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114-567: Weddell Island ( Spanish : Isla San José ) is one of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic, lying off the southwest extremity of West Falkland . It is situated 1,545 km (960 mi) west-northwest of South Georgia Island , 1,165 km (724 mi) north of Livingston Island , 606 km (377 mi) northeast of Cape Horn , 358 km (222 mi) northeast of Isla de los Estados , and 510 km (320 mi) east of
228-638: 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. Saunders Island (Falkland Islands) Too Many Requests If you report this error to
342-527: A base for their operations in the Falklands and South Georgia on several grounds. First, the islands offered a number of excellent harbours providing shelter against sudden westerly gales. Second, the sealers preferred to keep some distance away from the Spanish settlement of Puerto Soledad (present Port Louis ) situated at the opposite extremity of the archipelago, about 175 nmi (324 km) away by sea. Spain
456-588: 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
570-467: 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
684-475: A few small ones on the highest hills. Nevertheless, they were repeatedly deep-frozen and battered by icy winds. The erosion of particular rock varieties caused by myriad freezing-thawing cycles taking place in periglacial conditions during the last Ice Age produced the dramatic stone runs , one of the most enigmatic features of the local landscape originally noted by Bougainville's naturalist Antoine-Joseph Pernety in 1764: We have not been less astonished at
798-476: 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
912-471: 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
1026-548: A name of unknown derivation recorded as early as 1785 by Capt. George Dixon , a seasoned mariner who had sailed under James Cook . Amused by this particular name and the Falklands place naming in general, he wrote: Though these islands are universally known by the name of Falkland’s, yet many of them are called by different names, just, I presume, as the fancy of different cruisers have suggested; I just mention this circumstance to prevent thy surprise, on seeing such names as Swan Island, Keppel’s Island &c &c. That former name
1140-536: A number of rare and very rare plant species, twelve endemic plant species with four of them endangered , including Moore's plantain and the largest recorded population of Falkland Rock-cress . It also hosts a globally significant population of Southern giant petrel . Germplasm collection from Weddell Island sites was carried out by the Alaska Plant Materials Center in 1998 for the purposes, among others, of possible tussac grass restoration projects in
1254-475: A patch of Monterey cypress trees in Weddell Settlement and a number of lengthy hedges of European gorse in the vicinity of the settlement and Kelp Creek House. Both were planted on the treeless and shrubless island primarily for the purposes of wind protection. The tree plots at Weddell, Hill Cove , Roy Cove and Carcass Island are the very few sizable ones on the Falklands. Gorse has been spreading on
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#17328588070901368-498: 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
1482-599: 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
1596-518: 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
1710-448: A valley south of Berkeley Sound , which some of our party called the ‘great valley of fragments,’ it was necessary to cross an uninterrupted band half a mile wide, by jumping from one pointed stone to another. So large were the fragments, that being overtaken by a shower of rain, I readily found shelter beneath one of them. The Falkland Islands and Vitosha Mountain in Europe feature probably
1824-502: A west-southwesterly direction from the plateau next west of Mount Weddell. Like many islands of the Falklands archipelago, Weddell is popular for its wildlife, including penguins , sealions , dolphins and a variety of other mammals and birds including endemic ones. The hogs hunted by Capt. Barnard were an early introduced alien species, recorded on Weddell Island already in the late eighteenth century. Exotic wildlife, including skunks , rheas , parrots and guanacos were introduced in
1938-416: 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
2052-466: Is 175.7 km (109.2 mi) long. Bar its northeastern lowland part, the island is mostly hilly. Pitt Heights (elevation 240 m (790 ft)) are situated in the northwest and Hotham Heights (236 m (774 ft)) in the west, while the south-central part of the island is occupied by certain nameless oval shaped heights that extend 9.5 km (5.9 mi) in east–west direction and 9 km (5.6 mi) in south–north direction, and feature
2166-436: 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 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
2280-456: Is accomplished by foot, horse, and mechanized off-road capable transport. There are two unpaved earth roads on the island, both leaving Weddell Settlement. One of them, 13 km (8.1 mi) long, runs towards the airfield and further north to Loop Head Shanty and the headland ending up in Loop Head and Swan Point . The other one leads 15 km (9.3 mi) in westerly direction, skirting
2394-586: Is currently being renovated; in particular, the Weddell Lodge is being extended to provide additional tourist and workers accommodation during the summer period. More tourist accommodation is available in nearby Mountain View Cottage and Sea View Cottage. Several dilapidated ‘houses’ and ‘shanties’ in remote locations outside the settlement – Kelp Creek House, Chatham House, Loop Head Shanty, Stop Cove Shanty, Quaker Shanty and Sand Point Shanty – remain from times when
