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89-618: The Western Gulf coastal grasslands ( Spanish : Pastizales costeros del Golfo Occidental ) are a subtropical grassland ecoregion of the southern United States and northeastern Mexico . It is known in Louisiana as the "Cajun Prairie" , Texas as "Coastal Prairie," and as the Tamaulipan pastizal ( Spanish : Pastizal Tamaulipeco ) in Mexico. The ecoregion covers an area of 77,425 km (29,894 sq mi), extending along
178-653: 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. Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966 Too Many Requests If you report this error to
267-603: 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
356-522: 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
445-482: 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
534-478: 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
623-508: 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
712-617: 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
801-531: 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
890-416: 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
979-666: Is 48 to 54 inches (120 to 140 cm) in Texas and up to 60 inches (150 cm) in Louisiana. There are many rivers, lakes, bayous , tidal channels, and canals. The streams and rivers that supply nutrients and sediments to this region are primarily from the humid pine belt of the South Central Plains (ecoregion 35). Extensive cordgrass marshes occur. The estuarine and marsh complex supports marine life, supplies wintering grounds for ducks and geese, and provides habitat for small mammals and American alligators . Brown shrimp ,
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#17327834791571068-697: Is common. The Western Gulf Coastal Plain is a Level III ecoregion in the US Environmental Protection Agency 's scheme of US ecoregions . It is roughly coextensive with the Western Gulf coastal grasslands, with the important exception that the EPA-defined area terminates at the national boundary, while the natural ecoregion extends into northeastern Mexico. In the EPA's definition, the principal distinguishing characteristics of
1157-410: Is distinguished by its hypersaline lagoon system, vast seagrass meadows, wide tidal mud flats , large overwintering redhead duck population, numerous protected species, great fishery productivity, and a narrow barrier island with a number of washover fans. The lower coastal zone in Texas has a more semi-arid climate and has less precipitation, 27–29 inches (69–74 cm), compared to 34g and 34h. There
1246-454: 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
1335-600: Is extreme variability in annual rainfall, and evapotranspiration is generally two to three times greater than precipitation. As no rivers drain into the Texas Laguna Madre, the lagoon water can be hypersaline. Combined with the Laguna Madre of Tamaulipas , it is the largest hypersaline system in the world. The shallow depth, clear water, and warm climate of this lagoon are conducive to seagrass production. Nearly 80% of all seagrass beds in Texas are now found in
1424-761: 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
1513-487: Is mainly grassland composed of seacoast bluestem, sea-oats , common reed , gulfdune paspalum, and soilbind morning-glory . Some areas have clumps of sweetbay , redbay , and dwarf southern live oak trees. In the Coastal Bend area, the barrier islands support extensive foredunes and back-island dune fields. Scarps can characterize bay margins due to beach erosion. Salt marsh and wind-tidal flats are mostly confined to
1602-510: Is now a mix of forest, cropland, and pasture. The Coastal Sand Plain ecoregion provides a distinct break in both vegetation and surficial materials from the fine-textured soil grasslands of the Southern Subhumid Gulf Coastal Prairies (34b) to the north. This sand sheet landscape consists of active and (mostly) stabilized sand dune deposits with lesser amounts of silt sheet deposits (silt and fine sand) to
1691-732: 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
1780-513: Is rich in wildlife, and 700 species of birds, animals and reptiles have been counted here, although many are now threatened or endangered. This coast is a critical habitat for the Attwater's prairie chickens ( Tympanuchus cupido attwateri ), over one million of which inhabited the prairie in Texas and Louisiana in the 19th century, but extreme reduction of their habitat put them on the U.S. endangered species list in 1967. Another endangered bird of
1869-844: 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
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#17327834791571958-813: 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
2047-539: Is the most subtropical climate of Texas, but hard freezes occasionally occur, affecting plants and animals that are at the northern limit of their range. Crops include cotton, citrus, grain sorghum, sugar cane, vegetables, and melons. The Rio Grande’s water is mostly diverted from its channel for irrigation and urban use, and little or no flow reaches the Gulf of Mexico. Both the Central and Mississippi flyways funnel through
2136-530: The Corpus Christi area near Padre Island National Seashore . Corpus Christi Bay serves as the ecozone or boundary between two distinct estuarine ecosystems. Copano and Mesquite Bays to the north are low to moderate-salinity bays and attract whooping cranes and other birdlife. To the south in 34i, hypersaline Laguna Madre forms a unique ecosystem and supports greater expanses of seagrasses. The Laguna Madre Barrier Islands and Coastal Marshes ecoregion
