¿Habla castellano?

You probably recognize him, but this is don Quijote, the most famous fictional character to ever come from Castilla.

       The language you are studying is properly called castellano, and it originates in the region of Castile (Castilla) in Spain, although in English it's called Spanish and in Spanish it's frequently called español. It is the official language of the Spanish government and is spoken throughout that country, although it is not the only language in Spain (the officially recognized regional languages are Catalán, Gallego, Euskera or Basque, and Valenciano). Castellano is also the language that the Spanish exported to America, therefore it is the main official language in all Spanish-speaking American countries. Other languages are also spoken in many of those countries, and if you're interested you can look at my previous blog on that topic.
       The reason for this blog entry is that a friend recently mentioned casually that Mexicans wouldn't be any better off in Spain than here in the US because they wouldn't be able to communicate due to their different "dialect." It was a well-meaning statement said out of concern for immigrants, but since he doesn't speak Spanish and since he was voicing a commonly-held misconception, I decided this would make a good blog topic. Since I am not a linguist and since the topic of what is a dialect is hotly debated, I will only say that there are minor regional differences in language between Spanish-speaking countries, but we all understand each other. I have traveled in seven countries in which Spanish is spoken, and I have been mistaken for a local in all but one (the one in which it's not a mistake to take me for a local). The greatest and most obvious differences would be in accent, but even with accents there is certain solid common ground; the vowels. English has such a mishmash of vowel sounds, each vowel having the potential to make many different sounds depending on placement within a word, proximity to certain consonants or other vowels, and the country or region of the speaker. In Spanish each vowel has exactly one sound, and there is no geographic difference in the way those vowels are pronounced. This lends a certain structural solidity to the pronunciation of the entire language that is not shaken even when certain consonants sound a bit different.
       The greatest difference in language is in the vocabulary, where you can find the influence of historical situations such as indigenous cultures, immigration, regional influences, war, slavery, etc. These are most evident in things like clothing or food, but obviously also in slang. An easy example is the word for "sweater," which in Spain and many other countries is suéter or jersey or pulóver, depending on what kind of sweater. These words obviously come from English, a result of the vast influence of American media on world cultures. However, in much of the Andean region the word for "sweater" is chompa, which is also derived from English, but from the word "jumper."  Another good example is the word aguacate, which in Mexico, Central America, and Spain, means avocado (the English word is derived from the Spanish in this case). Since this fruit was not known in Europe prior to the conquest, the Spanish adopted the indigenous word, in this case the Náhuatl word ahuacatl, which means testicle in that language because the Mayans had a sense of humor and thought the fruit resembled testicles hanging on the tree. In South America, however, the Quechua word palta is used, without any changes in pronunciation.
       There are some gramatical differences between countries and between regions within countries, as well. These are things such as the tú/vos and ustedes/vosotros differences, which will require a separate blog post, or "leísmo," which is explained beautifully by Always Spanish. 
       The important question is if these differences cause communication problems between people from the countries where those words differ. No, not more than they cause confusion when Americans say "sweater" and the English say "jumper." In other words, there might be a brief, temporary hiccough in the conversation as you realize that you're using different words for the same thing, but it does not essentially impede communication, and it can actually make conversation more interesting and enriching as you learn about each other's cultures.

---

The words "castellano" and "Castilla" come from the word "castillo," meaning "castle," a structure that is an important part of the landscape in that region.