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#17328588070902508-456: Is displacing the local Zebra trout ( Aplochiton zebra ). Scientific research has identified Weddell as both an Important Plant Area and a priority Key Biodiversity Area that merits protection. A survey of less than half of the island's territory carried out between 2007 and 2010 has recorded a total of 114 native species (65% of the Falkland native flora) and 41 introduced ones. The island holds
2622-449: 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
2736-740: 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
2850-517: Is not to be confused with Swan Island in the Falkland Sound , on the other side of West Falkland. Possibly, the island might have been named after a native bird, the Black-necked swan . The name appeared, applied to Weddell and/or Staats and Tea Islands , and translated as ‘Island(s) of Swans’ ( Île(s) des Cygnes or Islas de los Cisnes ) on some French and Spanish maps. The present name of
2964-473: Is one of the largest private islands in the world. That title is sometimes claimed by two Hawaiian islands, Niihau and Lanai , although the former is smaller at 180 km (69 sq mi). While the latter is bigger at 364 km (141 sq mi), technically it might not qualify as about 2% of its territory belong to independent owners. In the course of the 19th century, sealing declined due to depletion of stocks and gave way to sheep farming as
3078-405: Is serviced by a 50-meter wooden pier in Weddell Settlement, at the head of Gull Harbour , with a ramp being presently set up. The island receives scheduled visits from the Falklands resupply vessel MV Concordia Bay every 40 days on average. For a number of years before, this service has been provided by MV Tamar under Capt. Stephen Clifton, one of the present owners of the island. Probably
3192-806: 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
3306-804: 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
3420-484: 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 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
3534-585: 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 the Spanish-speaking world, Spanish is called not only español but also castellano (Castilian),
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3648-567: 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
3762-648: The American Revolution , and did not hesitate to deploy the US Navy in protection of that industry from an Argentine attempt to curb American seal hunting by force in 1831. That ill-conceived attempt had long-lasting implications for the future of the islands, paving the way to a reassertion of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands in 1833. In a famous Robinson Crusoe -like episode of Falklands history, American sealer Capt. Charles Barnard got marooned in
3876-478: 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 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
3990-564: The Atlantic entrance to Magellan Strait . With an area of 265.8 km (102.6 sq mi) Weddell is the third largest island in the archipelago after East Falkland and West Falkland , and one of the largest private islands in the world. It has only one inhabited location, Weddell Settlement , with a single digit population engaged in sheep farming and tourism services. The island offers walks to wildlife watching sites and scenery destinations including some spectacular landscapes featuring
4104-557: 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)
4218-508: 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
4332-791: The house mice and the feral cats , most likely introduced to the Falklands by early sealing expeditions. More challenging, due to the island's size, would be an effort to eradicate the Norwegian rat ; there are some successful large scale precedents though, notably those of Campbell Island and South Georgia . Several reindeer are present but not established as they are single sex. These were brought from South Georgia shortly before their eradication from that Antarctic island carried out in 2013–2015 due to environmental considerations. A large number of alien plants including invasive ones are widespread within Weddell Island. Most conspicuous among these are
4446-553: The schooner Castalia dragged ashore in 1893, the pilot schooner Hadassah wrecked in Smylie Channel in 1896, the cutter Messenger dragged ashore in 1920, and the cutter Weddell sunk at Dyke Island whilst being towed to Weddell Island in 1939. There is a total of sixteen recorded graves on the island, including the earliest two found by Barnard in 1813. Half of them are in the Weddell Settlement Cemetery, with
4560-404: 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,
4674-574: 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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4788-550: The 9th century, and the first systematic written use of 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
4902-639: 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
5016-711: The Falklands are gneiss and granite in the Cape Meredith complex, around 1100 million years old. These types of rocks are visible in cliffs at the south extremity of West Falkland, Cape Meredith, and correspond to the crystalline rocks that made up the interior of the Gondwana supercontinent. They also have a great geological similarity to rocks currently found in South Africa and in Queen Maud Land in Antarctica . On top of
