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92-614: The average depth is 1,744 m (5,722 ft) and the greatest depth is 4,735 m (15,535 ft). The Bay of Biscay is known in Spain as the Gulf of Biscay ( Spanish : Golfo de Vizcaya ; Basque : Bizkaiko Golkoa ), and in France and some border regions as the Gulf of Gascony ( French : Golfe de Gascogne [ɡɔl.f(ə) də ɡas.kɔɲ] ; Occitan : Golf de Gasconha ; Breton : Pleg-mor Gwaskogn ). Its English name comes from Biscay on

184-585: 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. Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream

276-562: A consequence, the resulting Gulf Stream is a strong ocean current. It transports water at a rate of 30 million cubic metres per second (30 sverdrups ) through the Florida Straits. As it passes south of Newfoundland, this rate increases to 150 sverdrups. The volume of the Gulf Stream dwarfs all rivers that empty into the Atlantic combined, which total 0.6 sverdrups. It is weaker, however, than

368-588: 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

460-517: 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

552-476: 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

644-473: A greater degree, the climate of Northwest Europe. A consensus exists that the climate of Northwest Europe is warmer than other areas of similar latitude at least partially because of the strong North Atlantic Current. It is part of the North Atlantic Gyre . Its presence has led to the development of strong cyclones of all types, both within the atmosphere and within the ocean. European discovery of

736-471: 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

828-450: A mine. All hands were lost. On 12 April 1970, Soviet submarine  K-8 sank in the Bay of Biscay due to a fire that crippled the submarine's nuclear reactors. An attempt to save the sub failed, resulting in the death of forty sailors and the loss of four nuclear torpedoes. Due to the great depth (15,000 ft or 4,600 m), no salvage operation was attempted. The Plaiaundi Ecology Park

920-498: 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

1012-599: 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

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1104-518: 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

1196-437: A shallow frontal zone , forced by the Gulf Stream, during the cold season . Subtropical cyclones also tend to be generated near the Gulf Stream. About 75% of such systems documented between 1951 and 2000 formed near this warm-water current, with two annual peaks of activity occurring during May and October. Cyclones within the ocean itself form under the Gulf Stream, extending as deep as 3,500 m (11,500 ft) beneath

1288-615: A whaling company and another one seen off the Iberian Peninsula. The best areas to see the larger cetaceans are in the deep waters beyond the continental shelf , particularly over the Santander Canyon and Torrelavega Canyon in the south of the Bay. The alga Colpomenia peregrina was introduced and first noticed in 1906 by oyster fishermen in the Bay of Biscay. Grammatostomias flagellibarba (scaleless dragonfish) are native to these waters. Spanish language This

1380-530: 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

1472-416: 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

1564-613: Is a 24 -hectare coastal wetland lying where the Bidasoa River meets the sea in the Bay of Biscay.The nature of Plaiaundi consists of a wide variety of flora (visitors view them mainly in the spring) and fauna (visitors with binoculars arrive all during the year, because of the birds' migratory habits). This nature park contains a variety of birds , reptiles , mammals and insects . The car ferries from Gijón to Nantes / Saint-Nazaire , Portsmouth to Bilbao and from Plymouth , Portsmouth and Poole to Santander provide one of

1656-566: Is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida and up the eastern coastline of the United States, then veers east near 36°N latitude (North Carolina) and moves toward Northwest Europe as the North Atlantic Current . The process of western intensification causes the Gulf Stream to be a northward-accelerating current off

1748-413: 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

1840-647: Is an accepted version of this page 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

1932-546: Is denser and colder (or more precisely, water that is still liquid at a lower temperature). In the North Atlantic Ocean, the water becomes so dense that it begins to sink down through less salty and less dense water. (The convective action is similar to a lava lamp .) This downdraft of cold, dense water becomes a part of the North Atlantic Deep Water , a southgoing stream. Very little seaweed lies within

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2024-418: Is equatorward. Because of the conservation of potential vorticity caused by the northward-moving winds on the subtropical ridge 's western periphery and the increased relative vorticity of northward-moving water, transport is balanced by a narrow, accelerating poleward current. This flows along the western boundary of the ocean basin, outweighing the effects of friction with the western boundary current, and

2116-449: 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

2208-740: 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

2300-481: Is known as the Labrador Current . The conservation of potential vorticity also causes bends along the Gulf Stream, which occasionally break off as the Gulf Stream's position shifts, forming separate warm and cold eddies. This overall process, known as western intensification, causes currents on the western boundary of an ocean basin, such as the Gulf Stream, to be stronger than those on the eastern boundary. As

