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Most-spoken second languages: Spain, Spanish, migrants, and the rest of the world
31/10/2021
A MAP launched using US Intelligence service data has revealed which is the most-spoken second language of every country in the world.
This does not mean the languages most taught in the classroom, which are known in the educational community as a country's 'official second language' – even where very few adults understand or are able to use them once they finish compulsory schooling – but refers to the most-spoken native languages which are not the main national ones.
For example, although Irish Gaelic is an official language in the Republic of Ireland, English is the 'main' national tongue, insofar as all Irish natives necessarily speak and understand English even if their first, or preferred, language is Gaelic.
Naturally, Gaelic is revealed as the most-spoken second language – being second native language among the population – in Ireland, with about 40% of the country declaring it to be either their main native tongue or jointly with English.
In some countries which only have one official national tongue, or where co-official languages are regional only, the most-spoken second language is the mother tongue of the largest migrant communities.
This is the case with the UK, where, despite having several official languages – including Welsh, Cornish, Scots, and Scots Gaelic or Ghàidhlig – these are concentrated in regions, and the most-spoken native tongue other than English is Polish, owing to the large diaspora from Poland living in Britain.
It is also the case with Germany and Austria, where the largest migrant community, and German- and Austrian-born citizens with migrant parents or grandparents, is Turkish, meaning this is the second-most spoken mother tongue.
In the Americas, for example, pre-colonial languages that have survived alongside colonial tongues, and are co-official, are the most-spoken second native languages – in Perú, Ecuador and Bolivia, this is Quechua, even though Aymara is prolific in large parts of these in lesser numbers and, in Paraguay, Guaraní is almost as widely spoken as Spanish, with 46% naming it as their sole or joint native tongue and only 15.2% of Paraguayans being purely first-language Spanish-speakers.
This is also true of several African countries, although in others, the colonial languages are actually the second native tongues, even where they are the main or only official ones – French, in Algeria, and Portuguese in Mozambique, for example.
Some land-masses within the same countries are shown separately due to their most commonly-spoken second native languages being different – such as Greenland, which is part of Denmark, but where Greenlandic, an Inuit language, is the main and one of the official tongues, with Danish, also official, as the second native language; unlike the Danish peninsula itself where English is the most-found second native tongue, a situation also found in Norway, Iceland and Sweden.
In many cases, the most prolific mother tongue other than the main national language is dictated by geography – Italian is the dominant second language in Libya, for example.
Spanish still the world's second-most spoken native language after Chinese
The CIA published the data in its World Factbook, and the figures have been turned into continent maps by MoveHub.
These easily-accessible visual aids show Spanish is the fourth-most commonly-spoken second language on earth, in eight different countries or territories, beaten only by English, French and Russian, in that order and ahead of Creole, Arabic and Kurdish.
Portuguese, Italian and Quechua make up the remainder of the top 10.
Spanish is already the official national language of 19 countries in Latin America and in the west African nation of Equatorial Guinea, and is the second-most spoken as a first language on earth and fourth outright.
Mandarin Chinese has the second-highest number of speakers (14.6% of the global population – 12.3% speak it as a first language) beaten by English, which is spoken by 16.5% of the planet; followed by Hindi (8.3% of the world), and Spanish (7% of the world).
But when considering native speakers only, Mandarin Chinese comes first at 12.3% and Spanish is second, at 6%, beating English and Arabic, each at 5.1%, Hindi at 3.5%, Bengali at 3.3% and Portuguese at 3%.
Despite its comparatively low numbers of mother-tongue speakers, English is the most-spoken language on earth, as it has the peculiarity of being one of the few tongues in the world with more non-native than native users; French is similar, not figuring at all in the top 11 first languages but the fifth-most spoken on earth, with 3.6% of the planet being French-speakers including those who have learned it as a non-mother tongue.
Other dominant languages on earth are Russian, spoken by 3.4%, and the native language of 2.1% of the planet; Japanese, the first language of 1.7% of the world; Indonesian, spoken by 2.6%, a high percentage of whom are non-native speakers or who consider it one of two or more of their mother tongues; Western Punjabi, with 1.3% of the world being first-language speakers, and Javanese, whose mother-tongue speakers total 1.1% of the earth's headcount.
