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Spanish in Africa? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4432 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 4 31 January 2013 at 11:19am | IP Logged |
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French is firmly established as a business and academic language along large stretches of the North African coast, even though the colonial days are long gone and the native Arabic is itself a major world language.
But if you look at a map of the Mediterranean area, Spain practically touches Morocco at the ancient trading port of Tangier. Therefore it seems reasonable to assume that Spanish would be spoken and understood in parts of Morocco. I believe there are also the "Spanish Enclaves" - small parts of Spanish soil on the continent of Africa. I wonder why the Spanish colonised huge parts of the Americas, but overlooked the continent on their own doorstep? Edited by beano on 31 January 2013 at 11:19am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4449 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 2 of 4 31 January 2013 at 12:23pm | IP Logged |
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It is not totally true that Spain overlooked Northern Africa. Morocco was split between France and Spain from 1912 to 1956, when Morroco was recognised as an independent country. You also have Western Shara, which was under Spanish administration until 1975. Earlier in history, one must not forget that most of Northern Africa was under Ottoman rule for a long period, and before that again you (11th to 16th century) you had the Berber dynasties which were quite powerful. To the extent that Spain had colonial ambitions in Africa, the military power of the then rulers of North Africa was maybe too strong for them to consider fighting against, so very unlike the situation in the Americas.
Now as for languages, you have the two Spanish enclaves in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, which are fully part of Spain and where Spanish is the official language. And according to Wikipedia, about five million Moroccans speak Spanish. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Quique Diglot Senior Member Spain cronopios.net/Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4492 days ago 183 posts - 313 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: French, German | Message 3 of 4 31 January 2013 at 12:57pm | IP Logged |
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Northern Morocco (not including Tanger, though, which was an international zone) was in fact a Spanish protectorate until Morocco's independence (1956).
Ceuta and Melilla are considered Spanish territory since the 17th and 15th century, respectively. Ifni and Cape Juby, on the South, were given to Morocco in 1958 and 1969. Older people there received a Spanish education, and can still speak Spanish. Western Sahara was left in 1975 (formally it is still under Spanish administration, until the referendum is held). Together with Hassaniya Arabic, Spanish is the official language of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Equatorial Guinea independized from Spain in 1968. Spanish is the official administrative language and that of education. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4254 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 4 of 4 03 February 2013 at 5:39am | IP Logged |
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In the beginning Spain & Portugal in the 15th century wasn't interested in colonizing the "New World"
because it hasn't been discovered. They wanted a route to get to Asia and China especially for bringing manufactured products and spices back to Europe. Basically we're talking about going west to get to the East. America just happened to be the landmass in the middle. At the same time Portugal's Henry the navigator also tried to circumnavigate Africa to get to India. Obviously the ships back then couldn't travel very far and had to resupply occasionally. So the Portuguese set up colonies along the way starting from Guinea Bissau to Angola to Mozambique and finally Cochin & Goa in India. Spain & Portugal were the first to colonized until England, France, Holland and later Belgium, Germany & Italy came along as colonizers. Don't know all the history behind Africa but at some point the Europeans had their secret meetings to draw the boundaries of Africa before & after WWI and these became the foundation of nation states in Africa today. I know a few friends in Africa. Several came from Nigeria. In parts of W. Africa French is the dominant language for many countries that used to belong to L'Afrique Occidental Francais which was 1 big administrative region from Chad, Central African Rep. to Niger, Mali & Senegal. In between we have hana, Gambia & Nigeria along with Liberia & Sierra Leone which are English speaking. You have the Belgian colonies: Rep. of Congo, Rwanda & Burundi which are French-speaking although Dutch is also an official language in Belgium. I think at the time when the other European countries started building their empires, Spain already over- extended themselves in the New World. Compared to countries like England & the Netherlands Spain & Portugal were falling behind technologically. By the 18th & 19th century I don't think Spain could have competed with the English or French for domination in Africa so there are far fewer Spanish colonies on the continuent and therefore fewer countries that use Spanish as official language. Edited by shk00design on 03 February 2013 at 5:41am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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