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106-697: This reserve is a part of the Ecuadorian system of reserves and preserves and extends from the mountains of the Sierra to the western edge of the coastal rainforest in the Esmeraldas region. This region has not been extensively farmed and replanted with eucalyptus or pine trees, as so much of the interandean highlands have been, so the preservation of the plant species here is a very important effort. The plants here have evolved adaptations to high altitude (reduced water availability, low temperatures and high winds), but since

212-588: 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

318-482: A decrease from 6.1% in 2010. Ecuador's mainstream culture is defined by its Hispanic Mestizo majority, and like their ancestry, it is traditionally of Spanish heritage, influenced in different degrees by Amerindian traditions, and in some cases by African elements. The first and most substantial wave of modern immigration to Ecuador consisted of Spanish colonists, following the arrival of Europeans in 1499. A lower number of other Europeans and North Americans migrated to

424-477: A dietary staple is the yuca , elsewhere called cassava . Many fruits are available in this region, including bananas, tree grapes, and peach palms. Early literature in colonial Ecuador, as in the rest of Spanish America, was influenced by the Spanish Golden Age . One of the earliest examples is Jacinto Collahuazo , an indigenous chief of a northern village in today's Ibarra, born in the late 1600s. Despite

530-517: 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

636-476: 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

742-412: A global biodiversity hotspot. Because of the size of the park, there is a large selection of fauna located within the nature reserve . 500 species of bird along with anteaters , sloths , ocelots , culpeos , and deer are commonly found in the park. Due to the lakes and rivers of the park, many aquatic and amphibious animals are found there. Many herbaceous species of plants are contained in

848-580: A high profile, while Ecuador's specialties include Ecuavolley , a three-person variation of volleyball. Bullfighting is practiced at a professional level in Quito, during the annual festivities that commemorate the Spanish founding of the city, and it also features in festivals in many smaller towns. Rugby union is found to some extent in Ecuador, with teams in Guayaquil, Quito and Cuenca. Ecuador has won three medals in

954-471: 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

1060-526: A mixture of rites and icons. There is a small number of Eastern Orthodox Christians , indigenous religions, Muslims (see Islam in Ecuador ), Buddhists and Baháʼís . There are about 185,000 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), and over 80,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in the country. The "Jewish Community of Ecuador" (Comunidad Judía del Ecuador) has its seat in Quito and has approximately 300 members. Nevertheless, this number

1166-498: 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

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1272-491: A prominent essayist and novelist; Juan Leon Mera , famous for his work "Cumanda" or "Tragedy among Savages" and the Ecuadorian National Anthem; Luis A. Martínez with A la Costa , Dolores Veintimilla , and others. Contemporary Ecuadorian writers include the novelist Jorge Enrique Adoum ; the poet Jorge Carrera Andrade ; the essayist Benjamín Carrión ; the poets Medardo Angel Silva , Jorge Carrera Andrade ;

1378-599: 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

1484-562: A second language with varying degrees of facility. By the late 1980s, some younger Indigenous Ecuadorians no longer learned Quichua. Although the Indigenous people of the Oriente first came into contact with Europeans in the 16th century, the encounters were more sporadic than those of most of the country's indigenous population. Until the 19th century, most non-Indigenous Americans entering the region were either traders or missionaries. Beginning in

1590-518: 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

1696-480: A traditional hierarchy of European Ecuadorian, Mestizo , Afro-Ecuadorians, and then others. Her review depicts this hierarchy as a consequence of colonial attitudes and of the terminology of colonial legal distinctions. Spanish-born persons residing in the New World (peninsulares) were at the top of the social hierarchy, followed by criollos , born of two Spanish parents in the colonies. The 19th century usage of Mestizo

1802-426: A variety of grains (especially rice and corn) or potatoes. In the coastal region, seafood is very popular, with fish, shrimp and ceviche being key parts of the diet. Generally, ceviches are served with fried plantain ( chifles y patacones), popcorn or tostado . Plantain - and peanut-based dishes are the basis of most coastal meals. Encocados (dishes that contain a coconut sauce) are also very popular. Churrasco

