Linguistics variety in SPAIN

Spain's Linguistic Diversity

Spanish language is a member of the family of so-called Romance languages. Other Romance languages include Portuguese, French, Italian, Rumanian, Catalan and Galician. These languages, which have their roots in Latin, are grouped together because of their shared basic vocabulary. They developed as a result of the expansion of the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean about 2000 years ago. But Spain also has three other officially recognized languages. Here is a brief look at those languages:

Catalan Language in Spain

Catalan is spoken in Catalonia, Valencia, the Balaeric Islands, some parts of south-east France and the country of Andorra. About seven million people speak the language. Catalan is intelligible when written down if you speak Spanish (and/or French) but the pronunciation is quite different. Catalan looks something like a cross between Spanish and French, although it is a major language in its own right and, some say, may be more similar to Italian than it is to Spanish.

Basque Language in Spain
The Basque language (euskara) is spoken in the Basque Country and Navarra, as well as some parts of south-west France. Approximately one million people speak the language. It is completely different to any other language you will have heard before. Euskara is easily the most unusual language of Spain — and an unusual language for Europe as well, since it doesn't fit in the Indo-European family of languages that includes Spanish as well as French, English and the other Romance and Germanic languages.
What makes Euskara linguistically interesting is that it has not been shown conclusively to be related to any other language. The fact that Euskara is an ergative language (a linguistic term involving cases of nouns and their relations to verbs) has caused some linguists to think that Euskara may have come from the Caucasus region, although the relationship with languages of that area hasn't been demonstrated. In any case, it is likely that Euskara, or least the language it developed from, has been in the area for thousands of years, and at one time it was spoken in a much larger region.

Galician Language in Spain
Galician is spoken in Galicia. Approximately three million people speak the language. It is the closest to Spanish of the three regional languages in Spain. Galician has strong similarities to Portuguese, especially in vocabulary and syntax. It developed along with Portuguese until the 14th century, when a split developed, largely for political reasons.

Miscellaneous languages
Scattered throughout Spain are a variety of smaller ethnic groups with their own languages, most of them Latin derivatives. Among them are Aragonese, Asturian , Mallorquín, Menorquin, Ibizenco, Valencian (usually considered a dialect of Catalan).

Sample vocabularies
Euskara: kaixo (hello), eskerrik asko (thank you), bai (yes), ez (no), etxe (house), esnea (milk), bat (one), jatetxea (restaurant)
Catalan: sí (yes), si us plau (please), què tal? (how are you?), cantar (to sing), cotxe (car), l'home (the man), llengua, llengo (language), mitjanit (midnight)
Galician: polo (chicken), día (day), ovo (egg), amar (love), si (yes), nom (no), ola (hello), amigo/amiga (friend), cuarto de baño, baño (bathroom), comida (food)

For more information, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Spain