The six languages of the United Nations – Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish – are the mother tongues or second languages of around 45% of the earth's population and are official languages, solely or jointly, in over half the countries in the world.
Where is Spanish the second-most spoken native tongue?
English does not feature much as a second language in South America, other than in Surinam and Chile, but Spanish is the most-spoken second language in Brazil.
The USA is currently one of the top-three countries with the largest native Spanish-speaking population on the planet – despite the only official language in the United States, in the 32 out of 50 States which have one at all, being English, with the exception of regional tongues in Hawaii and Alaska.
Well over 50 million mother-tongue Spanish-speakers live in the USA, or more than the entire population of Spain itself, and beaten only by Colombia and México.
Other countries where Spanish is the most widely-spoken second language include the Caribbean island of Aruba, where the official tongues are Dutch and Papiamento, the latter being a creole tongue made up of a mix of Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, English, and with minor influences of French, Arawak and a number of African languages; Papiamento is the first language of 69.4% of the country but Dutch of only 6.1%, and 13.7% of inhabitants have Spanish as a first language.
Belize is another nation with Spanish as the second-most spoken native language (56.6%), after the official tongue, English (62.9%); also, 4% speak it in the Cayman Islands, making it the most-found mother tongue after the national language of English (90.9%), 12.9% in Sint Maarten compared with the 67.5% who speak the official language, English, and 17.2% of inhabitants in the Virgin Islands speak Spanish or Spanish Creole, the most numerous after native English-speakers (71.6%).
Beyond the Caribbean basin, a total of 7.7% of inhabitants in the Falkland Islands, also known as the Malvinas, are native Spanish-speakers, the second-highest number after English (89%), and also in Gibraltar, where English is the vehicular language of schools and officialdom, Spanish is the second-most spoken.
These two territories are listed as separate 'countries', even though they are, in practice, 'owned' by the UK, in the same way as Greenland is listed separately from Denmark.
Contrary to popular assumption, Spanish does not figure at all as a key second native language in neighbouring Portugal; the second-most spoken mother tongue there is Mirandese, a co-official regional language.
In many territories in the World Factbook study, the totals come to over 100% - in these cases, varying proportions of their populations gave more than one language as being their mother tongue.
What about Spain?
Nationwide, the only official language of Spain is Castilian Spanish, but different parts of the country have co-official tongues which are used to a greater or lesser degree.
The far-right dictatorship, which only ended in 1975, meant many regional languages 'went underground', which explains why they are not commonly found in written sources such as newspapers, magazines or novels, even those with a very local or regional readership, as they were not used as the main teaching language in schools until about 10 to 15 years after the fascist régime ended.
Effectively, although Spain's official regional languages may well be the most-spoken on their territories – including, nowadays, in formal settings such as business, education, law and politics – they are less likely to be found written down.
Road signs, communications from town halls and other authorities, circulars, council websites, and similar will often be in the regional languages, but nearly always bilingually, including Castilian Spanish.
In fact, significant minorities of people born and bred in these territories, whose family tree in the area goes back generations, may be unable to speak or understand their co-official tongues or, if they do, only use them when they have to and otherwise communicate entirely in Castilian Spanish.
This is often the case in major cities in a region with a co-official language – Valencia and Barcelona, for example – or in towns close to a border with another, solely Castilian-Spanish-speaking region.
As a result of their standardisation having happened, in most cases, relatively recently, official regional tongues can vary widely when spoken, with significant gulfs between their use even in neighbouring towns.
'Home-grown' native languages in Spain, and how many speak them
Now for the figures. Firstly, the World Factbook study does not mention any speakers of native languages that are not official somewhere in Spain, although Spanish itself is only quoted as being the main mother tongue of 74% of the country's population.
Spain's own National Institute of Statistics (INE) has revealed that 98.9% of native Spaniards speak Castilian Spanish, even if it is not their first language.
The most-found second language, or the second-most prolific native tongue in Spain, is Catalán, although this is cited as the co-official language of not only Catalunya but also the Balearic Islands and the Comunidad Valenciana.