1908-416: 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

2014-700: Is Sanjuanito. It is originally from the North of Ecuador ( Otavalo -Imbabura). Sanjuanito is a danceable music used in the festivities of the Mestizo and Indigenous culture. According to the Ecuadorian musicologist Segundo Luis Moreno, Sanjuanito was danced by Indigenous people during San Juan Bautista's birthday. This important date was established by the Spaniards on 24 June, coincidentally the same date when Indigenous people celebrated their rituals of Inti Raymi . Ecuadorian cuisine

2120-640: 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 is the official language of 20 countries , as well as one of the six official languages of

2226-451: Is a staple food of the coastal region, especially Guayaquil . Arroz con menestra y carne asada (rice with beans and grilled beef) is one of the traditional dishes of Guayaquil, as is fried plantain which is often served with it. This region is a leading producer of bananas, cacao beans (to make chocolate), shrimp, tilapia, mangos and passion fruit, among other products. In the Amazon region,

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2332-552: Is declining because young people leave the country towards the United States of America or Israel. The Community has a Jewish Center with a synagogue, a country club and a cemetery. It supports the "Albert Einstein School", where Jewish history, religion and Hebrew classes are offered. Since 2004, there has also been a Chabad house in Quito. There are very small communities in Cuenca and Ambato . The "Comunidad de Culto Israelita" reunites

2438-455: Is diverse, varying with the altitude and associated agricultural conditions. Most regions in Ecuador follow the traditional three course meal of soup, a second course which includes rice and a protein such as meat or fish, and then dessert and coffee to finish. Supper is usually lighter, and sometimes consists only of coffee or herbal tea with bread. In the highland region, pork, chicken, beef, and cuy (guinea pig) are popular and are served with

2544-449: 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

2650-523: Is football (soccer). Its best known professional teams include Barcelona and Emelec from Guayaquil ; LDU Quito , Deportivo Quito , and El Nacional from Quito; Olmedo from Riobamba ; and Deportivo Cuenca from Cuenca. Currently the most successful football club in Ecuador is LDU Quito , and it is the only Ecuadorian club that have won the Copa Libertadores , the Copa Sudamericana and

2756-510: Is found primarily in the country's northwest coastal region. Afro-Ecuadorians form a majority (70%) in the province of Esmeraldas and also have an important concentration in the Valle del Chota in the Imbabura Province . They can be also found in important numbers in Quito and Guayaquil . Sierra Indigenous people had an estimated population of 1.5 to 2 million in the early 1980s and live in

2862-740: 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

2968-416: Is mostly found in the coastal northern province of Esmeraldas. According to local fables, this is largely owing to the 17th century shipwreck of a slave-trading galleon off the northern coast of Ecuador. Ecuador's indigenous communities are integrated into the mainstream culture to varying degrees, but some may also practice their own indigenous cultures, particularly the more remote indigenous communities of

3074-483: Is physical appearance; others include dress, language, community membership, and self-identification. A geography of ethnicity remained well-defined until the surge in migration that began in the 1950s. European Ecuadorians resided primarily in larger cities. Mestizos lived in small towns scattered throughout the countryside. Indigenous peoples formed the bulk of the Sierra rural populace, although Mestizos filled this role in

3180-721: Is related to Castile ( Castilla or archaically Castiella ), the kingdom where the language was originally spoken. The name Castile , in turn, 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

3286-806: 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

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3392-443: Is the "national genre of music." Through the years, many cultures have influenced to establish new types of music. There are also different kinds of traditional music like albazo, pasacalle, fox incaico, tonada, capishca, Bomba highly established in afro-Ecuadorian society like Esmeraldas , and so on. Tecnocumbia and Rockola are clear examples of foreign cultures' influence. One of the most traditional forms of dancing in Ecuador

3498-804: 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

3604-530: The Recopa Sudamericana ; they were also runners-up in the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup . The matches of the Ecuador national team are the most-watched sporting events in the country. Ecuador qualified for the final rounds of the 2002 , 2006 , and 2014 FIFA World Cups . The 2002 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign was considered a huge success for the country and its inhabitants. Ecuador finished in 2nd place on