5130-501: The Falklands except the two primary islands, East and West Falkland, with a total surface area of 1,033 km (399 sq mi) and population of 43 in 2016. During the last one and a half centuries Weddell Island has been owned in turn by the Williams, Hamilton, Ferguson, Visick and Clifton families. One of the past owners, Robert Ferguson, was born on the island. With its surface area of 265.8 km (102.6 sq mi) Weddell
5244-496: The Falklands, based his 1777 chart of the islands on MacBride's one, inheriting some of its specific characteristics. For instance, both charts fail to show the secluded bay of Port Stephens , applying its name to present Port Albemarle instead. Judging from contemporaneous mapping, the island was unknown to the French who established the first Falklands settlement, Port St. Louis in 1764. The first Spanish sighting of Weddell Island
5358-604: The Falklands. Within the Falkland Islands, Weddell is part of the Camp electoral constituency , which comprises the entire country outside of Stanley, and returns three of the eight elected members of the Falklands Legislative Assembly — currently John Birmingham (politician) , Jack Ford and Teslyn Barkman . For statistical and planning purposes, Weddell is part of the Outlying Islands statistical region including
5472-507: The Faroes get two and a half times more rainfall than Weddell does. This island group in the Falklands archipelago comprises the following insular features associated with Weddell Island, i.e. lying closer to it than to neighbouring Beaver Island or New Island (which have island groups of their own), or to West Falkland: Because of the Falklands' extremely indented and irregular coastline, remote location and rather late and slow process of settling
5586-552: The Faroes) in the Northern and, accordingly, the Nordic archipelago lies over 1,100 kilometres (680 mi) nearer than Weddell to the relevant geographical pole , as far as temperatures are concerned that is compensated by the climatic influences of the cold water Falklands Current and the warm water Norwegian Current respectively. However, the similarity does not extend to precipitation as
5700-691: 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
5814-598: The London prize court judgement and got his ship restored to him), probably prompted the American to write his Narrative of Sufferings and Adventures book published in 1829. Barnard would later become a prominent figure in the Antarctic seal fishery, and Barnard Point and Rotch Dome on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands are named after him and two other American pioneers of Falklands and Antarctic sealing,
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#17328588070905928-529: 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
6042-661: The Port Stanley and the Port Stephens Formations, and occur on East Falkland, West Falkland, and Weddell, Saunders and Keppel Islands. They appear in several varieties as stone patches, streams, terraces, fans, stripes and rivers, and are most widespread and voluminous in the Wickham Heights area of East Falkland, where the largest of them extend over 5 km (3.1 mi). One particularly long stone river on Weddell Island extends 4.3 km (2.7 mi), trending in
6156-571: 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,
6270-502: 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
6384-526: The Weddell Island area, and indeed, anyplace west of Fox Bay , West Falkland. On 5 June 1982, while en route from Falkland Sound to Chatham Harbour, the diesel-electric submarine HMS Onyx commanded by Lt. Cdr. Andrew Johnson – the only non nuclear powered Royal Navy sub to serve in the war – struck a pinnacle of rock off Cape Meredith at 150 feet (46 m) depth, which upon subsequent dry-dock examination at Portsmouth Naval Base turned out to have damaged two torpedo tubes and dangerously impacted one of
6498-451: 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
6612-425: The area from 11 June 1813 to 25 November 1814, together with four sailors – Jacob Green (American), and Joseph Albrook, James Louder and Samuel Ansel (Britons), accompanied by the captain's most helpful dog named Cent, and in possession of a 6.6 m (22 ft) whaleboat . The castaways built several shelters on Weddell (Swan Island to them) while hunting feral hogs and collecting drift wood for subsistence. Under
6726-477: The area were more agreeable though. In January and February the thermometer rose to 59 °F (15 °C), but no higher; in August, it once fell to 20 °F (−7 °C), but was seldom lower than 32 °F (0 °C). As a result of that survey Weddell Island appeared on MacBride's chart of the Falklands, one of the most accurate for its time. Capt. James Cook, who surveyed and mapped South Georgia but did not visit
6840-419: The brothers Francis and William Rotch . Barnard named two features in the vicinity of Weddell Island after himself – Barnard's Island and Barnard's Harbour, present Dyke Island and Carew Harbour respectively. The island remained unoccupied by Argentine troops and virtually unaffected by military action during the 1982 Falklands War . In particular, neither land mines nor naval mines have been planted in
6954-406: The circumstances, one of them, Ansel, developed an aggressive attitude and was temporarily exiled by his companions to survive alone at Quaker Harbour from 28 December 1813 to 16 February 1814. In the vicinity of his tussac -built bivouac, the graves and headstones of two men were found a mile up the bay who, Barnard reasoned, must have been buried long since, as the letters were almost effaced from
