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Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway

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111-566: The Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway (BAGS) ( Spanish : Ferrocarril del Sud ) was one of the Big Four broad gauge , 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ), British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina . The company was founded by Edward Lumb in 1862 and the first general manager was Edward Banfield after whom the Buenos Aires suburban station of Banfield

222-1069: A Spanish-based creole language called Chavacano developed in the southern Philippines. However, it is not mutually intelligible with Spanish. The number of Chavacano-speakers was estimated at 1.2 million in 1996. The local languages of the Philippines also retain significant Spanish influence, with many words derived from Mexican Spanish , owing to the administration of the islands by Spain through New Spain until 1821, until direct governance from Madrid afterwards to 1898. Pound sterling King Charles III [REDACTED] William, Prince of Wales [REDACTED] Charles III ( King-in-Council ) [REDACTED] Starmer ministry ( L ) Keir Starmer ( L ) Angela Rayner ( L ) ( King-in-Parliament ) [REDACTED] Charles III [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The Lord Reed The Lord Hodge Andrew Bailey Monetary Policy Committee Sterling ( ISO code : GBP )

333-418: A capacity of 25 100 kg packages). The state of passenger transport was similar. The carriages made three trips per month to Lobos , Cañuelas , 25 de Mayo , Saladillo and Dolores , two trips per month to Tandil and Lobería and just one to Bahía Blanca . The carriages were accompanied by "cuarteadores" that helped them to cross rivers and streams. There also were intermediate stops such as "La Botica",

444-588: A considerable number of words from Arabic , as well as a minor influence from the Germanic Gothic language through the period of Visigoth rule in Iberia. In addition, many more words were borrowed from Latin through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church. The loanwords were taken from both Classical Latin and Renaissance Latin , the form of Latin in use at that time. According to

555-521: A contract until the issue was solved. Finally Robertson paid a bribe of GBP 22,000. The terms of the new contract determined that the line would be extended to Dolores and Azul . On March 7, 1864, works began where the Constitución railway station is placed nowadays. Previously, a big celebration had been held, with a ceremony attended by President of Argentina Bartolomé Mitre and Governor of Buenos Aires Province, Mariano Saavedra. The first section of

666-443: A contract with Edward Lumb. The Government demanded an interest rate of 7% on the costs of construction over 40 years. On the other hand, the company was exempt from paying contributions, taxes and custom fees. The railway company had also to carry the post for free. The Government could expropriate the railway and its assets if the company did not offer an additional 20% of the construction costs as compensation. The rail gauge should be

777-517: A dramatic change in the pronunciation of its sibilant consonants , known in Spanish as the reajuste de las sibilantes , which resulted in the distinctive velar [x] pronunciation of the letter ⟨j⟩ and—in a large part of Spain—the characteristic interdental [θ] ("th-sound") for the letter ⟨z⟩ (and for ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩ ). See History of Spanish (Modern development of

888-476: A first language by Spaniards and educated Filipinos ( Ilustrados ). Despite a public education system set up by the colonial government, by the end of Spanish rule in 1898, only about 10% of the population had knowledge of Spanish, mostly those of Spanish descent or elite standing. Spanish continued to be official and used in Philippine literature and press during the early years of American administration after

999-510: A local currency that is pegged to the U.S. dollar or the New Zealand dollar . The Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (in Cyprus ) use the euro. Since decimalisation on Decimal Day in 1971, the pound has been divided into 100 pence (denoted on coinage, until 1981, as "new pence"). The symbol for the penny is "p"; hence an amount such as 50p (£0.50) properly pronounced "fifty pence"

1110-471: A long history in the territory of the current-day United States dating back to the 16th century. In the wake of the 1848 Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty , hundreds of thousands of Spanish speakers became a minoritized community in the United States. The 20th century saw further massive growth of Spanish speakers in areas where they had been hitherto scarce. According to the 2020 census, over 60 million people of

1221-399: A penny", "two and a penny", etc. 5 shillings, for example, was written as "5 s ." or, more commonly, "5/–" (five shillings, no pence). Various coin denominations had, and in some cases continue to have, special names, such as florin (2/–), crown (5/–), half crown (2/6 d ), farthing ( 1 ⁄ 4 d ), sovereign (£1) and guinea (21s, 21/–, £1–1–0 or £1.05 in decimal notation). By

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1332-498: A primarily Hassaniya Arabic -speaking territory, Spanish was officially spoken as the language of the colonial administration during the late 19th and 20th centuries. Today, Spanish is present in the partially-recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as its secondary official language, and in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf ( Algeria ), where the Spanish language is still taught as

1443-426: A provisional wooden-structure was opened to the public for the 1910–11 summer season. As the old station (renamed "Mar del Plata Norte") remained active, the new station would be only used during the summer seasons. It had two large platforms, the main building, a post warehouse, and a signal cabin . When the new station opened, all the trains that arrived to the old station were reprogrammed to make their arrival to

1554-452: A pulpería in Lomas de Zamora of Greater Buenos Aires . This form of transport had several disadvantages. The roads were not in good condition and the rivers obligated passengers to stray dozens of kilometers from the path. The carriages covered an average of 80 km per day. Because of this, Plaza Constitución was the first option to build a terminus station of a great railway that connected