2392-524: Is largely driven by thermohaline circulation . Its carrying warm water northeast across the Atlantic makes Western Europe and especially Northern Europe warmer and milder than it otherwise would be. A river of sea water, called the Atlantic North Equatorial Current , flows westwards off the coast of Central Africa. When this current interacts with the northeastern coast of South America, the current forks into two branches. One passes into

2484-806: 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

2576-476: Is the Cantabrian Sea . The main rivers that empty into the Bay of Biscay are Loire , Charente , Garonne , Dordogne , Adour , Nivelle , Bidasoa , Oiartzun , Urumea , Oria , Urola , Deba , Artibai , Lea , Oka , Nervión , Agüera , Asón , Miera , Pas , Saja , Nansa , Deva , Sella , Nalón , Navia , Esva , Eo , Landro and Sor . In late spring and early summer, a large fog triangle fills

2668-804: 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

2760-491: 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

2852-567: 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

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2944-528: The Antarctic Circumpolar Current . Given the strength and proximity of the Gulf Stream, beaches along the East Coast of the United States may be more vulnerable to large sea-level anomalies, which significantly impact rates of coastal erosion . The Gulf Stream is typically 100 km (62 mi) wide and 800 to 1,200 m (2,600 to 3,900 ft) deep. The current velocity is fastest near

3036-697: The Cantabri ) and also, Mare Gallaecum (the Sea of the Galicians ). On some medieval maps, the Bay of Biscay is marked as El Mar del los Vascos (the Basque Sea). The Bay of Biscay has been the site of many famous naval engagements over the centuries. In 1592 the Spanish defeated an English fleet during the Battle of the Bay of Biscay . The Biscay campaign of June 1795 consisted of a series of manoeuvres and two battles fought between

3128-647: The Caribbean Sea , while a second, the Antilles Current , flows north and east of the West Indies . These two branches rejoin north of the Straits of Florida. The trade winds blow westwards in the tropics, and the westerlies blow eastwards at mid-latitudes. This wind pattern applies a stress to the subtropical ocean surface with negative curl across the north Atlantic Ocean. The resulting Sverdrup transport

3220-557: 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)

3312-508: 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

3404-750: 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

3496-579: The western coastal islands of Scotland . A noticeable effect of the Gulf Stream and the strong westerly winds on Europe occurs along the Norwegian coast . Northern parts of Norway lie close to the Arctic zone, most of which is covered with ice and snow in winter. However, almost all of Norway's coast remains free of ice and snow throughout the year. The warming effect provided by the Gulf Stream has allowed fairly large settlements to be developed and maintained on

3588-639: The 1850s. The eastern population of this species are considered to be almost extinct, and there has been no record of right whales in the Bay of Biscay except for a pair in 1977 (possibly a mother and calf) at 43°00′N 10°30′W  /  43.000°N 10.500°W  / 43.000; -10.500 , and another pair in June 1980. Other records in the late 20th century include one off Galicia at 43°00′N 10°30′W  /  43.000°N 10.500°W  / 43.000; -10.500 in September 1977 reported by

3680-404: 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,

3772-574: 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

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3864-536: The Bay of Biscay are Bordeaux , Bayonne , Biarritz , Nantes , La Rochelle , Donostia-San Sebastián , Bilbao , Santander , Gijón and Avilés . The southern end of the gulf is also called "Mar Cantábrico" in Spanish ( Cantabrian Sea ), from the Estaca de Bares , as far as the mouth of Adour river, but this name is not generally used in English. It was named by Romans in the 1st century BC as Sinus Cantabrorum (Bay of

3956-657: The British Channel Fleet and the French Atlantic Fleet off the southern coast of Brittany during the second year of the French Revolutionary Wars . The USS  Californian sank here after striking a naval mine on 22 June 1918. In 1920 the SS ; Afrique sank after losing power and drifting into a reef in a storm with the loss of 575 lives. On 28 December 1943, the Battle of the Bay of Biscay

4048-610: The Caribbean and then either move in a northward direction and curve towards the eastern coast of the United States or stay on a north-westward track and enter the Gulf of Mexico . Such storms have the potential to create strong winds and extensive damage to the United States' Southeast coastal areas . Hurricane Sandy in 2012 was a recent example of a hurricane tracking along the Gulf Stream and gaining strength. Strong extratropical cyclones have been shown to deepen significantly along