3710-606: The Amazon basin . Spanish is spoken as the first language by more than 90% of the population, and as a first or second language by more than 98%. Part of Ecuador's population can speak Amerindian languages, in some cases as a second language. Two percent of the population speak only Amerindian languages. Most Ecuadorians speak Spanish, though many speak Amerindian languages such as Kichwa . People that identify as Mestizo, in general, speak Spanish as their native language. Other Amerindian languages spoken in Ecuador include Awapit (spoken by

3816-557: 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)

3922-562: 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

4028-534: 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 is Mexico . Spanish is part of the Ibero-Romance language group , in which

4134-753: The "Elegy to the Dead of Atahualpa", a poem written by Collahuazo, which describes the sadness and impotence of the Inca people of having lost their king Atahualpa. Other early Ecuadorian writers include the Jesuits Juan Bautista Aguirre , born in Daule in 1725, and Father Juan de Velasco , born in Riobamba in 1727. De Velasco wrote about the nations and chiefdoms that had existed in the Kingdom of Quito (today Ecuador) before

4240-475: 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 is also one of the most taught foreign languages throughout

4346-638: The 1950s, however, the government built roads and encouraged settlers from the Sierra to colonize the Amazon River Basin. Virtually all remaining Indigenous Ecuadorians were brought into increasing contact with national society. The interaction between Indigenous Americans and foreigners had a profound impact on the indigenous way of life. In the late 1970s, roughly 30,000 Quichua speakers and 15,000 Shuar and Achuar peoples lived in Oriente Indigenous communities. Quichua speakers (sometimes referred to as

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4452-484: The 1980s group conflicts between rival shamans still erupted into full-scale feuds with loss of life. The Oriente Indigenous population dropped precipitously during the initial period of intensive contact with outsiders. The destruction of their crops by Mestizos laying claim to indigenous lands, the rapid exposure to diseases to which Indians lacked immunity, and the extreme social disorganization all contributed to increased mortality and decreased birth rates. One study of

4558-404: 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,

4664-574: 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

4770-457: The Achuar peoples were concentrated in southeastern Ecuador. Some also lived in northeastern Peru. Traditionally, both groups relied on migration to resolve intracommunity conflict and to limit the ecological damage to the tropical forest caused by slash-and-burn agriculture. The Yumbo, Shuar and Achuar peoples depended on agriculture as their primary means of subsistence. Manioc , the main staple,

4876-515: The Atlantic by Spaniards and other Europeans. The modern Ecuadorian population is principally descended from these three ancestral groups. As of the 2022 census, 77.5% of the population identified as Mestizo , a mix of Spanish and Indigenous American ancestry, up from 71.9% in 2000. The percentage of the population which identifies as European Ecuadorian was 2.2%, which fell from 6.1% in 2010 and 10.5% in 2000. Indigenous Ecuadorians account for 7.7% of

4982-948: The Awá), A'ingae (spoken by the Cofan), Shuar Chicham (spoken by the Shuar), Achuar Chicham (spoken by the Achuar), Shiwiar (spoken by the Shiwiar), Cha'palaachi (spoken by the Chachi), Tsa'fiki (spoken by the Tsáchila), Paicoca (spoken by the Siona and Secoya), and Wao Tededeo (spoken by the Waorani). Though most features of Ecuadorian Spanish are those universal to the Spanish-speaking world, there are several idiosyncrasies. According to

5088-493: The Christian Quichua speakers, lived in more remote areas. Their mode of horticulture was similar to that of the non-Christian Yumbo people, although they supplemented crop production with hunting and some livestock raising. Shamans ( curanderos ) played a pivotal role in social relations in both groups. As the main leaders and the focus of local conflicts, shamans were believed to both cure and kill through magical means. In

5194-568: The Ecuadorian National Institute of Statistics and Census, 91.95% of the country's population have a religion, 7.94% are atheists and 0.11% are agnostics. Among those with a religion, 80.44% are Roman Catholic , 11.30% are Protestants , and 8.26% other (mainly Jewish, Buddhists and Latter-day Saints). In the rural parts of Ecuador, indigenous beliefs and Catholicism are sometimes syncretized . Most festivals and annual parades are based on religious celebrations, many incorporating

5300-639: 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

5406-691: 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

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5512-540: The Indiginist Movement; Manuel Rendón , Jaime Zapata , Enrique Tábara , Aníbal Villacís , Theo Constante , León Ricaurte and Estuardo Maldonado from the Informalist Movement; and Luis Burgos Flor with his abstract, Futuristic style. The indigenous people of Tigua, Ecuador are also world-renowned for their traditional paintings . The most popular sport in Ecuador , as in most South American countries,