1665-659: A result, the viaduct used by the BAEPR trains to run over Paseo Colón Avenue was no longer in use (being later dismantled). Therefore, the number of passengers carried by the company (and the profits) decreased considerably. On July 1, 1898, the Buenos Aires and Ensenada Port Railway was acquired by the Great Southern Railway. The railway's repair shops were originally located in Barracas al Sud station and then moved to Sola, where they operated for more than 15 years. The capacity of

1776-599: A second language features characteristics involving the variability of the vowel system. While far from its heyday during the Spanish protectorate in Morocco , the Spanish language has some presence in northern Morocco , stemming for example from the availability of certain Spanish-language media. According to a 2012 survey by Morocco's Royal Institute for Strategic Studies (IRES), penetration of Spanish in Morocco reaches 4.6% of

1887-518: A second language, largely by Cuban educators. The number of Spanish speakers is unknown. Spanish is also an official language of the African Union . Spanish was an official language of the Philippines from the beginning of Spanish administration in 1565 to a constitutional change in 1973. During Spanish colonization , it was the language of government, trade, and education, and was spoken as

1998-530: Is Mexico . Spanish is part of the Ibero-Romance language group , in which the language is also known as Castilian ( castellano ). The group evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. The oldest Latin texts with traces of Spanish come from mid-northern Iberia in the 9th century, and the first systematic written use of

2109-416: Is cognate to the root word of satisfacer ("to satisfy"), and hecho ("made") is similarly cognate to the root word of satisfecho ("satisfied"). Compare the examples in the following table: Some consonant clusters of Latin also produced characteristically different results in these languages, as shown in the examples in the following table: In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish underwent

2220-413: Is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout the world. Spanish is well represented in the humanities and social sciences . Spanish is also the third most used language on the internet by number of users after English and Chinese and the second most used language by number of websites after English. Spanish is used as an official language by many international organizations , including

2331-449: Is estimated that about 486 million people speak Spanish as a native language , making it the second most spoken language by number of native speakers . An additional 75 million speak Spanish as a second or foreign language , making it the fourth most spoken language in the world overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindi with a total number of 538 million speakers. Spanish is also

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2442-740: Is heavily influenced by Venezuelan Spanish. In addition to sharing most of its borders with Spanish-speaking countries, the creation of Mercosur in the early 1990s induced a favorable situation for the promotion of Spanish language teaching in Brazil . In 2005, the National Congress of Brazil approved a bill, signed into law by the President , making it mandatory for schools to offer Spanish as an alternative foreign language course in both public and private secondary schools in Brazil. In September 2016 this law

2553-417: Is often pronounced "fifty pee" /fɪfti piː/. The old sign d was not reused for the new penny in order to avoid confusion between the two units. A decimal halfpenny ( ⁠ 1 / 2 ⁠ p, worth 1.2 old pennies) was issued until 1984 but was withdrawn due to inflation . Before decimalisation in 1971 , the pound was divided into 20 shillings , and each shilling into 12 pence , making 240 pence to

2664-806: Is spoken by very small communities in Angola due to Cuban influence from the Cold War and in South Sudan among South Sudanese natives that relocated to Cuba during the Sudanese wars and returned for their country's independence. Spanish is also spoken in the integral territories of Spain in Africa, namely the cities of Ceuta and Melilla and the Canary Islands , located in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 km (62 mi) off

2775-599: Is the central bank for sterling, issuing its own banknotes and regulating issuance of banknotes by private banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Sterling banknotes issued by other jurisdictions are not regulated by the Bank of England; their governments guarantee convertibility at par . Historically, sterling was also used to varying degrees by the colonies and territories of the British Empire . There are various theories regarding

2886-561: Is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £ ) is the main unit of sterling, and the word pound is also used to refer to the British currency generally, often qualified in international contexts as the British pound or the pound sterling . Sterling is the world's oldest currency in continuous use since its inception. In 2022, it

2997-804: Is the de facto national language of the country, Spanish is often used in public services and notices at the federal and state levels. Spanish is also used in administration in the state of New Mexico . The language has a strong influence in major metropolitan areas such as those of Los Angeles , Miami , San Antonio , New York , San Francisco , Dallas , Tucson and Phoenix of the Arizona Sun Corridor , as well as more recently, Chicago , Las Vegas , Boston , Denver , Houston , Indianapolis , Philadelphia , Cleveland , Salt Lake City , Atlanta , Nashville , Orlando , Tampa , Raleigh and Baltimore-Washington, D.C. due to 20th- and 21st-century immigration. Although Spanish has no official recognition in

3108-491: Is the official language of 20 countries , as well as one of the six official languages of the United Nations . Spanish is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese ; the world's fourth-most spoken language overall after English , Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani ( Hindi - Urdu ); and the world's most widely spoken Romance language. The country with the largest population of native speakers

3219-567: Is usually assumed to be derived from castillo ('castle'). In the Middle Ages , the language spoken in Castile was generically referred to as Romance and later also as Lengua vulgar . Later in the period, it gained geographical specification as Romance castellano ( romanz castellano , romanz de Castiella ), lenguaje de Castiella , and ultimately simply as castellano (noun). Different etymologies have been suggested for

3330-557: The Spanish as a First Foreign Language (SAFFL) initiative in March 2005. Spanish has historically had a significant presence on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba , Bonaire and Curaçao ( ABC Islands ) throughout the centuries and in present times. The majority of the populations of each island (especially Aruba) speaking Spanish at varying although often high degrees of fluency. The local language Papiamentu (Papiamento on Aruba)

3441-508: The Spanish–American War but was eventually replaced by English as the primary language of administration and education by the 1920s. Nevertheless, despite a significant decrease in influence and speakers, Spanish remained an official language of the Philippines upon independence in 1946, alongside English and Filipino , a standardized version of Tagalog . Spanish was briefly removed from official status in 1973 but reimplemented under

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3552-798: The United Nations , European Union , Organization of American States , Union of South American Nations , Community of Latin American and Caribbean States , African Union , among others. In Spain and some other parts of the Spanish-speaking world, Spanish is called not only español but also castellano (Castilian), the language from the Kingdom of Castile , contrasting it with other languages spoken in Spain such as Galician , Basque , Asturian , Catalan/Valencian , Aragonese , Occitan and other minor languages. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses

3663-657: The 1950s, coins of Kings George III , George IV and William IV had disappeared from circulation, but coins (at least the penny) bearing the head of every British monarch from Queen Victoria onwards could be found in circulation. Silver coins were replaced by those in cupro-nickel in 1947, and by the 1960s the silver coins were rarely seen. Silver/cupro-nickel sixpences, shillings (from any period after 1816) and florins (2 shillings) remained legal tender after decimalisation (as 2½p, 5p and 10p respectively) until 1980, 1990 and 1993 respectively, but are now officially demonetised. The pound sterling emerged after

3774-404: The 2021–2022 school year alone. The local business process outsourcing industry has also helped boost the language's economic prospects. Today, while the actual number of proficient Spanish speakers is around 400,000, or under 0.5% of the population, a new generation of Spanish speakers in the Philippines has likewise emerged, though speaker estimates vary widely. Aside from standard Spanish,

3885-574: The 20th century, Spanish was introduced to Equatorial Guinea and the Western Sahara , and to areas of the United States that had not been part of the Spanish Empire, such as Spanish Harlem in New York City . For details on borrowed words and other external influences upon Spanish, see Influences on the Spanish language . Spanish is the primary language in 20 countries worldwide. As of 2023, it

3996-462: The Atlantic coast, building lines to other cities. In February 1892 the branch from Ayacucho to Balcarce was opened. On August the line extended to Quequén, a small town next to Necochea . Quequén had one of the main ports of the province. In 1910 Mar del Plata was the main beach city of Argentina, receiving a huge number of tourists (most of them members of the aristocracy) during the summer. Due to

4107-516: The BAGSR agreed to build the new station where the neighbours demanded. The works began in 1909 and were finished one year later, when the station building began to be constructed. The project of the company also included extension of the tracks to the city of Miramar . The new station in Mar del Plata (named " Mar del Plata Sud ") was opened On December 1, 1910, although the main building was not still finished so

4218-490: The BAGSR was the largest railroad of Argentina, with 1,025 km operating. At the same time the line to Bahía Blanca was being built, the company made the arrangements to build a port in that city. The dock was made of steel and finished in 1885. It has 8 cranes, 5 tracks, a length of 300 meters and 200 meters width. The other branch, extended to Benito Juárez in 1885, reaching the city of Tres Arroyos in April 1886. The company

4329-469: The Bank of England has exclusively used the single bar variant since 1975. Historically, a simple capital L (in the historic black-letter typeface, L {\displaystyle {\mathfrak {L}}} ) placed before the numerals, or an italic l. after them, was used in newspapers, books and letters. The Royal Mint was still using this style of notation as late as 1939. The glyphs Ł and Ⱡ may occasionally be encountered. Use of

4440-638: The Brandsen-Ringuelet branch. The BAEPR also built a line from Bartolomé Bavio (a small town near to Magdalena, at the South of Buenos Aires Province) to Álvarez Jonte, opened in 1892. The following year the branch extended to Atalaya, Magdalena Partido . The fire that destroyed the Estación Central of Buenos Aires in 1897, obligated the BAEPR to move the terminus station to Casa Amarilla in La Boca district. As

4551-639: The Equatoguinean education system and is the primary language used in government and business. Whereas it is not the mother tongue of virtually any of its speakers, the vast majority of the population is proficient in Spanish. The Instituto Cervantes estimates that 87.7% of the population is fluent in Spanish. The proportion of proficient Spanish speakers in Equatorial Guinea exceeds the proportion of proficient speakers in other West and Central African nations of their respective colonial languages. Spanish

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4662-691: The Iberian Peninsula. These languages included Proto-Basque , Iberian , Lusitanian , Celtiberian and Gallaecian . The first documents to show traces of what is today regarded as the precursor of modern Spanish are from the 9th century. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era , the most important influences on the Spanish lexicon came from neighboring Romance languages — Mozarabic ( Andalusi Romance ), Navarro-Aragonese , Leonese , Catalan/Valencian , Portuguese , Galician , Occitan , and later, French and Italian . Spanish also borrowed

4773-453: The League's money was not frequently debased like that of England, English traders stipulated to be paid in pounds of the "Easterlings", which was contracted to "'sterling". The OED dismisses this theory as unlikely, since the stressed first syllable would not have been elided. Encyclopædia Britannica states that the (pre-Norman) Anglo-Saxon kingdoms had silver coins called sterlings and that

4884-529: The Old Spanish sibilants) for details. The Gramática de la lengua castellana , written in Salamanca in 1492 by Elio Antonio de Nebrija , was the first grammar written for a modern European language. According to a popular anecdote, when Nebrija presented it to Queen Isabella I , she asked him what was the use of such a work, and he answered that language is the instrument of empire. In his introduction to

4995-498: The Roman libra , solidus , and denarius . Notable style guides recommend that the pound sign be used without any abbreviation or qualification to indicate sterling (e.g., £12,000). The ISO 4217 code "GBP" (e.g., GBP 12,000) may also be seen should disambiguation become necessary. The ISO 4217 currency code for sterling is "GBP", formed from the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for

5106-571: The Royal Spanish Academy) states that, although the Royal Spanish Academy prefers to use the term español in its publications when referring to the Spanish language, both terms— español and castellano —are regarded as synonymous and equally valid. The term castellano is related to Castile ( Castilla or archaically Castiella ), the kingdom where the language was originally spoken. The name Castile , in turn,

5217-515: The South station. It totalized four services per day, including the two express services. Nevertheless, a few days before the inauguration, the BAGSR requested the Government that only the express services arrived to the new station, due to the other three trains programmed had to end their routes in Miramar and could not change their path to the south station. The request was approved and therefore only

5328-448: The State. ... The other Spanish languages shall also be official in their respective Autonomous Communities... The Royal Spanish Academy ( Real Academia Española ), on the other hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. However, from 1713 to 1923, it called the language castellano . The Diccionario panhispánico de dudas (a language guide published by

5439-502: The U.S. population were of Hispanic or Hispanic American by origin. In turn, 41.8 million people in the United States aged five or older speak Spanish at home, or about 13% of the population. Spanish predominates in the unincorporated territory of Puerto Rico , where it is also an official language along with English. Spanish is by far the most common second language in the country, with over 50 million total speakers if non-native or second-language speakers are included. While English

5550-640: The United Kingdom ("GB") and the first letter of "pound". In historical sources and some specialist banking uses, the abbreviation stg (in various styles) has been used to indicate sterling. Many stocks on the London Stock Exchange are quoted in penny sterling, using the unofficial code "GBX". The exchange rate of sterling against the US dollar is referred to as "cable" in the wholesale foreign exchange markets . The origins of this term are attributed to

5661-451: The administration of Ferdinand Marcos two months later. It remained an official language until the ratification of the present constitution in 1987, in which it was re-designated as a voluntary and optional auxiliary language. Additionally, the constitution, in its Article XIV, stipulates that the Government shall provide the people of the Philippines with a Spanish-language translation of

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5772-581: The adoption of the Carolingian monetary system in England c.  800 . Here is a summary of changes to its value in terms of silver or gold until 1816. The pound was a unit of account in Anglo-Saxon England . By the ninth century it was equal to 240 silver pence . The accounting system of dividing one pound into twenty shillings , a shilling into twelve pence, and a penny into four farthings

5883-460: The city of Buenos Aires with the south of the province. In August 1861, Edward Lumb, a British entrepreneur, requested the concession of a railway line that would run from Constitución to the city of Chascomús , 120 km from Buenos Aires. Lumb offered $ 1,000,000 as guarantee to the Government of Buenos Aires. Lumb's initiative was debated in the Chamber of Deputies , where it was concluded that

5994-731: The classic hispanus or hispanicus took the suffix -one from Vulgar Latin , as happened with other words such as bretón (Breton) or sajón (Saxon). Like the other Romance languages , the Spanish language evolved from Vulgar Latin , which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans during the Second Punic War , beginning in 210 BC. Several pre-Roman languages (also called Paleohispanic languages )—some distantly related to Latin as Indo-European languages , and some that are not related at all—were previously spoken in

6105-474: The common phrase "quids in"). Its origin is unknown: possible derivations include scudo , the name for a number of currency units used in Italy until the 19th century, introduced by Italian immigrants; or from Latin quid via the common phrase quid pro quo , literally, "what for what", or, figuratively, "An equal exchange or substitution". The term "nicker" (also both singular and plural) may also refer to

6216-442: The company began to expand their net, through two main branches. The first extended from Altamirano to Azul (connecting cities as Ranchos and Las Flores) and the other branch from Chascomús to Dolores and Ayacucho (inaugurated in 1880). Some rumours referred to a possible expropriation of the company by the Government of Buenos Aires. Because of that, the company directory sent Frank Parish and C.O. Barker (President and Secretary of

6327-404: The company credit to finance the construction of the railroad. The limited liability company Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway was established, whose statutes were approved in 1863. The company requested Samuel Petro & E. Ladd to take over the construction of the whole railroad, including lands, stations, workshops and rolling stock at a cost of GBP 651,000. For GBP 14,000 the company hired

6438-458: The company should make a monthly trip, being granted for its services. The BAGSR extended the line to Olavarría, opening the service in March 1883. The tracks continued their expansion, reaching General Lamadrid in October. Finally the line reached the city of Bahía Blanca in April 1884, opening the service to passengers on July 7. The travel from Buenos Aires to Bahía Blanca took 24 hours. By 1884

6549-406: The company, respectively) to Buenos Aires with the purpose to deal with the Government to avoid cancellation of the concession. The parties finally make an agreement that established BAGSR compromise to build two extensions of the line: one from Azul to Bahía Blanca and the second from Ayacucho to Tandil . The contract signed in October 1881 ruled that the train would reach the city of Tandil within

6660-464: The compound noun pound sterling was derived from a pound (weight) of these sterlings. The English word pound derives from the Latin expression lībra pondō , in which lībra is a noun meaning 'pound' and pondō is a noun, in the ablative case , meaning 'by weight'. The currency sign for the pound unit of sterling is £ , which (depending on typeface) may be drawn with one or two bars :

6771-495: The consonant written b (a bilabial with plosive and fricative allophones). In modern Spanish, there is no difference between the pronunciation of orthographic b and v . Typical of Spanish (as also of neighboring Gascon extending as far north as the Gironde estuary , and found in a small area of Calabria ), attributed by some scholars to a Basque substratum was the mutation of Latin initial f into h- whenever it

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6882-553: The construction of a new railroad with the terminus station in that city. The works were carried out by the Buenos Aires Western Railway , then owned by the Government of Buenos Aires. The construction of a new railroad limited the possibility of expansion of the BAEPR. One of the branches built by the BAWR extended from Tolosa to Magdalena , acquired by the BAEPR in 1888. The company also tried to expand its business acquiring

6993-404: The country's constitution. In recent years changing attitudes among non-Spanish speaking Filipinos have helped spur a revival of the language, and starting in 2009 Spanish was reintroduced as part of the basic education curriculum in a number of public high schools, becoming the largest foreign language program offered by the public school system, with over 7,000 students studying the language in

7104-517: The downtown to the South West (nearest to the coast) so the train station was far from the residences and hotels where the tourist were hosted. In June 1908, the Congress promulgated Law 5.535, authorizing the BAGSR to build a new station in Mar del Plata. Although the construction of a new station had been approved, a neighbours committee (led by Mar del Plata pioneer Pedro Luro) opposed to the old station

7215-466: The employees of the workshops. This housing complex was named "Colonia Ferroviaria" By the end of the 1940s, the workshops of Escalada had become a sort of factories, where all type of components and spare parts for the locomotives and coaches were manufactured. On 26 September 1886, the first train arrived to Mar del Plata station , in the homonymous city , which was the main tourist destination during summer seasons. The BAGSR expanded its business on

7326-425: The engineer Thomas Rumball to supervise the works. When the works were about to begin, William Wheelwright (owner of Central Argentine Railway ) tried to boycott the works of BAGSR and refused to cooperate with the other British companies that built competitive railways. He also stated that the BAGSR had obtained more benefits than his own company (CAR) to build the line. The Governor of Buenos Aires refused to sign

7437-628: The express services stopped at the new station. Spanish language Spanish ( español ) or Castilian ( castellano ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe . Today, it is a global language with about 500 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain , and about 600 million when including second language speakers. Spanish

7548-430: The fact that from the mid-19th century, the sterling/dollar exchange rate was transmitted via transatlantic cable. Historically almost every British coin had a widely recognised nickname, such as "tanner" for the sixpence and "bob" for the shilling . Since decimalisation these have mostly fallen out of use except as parts of proverbs. A common slang term for the pound unit is " quid " (singular and plural, except in

7659-450: The following table: Spanish is marked by palatalization of the Latin double consonants ( geminates ) nn and ll (thus Latin annum > Spanish año , and Latin anellum > Spanish anillo ). The consonant written u or v in Latin and pronounced [w] in Classical Latin had probably " fortified " to a bilabial fricative /β/ in Vulgar Latin. In early Spanish (but not in Catalan or Portuguese) it merged with

7770-466: The former British colony of Belize (known until 1973 as British Honduras ) where English is the sole official language, according to the 2022 census, 54% of the total population are able to speak the language. Due to its proximity to Spanish-speaking countries and small existing native Spanish speaking minority, Trinidad and Tobago has implemented Spanish language teaching into its education system. The Trinidadian and Tobagonian government launched

7881-454: The grammar, dated 18 August 1492, Nebrija wrote that "... language was always the companion of empire." From the 16th century onwards, the language was taken to the Spanish-discovered America and the Spanish East Indies via Spanish colonization of America . Miguel de Cervantes , author of Don Quixote , is such a well-known reference in the world that Spanish is often called la lengua de Cervantes ("the language of Cervantes"). In

7992-514: The intense traffic of passengers, the railway station exceeded its capacity and the Municipality demanded the company to increase the facilities. The company had always denied to this request alleging that the station was only overcrowded during two months per year (the period of summer season in Argentina). During the first decade of the 20th century, the urban development of Mar del Plata moved from

8103-428: The landscape was unsuitable. Consequently, the line's route was moved to La Paz (current Lomas de Zamora), where the field was more solid to extend the tracks. The route would extend from La Paz to Samborombón. Lumb tried to get money in Buenos Aires to finance the construction of the railroad, but his attempts were not successful. As a result, he traveled to London, where bankers Baring and David Robertson agreed to give

8214-547: The language happened in Toledo , a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile , in the 13th century. Spanish colonialism in the early modern period spurred the introduction of the language to overseas locations, most notably to the Americas. As a Romance language, Spanish is a descendant of Latin. Around 75% of modern Spanish vocabulary is Latin in origin, including Latin borrowings from Ancient Greek. Alongside English and French , it

8325-479: The language's hegemony in an intensely centralising Spanish state were established from the 18th century onward. Other European territories in which it is also widely spoken include Gibraltar and Andorra . Spanish is also spoken by immigrant communities in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom , France , Italy , and Germany . Spanish is an official language of the European Union . Today,

8436-487: The letter ⟨L⟩ for pound derives from medieval Latin documents: "L" was the abbreviation for libra , the Roman pound (weight), which in time became an English unit of weight defined as the tower pound . A "pound sterling" was literally a tower pound (weight) of sterling silver . In the British pre-decimal ( duodecimal ) currency system, the term £sd (or Lsd) for pounds, shillings and pence referred to

8547-576: The line should be extended to Dolores or any city determined by the National Government. The company built a branch from Altamirano to Río Salado (current General Belgrano Partido ) in 1871. One year later the line extended to Las Flores and finally reached the city of Azul in 1876. Some of the stations built were Ranchos, Villanueva, Bonnement, Salado, Chas, San Pedro (then Newton), Rosas, Las Flores, Colorado (then Dr. D. Harosteguy), Pardo, Cacharí, Parish, Pinedo and Azul. The branch to Chascomús

8658-686: The majority of the Spanish speakers live in Hispanic America . Nationally, Spanish is the official language—either de facto or de jure —of Argentina , Bolivia (co-official with 36 indigenous languages), Chile , Colombia , Costa Rica , Cuba , Dominican Republic , Ecuador , El Salvador , Guatemala , Honduras , Mexico (co-official with 63 indigenous languages), Nicaragua , Panama , Paraguay (co-official with Guaraní ), Peru (co-official with Quechua , Aymara , and "the other indigenous languages"), Puerto Rico (co-official with English), Uruguay , and Venezuela . Spanish language has

8769-711: The northwest of the African mainland. The Spanish spoken in the Canary Islands traces its origins back to the Castilian conquest in the 15th century , and, in addition to a resemblance to Western Andalusian speech patterns, it also features strong influence from the Spanish varieties spoken in the Americas, which in turn have also been influenced historically by Canarian Spanish. The Spanish spoken in North Africa by native bilingual speakers of Arabic or Berber who also speak Spanish as

8880-576: The origin of the word "sterling". The Oxford English Dictionary states that the "most plausible" etymology is a derivation from the Old English steorra for "star" with the added diminutive suffix -ling , to yield "little star". The reference is to the silver penny used in Norman England in the twelfth century, which bore a small star. Another theory holds that the Hanseatic League

8991-529: The population. Many northern Moroccans have rudimentary knowledge of Spanish, with Spanish being particularly significant in areas adjacent to Ceuta and Melilla. Spanish also has a presence in the education system of the country (through either selected education centers implementing Spain's education system, primarily located in the North, or the availability of Spanish as foreign language subject in secondary education). In Western Sahara , formerly Spanish Sahara ,

9102-536: The pound. The currency of all the Crown Dependencies ( Guernsey , Jersey , Isle of Man ) and a third of British Overseas Territories ( British Antarctic Territory ; Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ; Gibraltar ; and Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha ) is either sterling or pegged to sterling at par. The other British Overseas Territories have

9213-594: The pound. The symbol for the shilling was " s ." – not from the first letter of "shilling", but from the Latin solidus . The symbol for the penny was " d .", from the French denier , from the Latin denarius (the solidus and denarius were Roman coins). A mixed sum of shillings and pence, such as 3 shillings and 6 pence, was written as "3/6" or "3 s . 6 d ." and spoken as "three and six" or "three and sixpence" except for "1/1", "2/1" etc., which were spoken as "one and

9324-522: The profits increased year after year. In 1870 the line carried 516,993 passenger and 54,116 tonnes of freight. The first serious obstacle that the engineers found was the Riachuelo , a stream that defines the southern boundary of the Buenos Aires federal district. It was necessary to build a double bridge (because of the double track that ran between Constitución to Barracas) to cross the stream. For that purpose, three iron cylinders were placed in both sides of

9435-463: The railroad (77 km from Buenos Aires to Jeppener ) was inaugurated on August 14, 1865. By December it had been extended to Chascomús (113 km). A total of 11 estaciones were built on this path: Plaza Constitución, Barracas al Sud (current Avellaneda ), Lomas de Zamora , Glew , San Vicente (current Alejandro Korn ), Domselaar , Ferrari (then Coronel Brandsen ), Jeppener, Facio (then Altamirano ), Gándara and Chascomús . The rolling stock

