The majority of languages of Spain belong to the Romance language family, of which Spanish is the only one with official status in the whole country. Others, including Catalan/Valencian (in Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands) and Galician (in Galicia), enjoy official status in their respective autonomous regions, similar to Basque in the northeast of the country (a non-Romance language isolate). A number of other languages and dialects belonging to the Romance continuum exist in Spain, such as Aragonese, Asturian, Fala and Aranese Occitan.

Present-day languages

The languages spoken in Spain include:

{{legend|#f59053|Catalan / Valencian, co-official}} {{legend|#2b83ba|Galician, co-official}} {{legend|#808080|Basque, co-official}} {{legend|#d7191c|Aranese Occitan, co-official}} {{legend|#91cba8|Asturleonese (Asturian and Leonese), protected language}} {{legend|#fede99|Aragonese, protected language}} | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Spain///languages.svg]

Other Romance varieties

Spanish itself boasts a substantial internal variation in the country. For example, the Andalusian or Canarian dialects, each with their own subvarieties, some of them being partially closer to the Spanish of the Americas, which they heavily influenced to varying degrees, depending on the region or period and according to different and non-homogeneous migrating or colonisation processes. Despite being a dialect, some Andalusian speakers have attempted to promote Andalusian as a different language independent of Spanish. Five very localised dialects are of difficult filiation: Fala (a variety mostly ascribed to the Galician-Portuguese group locally spoken in an area of the province of Cáceres sometimes called Valley of Jálama/Xálima, which includes the towns of San Martín de Trevejo, Eljas and Valverde del Fresno); Cantabrian and Extremaduran, two Astur-Leonese dialects also regarded as Spanish dialects; Eonavian, a dialect between Asturian and Galician, closer to the latter according to several linguists; and Benasquese, a Ribagorçan dialect that was formerly classified as Catalan, later as Aragonese, and which is now often regarded as a transitional language of its own. Asturian and Leonese are closely related to the local Mirandese which is spoken on an adjacent territory but over the border into Portugal. Mirandese is recognised and has some local official status.

Statistics

In terms of the number of speakers and dominance, the most prominent of the languages of Spain is Spanish, spoken by about 99% of Spaniards as a first or second language. According to a 2019 Pew Research survey, the most commonly spoken languages at home other than Spanish were Catalan in 8% of households, Valencian in 4%, Galician in 3% and Basque in 1%. A study in 2016 by the University of Navarra focused on which languages were used most frequently to consume news within a week (using multiple-choice surveys). The response included foreign languages, Spanish and only co-official and protected languages. 95.2% of news was consumed in Spanish and 30.4% in a co-official or protected language. The study reflects that the consumption of protected languages is proportional to their knowledge and that the consumption of foreign-language news is greater than that of regional-language news.

Language policy

Spanish is official throughout the country; Catalan/Valencian, Galician, Basque, and Aranese Occitan have legal and co-official status in their respective communities and (except Aranese Occitan) are widespread enough to have daily newspapers and significant book publishing and media presence. Catalan and Galician are the main languages used by the respective regional governments and local administrations. Starting in 2023, members of the lower house of the Spanish Parliament were allowed to use Basque, Catalan and Galician in their interventions. Members of the upper house already could use those languages in some specific discussions and initiatives. In addition to these, there are some protected languages. A protected language does not have co-official status but can be taught in schools as an optional subject, with the possibility of having TV shows in the protected language as well as institutions for that language. Limited Asturian-language broadcasting is available on RTPA, and the language is learned as an optional subject by 53% of primary education students. There is a prominent movement demanding for the declaration of Asturian as an official language in Asturias, which is a matter of an ongoing political debate. As of 2023, Aragonese is offered as a subject in about 30 schools in the Aragon region, with around 1,300 students. Limited Aragonese-language television content is available on the regional public broadcaster, with shows such as A Escampar la Boira or Charrín Charrán.

Past languages

Alongside the languages spoken in Spain to the present day, other languages were spoken within the actual borders: Languages mostly spoken outside Spain but which had roots in Spain:

Variants

There are also variants of these languages proper to Spain, either dialect, cants or pidgins: