Which language came first? English or Spanish?

Answer 1

English as a separate language dates from about 500 AD - but an English speaker of today could not understand it.

Spanish as a separate language from vulgar Latin dates from about 1200. The date is much less clear than with English since there were several versions (dialects) of Spanish jockeying for predominance in Spain. A modern Spanish speaker could not understand that either.

To the answerer whose university proved that Spanish words came from English, my advice would be to change schools now before it's too late.

EDIT: To borrow from a linguistics professor who often appears on these pages: All spoken languages are equally old since all languages are in a constant state of change. In every language you can look back about 500 years and modern speakers would not really be able to understand the speech of that language. Writing changes much more slowly. So there is NO "oldest" spoken language – all are about 500 years old. On that basis, English and Spanish are the same age.

But the question was: "Which language came first?" Did a separate English language exist before the Spanish language or vice versa? Yes, I know both are from a common ancestor, Proto-Indo-European, but the descendants of PIE had become mutually unintelligible for millennia. As for the direct ancestors, English came from the Anglo-Frisian dialects of North Sea Germanic brought to the island. These dialects developed about 50 BC, following the division of the Ingaevones into Saxons, Angles, Jutes, and Frisians, as attested by Tacitus. Spanish was derived from Latin, which became a separate language itself around 900 – 800 BC.

The Anglo-Frisian dialects overwhelmed the Celtic languages in Britain and coalesced into one. This single language emerged about 450 – 500 AD as English.

Meanwhile, Vulgar Latin was still being spoken in Iberia. The Roman Empire retained control until the 5th century, and even after that the people kept speaking Latin instead of adopting the Germanic of the Visigoths, long after English had differentiated. The first hint of what is now Spanish was in about 800 - 900 AD. This dialect of Latin evolved into Castilian, and became the language of the Kingdom of Castile in 1037. It became the dominant language in most of Spain by about 1200, 1500 at the latest, but was still called Castilian. The first known use of “Spanish” as its name was from Carlos V in 1526. Even today, many call the language Castellano – Castilian.

At the latest, the English language is attested from 500 AD. At the earliest, the Spanish language began in 800 AD. As a separate language, English came first.

Answer 2

It's impossible to know. Both English and Spanish evolved out of a mother langauge (as did most other alngauges). SInce everyone has different imterpretation of when modern English or modern Spanish became modern, it's difficult to definitively say which came first.

If I had to guess, I would say English. I know for a fact 13th century English (Chaucer) was unintelligible to modern English. On the other hand, Spain was part of the Roman Empire since before the 13th century where they spoke Latin (or vulgar Latin). Today, Spanish is intelligible with Latin, so at that time, the Spanish langauge during the 13th century was quite possibly intelligible by mdoern-day Spanish speakers. If the langauges during thr 13th century progressed at the same rate (it's bold to assume so), then modern day SPanish was reached first.

However, the methods of reasoning I used are indefinate and vague, so the conclusion is probably wrong. This is my point of view, please don't take it as gospel.

Answer 3

Bren is correct, but let's see if we can figure out why.

Spanish and English share a common heritage, though it probably stopped being common about 6000 years ago, when people speaking Germanic languages wandered off from people speaking Celto-Italic languages, or vice versa or both.

Nobody knows for sure, as none of this is written down. Neither group of languages was literate, so this all had to be figured out backwards.

Anyhow, Western Germanic became one of the Germanic group, and the Latin version of Italic became one of the Celto-Italic group, in both cases because the speakers had wandered off from the rest of their groups.

It got worse during the dark ages, because the Angles and Saxons wandered into some island and were never heard from again, while the speakers of Vulgar Latin across the Pyrenees (who had already absorbed some native and Celtic words and perhaps accents) were effectively cut off from their French and Provencal comrades.

And even worse during the early middle ages, as Iberia was invaded by Moors, and England by Norse, then conquered by other Norse who had turned French. Meanwhile, both of them were taking in Latin, or often latinicized Greek, as they shared a common religion.

It has occurred to me it is a mistake to try to explain this in an email. Suffice it to be said that English and Spanish are the same language, just separated by a few thousand years and a couple of invasions. This is a severe oversimplification, but I believe one is required here.

Answer 4

Both languages are of equal age because their ancestors, Anglo-Saxon and Latin, were approximately the same age too. However, English has a slightly older written history. The Exeter Book, a collection of Anglo-Saxon poetry written in Irish uncials is the oldest known document in the English language. It probably dates from the 8th century. On the other hand, the oldest known Spanish writing, a document entitled "Glosas Emelianenses" dates from the middle of the 10th century.

In the 6th and 7th centuries A.D., Isidore of Seville in Spain and Venerable Bede in England were both writing in Latin rather than their native languages. (One of my English teachers once called him "the not so venerable Bede").

Answer 5

Spanish is pretty directly decended from Latin.
English has both Latin and Germanic roots.

I think you'd be hard put to give either language a
definitive "start date", since thats not how most languages
evolve (exceptions Espronto or Loglan).

I suspect most English speakers would
be baffled by English spoken 700 years ago.
I think modern Spanish speakers would
struggle but succeed in translating 700 year old
Spanish.

Answer 6

Probably Spanish, but I don't know enough about it.

English has evolved over the years. The English of Chaucer (13th century) is almost unreadable now.

Answer 7

Good question. Maybe Spanish? But really no one knows that. You could look it in a textbook or google it, but lets GET REAL. Who was alive 12395420234 billion years ago? NO ONE.

So lets just enjoy all the languages we have today! =]
♥Saludos

Answer 8

That's hard to define, as both languages have been constantly evolving during many centuries.

Answer 9

english

Answer 10

i think its latin, everyone including my english teacher says that all words have a root word. my math teacher even says that stuff too. my dad and sister took latin so yeah, they tell me things and i learn from it....as in the stuff they learned in class. many words are derivided from latin too---like inteligent and in spanish its inteligente----with latin and just about every other language you can see how they are realted to each other. like cognates almost

in spanish one word for beautiful is "bella" and in french beautiful is "belle" see the similarites? and the latin word for mom is "mater", mom in spanish is "madre", mom in french is "mère ", in german its Mutter , in italian its madre , and so forth