5618-510: The Jews of Guayaquil . This community works independently from the "Jewish Community of Ecuador". Jewish visitors to Ecuador can also take advantage of Jewish resources as they travel and keep kosher there, even in the Amazon Rainforest . The city has also synagogue of Messianic Judaism . The music of Ecuador has a long history. Pasillo is a genre of Indigenous Latin music. In Ecuador it

5724-529: 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

5830-493: The Olympic Games. 20 km racewalker Jefferson Pérez took gold in the 1996 games, and silver 12 years later . Pérez also set a world best in the 2003 World Championships of 1:17:21 for the 20 km distance. Cyclist Richard Carapaz , the winner of 2019 Giro d'Italia , won a gold medal at the road cycling race of the 2020 Summer Olympics . Spanish language This is an accepted version of this page Spanish ( español ) or Castilian ( castellano )

5936-458: The Shuar people in the 1950s found that the group between ten and nineteen years of age was smaller than expected. This was the group that had been youngest and most vulnerable during the initial contact with national society. Normal population growth rates began to reestablish themselves after approximately the first decade of such contact. According to the most-recent 2022 national census, 2.2% of Ecuadorians self-identified as European Ecuadorian,

6042-424: 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 the term castellano to define the official language of

6148-502: 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

6254-401: The Yumbo people) grew out of the detribalization of members of many different groups after the Spanish conquest. Subject to the influence of Quichua-speaking missionaries and traders, various elements of the Yumbo people adopted the language as a lingua franca and gradually lost their previous languages and tribal origins. Yumbo people were scattered throughout the Oriente, whereas the Shuar and

6360-399: 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

6466-410: The areas bordering the reserve boundaries. Unfortunately it is often the case that the park rangers struggle to patrol the long borders of the reserve and are ill -equipped to manage conflicts when they arise. During the early 1990s, areas of the reserve and its buffer zone were included in a mineral surveying program called PRODEMINCA which was partially funded by the World Bank and aimed to support

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6572-409: The areas with few Indigenous peoples. Most Afro-Ecuadorians lived in Esmeraldas Province , with small enclaves found in the Carchi and Imbabura provinces. Pressure on Sierra land resources and the dissolution of the traditional hacienda, however, increased the numbers of Indigenous peoples migrating to the Costa, the Oriente, and the cities. By the 1980s, Sierra Indigenous people—or Indigenous peoples in

6678-432: The arrival of the Spanish. His historical accounts are nationalistic, featuring a romantic perspective of precolonial history. Famous authors from the late colonial and early republic period include: Eugenio Espejo a printer and main author of the first newspaper in Ecuadorian colonial times; Jose Joaquin de Olmedo (born in Guayaquil), famous for his ode to Simón Bolívar titled La Victoria de Junin ; Juan Montalvo ,

6784-566: 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

6890-476: The conditions here are not as severe as those at higher altitudes, the adaptations of these plants are not as extreme as those of the paramo, at 3600–4800 meters. The reserve is particularly important because it safeguards one of the few remaining examples of Ecuador's coastal rainforest , a much threatened ecosystem which forms part of the Choco ; an internationally recognised bio-region which extends from Southern Panama to northern Peru and has been rated as

6996-446: 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

7102-405: The country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in smaller numbers, Poles, Lithuanians, English, Irish, and Croats during and after the Second World War. Since African slavery was not the workforce of the Spanish colonies in the Andes Mountains of South America, given the subjugation of the indigenous people through evangelism and encomiendas , the minority population of African descent

7208-404: 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

7314-467: The development of extractive industries in Ecuador . This program has resulted in protests from communities living in the surveyed areas who are concerned that the publication of maps of mineral deposits will attract independent miners to the area. To date these protests have been successful in preventing publication of the project data and have also resulted in the withdrawal of international mining interests from Intag, an area of cloud forest which lies to

7420-408: The early repression and discrimination of the native people by the Spanish, Collahuazo learned to read and write in Castilian , but his work was written in Quechua . The use of the Quipu was banned by the Spanish, and in order to preserve their work, many Inca poets had to resort to the use of the Latin alphabet to write in their native Quechua language. The history behind the Inca drama "Ollantay",

