, Colorado . The Purgatoire River drains an area of 3,449 square miles (8,930 km), mostly in Colorado but
196-581: A "Great Desert" (leading to the term "the Great American Desert "). Long was born in Hopkinton, New Hampshire , the son of Moses and Lucy (Harriman) Long. Long's Puritan ancestors came from England during the Puritan migration to New England . He received an A.B. from Dartmouth College in 1809 and an A.M. from Dartmouth in 1812. In 1814, he was commissioned a lieutenant of engineers in
294-648: 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. Stephen H. Long Stephen Harriman Long (December 30, 1784 – September 4, 1864)
392-603: 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
490-583: A consulting engineer with various railroads. Initially he helped to survey and build the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad . In 1826, he received his first patent for his work on railroad steam locomotives. Long received many more patents for locomotive design and worked with other Army engineers in planning and building the railroad. Long also received patents in 1830 and 1839 for pre-stressing the trusses used in wooden covered bridges. In 1832, along with William Norris and several other business partners, he formed
588-690: A costly failure and so instead of exploring the Missouri River, President James Monroe decided to have Long lead an expedition up the Platte River to the Rocky mountains and back along the border with the Spanish colonies. Exploring that border was vital, since John Quincy Adams had just concluded the treaty with Spain, which drew a new U.S. border to the Pacific. Major Long was the leader of
686-467: 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
784-482: 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
882-478: 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
980-484: A people depending upon agriculture." On the map he made of his explorations, he called the area a "Great Desert." Long felt the area labeled the "Great Desert" would be better suited as a buffer against the Spanish, British, and Russians, who shared the continent with the United States. He also commented that the eastern wooded portion of the country should be filled up before the republic attempted any further extension westward. He commented that sending settlers to that area
1078-508: 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
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#17327871053131176-617: 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
1274-531: 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
1372-663: A small percentage of the watershed is in New Mexico . The Purgatoire River watershed is lightly populated. Population has been declining since 1920 as former coal mining and agricultural communities have become ghost towns. The Purgatoire River rises in the Culebra Range of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains reaching an elevation of 14,053 ft (4,283 m) at Culebra Peak . The river, formed by many upstream tributaries, flows eastwards for about 40 miles (64 km) through
1470-428: A stern paddle wheel. On September 17, Long's party arrived at Fort Lisa , a trading fort belonging to William Clark 's Missouri Fur Company . It was about five miles south of Council Bluffs , Iowa. Long's group built their winter quarters nearby and called it " Engineer Cantonment ." Within a month, Long returned to the east coast, and by the following May, his orders had changed. The Yellowstone Expedition had become
1568-536: A suitable alternative. In early 1850 Long's objections to the location were rebuffed. Senator Solon Borland, ignoring Long's objections to the location of Napoleon, reported to the Corps of Topographical Engineers that the situation at Napoleon had been discussed before the bill which would create the Marine Hospital at Napoleon was passed. The erection of the hospital at Napoleon without delay was then ordered. In
1666-416: 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
1764-436: 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 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
1862-674: 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 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
1960-731: Is also mentioned as the Purgatory in the Pulitzer Prize winning book Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry , as the place where the renegade Blue Duck goes into hiding. Spanish language Spanish ( español ) or Castilian ( castellano ) 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
2058-399: 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
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#17327871053132156-539: Is frequently referred to as the Picketwire River in the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), and once in the film True Grit (2010). This is a folk-etymologizing anglophone phonological approximation of the French pronunciation /pyʁ.ɡa.ˡtwaʁ/ , developed by English-speaking settlers who later came to the area. The Purgatoire River is referenced in the 2017 Netflix miniseries Godless . It
