Charts the complex origins of Spanish and its meteoric rise to one of the world's most-spoken languages Jean Benoit-Nadeau and Julie Barlow, chroniclers of French, now turn their attention to Spanish, the language being adopted by more of the world's speakers every day. Just as their first book looked at the origins and spread of French, The Story of Spanishlooks at the roots and spread of modern Spanish from its roots in Hispania's Vulgar Latin, the language that also spawned French and Italian, which around 800 AD, became its own distinct tongue and a variety of cultures began to leave their mark. Arabic culture entered the Iberian Peninsula. It gave way to the growing influences of Castilian culture and, then, Roman Catholicism. Tracing the language's development through the age of Queen Isabella, Christopher Columbus and, later, The Inquisition, the authors arrive at the golden age of Spanishthe sixteenth and early seventeenth centurieswhen it was the most prestigious language in Europe. Nadeau and Barlow then follow Spanish overseas to the Americas, the development of the Spanish Academy, the rise of Spanish in Latin America and its political importance, its development in Mexico and its rise in the United States. More than 37 million people in the U.S. speak Spanish. If demographic trends continue, the U.S. will be the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world by 2050. Nadeau and Barlow's The Story of Spanishis the indispensible historical guide to America's linguistic future.