Known broadly as balear, the individual languages of these Mediterranean islands are ibicuenco, menorquín and mallorquín; although the World Factbook includes them within the umbrella of Catalán, the difference between balear and the Catalán of the mainland is quite radical, affecting definite articles, many verbs, and nouns deriving from verbs.
The World Factbook does, however, acknowledge that the co-official language of the Comunidad Valenciana is 'known as Valencian' (valenciano, or in the language itself, valencià), although arguably, it is not as far-removed from the Catalán of Catalunya as are the Balearic tongues.
Catalán is thought to have originated in the French Provence region; the only country on earth where it is the sole official language is Andorra, and it is widely spoken on the Italian island of Sardinia, where it is said to be much closer to valenciano.
A total of 17% of people in Spain are native speakers of Catalán, valenciano or one of the Balearic languages, although practically all of these will have grown up speaking Castilian Spanish as either a joint first language or their 'school tongue', and do not normally have to learn it as a second language.
Galicia's national tongue, referred to by the World Factbook as 'Galician', known nationwide as gallego and, in the language itself, as galego, is only official in the far north-western region where it originates from and, given its geographical location, just above Portugal, has a strong Portuguese influence, especially in terms of pronunciation.
A total of 7% of Spain gives gallego as their mother tongue.
The Basque language, known as euskera, is exclusive to the Basque Country and part of the neighbouring region of Navarra, and is official in both – but unlike any of Spain's other official languages, or indeed its recognised minority regional languages, euskera bears no similarity to any of the Romance tongues at all. Indeed, its roots are unknown, and it does not appear to be linked to any other language family on earth – but it could turn out to be the oldest still in use, since some studies claim it may have morphed from the dialects used by the original prehistoric Iberian settlers.
About 2% of Spain say euskera is their first language, although they will also be practically mother-tongue speakers of Castilian Spanish, too.
Little-known Spanish languages that are nonetheless official include Aranese (aranès), unique to the Aran Valley in the land-locked Catalunya province of Lleida and one of three legally-recognised main tongues along with Castilian Spanish and Catalán.
The World Factbook states that under 5,000 people speak Aranese as a first language, but its official status means it is widely used within its small pocket of land and there is a real determination to ensure it carries on passing from generation to generation to avoid becoming lost.
Asturian, or asturianu, is not given a figure, meaning the number who call it their first language is likely to be negligible, but the actual percentage who have spoken it all their lives or as a joint mother tongue with Castilian Spanish is probably much higher – it is official only in the northern coastal region of Asturias, but printed material, such as newspaper articles, are becoming much more widespread in the language.
INE figures universally available are not recent, but in 2006, approximately 120,000 people were native asturianu-speakers, according to its data.
Even less-heard is Aragonese, or aragonés, from the north-eastern inland region of Aragón, made up of the provinces of Huesca, Zaragoza and Teruel, but a small minority in this area is believed to speak it almost exclusively at home.
INE data from 2006 put the figure at around 25,000, most of whom live in the far northern and north-eastern parts of Huesca and Zaragoza.
Aragonese, Aranese, asturianu, euskera, Catalán, gallego and valenciano, and also the Spanish-romaní language known as caló, believed to be spoken by around 50,000 Spaniards of gypsy origin, are recognised by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, meaning they are fully protected.
Aside from euskera, all of Spain's official languages, Castilian Spanish included, derive from the same family and, for a first-language speaker or a person who is fluent in any one of them will normally find it relatively easy to read short texts in another without any prior exposure to or tuition in that other, and should not have too much difficulty learning to understand it in full if they move to a part of the country where it is in regular use.
Most-spoken non-official native languages in Spain
Whilst in the UK, Germany, Austria and the USA, the predominant second language is the native tongue of their largest migrant communities, Spain's foreign mother tongues make up, altogether, fewer than 10% of first languages nationwide.
Again, figures commonly available are not recent – the INE data come from 2006 – but foreign-born communities, including second- and third-generation Spanish-born residents of foreign origin, are broadly similar in size and proportion 15 years on; some have grown, some have shrunk, but their overall ratio in relation to each other and to the rest of the national headcount is not thought to have varied greatly.
Based upon these statistics, the most-spoken native language which is not a recognised regional or official tongue in Spain is Arabic, with just under 620,000 stating it was their first language, or around 1.32% of the population.