2225-754: The Goliad Formation at the western edge. Mollisols are extensive, and the soils are deep, mostly clay loams and sandy clay loams. The freeze-free growing season is often over 320 days compared to 250–260 days along the northern Texas coastal area of the Northern Humid Gulf Coastal Prairies (34a). Along with the Lower Rio Grande Alluvial Floodplain (34f), the Lower Rio Grande Valley contains important nesting grounds for
2314-607: 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 the United Nations . Spanish is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese ;
2403-589: The Kemp's ridley sea turtle ( Lepidochelys kempii ) while other herpetofauna of the southern part of the ecoregion include Río Grande chirping frog ( Eleutherodactylus cystignathoides ) and Mexican white-lipped frog ( Leptodactylus fragilis ). Less than 1% of the ecoregion remains in pristine condition, almost entirely in Texas, while most of the coast has been converted to farmland, including rice paddies, grazing land, or urban areas including Houston, Texas . Estuaries and other coastal wetlands are better preserved than
2492-614: The Southern United States , such as the southern live oak , bald cypress , magnolia , loblolly pine , post oak , and southern hackberry . Farther south, from the lower one third of the Texas coast and through the Tamaulipan stretch, the drier climate supports shrubby areas of honey mesquite ( Prosopis glandulosa ), huisache ( Vachellia farnesiana var. farnesiana ), lime prickly-ash ( Zanthoxylum fagara ), and Texas persimmon ( Diospyros texana ). This coast
2581-568: 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)
2670-508: 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
2759-608: 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 the 13th century. Spanish colonialism in the early modern period spurred the introduction of the language to overseas locations, most notably to
Western Gulf coastal grasslands - Misplaced Pages Continue
2848-404: 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,
2937-595: 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
3026-465: 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 the world. Spanish is well represented in the humanities and social sciences . Spanish is also the third most used language on
3115-654: 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
3204-705: 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
3293-528: The Laguna Madre. The food web of the Laguna Madre is predominantly based on this submerged aquatic vegetation (seagrass and algae), rather than free-floating phytoplankton. Because of the hypersalinity, oysters are not commercially harvested to a large extent, although the region does contain the only strain of high-salinity adapted oysters in North America. The blue crab harvest is also smaller than
3382-598: The Northern Humid Gulf Coastal Prairies (34a), but are capped with a loess veneer associated with the Mississippi Valley . Well to poorly drained Alfisols and Mollisols with silt loam surface textures developed on the late Pleistocene-age terraces. The historical vegetation dominated by big bluestem, little bluestem, yellow Indiangrass, switchgrass, and other herbaceous species has been replaced by crops of rice, soybeans, cotton, sugarcane, sweet potatoes, and wheat, along with crawfish aquaculture. Urban expansion in
3471-498: The Northern Humid Gulf Coastal Prairies on this gently sloping coastal plain . The original vegetation was mostly grasslands with a few clusters of oaks, known as oak mottes or maritime woodlands. Little bluestem, Indiangrass, brownseed paspalum , gulf muhly , and switchgrass were the dominant grassland species, with some similarities to the grasslands of the Texas Blackland Prairies (ecoregion 32). Almost all of
3560-540: 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
3649-452: The Southern Subhumid Gulf Coastal Prairies (34b). The Lower Rio Grande Valley ecoregion once supported dense, diverse grassland and shrub communities and low woodlands. However, mesquite, granjeno ( spiny hackberry ), and a variety of brush and shrub species invaded the landscape. Now, it is almost all in cropland, pasture, and urban land cover. The region is underlain by a mix of Quaternary clays and sands with some Miocene -age sediments of
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3738-543: 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
3827-449: The Texas coast is subhumid compared to the humid climate of Ecoregion 34g to the northeast and to the semiarid climate of ecoregion 34i to the south. Annual precipitation within ecoregion 34h increases to the northeast, ranging from 34 to 46 inches (86 to 117 cm). The region encompasses primarily Holocene deposits with saline, brackish , and freshwater marshes, barrier islands with minor washover fans, and tidal flat sands and clays. In
3916-502: 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
4005-626: The Upper Texas coast, the climate is wet humid subtropical , featuring significal annual precipitation. The climate becomes more arid farther south along the Texas coast into northeastern Mexico, though precipitation totals still remain high enough for the humid subtropical classification. The natural habitat of the area is a mix of tallgrass prairie similar to those found in inland Texas, with Indiangrass ( Sorghastrum nutans ), big bluestem ( Andropogon gerardi ), little bluestem ( Schizachyrium scoparium ), and switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum )
4094-784: The Western Gulf Coastal Plain are its relatively flat topography and mainly grassland potential natural vegetation. Inland from this region the plains are older, more irregular, and have mostly forest or savanna -type vegetation potentials. The EPA identifies ten Level IV ecoregions: Northern Humid Gulf Coastal Prairies; Southern Subhumid Gulf Coastal Prairies; Floodplains and Low Terraces; Coastal Sand Plain; Lower Rio Grande Valley; Lower Rio Grande Alluvial Floodplain; Texas–Louisiana Coastal Marshes; Mid-Coast Barrier Islands and Coastal Marshes; Laguna Madre Barrier Islands and Coastal Marshes; and Lafayette Loess Plains. Quaternary -age deltaic sands, silts, and clays underlie much of