2254-761: 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
2352-562: Is mostly under cultivation, developed, or barren rock above timberline. Most of the water in the Purgatoire originates from melting snow at higher elevations. The flow of the river is highly variable depending upon the season, averaging about 60 cubic feet per second (cfs). Periods of zero water flow have been recorded near Thatcher, Colorado and the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site , a large (in area) U.S. army base on
2450-548: Is sometimes confused with his initial expedition to the Red River in modern-day Texas and Oklahoma. The expedition to the Red River of the North was a separate, later appointment which completed a series of explorations conceived of by Lewis Cass and implemented by David Bates Douglass , Henry Schoolcraft , and others besides Major Long. The 1823 expedition was denoted primarily as a scientific reconnaissance (one of its members
2548-844: 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
2646-813: 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
2744-488: 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 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
2842-542: 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 the Spanish-speaking world, Spanish is called not only español but also castellano (Castilian),
2940-578: 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
3038-549: The American Steam Carriage Company . The business was dissolved in 1834 due to the difficulties in placing Long's locomotive designs into production. From June to November, 1836, Long led two parties of about 15 each to conduct a survey of a route inland from the shores of the Penobscot Bay at Belfast, Maine to Quebec for the proposed Belfast & Quebec Railroad which had been chartered by
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3136-568: 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)
3234-508: 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
3332-610: The Stephen H. Long expedition in 1820 who renamed it "Purgatory Creek" by removing all references to souls. Mexican traders on the old Santa Fe Trail expanded on the legend and named the river "Rio de las Ánimas Perdidas en Purgatorio," or "River of the Souls Lost in Purgatory," believing the souls to have become lost. Mountain Men had difficulty pronouncing the French translation and called it "Picatoire," while Anglophone settlers during
3430-708: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers . Upon the reorganization of the Army in 1816, he was appointed a Major on 16 April and assigned to the Southern Division under Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson as a topographical engineer. In 1817, Major Long headed a military excursion up the Mississippi River to the Falls of St. Anthony near the confluence with the Minnesota River . As a result of his recommendations,
3528-678: The Yellowstone Expedition (sometimes called the Atkinson-Long Expedition). This was planned to explore the upper Missouri, and Long spent the autumn designing the construction of an experimental steamboat for the venture, Western Engineer . Departing from St. Louis in June 1819, it was the first steamboat to travel up the Missouri River into the Louisiana Purchase, and the first steamboat to have
3626-404: 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,
3724-595: 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
3822-564: The 9th century, and the first systematic written use of the language happened in Toledo , a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile , in 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
3920-698: The Army established Fort Snelling to guard against Native American incursions against settlers in the Upper Mississippi Valley . Long recorded his experiences of the expedition in a journal, which was first published as Voyage in a Six-oared Skiff to the Falls of St. Anthony , by the Minnesota Historical Society in 1860. In March 1819 he married Martha Hodgkiss of Philadelphia, the sister of Isabella Hodgkiss Norvell, wife of US Senator John Norvell . Soon afterwards he led
4018-527: The Colorado Gold Rush anglicized it to "Picketwire," despite the river having no relation to any fence. Depending on the language spoken, the river had five different names - Ánimas, Purgatorio, Purgatoire, Purgatory, and Picketwire - by the end of the 19th century. On December 6, 1911, the US Board on Geographic Names resolved the naming issue by selecting the French translation "Purgatoire" as
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4116-654: 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
4214-705: 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
4312-540: 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
4410-600: The Purgatoire watershed near Trinidad and went through Raton Pass . In 1841, the south bank of the Purgatoire from the crest of the Sangre de Cristos extending eastward almost to the future site of Trinidad were part of the Maxwell Land Grant awarded to Lucien Maxwell by the New Mexican government. In 1846, New Mexico was conquered by the United States. The first settlers arrived in the Purgatoire valley in