Moroccan Arabic was the most common, given that this country is usually where Spain's largest foreign national community comes from – regularly neck and neck with Romania – although significant minorities of native Arabic-speakers in 2006 were from Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Iraq.
Romanian was the second-most spoken foreign language as a mother tongue, at around 420,000, or just below 0.9% of Spain's inhabitants; the overwhelming majority were Romanian nationals, although about 11,400 were from Moldavia.
These two languages are not as widely spoken as gallego, but more so than euskera, which outnumbers the third-most spoken foreign mother tongue, English, at 0.67% of the population or about 315,000.
This number was not all British – it included Irish, Canadian, Australian and US citizens – although the British population in Spain is now thought to be in region of 400,000, or about 0.85% of Spain's headcount.
German is the native language of 0.37% of inhabitants, or around 174,000, according to the INE data from 2006, mostly from Germany but also from Switzerland and Austria, and Portuguese is that of just over 153,000, or 0.33% of the population, who were nearly all originally from Portugal or Brazil.
Native Italian-speakers made up 0.26% of Spain's residents in that year, or 124,013 people; Bulgarian was the first language of 101,617 people, or 0.22% of the headcount, who made up the largest non-Spanish communities in the Castilla y León provinces of Valladolid and Segovia.
Exact numbers were unable to be ascertained, but the INE gave an approximate figure of mother-tongue speakers of French and Wu Chinese of 100,000 in 2006, being, in each case, 0.21%.
French nationals have been frequent settlers and passing traders in Spain since the Middle Ages – as have Spaniards in France – and over 30,000 French Algerians settled in the country, mainly in the province of Alicante, following the Algerian independence war in the early 1960s.
As at 2006, over 90,000 French nationals were resident in Spain, along with about 30,000 Belgians and nearly 15,500 French-speaking Swiss citizens, plus a growing number of Senegalese and Algerian nationals.
Among those Moroccans who identified as first-language Arabic-speakers, many also would speak French as a joint mother tongue, or have grown up speaking it or learning it in school as a dominant second language, given that it is one of the official tongues in the northern African country.
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A MAP launched using US Intelligence service data has revealed which is the most-spoken second language of every country in the world.
This does not mean the languages most taught in the classroom, which are known in the educational community as a country's 'official second language' – even where very few adults understand or are able to use them once they finish compulsory schooling – but refers to the most-spoken native languages which are not the main national ones.
For example, although Irish Gaelic is an official language in the Republic of Ireland, English is the 'main' national tongue, insofar as all Irish natives necessarily speak and understand English even if their first, or preferred, language is Gaelic.
Naturally, Gaelic is revealed as the most-spoken second language – being second native language among the population – in Ireland, with about 40% of the country declaring it to be either their main native tongue or jointly with English.
In some countries which only have one official national tongue, or where co-official languages are regional only, the most-spoken second language is the mother tongue of the largest migrant communities.
This is the case with the UK, where, despite having several official languages – including Welsh, Cornish, Scots, and Scots Gaelic or Ghàidhlig – these are concentrated in regions, and the most-spoken native tongue other than English is Polish, owing to the large diaspora from Poland living in Britain.
It is also the case with Germany and Austria, where the largest migrant community, and German- and Austrian-born citizens with migrant parents or grandparents, is Turkish, meaning this is the second-most spoken mother tongue.
In the Americas, for example, pre-colonial languages that have survived alongside colonial tongues, and are co-official, are the most-spoken second native languages – in Perú, Ecuador and Bolivia, this is Quechua, even though Aymara is prolific in large parts of these in lesser numbers and, in Paraguay, Guaraní is almost as widely spoken as Spanish, with 46% naming it as their sole or joint native tongue and only 15.2% of Paraguayans being purely first-language Spanish-speakers.
This is also true of several African countries, although in others, the colonial languages are actually the second native tongues, even where they are the main or only official ones – French, in Algeria, and Portuguese in Mozambique, for example.
Some land-masses within the same countries are shown separately due to their most commonly-spoken second native languages being different – such as Greenland, which is part of Denmark, but where Greenlandic, an Inuit language, is the main and one of the official tongues, with Danish, also official, as the second native language; unlike the Danish peninsula itself where English is the most-found second native tongue, a situation also found in Norway, Iceland and Sweden.
