The influence of Latin and Greek in Spanish

Although Latin and Greek are sometimes neglected in favor of other languages ​​such as English and French, learning these languages ​​provides many useful notions to better understand Spanish and its culture .

As we have already mentioned before, Castilian Spanish originated from Vulgar Latin after the invasion of the Romans in the Peninsula. As a consequence, around 70% of Spanish words are of Latin origin , although more than 85% of the daily vocabulary of Spanish has Latin origin.

As for ancient Greek , it has also left its mark on the language. It was spoken by the great scientific thinkers: Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, etc., so words like “biology”, “chemistry” or “arithmetic” derive from Greek, as do some mathematical symbols like pi.

The medical vocabulary is also derived from Greek words such as the prefix “bio-” which means “life” or “heme-” or “hemato-” which means “blood”; furthermore, the Greek world was marked by the influence of politics , for which we owe it words like “democracy” (demokratia) or “hemicycle.”

However, ancient Greek has also left its mark on everyday language , with prefixes such as mono-, di-, tri- … or words that we often use like “hip”, “theater”, “comedy”, “church”, “Banana”, etc.

The influence of Spanish in the world: The influence of Latin and Greek in Spanish

There are those who think that Spanish is in decline, but nothing could be further from the truth. There are many countries where Spanish is spoken and where it is studied as a second language. What is the influence of Spanish in the world ?

Furthermore, Spanish is the third most widely spoken language in the world , after Mandarin and English, and is spoken in countries around the world, a direct consequence of the colonizations of Spain in the past (America, the Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Morocco … ).

Therefore, if you want to teach Spanish, you can do it both in Spain and abroad. In fact, the Spanish language is taught in schools around the world from primary to higher education. Thus, thanks to the success of Spanish around the world, more and more students decide to train to teach Spanish as a foreign language (ELE).

In addition, Spanish is a language recognized by the most important world organizations. It is one of the official languages ​​of the UN , for example. In the case of Spanish, it also stands out that the team is made up of professionals from both Spain and other Latin American countries, and it has been the presence of these nations that has favored that, little by little, the language is gaining weight in spaces more informal within institutions.

One more reason to become a Spanish teacher! The influence of Latin and Greek in Spanish