Castilian people
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 1st row: El Cid - Luis de León - Teresa of Ávila - Calderón de la Barca - Antonio Pimentel y Toledo - Alfonso X - John of the Cross |
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 Castilian11,000,000 |
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Andalusians · Asturians · Galicians · Cantabrians · Basques · other Spanish peoples |
The Castilian people (Spanish: castellanos) are the inhabitants of those regions in Spain where most people identify themselves as Castilian. They include Castile-La Mancha, Madrid, and the major part of Castile and León. However, not all regions of the medieval Kingdom of Castile think of themselves as Castilian. For this reason, the exact limits of what Castile is today are disputed.
Through the Reconquista and other conquests in the Middle Ages, the Kingdom of Castile (later Crown of Castile) spread over a large part of the Iberian Peninsula, especially towards the southern Spanish regions. After this, since the 15th century, through the Spanish colonization of the Americas, the Castilians also spread over the New World, bringing with them not only their language, but also elements of their culture and traditions.
[edit] Language
Castilian (castellano) is the native language of the Castilians. It is thought to have originated in the foothills of the high plains of the Cordillera Cantábrica and the upper Ebro valley, in northern Spain, around the 8th and 9th centuries AD. It is descended from the Latin of the Roman Empire, with Basque influences. During the Reconquista, it was brought to the south and replaced the languages that were spoken in the former Moorish controlled zones, such as the local form of Latin now referred to as Mozarabic, and also the Arabic that had been introduced by the Muslim invaders. In this process Castilian absorbed many words from these languages, some of which continue to be used today. Outside of Spain, Castilian is now usually referred to as Spanish.
During the Spanish colonization of the Americas, Spanish was the dominant language in Spain, and therefore was the language that was transmitted to the New World by the Conquistadores. Due to this gradual process, the Hispanophone world was created. As Castilian was the language of the Crown, it became the official language of all Spain, used side by side with other languages in their regions for centuries. During the years of the Franco dictatorship (1939 to 1975) there was an attempt to suppress the regional languages in favour of Castilian as the sole official language, causing a backlash against the use of Castilian in some regions after his death.
In Spanish, the word castellano (Castilian) is often used to refer to the Spanish language, alongside español (Spanish). See Names given to the Spanish language.