In many cases, the most prolific mother tongue other than the main national language is dictated by geography – Italian is the dominant second language in Libya, for example.
Spanish still the world's second-most spoken native language after Chinese
The CIA published the data in its World Factbook, and the figures have been turned into continent maps by MoveHub.
These easily-accessible visual aids show Spanish is the fourth-most commonly-spoken second language on earth, in eight different countries or territories, beaten only by English, French and Russian, in that order and ahead of Creole, Arabic and Kurdish.
Portuguese, Italian and Quechua make up the remainder of the top 10.
Spanish is already the official national language of 19 countries in Latin America and in the west African nation of Equatorial Guinea, and is the second-most spoken as a first language on earth and fourth outright.
Mandarin Chinese has the second-highest number of speakers (14.6% of the global population – 12.3% speak it as a first language) beaten by English, which is spoken by 16.5% of the planet; followed by Hindi (8.3% of the world), and Spanish (7% of the world).
But when considering native speakers only, Mandarin Chinese comes first at 12.3% and Spanish is second, at 6%, beating English and Arabic, each at 5.1%, Hindi at 3.5%, Bengali at 3.3% and Portuguese at 3%.
Despite its comparatively low numbers of mother-tongue speakers, English is the most-spoken language on earth, as it has the peculiarity of being one of the few tongues in the world with more non-native than native users; French is similar, not figuring at all in the top 11 first languages but the fifth-most spoken on earth, with 3.6% of the planet being French-speakers including those who have learned it as a non-mother tongue.
Other dominant languages on earth are Russian, spoken by 3.4%, and the native language of 2.1% of the planet; Japanese, the first language of 1.7% of the world; Indonesian, spoken by 2.6%, a high percentage of whom are non-native speakers or who consider it one of two or more of their mother tongues; Western Punjabi, with 1.3% of the world being first-language speakers, and Javanese, whose mother-tongue speakers total 1.1% of the earth's headcount.
The six languages of the United Nations – Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish – are the mother tongues or second languages of around 45% of the earth's population and are official languages, solely or jointly, in over half the countries in the world.
Where is Spanish the second-most spoken native tongue?
English does not feature much as a second language in South America, other than in Surinam and Chile, but Spanish is the most-spoken second language in Brazil.
The USA is currently one of the top-three countries with the largest native Spanish-speaking population on the planet – despite the only official language in the United States, in the 32 out of 50 States which have one at all, being English, with the exception of regional tongues in Hawaii and Alaska.
Well over 50 million mother-tongue Spanish-speakers live in the USA, or more than the entire population of Spain itself, and beaten only by Colombia and México.
Other countries where Spanish is the most widely-spoken second language include the Caribbean island of Aruba, where the official tongues are Dutch and Papiamento, the latter being a creole tongue made up of a mix of Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, English, and with minor influences of French, Arawak and a number of African languages; Papiamento is the first language of 69.4% of the country but Dutch of only 6.1%, and 13.7% of inhabitants have Spanish as a first language.
Belize is another nation with Spanish as the second-most spoken native language (56.6%), after the official tongue, English (62.9%); also, 4% speak it in the Cayman Islands, making it the most-found mother tongue after the national language of English (90.9%), 12.9% in Sint Maarten compared with the 67.5% who speak the official language, English, and 17.2% of inhabitants in the Virgin Islands speak Spanish or Spanish Creole, the most numerous after native English-speakers (71.6%).
Beyond the Caribbean basin, a total of 7.7% of inhabitants in the Falkland Islands, also known as the Malvinas, are native Spanish-speakers, the second-highest number after English (89%), and also in Gibraltar, where English is the vehicular language of schools and officialdom, Spanish is the second-most spoken.
These two territories are listed as separate 'countries', even though they are, in practice, 'owned' by the UK, in the same way as Greenland is listed separately from Denmark.
Contrary to popular assumption, Spanish does not figure at all as a key second native language in neighbouring Portugal; the second-most spoken mother tongue there is Mirandese, a co-official regional language.
