castellano

Castellano, or Castilian, is the standard form of the Spanish language as spoken in Castile and widely used across the Spanish-speaking world. The term originates from the medieval Kingdom of Castile in the Iberian Peninsula, and it became the basis of the national standard of Spanish after the political unification of Spain and the global spread of Spanish during the colonial era.

Linguistically, castellano belongs to the Iberian Romance sub-branch of the Romance languages in the Indo-European family. It evolved from the variety of Latin spoken in the region and diversified into regional dialects. The modern standard is codified by the Real Academia Española (RAE) and the other Academias de la Lengua Española, which publish the official orthography and grammar.

Geographically, castellano is spoken throughout Spain and in most Spanish-speaking countries of the Americas, as well as in diaspora communities. In Spain, castellano is often distinguished from regional languages such as Catalan, Basque, and Galician; in Latin America, castellano is commonly used to refer to the Spanish language in general.

Although mutually intelligible across dialects, there are regional differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax, including phonetic features such as yeísmo and the distinction between seseo and ceceo in different areas.