9546-752: The railroad was necessary for the development of the Argentinian nation. Juan B. Alberdi stated "The railroad will join the Argentine Republic better than all the congresses... without the 'iron road' that connects their extremes, the country will be always divisible and divided against all the Legislative decrees". Finally, on May 27, 1862, the Buenos Aires Legislature promulgated the Law that authorized President of Argentina, Bartolomé Mitre , to enter into

9657-513: The reign of King Offa of Mercia (757–796), who introduced a "sterling" coin made by physically dividing a Tower pound (5,400 grains, 349.9 grams) of silver into 240 parts. In practice, the weights of the coins were not consistent, 240 of them seldom added up to a full pound; there were no shilling or pound coins and these units were used only as an accounting convenience . Halfpennies and farthings worth 1 ⁄ 2 and 1 ⁄ 4 penny respectively were also minted, but small change

9768-413: The same as that of the Buenos Aires Western Railway and the company was able to build a tram line to Monserrat and other strategic points in the city of Buenos Aires. The contract was officialized by the Government of Argentina on June 12, 1862. On November 12 the railroad route was approved, according to the maps proposed by the concession. The Government wanted the railway to cross San Vicente but

9879-623: The shops were equipped to make every part of a locomotive or a railway carriage. When the company took over the working of the Bahía Blanca and North Western Railway from the Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway company in 1925 it acquired the latter's workshops in Bahia Blanca. At the same time the workshops began their activities in Remedios de Escalada, the company draft a project to build houses for

9990-519: The stream, filling them with concrete. The bridges were placed on those cylinders. The first bridge built by the BAGSR over the Riachuelo lasted 44 years, so in 1909 it was replaced by a moveable bridge that operated until 1982, when the line was electrified and a new bridge (built in concrete) replaced the old iron structure. By 1880 the GSR line reached 562 km built. The contract of concession ruled that

10101-415: The term castellano to define the official language of the whole of Spain, in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas (lit. "the other Spanish languages "). Article III reads as follows: El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. ... Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas... Castilian is the official Spanish language of

10212-480: The term español (Spanish). According to the Royal Spanish Academy, español derives from the Occitan word espaignol and that, in turn, derives from the Vulgar Latin * hispaniolus ('of Hispania'). Hispania was the Roman name for the entire Iberian Peninsula . There are other hypotheses apart from the one suggested by the Royal Spanish Academy. Spanish philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal suggested that

10323-444: The theories of Ramón Menéndez Pidal , local sociolects of Vulgar Latin evolved into Spanish, in the north of Iberia, in an area centered in the city of Burgos , and this dialect was later brought to the city of Toledo , where the written standard of Spanish was first developed, in the 13th century. In this formative stage, Spanish developed a strongly differing variant from its close cousin, Leonese , and, according to some authors,

10434-623: The third most used language on the Internet , after English and Chinese. Spanish is the official language of Spain . Upon the emergence of the Castilian Crown as the dominant power in the Iberian Peninsula by the end of the Middle Ages, the Romance vernacular associated with this polity became increasingly used in instances of prestige and influence, and the distinction between "Castilian" and "Spanish" started to become blurred. Hard policies imposing

10545-720: The three subsequent years. The prolongation of the line from Ayacucho began in 1882. The station was built on a land that had belonged to Mari Blas Dhers, acquired by the company for $ 200,000. On May 6, 1883, the first train arrived to Tandil. On September 1 the definitive opening of the line was promulgated. By 1884, many towns had been founded in Buenos Aires Province. Some of them were Azul (established 1832), Esperanza (now General Alvear , 1854), Las Flores and 25 de Mayo (both 1856), Tapalqué (1863), Saladillo (1864), Arenales (then Ayacucho , 1866), Olavarría (1867) and Benito Juárez (1874). Moving among those cities

10656-552: The workshops was surpassed due to the growth of the line. There was not enough place to enhance the workshop so the company managers considered the possibility of installing new facilities on some point of the line. Therefore, the new workshops were built in 1901 at Remedios de Escalada , 11 km from the Plaza Constitución, were the largest in South America, and employed nearly 2,700 men. Although primarily for repair work,

10767-447: Was a real odyssey. In most of cases the vehicle used was the "galera", a big carriage with capacity for many passengers. Those vehicles transport guns to repel malones and assaults, and could cover 80 km in a day. In 1866 the Government of Argentina and the shipping company Aguirre y Murga signed a deal to establish a passenger and freight service between Buenos Aires, Bahía Blanca and Carmen de Patagones . The contract ruled that

10878-463: Was adopted from the livre carolingienne system introduced by Charlemagne to the Frankish Empire . The penny was abbreviated to "d", from denarius , the Roman equivalent of the penny; the shilling to "s" from solidus (written with a long s , ſ , later evolving into a simple slash , / ); and the pound to "L" (subsequently £ ) from Libra or Livre . The origins of sterling lie in