7526-450: 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

7632-466: 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

7738-599: The general population. They enjoy limited participation in national institutions and are often excluded from social and economic opportunities available to more privileged groups. However, some groups of Indigenous people, such as the Otavalo people , have increased their socioeconomic status to extent that they enjoy a higher standard of living than many other Indigenous groups in Ecuador and many Mestizos of their area. Visible markers of ethnic affiliation, especially hairstyle, dress, and language, separate Indigenous Ecuadorians from

7844-584: 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

7950-543: The intermontane valleys of the Andes. Prolonged contact with Hispanic culture, which dates back to the conquest, has had a homogenizing effect, reducing the variation among the indigenous Sierra tribes. The Indigenous people of the Sierra are separated from European Ecuadorians and Mestizos by a caste-like gulf. They are marked as a disadvantaged group; to be an Indigenous person in Ecuador is to be stigmatized. Poverty rates are higher and literacy rates are lower among Indigenous than

8056-527: 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 the language happened in Toledo , a prominent city of the Kingdom of Castile , in

8162-535: 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,

8268-686: 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

8374-711: 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

8480-591: The novelist Enrique Gil Gilbert ; the novelist Jorge Icaza (author of the novel Huasipungo , translated to many languages); the short story author Pablo Palacio; the novelist Alicia Yanez Cossio ; U.S. based Ecuadorian poet Emanuel Xavier . The best known art styles from Ecuador belonged to the Escuela Quiteña , which developed from the 16th to 18th centuries, examples of which are on display in various old churches in Quito. Ecuadorian painters include: Eduardo Kingman , Oswaldo Guayasamín and Camilo Egas from

8586-480: The oldest literary piece in existence for any indigenous language in America, shares some similarities with the work of Collahuazo. Collahuazo was imprisoned, and all of his work burned. The existence of his literary work came to light many centuries later, when a crew of masons was restoring the walls of a colonial church in Quito, and found a hidden manuscript. The salvaged fragment is a Spanish translation from Quechua of

8692-636: 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 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

8798-400: The park with a guide. The elevation of the park ranges from 300 to 4990 meters. The Cotacachi Volcano is located in the park and can be climbed however it is recommended that any person climbing to the peak have some experience in rock climbing . This lake does contain some hot springs . Despite its status as a protected area and the international recognition of its ecological importance,

8904-437: The park. Shrubs along with a wide variety of trees, vines and ferns live here. There are over 2000 identified types of flora in general. This 200m deep lake lies in a volcanic crater . Three volcanic domes emerge from the lake at various spots. The reserve has volcanic lakes and waterfalls along with rapids. A tribe of Cayapa Indians and various Afro-Ecuadorian communities live here. Eight-day walks are available to book in

9010-467: The population and 4.8% of the population consists of Afro-Ecuadorians . Other statistics put the Mestizo population at 55% to 65% and the Indigenous population at 25%. Genetic research indicates that the ancestry of Ecuadorian Mestizos is predominantly Indigenous. There are five major ethnic groups in Ecuador : Mestizo , European Ecuadorian , Afro-Ecuadorian , Indigenous , and Montubio. The 2022 census reported Mestizos constitute more than 77.5% of

9116-481: The population, 7.7% Indigenous American, 7.7% Montubio, 4.8% Afro-Ecuadorian and 2.2% European Ecuadorian. Ecuador 's population primarily descends from Spanish immigrants and South American Indigenous peoples , admixed with descendants of enslaved sub-Saharan Africans who arrived to work on coastal plantations in the sixteenth century. The mix of these groups is described as Mestizo or Cholo . According to Kluck, writing in 1989, ethnic groups in Ecuador have had

9222-481: 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 ,

9328-613: The process of switching their ethnic identity to that of Mestizos—lived on Costa plantations, in Quito, Guayaquil, and other cities, and in colonization areas in the Oriente and the Costa. Indeed, Sierra Indigenous peoples residing in the coastal region substantially outnumbered the remaining original Costa inhabitants, the Chachi and Tsáchila Indigenous people. In the late 1980s, analysts estimated that there were only about 4,000 Chachi and Tsáchila Indigenous peoples. Some Afro-Ecuadorians had migrated from