4508-404: The Red River. They missed it, ran into hostile Native Americans and had to eventually eat their own horses to survive before they finally met the other part of the expedition at Fort Smith (now a city on the western border of the state of Arkansas). In his report of the 1820 expedition, Long wrote that the Plains from Nebraska to Oklahoma were "unfit for cultivation and of course uninhabitable by
4606-443: 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 is related to Castile ( Castilla or archaically Castiella ), the kingdom where the language was originally spoken. The name Castile , in turn,
4704-407: The Spanish first settled in New Mexico, the Purgatoire River was the home of the Jicarilla Apache. The Southern Utes also frequented the area and after 1700 the Comanche occupied the Great Plains of southeastern Colorado. Several Spanish expeditions passed through the Purgatoire region. In 1821, American traders pioneered the Santa Fe Trail to New Mexico. The Mountain Branch of the trail crossed
4802-471: The Spring of 1850 Long requested $ 10,250 in order to begin construction at Napoleon but it wasn't until August that construction finally started thanks to flooding which hampered building the foundation and cellar. Delays continued to dog the construction and by the Spring of 1851 the supervisor wrote Long suggesting suspension of the work as contracts were expiring due to delays and sickness had been rampant thanks to Spring floods. Work resumed in October 1851 and
4900-421: The State of Maine on March 6, 1836. In his report to Governor Robert P. Dunlap of Maine, Col. Long recommended a route into Quebec of 227 miles from "Belfast to the Forks of the Kennebec, and by a line of levels thence to the Canadian line." However a then provision in the Maine Constitution which prohibited public loans for purposes such as building railroads as well as the financial panic of 1837 intervened to kill
4998-502: 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
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#17327871053135096-435: The United States borderlands with Canada, exploring the Upper Mississippi Valley, the Minnesota River , the Red River of the North and across the southern part of Canada. During this time he determined the northern boundary at the 49th parallel at Pembina. In that same year, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society . Following his official military expeditions, Major Long spent several years on detached duty as
5194-399: 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
5292-478: The architect of the Washington Monument. Long was commissioned to build the Marine Hospital at Napoleon, Arkansas in 1849. Napoleon, Arkansas was situated at the southern mouth of the Arkansas River. After a completing a survey Long had objections to building at Napoleon because of the tendency for flooding and likelihood that the town would face destruction in the future thanks to the unwieldy Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers. He had petitioned for Helena, Arkansas to be
5390-437: The base aroused the opposition of local ranchers and citizen groups. On November 25, 2013, the U.S. Army announced that it had abandoned its plan to expand the PCMS. Near the PCMS is the Purgatoire River track site , one of the largest dinosaur fossil track sites in North America. The site is located on public land of the Comanche National Grassland , along the Purgatoire River south of La Junta in Otero County . The river
5488-566: 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
5586-446: 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
5684-421: The construction followed almost exactly. In 1838 he was appointed to a position in the newly separated U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers. Like most of their officers Major Long remained loyal to the Federal government during the Civil War, and he became Colonel of the Corps in 1861 until its merger back into the U.S. Corps of Engineers in 1863. He died in Alton, Illinois in 1864. Like most engineers, Long
5782-404: 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
5880-407: The end of the 18th-century Spanish traders believed it to be "Rio de las Ánimas en Purgatorio," or "River of the Souls in Purgatory," after a supposed massacre that occurred on its banks. This led to the birth of a legend of the same name that explained its history. French trappers learned the name and later translated it as "Rivière des âmes au Purgatoire." They related their translation to members of
5978-423: The first scientific exploration up the Platte , which planned to study the geography and natural resources of the area. His party of 19 men included landscape painter Samuel Seymour, naturalist painter Titian Peale , zoologist Thomas Say and Edwin James , a physician knowledgeable in both geology and botany. James led the first recorded ascent of Pikes Peak during this expedition. On June 6, 1820, they traveled up
