Spanish accents and languages in Spain

In Spain, people speak with many different types of Spanish accents. These Spanish accents have even become official regional languages over the years. In Galicia Galician, in the Basque Country Basque, in Catalonia Catalan, in the Valley of Aran Aranese and Castilian in the rest of the country. Castilian (Spanish) is the official national language in Spain; the other 4 are official regional languages. In areas where these languages (accents) are spoken, some take precedence. The many differences in the Spanish language often cause confusion abroad. In addition to the official regional languages, there are 2 unofficial languages, Asturian and Aragonese.

The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, Ñ, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. The letter Ñ is different from that in the Dutch language. The Ñ is widely used and is therefore also on the Spanish keyboard, to the right of the L.

Castilian:
Spanish or Castilian is a Romance language and is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. For 329 million people, Spanish is the mother tongue, while another 170 million speak Spanish as a second language. The historical origins of the language are in Spain, but most speakers today can be found in Latin America.

The four official regional languages of Spain are:

Galician:
In the region of Galicia, in the northwestern part of Spain above Portugal, the population speaks Galician. Galician is one of the four official languages in Spain and is spoken by a total of about 3 million people. Galician is also spoken in some parts of South America. The Spanish accent is more similar to Portuguese than to Spanish.

Basque:
Basque is spoken in the Basque Country, the Spanish-French border region on the west coast, and by emigrants from this area elsewhere in the world. Basque is the native language of about 800,000 people worldwide. Of these, 700,000 live in the Basque Country itself, where they make up a quarter of the population. The total number of people proficient in Basque is estimated at nearly 2 million.

Catalan:
Catalan is spoken in Catalonia, Andorra, southern French Roussillon, Valencia, eastern Aragon, the Balearic Islands and in a small part of Mucia. In total, about 10 million people speak Catalan. The Catalan accent has major differences from Castilian (official main language). The Catalan accent prevails here more than Castilian. Catalan sometimes resembles the French language.    

Aranese:
Aranese is spoken by only 4,000 people in the Valley of Aran in the region of Catalonia. The Aranese language and Spanish accent is also considered a dialect of French Occitan.

In Spain, about 25% of the total population speaks one of the four official regional languages, that is over 11 million people. Compared to the Netherlands, where the only official regional language is Frisian, where some 400,000 people speak this regional language, we can say that Spanish accents play a relatively important role.