4140-639: 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

4232-451: The Gulf Stream dates to the 1512 expedition of Juan Ponce de León , after which it became widely used by Spanish ships sailing from the Caribbean to Spain. A summary of Ponce de León's voyage log on April 22, 1513, noted, "A current such that, although they had great wind, they could not proceed forwards, but backwards and it seems that they were proceeding well; at the end, it was known that

4324-648: The Gulf Stream will not shut down in a warming climate. While the Gulf Stream is expected to slow down as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) weakens, it will not collapse, even if the AMOC were to collapse. Nevertheless, this slowing down will have significant effects, including a rise in sea level along the North American coast, reduced precipitation in the midlatitudes, changing patterns of strong precipitation around Europe and

4416-631: 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

4508-529: 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

4600-571: 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,

4692-448: 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

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4784-502: 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

4876-451: 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

4968-566: 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

5060-470: The coast of Northern Norway , including Tromsø , the third-largest city north of the Arctic Circle. Weather systems warmed by the Gulf Stream drift into Northern Europe, also warming the climate behind the Scandinavian Mountains . The possibility of a Gulf Stream collapse has been covered by some news publications. The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report addressed this issue specifically, and found that based on model projections and theoretical understanding,

5152-446: 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

5244-404: 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

5336-412: The current was more powerful than the wind." Benjamin Franklin became interested in the North Atlantic Ocean circulation patterns. In 1768, while in England, Franklin heard a curious complaint from the Colonial Board of Customs : "Why did it take British packets several weeks longer to reach New York from England than it took an average American merchant ship to reach Newport, Rhode Island , despite

5428-448: The current, although seaweed lies in clusters to its east. In April 2018, two studies published in the British scientific journal Nature found the Gulf Stream to be at its weakest for at least 1,600 years. The Gulf Stream is influential on the climate of the Florida peninsula . The portion off the Florida coast, referred to as the Florida Current , maintains an average water temperature of at least 24 °C (75 °F) during

5520-477: The east coast of North America. Around 40°0′N 30°0′W  /  40.000°N 30.000°W  / 40.000; -30.000 , it splits in two, with the northern stream, the North Atlantic Drift, crossing to Northern Europe and the southern stream, the Canary Current , recirculating off West Africa. The Gulf Stream influences the climate of the coastal areas of the East Coast of the United States from Florida to southeast Virginia (near 36°N latitude), and to

5612-450: 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

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5704-466: 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

5796-454: 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

5888-448: 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

5980-423: 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,

6072-416: The mainland in winter just 30 miles to the north. North of Nantucket Island along the New England coast northward to the eastern Canadian coast the cold Labrador Current is found. The North Atlantic Current of the Gulf Stream, along with similar warm air currents, helps keep Ireland and the western coast of Great Britain a few degrees warmer than the east. However, the difference is most dramatic in

6164-628: 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

6256-440: The merchant ships leaving from London and having to sail down the River Thames and then the length of the English Channel before they sailed across the Atlantic, while the packets left from Falmouth in Cornwall?" Franklin asked his cousin Timothy Folger, a Nantucket Island whaling captain, for an answer. Folger explained that merchant ships routinely crossed the current—which was identified by whale behaviour, measurement of

6348-414: The most convenient ways to see cetaceans in European waters. Often specialist groups take the ferries to collect more information. Volunteers and employees of ORCA regularly observe and monitor cetacean activity from the bridge of the ships on Brittany Ferries ' Portsmouth to Santander route. Many species of whales and dolphins can be seen in this area. Most importantly, it is one of the few places in

6440-493: The northern Spanish coast, probably standing for the western Basque districts ( Biscay up to the early 19th century). Parts of the continental shelf extend far into the bay, resulting in fairly shallow waters in many areas and thus the rough seas for which the region is known. Heavy storms occur in the bay, especially during the winter months. The Bay of Biscay is home to some of the Atlantic Ocean 's fiercest weather ; abnormally high waves occur there. Up until recent years it

6532-498: 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

6624-566: The ocean's surface. The Gulf Stream periodically forms rings resulting from a meander of the Gulf Stream being closed off from an alternate route distinctive from that meander, creating an independent eddy. These eddies have two types - cold-core rings, which rotate cyclonically (counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere), and warm-core rings, which rotate anticyclonically. These rings have