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#17327871053136076-450: 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
6174-466: 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
6272-402: The former coal mining towns were abandoned. The population of Las Animas County (in which most of the watershed is located) declined from 38,975 in 1920 to 14,535 in 2020. The Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site (PCMS), belonging to the U.S. Army, comprises a large land area used for seasonal maneuvers and training exercises. It is located along the western bank of the Purgatoire River. Plans to expand
6370-476: The fur trade in Northern Minnesota and Dakota, and fostered the development of the Red River Trails and a colorful chapter of ox cart trade between the Red River Colony and Fort Garry via Pembina and the newly developing towns of Mendota and St. Paul . In 1837 Congress authorized the building of seven Marine Hospitals. Long was commissioned to build the first hospital for the Treasury Department at Louisville, Kentucky. Long had been commissioned to build
6468-454: 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
6566-420: The hospital along with his other duties but construction would be delayed until the Mexican War was over. It wasn't until the end of 1845 that work finally began. During the completion of the Louisville Marine Hospital, Long would also start work on building similar Marine Hospitals in Paducah, Kentucky; Natchez, Louisiana and Napoleon, Arkansas. These Marine Hospitals were based upon plans provided by Robert Mills,
6664-632: 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 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
6762-423: 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,
6860-429: The late 1850s or early 1860s. Ninety percent of the early settlers in the Purgatoire watershed were Hispanics and they were farmers and ranchers. Severe winters and drought forced many of the farmers and ranchers out of the region in the 1880s. In the 1910s an era began of large ranches, mostly Anglo -owned, on the Great Plains portion of the Purgatoire watershed. Coal mining began at Starkville in 1865 and soon became
6958-415: The major economic activity in the hilly and mountainous country west of Trinidad. By the early 1900s the coal mines in the Purgatoire watershed employed thousands of men, most of them born in southern and eastern Europe. Collectively they were called "Slavs." Labor disputes, unsafe working conditions, and diminishing demand for coal caused most of the mines to shut down after World War I (1914-1918). Most of
7056-694: 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
7154-647: The mountains and foothills to Trinidad at an elevation of 6,010 ft (1,830 m) where it turns to the northeast and flows across the Great Plains through several canyons it has cut through the bedrock. It empties into the John Martin Reservoir and the Arkansas River near the town of Las Animas at an elevation of 3,852 ft (1,174 m). The Purgatoire River watershed has an area of 3,449 sq mi (8,930 km). 96.4% of
7252-617: The nation's breadbasket. There were two key results of this expedition—a very accurate description of Native American customs and life as they existed among the Omaha, Otoes, and Pawnees and his description of the land west of the Missouri River as a "desert". Major Long's 1823 expedition up the Minnesota River (then known as St. Peter's River), to the headwaters of the Red River of the North , down that river to Pembina and Fort Garry , and thence by canoe across British Canada to Lake Huron
7350-679: The north bank of the Platte and met Pawnee and Otoe people. On October 14, 1820, 400 Omaha assembled at a meeting with Long, where Chief Big Elk made the following speech: Long wrote that the Pawnee people were "respectable." After finding and naming Longs Peak and the Rocky Mountains , they journeyed up the South Platte River to the Arkansas River watershed. The expedition was then split, and Long led his group towards
7448-734: 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
7546-499: The official name of the river. Despite the various misinterpretations and name changes, the Las Animas-Purgatoire River remains an essential symbol of Colorado's history and legends as it is one of the state's oldest continuously named rivers, spanning over 300 years. Ironically, most locals today refer to it simply as "Purgatory" due to the difficulties associated with pronouncing the full name. In 1598 when
7644-481: 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 ,
7742-584: The project. Colonel Long received a leave of absence to work on the newly incorporated Western & Atlantic Railroad in Georgia . His yearly salary was established at $ 5,000, the contract was signed May 12, 1837, and he served as the chief engineer for the W&;A until November 3, 1840. He arrived in north Georgia in late May and his surveying began in July and by November he had submitted an initial report which