10989-635: Was composed by 8 locomotives (manufactured by Robert Stephenson and Company ), 38 first and second class wagons, by Brown, Marshalls and Co. Ltd. and 184 wagons for freight transport. The line was single track with the exception of the path between Constitución and Barracas, where a double track was built to facilitate the transit of the trains due to the workshops and rolling stock depots operated in Barracas. As time passed, some station were added, such as Barracas al Norte (current Hipólito Yrigoyen, 1866), Burzaco (1867) and Lanús (1868). The Great Southern Railway did not extend their tracks until 1870 but

11100-406: Was demolished, requesting its preservation. Percy Clarke, manager of the company had to accept the neighbours' claim. The other point of conflict with the inhabitants of the city was the path of the new line. While the company wanted to build the new station near to the coast (to reduce costs), the neighbours demanded the station should be located far from the most populated areas of the city. Finally,

11211-631: Was developed in the cities of Toledo , in the 13th to 16th centuries, and Madrid , from the 1570s. The development of the Spanish sound system from that of Vulgar Latin exhibits most of the changes that are typical of Western Romance languages , including lenition of intervocalic consonants (thus Latin vīta > Spanish vida ). The diphthongization of Latin stressed short e and o —which occurred in open syllables in French and Italian, but not at all in Catalan or Portuguese—is found in both open and closed syllables in Spanish, as shown in

11322-604: Was distinguished by a heavy Basque influence (see Iberian Romance languages ). This distinctive dialect spread to southern Spain with the advance of the Reconquista , and meanwhile gathered a sizable lexical influence from the Arabic of Al-Andalus , much of it indirectly, through the Romance Mozarabic dialects (some 4,000 Arabic -derived words, make up around 8% of the language today). The written standard for this new language

11433-409: Was extended to Dolores (opening this new section in 1874). The new stations built were Monasterio, Lezama, Guerrero, Taillade (current Castelli), Sevigné and Dolores (km 203). The original Lomas de Zamora station building was demolished at the beginning of the 1870s to make way for a more modern structure. The new stations built were: Temperley (1871), Adrogué (1872) and Banfield (1873). Temperley

11544-713: Was followed by a vowel that did not diphthongize. The h- , still preserved in spelling, is now silent in most varieties of the language, although in some Andalusian and Caribbean dialects, it is still aspirated in some words. Because of borrowings from Latin and neighboring Romance languages, there are many f -/ h - doublets in modern Spanish: Fernando and Hernando (both Spanish for "Ferdinand"), ferrero and herrero (both Spanish for "smith"), fierro and hierro (both Spanish for "iron"), and fondo and hondo (both words pertaining to depth in Spanish, though fondo means "bottom", while hondo means "deep"); additionally, hacer ("to make")

11655-496: Was given approval to extend its tracks from Tres Arroyos to Bahía Blanca. The works were concluded in December 1891. In 1866 the Buenos Aires and Ensenada Port Railway opened its services to public. The project was to build a new port to replace the Port of Buenos Aires but this project was cancelled and the port never built. The foundation of the city of La Plata in 1882 brought with it

11766-557: Was inaugurated. The station would be moved some years later to its current location. In 1877 the BAGSR built new warehouses for the freight trains in Constitución station and acquired land to build a freight station (Solá, in Buenos Aires). The company also increased the capacity of the Barracas al Sud station's warehouses. In the same year all the tracks were replaced and the double track was extended from Barracas to Altamirano. In 1871

11877-593: Was named, when it opened in 1873. After president Juan Perón nationalised the Argentine railway network in 1948 it became part of the state-owned company Ferrocarril General Roca . The market of Plaza Constitución in Buenos Aires was served by carts coming from the South of the province that crossed the Riachuelo through the "Puente de Gálvez". As this transport was too costly, the products could not be carried on very long distances. In 1860, 7,416 carts with wool and leather had arrived to Constitución (each vehicle had

11988-462: Was revoked by Michel Temer after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff . In many border towns and villages along Paraguay and Uruguay, a mixed language known as Portuñol is spoken. Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish-speaking country located entirely in Africa, with the language introduced during the Spanish colonial period . Enshrined in the constitution as an official language (alongside French and Portuguese), Spanish features prominently in

12099-521: Was the fourth-most-traded currency in the foreign exchange market , after the United States dollar , the euro , and the Japanese yen . Together with those three currencies and the renminbi , it forms the basket of currencies that calculate the value of IMF special drawing rights . As of late 2022, sterling is also the fourth most-held reserve currency in global reserves . The Bank of England

12210-563: Was the origin of its definition, manufacture, and name: the German name for the Baltic is Ostsee ( ' East Sea ' ) and from this the Baltic merchants were called Osterlings ( ' Easterlings ' ). In 1260, Henry III granted them a charter of protection and land for their kontor , the Steelyard of London , which by the 1340s was also called Esterlingeshalle ( ' Easterlings Hall ' ). Because

12321-406: Was then a small town with small farms extending from Lanús to Burzaco. The nearest station was Lomas de Zamora where some houses stood alongside the main road (today Pavón Avenue). Jorge Temperley, who owned many plots of land in the area, expressed his interest in building a train stop for which he donated the field where the station would be built. Therefore, in 1871 the primitive Temperley station

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