9434-568: The qualifiers behind Argentina and above the team that would become World Champion, Brazil . In the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Ecuador finished ahead of Poland and Costa Rica to come in second to Germany in Group A in the 2006 World Cup. Futsal , often referred to as índor , is particularly popular for mass participation. There is considerable interest in tennis in the middle and upper classes of Ecuadorian society, and several Ecuadorian professional players have attained international fame. Basketball has

9540-557: The recipient group; such switches were made without resort to subterfuge. Moreover, the precise criteria for defining ethnic groups varies considerably. The vocabulary that more prosperous Mestizos and European Ecuadorians used in describing ethnic groups mixes social and biological characteristics. Ethnic affiliation thus is dynamic; Indigenous Ecuadorians often become Mestizos, and prosperous Mestizos seek to improve their status sufficiently to be considered European Ecuadorian. Ethnic identity reflects numerous characteristics, only one of which

9646-554: The remote region of the Ecuadorian-Colombian border to the towns and cities of Esmeraldas. Afro-Ecuadorians are an ethnic group in Ecuador who are descendants of enslaved sub-Saharan Africans brought by the Spanish during their conquest of Ecuador from the Incas . They make up from 3% to 5% of Ecuador's population. Ecuador has a population of about 1,120,000 descendants from sub-Saharan African people. The Afro-Ecuadorian culture

9752-421: The reserve is under threat from a number of different areas. The responsibility for the protection of the reserve lies with a small team of park rangers who are charged with patrolling the reserves borders and preventing illegal incursions by loggers , poachers and colonists. The pressures on the reserve by these groups have grown in recent years as a result of population growth and natural resource depletion in

9858-470: The rest of the populace. Indigenous Ecuadorians wore more manufactured items by the late 1970s than previously; their clothing, nonetheless, was distinct from that of other rural inhabitants. Indigenous Ecuadorians in communities relying extensively on wage labor sometimes assumed Western-style dress while still maintaining their Indigenous identity. Indigenous Ecuadorians speak Spanish and, Quichua—a Quechua dialect—although most are bilingual, speaking Spanish as

9964-534: The source of their being Ecuadorian . Numerous indigenous cultures inhabited what is now Ecuadorian territory for several millennia before the expansion of the Inca Empire in the fifteenth century. The Las Vegas culture of coastal Ecuador is one of the oldest cultures in the Americas. The Valdivia culture is another well-known early Ecuadorian culture. Spaniards arrived in the sixteenth century, as did sub-Saharan Africans who were enslaved and transported across

10070-721: The southeast of the reserve. Following a request by DECOIN a grassroots organisation working in Intag, the World Bank launched an investigation into the project which concluded that several of the banks guidelines related to environmental assessment had been breached. Ecuadorian Ecuadorians ( Spanish : ecuatorianos ) are people identified with the South American country of Ecuador . This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Ecuadorians, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively

10176-528: 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

10282-444: 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,

10388-623: 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

10494-581: 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 the State. ... The other Spanish languages shall also be official in their respective Autonomous Communities... The Royal Spanish Academy ( Real Academia Española ), on

10600-633: 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 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

10706-680: 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

10812-604: 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

10918-713: 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")

11024-493: Was grown in conjunction with a wide variety of other fruits and vegetables. Yumbo men also resorted to wage labor to obtain cash for the few purchases deemed necessary. By the mid-1970s, increasing numbers of Quichua speakers settled around some of the towns and missions of the Oriente. Indigenous Ecuadorians themselves had begun to make a distinction between Christian and jungle Indigenous people. The former engaged in trade with townspeople. The Shuar and Achuar peoples, in contrast to

11130-462: 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

11236-528: Was to denote a person of mixed heritage, with one parent of European descent (often Spanish) and one parent of Indigenous American descent; a Cholo had one Indigenous American parent and one Mestizo parent. By the 20th century, Mestizo and Cholo were frequently used interchangeably. Kluck suggested that societal relationships, occupation, manners, and clothing all derived from ethnic affiliation. Nonetheless, according to Kluck, individuals could potentially switch ethnic affiliation if they had culturally adapted to

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