6716-529: 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 ,

6808-566: The pressure falls rapidly ( galerna ), traveling along the Gulf Stream at great speed, resembling a hurricane, and finally crashing in this bay with their maximum power, such as the Klaus storm . The Gulf Stream enters the bay following the continental shelf's border anti-clockwise (the Rennell Current ), keeping temperatures moderate all year long. The main cities on the shores (or close to) of

6900-744: The southwestern half of the bay, covering just a few kilometres inland. As winter begins, weather becomes severe. Depressions enter from the west very frequently, and either they bounce north to the British Isles or they enter the Ebro Valley , dry out, and are finally reborn in the form of powerful thunderstorms as they reach the Mediterranean Sea . These depressions cause severe weather at sea and bring light but very constant rain to its shores (known as orballo , sirimiri , morrina , orbayu , orpin or calabobos ). Sometimes powerful windstorms form if

6992-447: The surface, with the maximum speed typically about 2.5 m/s (5.6 mph). As it travels north, the warm water transported by the Gulf Stream undergoes evaporative cooling. The cooling is wind-driven; wind moving over the water causes evaporation , cooling the water and increasing its salinity and density. When sea ice forms, salts are left out of the ice, a process known as brine exclusion. These two processes produce water that

7084-415: 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

7176-528: 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

7268-444: 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,

7360-623: 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

7452-523: The tropics, and stronger storms in the North Atlantic. The warm water and temperature contrast along the edge of the Gulf Stream often increase the intensity of cyclones, tropical or otherwise. Tropical cyclone generation normally requires water temperatures in excess of 26.5 °C (79.7 °F). Tropical cyclone formation is common over the Gulf Stream, especially in July. Storms travel westward through

7544-452: The warm waters of the Gulf Stream, tropical fish are often encountered off the East Coast as they search for food, including several species of Batoidea , Dolphin , Barracuda , and Triggerfish . The Gulf Stream's proximity to Nantucket , Massachusetts , adds to its biodiversity , because it is the northern limit for southern varieties of plant life, and the southern limit for northern plant species, Nantucket being warmer during winter than

7636-532: The water's temperature, and changes in the water's colour—while the mail packet captains ran against it. Franklin had Folger sketch the path of the current on a chart of the Atlantic and add notes on how to avoid the current when sailing from England to America. Franklin then forwarded the chart to Anthony Todd, secretary of the British Post Office. Franklin's Gulf Stream chart was printed in 1769 in London, but it

7728-537: The winter, and often 29 °C (84 °F) in summer and fall. East winds moving over this warm water move warm air from over the Gulf Stream inland, helping to keep temperatures milder across the state than elsewhere across the Southeastern United States during the winter. The Gulf Stream carries a wide variety of tropical fish and organisms northward along the East Coast from Florida to extreme southeast Massachusetts in spring and summer. Following

7820-640: The world where the beaked whales , such as the Cuvier's beaked whale , have been observed relatively frequently. Biscay Dolphin Research monitored cetacean activity from the P&;O Ferries cruise ferry Pride of Bilbao , on voyages from Portsmouth to Bilbao. North Atlantic right whales , one of the most endangered species of whales, once came to the bay for feeding and probably for calving as well, but whaling activities by Basque people almost wiped them out sometime prior to

7912-491: Was a regular occurrence for merchant vessels to founder in Biscay storms. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Bay of Biscay as "a line joining Cap Ortegal ( 43°46′N 7°52′W  /  43.767°N 7.867°W  / 43.767; -7.867 ) to Penmarch Point ( 47°48′N 4°22′W  /  47.800°N 4.367°W  / 47.800; -4.367 )". The southernmost portion

8004-680: 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

8096-604: 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

8188-713: 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")

8280-490: Was fought between HMS  Glasgow and HMS  Enterprise , and a group of German destroyers as part of Operation Stonewall during World War II . The area became known as the "Valley of Death" by U-boat crews following a series of repeated losses from RAF attacks on U-boats from 1943 until the end of the war. The U-667 sank on 25 August 1944 in position 46°00′N 01°30′W  /  46.000°N 1.500°W  / 46.000; -1.500 , when she struck

8372-534: Was mostly ignored by British sea captains. A copy of the chart was printed in Paris circa 1770–1773, and a third version was published by Franklin in Philadelphia in 1786. The Gulf Stream proper is a western-intensified current, driven largely by wind stress . In 1958, oceanographer Henry Stommel noted, "very little water from the Gulf of Mexico is actually in the stream". The North Atlantic Current , in contrast,

8464-462: 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

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