In many territories in the World Factbook study, the totals come to over 100% - in these cases, varying proportions of their populations gave more than one language as being their mother tongue.
What about Spain?
Nationwide, the only official language of Spain is Castilian Spanish, but different parts of the country have co-official tongues which are used to a greater or lesser degree.
The far-right dictatorship, which only ended in 1975, meant many regional languages 'went underground', which explains why they are not commonly found in written sources such as newspapers, magazines or novels, even those with a very local or regional readership, as they were not used as the main teaching language in schools until about 10 to 15 years after the fascist régime ended.
Effectively, although Spain's official regional languages may well be the most-spoken on their territories – including, nowadays, in formal settings such as business, education, law and politics – they are less likely to be found written down.
Road signs, communications from town halls and other authorities, circulars, council websites, and similar will often be in the regional languages, but nearly always bilingually, including Castilian Spanish.
In fact, significant minorities of people born and bred in these territories, whose family tree in the area goes back generations, may be unable to speak or understand their co-official tongues or, if they do, only use them when they have to and otherwise communicate entirely in Castilian Spanish.
This is often the case in major cities in a region with a co-official language – Valencia and Barcelona, for example – or in towns close to a border with another, solely Castilian-Spanish-speaking region.
As a result of their standardisation having happened, in most cases, relatively recently, official regional tongues can vary widely when spoken, with significant gulfs between their use even in neighbouring towns.
'Home-grown' native languages in Spain, and how many speak them
Now for the figures. Firstly, the World Factbook study does not mention any speakers of native languages that are not official somewhere in Spain, although Spanish itself is only quoted as being the main mother tongue of 74% of the country's population.
Spain's own National Institute of Statistics (INE) has revealed that 98.9% of native Spaniards speak Castilian Spanish, even if it is not their first language.
The most-found second language, or the second-most prolific native tongue in Spain, is Catalán, although this is cited as the co-official language of not only Catalunya but also the Balearic Islands and the Comunidad Valenciana.
Known broadly as balear, the individual languages of these Mediterranean islands are ibicuenco, menorquín and mallorquín; although the World Factbook includes them within the umbrella of Catalán, the difference between balear and the Catalán of the mainland is quite radical, affecting definite articles, many verbs, and nouns deriving from verbs.
The World Factbook does, however, acknowledge that the co-official language of the Comunidad Valenciana is 'known as Valencian' (valenciano, or in the language itself, valencià), although arguably, it is not as far-removed from the Catalán of Catalunya as are the Balearic tongues.
Catalán is thought to have originated in the French Provence region; the only country on earth where it is the sole official language is Andorra, and it is widely spoken on the Italian island of Sardinia, where it is said to be much closer to valenciano.
A total of 17% of people in Spain are native speakers of Catalán, valenciano or one of the Balearic languages, although practically all of these will have grown up speaking Castilian Spanish as either a joint first language or their 'school tongue', and do not normally have to learn it as a second language.
Galicia's national tongue, referred to by the World Factbook as 'Galician', known nationwide as gallego and, in the language itself, as galego, is only official in the far north-western region where it originates from and, given its geographical location, just above Portugal, has a strong Portuguese influence, especially in terms of pronunciation.
A total of 7% of Spain gives gallego as their mother tongue.
The Basque language, known as euskera, is exclusive to the Basque Country and part of the neighbouring region of Navarra, and is official in both – but unlike any of Spain's other official languages, or indeed its recognised minority regional languages, euskera bears no similarity to any of the Romance tongues at all. Indeed, its roots are unknown, and it does not appear to be linked to any other language family on earth – but it could turn out to be the oldest still in use, since some studies claim it may have morphed from the dialects used by the original prehistoric Iberian settlers.
About 2% of Spain say euskera is their first language, although they will also be practically mother-tongue speakers of Castilian Spanish, too.
Little-known Spanish languages that are nonetheless official include Aranese (aranès), unique to the Aran Valley in the land-locked Catalunya province of Lleida and one of three legally-recognised main tongues along with Castilian Spanish and Catalán.
The World Factbook states that under 5,000 people speak Aranese as a first language, but its official status means it is widely used within its small pocket of land and there is a real determination to ensure it carries on passing from generation to generation to avoid becoming lost.