7840-584: The scientific contingent of the 1819 Yellowstone Expedition to explore the Missouri River. In 1820 he was appointed to lead an alternative expedition through the American West , exploring areas acquired in the Louisiana Purchase . The specific purpose of the voyage was to find the sources of the Platte , Arkansas , and Red rivers. Later, in 1823 he led additional military expeditions into
7938-400: The slow pace continued over the next three years. By August 1854 the hospital was finally finished but apparently the hospital did not accept its first patients until 1855. The city of Napoleon would be burned in 1862 by General Sherman, but the hospital survived. Federal Forces did not use the hospital for its intended purpose, instead patients were sent elsewhere. While the hospital did survive
8036-610: 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
8134-444: 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,
8232-640: 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
8330-497: The war it wouldn't last long. Long's observations and objections had been accurate. By March 11, 1868, the river had eroded the land to 52 feet from the hospital's doors. Less than a month later, and nearly four years after Long's death, a corner of the hospital fell into the Mississippi River. The entire town of Napoleon was swallowed twenty-eight years after Long first objected to building the hospital at Napoleon. Of
8428-484: The watershed is in Colorado and the remainder is in New Mexico. Average annual precipitation ranges from 43 in (1,100 mm) in the Culebra Range to 13 in (330 mm) near its mouth. Ground cover in the watershed consists of 18.4 percent evergreen forest at higher elevations, 20.0 percent shrub and scrub at medium elevations, and 55.7 percent steppe grassland at lower elevations. The remaining 5.9 percent
8526-496: The watershed. The Purgatoire River watershed is lightly populated and its population has been declining for almost 100 years. Las Animas County in which most of the watershed is located has seen its population drop by more than 60 percent since 1930. Two towns, Trinidad and Las Animas, are located near the river. Many former coal mining and agricultural communities, now ghost towns , are in the watershed. The Purgatoire River, also known as Rio de las Ánimas, has had multiple names. It
8624-650: The west side of the river. Most of the land in the Purgatoire watershed in privately owned, but the headwaters are in the San Isabel National Forest and land along or near the river on the Great Plains belongs to the Comanche National Grassland , including Picketwire Canyon with one of the largest numbers of dinosaur tracks in the world. Fishers Peak State Park and Trinidad Lake State Park are recreational lands in
8722-596: 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 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
8820-421: Was an American army civil engineer, explorer, and inventor. As an inventor, he is noted for his developments in the design of steam locomotives. He was also one of the most prolific explorers of the early 1800s, although his career as an explorer was relatively short-lived. He covered over 26,000 miles in five expeditions, including a scientific expedition in the Great Plains area, which he famously confirmed as
8918-407: Was college-trained, interested in searching for order in the natural world, and willing to work with the modern technology of the time. Topographical engineers had basically two unique points of view that set them apart from the other pioneers — geographical and technological. In 1818 he was appointed to organize a scientific contingent to accompany soldiers of Col. Henry Atkinson 's command on
9016-636: 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
9114-622: 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
9212-713: 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")
9310-526: Was geologist William H. Keating ) and an evaluation of trade possibilities, but probably had undisclosed military objectives as well, and certainly was viewed with suspicion by British authorities in Canada. This expedition for a time was joined by the Italian adventurer Giacomo Beltrami , who argued with Long and left the expedition near Fort Garry. The 1823 expedition encouraged American traders to push into
9408-487: Was named by New Mexican Governor Antonio Valverde y Cosío in 1719 during his exploration of the region. Valverde named it "Rio de las Ánimas," meaning "River of the Spirits," as a warning to subsequent explorers of the dangers of crossing the nearby Ratón Pass. Surviving the crossing, they found water and firewood at the river. Over time, the true meaning of the river's name became lost, and various interpretations emerged. By
9506-460: Was out of the question. Given the technology of the 1820s, Long was right. There was little timber for houses or fuel, minimal surface water, sandy soil, hard winters, vast herds of bison , resident Native Americans, and no easy means of communication. However, it is ironic that the Native tribes had been living there for centuries and that, by the end of the 19th century, the "Great Desert" had become
9604-462: 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
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