4183-457: 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
4272-523: The area has been substantial. There is more pasture compared to the large extent of small grains production in ecoregion 34a to the west. Narrow hardwood forests occur along some streams and lowlands. 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
4361-467: The area include bobcats , collared peccary , white-tailed deer , eastern cottontails , with ocelot ( Leopardus pardalis ), Gulf Coast jaguarundi ( Puma yagouaroundi cacomitli ), southern yellow bat ( Lasiurus ega ), and Mexican spiny pocket mouse ( Liomys irroratus ) more abundant in Mexico. Rancho Nuevo beach in Tamaulipas and along the Texas coast are the only nesting sites in the world for
4450-446: The back side of the barrier islands with fresh or brackish marshes associated with river-mouth delta areas. Marsh hay cordgrass becomes less important to the south in this region. Black mangrove begins to appear from Port O'Connor south. This area of the coast has all three commercially important species of shrimp as well as important oyster and blue crab fisheries. Convergence of longshore currents from north and south occurs south of
4539-684: 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
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#17327834791574628-489: The coast is the whooping crane ( Grus americana ). Many species of wading birds, shorebirds, and other waterbirds are abundant. Birds in the Mexican part of the region include Morelet’s seedeater ( Sporophila morelleti ), red-billed pigeon ( Columba flavirostris ), brown jay ( Cyanocorax morio ), Neotropic cormorant , white-winged dove ( Leptotila verrequxi ) and Audubon's oriole ( Icterus graduacauda ). Mammals of
4717-506: The coastal prairies have been converted to cropland, rangeland, pasture, or urban land uses. The exotic Chinese tallow tree and Chinese privet have invaded large areas in this region. Some loblolly pine occurs in the northern part of the region in the transition to the South Central Plains (ecoregion 35). Soils are mostly fine-textured: clay, clay loam , or sandy clay loam. Within the region, there are some differences from
4806-500: 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
4895-404: 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
4984-683: 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
5073-466: 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
5162-622: The genera Bouteloua , Buchloe , Eragrostis , Hilaria , and Setaria increase in importance in Ecoregion 34b compared to 34a. Invasive species such as honey mesquite and huisache are a concern. Almost all of the coastal prairies have been converted to other land uses: cropland, pasture, or urban and industrial. Covering primarily the Holocene floodplain and low terrace deposits, the Floodplains and Low Terraces ecoregion, especially to
5251-604: 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
5340-472: The higher Lissie Formation to the lower Beaumont Formation , both of Pleistocene age. The Lissie Formation has lighter colored soils, mostly Alfisols with sandy clay loam surface texture, while darker, clayey soils associated with Vertisols are more typical of the Beaumont Formation. Annual precipitation varies from 37 inches (94 cm) in the southwest portion to 58 inches (150 cm) in
5429-419: The inland section from Matagorda Bay to Corpus Christi Bay , Pleistocene barrier island deposits occur. Typical soils on the coastal marshes are Entisols, with a minor extent of Histosols . Mollisols occur on tidal flats and coastal marshes, and Entisols form in sandy barrier islands and dunes. Smooth cordgrass , marsh hay cordgrass , and gulf saltgrass dominate in more saline zones. Other native vegetation
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#17327834791575518-506: 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
5607-423: 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,
5696-628: 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
5785-493: The most commercially important marine species in Texas, is common along the whole coast, but in this northern coastal zone white shrimp are also commercially important. Eastern oysters and blue crabs are also common and commercially important in the region. Sport fishery species such as red drum , black drum , southern flounder , and spotted seatrout occur throughout the coastal bays of this region and ecoregion 34h. The Mid-Coast Barrier Islands and Coastal Marshes portion of
5874-418: The north. Some Entisols and Inceptisols occur near the river. The floodplain ridges once had abundant palm trees , and early Spanish explorers called the river "Rio de las Palmas." Most large palm trees and floodplain forests had been cleared by the early 1900s. A few small pieces of unique floodplain forests remain, including Texas ebony , Texas palmetto , and sugar hackberry– cedar elm floodplain forests. It
5963-439: The north. This depositional plain is characterized by a closed internal drainage system with only occasional discontinuous drainage remnants due to sand movement. Closed depressions pond water in response to seasonal and tropical storm precipitation. Soils developed on these parent sediments are Entisols and Alfisols with thick sand surfaces. The dominant grasses on the coastal sand ridges and islands extend inland covering parts of