Asturian, or asturianu, is not given a figure, meaning the number who call it their first language is likely to be negligible, but the actual percentage who have spoken it all their lives or as a joint mother tongue with Castilian Spanish is probably much higher – it is official only in the northern coastal region of Asturias, but printed material, such as newspaper articles, are becoming much more widespread in the language.
INE figures universally available are not recent, but in 2006, approximately 120,000 people were native asturianu-speakers, according to its data.
Even less-heard is Aragonese, or aragonés, from the north-eastern inland region of Aragón, made up of the provinces of Huesca, Zaragoza and Teruel, but a small minority in this area is believed to speak it almost exclusively at home.
INE data from 2006 put the figure at around 25,000, most of whom live in the far northern and north-eastern parts of Huesca and Zaragoza.
Aragonese, Aranese, asturianu, euskera, Catalán, gallego and valenciano, and also the Spanish-romaní language known as caló, believed to be spoken by around 50,000 Spaniards of gypsy origin, are recognised by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, meaning they are fully protected.
Aside from euskera, all of Spain's official languages, Castilian Spanish included, derive from the same family and, for a first-language speaker or a person who is fluent in any one of them will normally find it relatively easy to read short texts in another without any prior exposure to or tuition in that other, and should not have too much difficulty learning to understand it in full if they move to a part of the country where it is in regular use.
Most-spoken non-official native languages in Spain
Whilst in the UK, Germany, Austria and the USA, the predominant second language is the native tongue of their largest migrant communities, Spain's foreign mother tongues make up, altogether, fewer than 10% of first languages nationwide.
Again, figures commonly available are not recent – the INE data come from 2006 – but foreign-born communities, including second- and third-generation Spanish-born residents of foreign origin, are broadly similar in size and proportion 15 years on; some have grown, some have shrunk, but their overall ratio in relation to each other and to the rest of the national headcount is not thought to have varied greatly.
Based upon these statistics, the most-spoken native language which is not a recognised regional or official tongue in Spain is Arabic, with just under 620,000 stating it was their first language, or around 1.32% of the population.
Moroccan Arabic was the most common, given that this country is usually where Spain's largest foreign national community comes from – regularly neck and neck with Romania – although significant minorities of native Arabic-speakers in 2006 were from Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Iraq.
Romanian was the second-most spoken foreign language as a mother tongue, at around 420,000, or just below 0.9% of Spain's inhabitants; the overwhelming majority were Romanian nationals, although about 11,400 were from Moldavia.
These two languages are not as widely spoken as gallego, but more so than euskera, which outnumbers the third-most spoken foreign mother tongue, English, at 0.67% of the population or about 315,000.
This number was not all British – it included Irish, Canadian, Australian and US citizens – although the British population in Spain is now thought to be in region of 400,000, or about 0.85% of Spain's headcount.
German is the native language of 0.37% of inhabitants, or around 174,000, according to the INE data from 2006, mostly from Germany but also from Switzerland and Austria, and Portuguese is that of just over 153,000, or 0.33% of the population, who were nearly all originally from Portugal or Brazil.
Native Italian-speakers made up 0.26% of Spain's residents in that year, or 124,013 people; Bulgarian was the first language of 101,617 people, or 0.22% of the headcount, who made up the largest non-Spanish communities in the Castilla y León provinces of Valladolid and Segovia.
Exact numbers were unable to be ascertained, but the INE gave an approximate figure of mother-tongue speakers of French and Wu Chinese of 100,000 in 2006, being, in each case, 0.21%.
French nationals have been frequent settlers and passing traders in Spain since the Middle Ages – as have Spaniards in France – and over 30,000 French Algerians settled in the country, mainly in the province of Alicante, following the Algerian independence war in the early 1960s.
As at 2006, over 90,000 French nationals were resident in Spain, along with about 30,000 Belgians and nearly 15,500 French-speaking Swiss citizens, plus a growing number of Senegalese and Algerian nationals.
Among those Moroccans who identified as first-language Arabic-speakers, many also would speak French as a joint mother tongue, or have grown up speaking it or learning it in school as a dominant second language, given that it is one of the official tongues in the northern African country.
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