6052-565: The northeast, with a summer maximum. The Southern Subhumid Gulf Coastal Prairies ecoregion is drier than Ecoregion 34a to the north, not only receiving less annual precipitation, but also typically experiencing summer drought . Annual precipitation ranges from 26 inches (66 cm) in the southwest to 37 inches (94 cm) in the northeast, with May and September peaks. Soils are hyperthermic compared to thermic in most of Ecoregion 34a. Little bluestem, yellow Indiangrass, and tall dropseed were once dominant grasses. Eragrostoid grasses, including
6141-498: 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
6230-508: 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
6319-529: The other two coastal regions to the north. Pink shrimp make up an important part of the commercial harvest while white shrimp are more abundant to the north in 34g. The historically highly productive commercial fisheries have now given way to an important sport fishery for species such as red drum, black drum, and spotted sea trout. Marshes are less extensive on the southern coast. A few stands of black mangrove tidal shrub occur in this region. The Lafayette Loess Plains had coastal prairie natural vegetation similar to
6408-533: 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 ,
6497-415: The prairie and indeed the protected areas of the coast are mainly sanctuaries for waterbirds. Largely because of the region's flatness and grassland potential, a higher percentage of the land is in cropland than in bordering ecological regions. Rice, grain sorghum, cotton, and soybeans are the principal crops. Urban and industrial land uses have expanded greatly in recent decades, and oil and gas production
6586-472: The primary tallgrass species that are typical of the coastal prairie, with several other shorter grasses and many herbaceous and woody species. Separating the grassier habitats are bottomland forests and woodlands, which are present within the floodplains of the region's many waterways. In the wetter climate covering the zone from Southwest Louisiana west through the upper Texas coast, these bottomlands contain many species typical in forests elsewhere across
6675-634: The sand plain. Vegetation is mostly mid and tall grasses such as seacoast bluestem ( Schizachyrium littorale ), switchgrass, gulfdune paspalum ( Paspalum monostachyum ), fringeleaf paspalum , sandbur , purple threeawn , pricklypear , and catclaw with an overstory of southern live oak and honey mesquite trees. The potholes have a variety of bulrush es and sedges. Most of the Coastal Sand Plain has been moderately to heavily grazed, and large areas have been converted to non-native range or pasture grasses. The region has little cropland compared to
6764-547: The shore of the Gulf of Mexico from southeastern Louisiana (west of the Mississippi Delta ) through Texas and into the Mexican state of Tamaulipas as far as the Laguna Madre . Specific areas include a number of barrier islands , and the resacas or natural levees of the Laguna Madre. The coast is vulnerable to tropical storms that can seriously damage habitats. This ecosystem, in part, has edaphic origins:
6853-614: The soils of this ecoregion are largely dominated by vertisol clays , the mechanical properties of which make it difficult for many tree species to grow and establish. As a result, extensive forest cover is precluded, allowing grasses and other herbaceous species to dominate. However, there are interspersed areas of higher sand and silt content that break up the otherwise heavy clay environment: these areas typically correspond to floodplain / riparian zones , and are more permissive of tree-growth, featuring galleries or even closed-canopy bottomland expanses . From Southwest Louisiana west to
6942-596: The southern tip of Texas and many species of birds reach their extreme northernmost range in this region. In addition, subtropical, temperate, coastal, and desert influences converge here, allowing for great species diversity. Nearly 500 bird species, including neotropical migratory birds, shorebirds, raptors, and waterfowl, can be found here. The Texas–Louisiana Coastal Marshes region is distinguished from ecoregions 34h and 34i by its extensive freshwater and saltwater coastal marshes , lack of barrier islands and fewer bays, and its wetter, more humid climate. Annual precipitation
7031-502: The southwest, has a different bottomland forest than the floodplains of the South Central Plains (ecoregion 35). Bottomland forests of pecan , water oak , southern live oak, and elm , are typical, with some bald cypress on larger streams. The Brazos and Colorado River floodplains are a broad expanse of alluvial sediments, while floodplains to the south are more narrow. Soils include Vertisols, Mollisols , and Entisols . Large portions of floodplain forest have been removed and land cover
7120-610: 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
7209-444: 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,
7298-640: 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
7387-530: The white-winged dove, a favored hunting species in southern Texas. The Lower Rio Grande Alluvial Floodplain ecoregion includes the Holocene-age alluvial sands and clays of the Rio Grande floodplain that are now almost completely in cropland or urban land cover. The soils, mostly Vertisols and Mollisols, are deep, loamy and clayey, and tend to be finer-textured than in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (34e) to
7476-585: 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
7565-506: 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 the language is also known as Castilian ( castellano ). The group evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after
7654-634: 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
7743-622: 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
7832-713: 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")
7921-462: 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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