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#17328588070907068-731: 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
7182-519: The coldest months (June and July) is just -9 °C (16.2 °F). The extreme temperatures recorded on Weddell Island are −7.2 °C (19 °F) and 22.2 °C (72 °F). By way of comparison, Weddell has an annual temperature graph very similar to that of the Faroe Islands . While the former is located at the same geographic latitude in the Southern Hemisphere as that of London (not
7296-495: 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
7410-404: 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
7524-421: The early 1930s by the then owner of the island John Hamilton (and brought in from Chile on board his ship Penelope ), along with Patagonian foxes . The last, not to be confused with the extinct Falkland Island wolf , the warrah , can still be found and their eradication is being considered. One such fox eradication attempt failed in 1997–1998. Other species considered for possible eradication from Weddell include
7638-700: The east coast, the remainder of the island being run as a sheep farm and wildlands. Sheep numbers have varied greatly under different island owners, between 200 and 23,000, and currently stay at 600 to 700 with an improved breeding and grazing management. Sheep raising is now confined to the Mark Point Paddocks just north of the settlement. Tourist walks from Weddell Settlement include scenery destinations like Mount Weddell and Mark Point, and wildlife watching sites like Loop Head or Hell's Kitchen Cove in Chatham Harbour. All these activities take place northeast of
7752-807: The entire island was stocked with sheep. Wind turbines and solar panels, supplemented by diesel generators, supply electric energy to four houses in Weddell Settlement. The island has an airfield situated 2.3 km (1.4 mi) north of Weddell Settlement, with two intersecting grass runways – 470 m (1,540 ft) and 400 m (1,300 ft) long respectively – used by the Falkland Islands Government Air Service (FIGAS) Islander aircraft operating out of Stanley Airport . Air distances from Weddell Airfield: Stanley Airport 217 km (135 mi), RAF Mount Pleasant 170 km (110 mi), Rodolfo Marsh Aerodrome 1,155 km (718 mi), Punta Arenas Airport 687 km (427 mi) and Rio Gallegos Airport 581 km (361 mi). Sea transportation
7866-417: The famous Falklands stone runs . Weddell is both an Important Plant Area and a priority Key Biodiversity Area . It is a remote place, infrequently visited by a resupply ship and occasionally by private yachts, accessible by air with a short (some 200 km (120 mi)) if expensive flight from the Falklands capital, Stanley . Until the mid-nineteenth century Weddell Island was known as Swan Island ,
7980-447: The first one dated 1889. Some deaths had to do with the poor emergency medical aid available to such remote places in the past. Weddell Island is bounded by Queen Charlotte Bay on the east and Smylie Channel on the south, and is surrounded by a number of minor islands including Dyke Island to the southeast, Sea Dog Island and Horse Block (a conspicuous sea stack ) to the southwest, Tea Island, Staats Island and Governor Island to
8094-450: 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
8208-466: 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
8322-576: The former castaway Charles Barnard . He is well known for his voyages to the Antarctic , and the Weddell seal and the geographic features Weddell Point and Weddell Glacier on South Georgia, and Weddell Sea (discovered by him in February 1823), Weddell Plain , Weddell Arm , Weddell Islands (name given by Weddell himself) and Weddell Lake in Antarctica are all named in association with him. The island
8436-616: The gneiss and granite lie layers of quartzite , sandstone , and shales or mudstone in West Falkland and adjacent areas including Weddell Island. Cross-bedding and ripple marks identify the zone where these rocks were deposited as the shallow waters of a delta environment where currents transported submarine sediments. In the case of the Falklands these paleocurrent directions mostly run northward, and are very similar to those in formations in South Africa that run southward. Comparison of
8550-584: 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
8664-451: The group denoted as Yslas de San Miguel . Puig, a Catalan, named the large bay Puerto de San Joseph after his own name saint, which name was subsequently applied to the island itself and Hispanicized to Isla San José . Such naming practices were not uncommon at the time, indeed San Miguel was Bernasani's name saint, while Port St. Louis honoured the name saint of the French navigator Louis Antoine de Bougainville . The early inhabitants of
8778-548: The head of Chatham Harbour and turning north at Kelp Creek House to reach Chatham House at the west corner of the bay. 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
8892-545: The island and renamed Penelope after his daughter, remaining based at Weddell until the 1950s and again in 1989–1993. The ship sailed for many decades and for various shipowners between the islands of the Falklands (including a brief confiscation and use by the Argentine Navy during the Falklands War), until 2006 when she was transported back to her native Germany and listed as a historic cultural monument. Overland travel
9006-513: The island comes from James Weddell , a British sealer and explorer who visited the Falklands in 1819–1824, overwintered once in 1820, and then a second time in May–September 1823 ashore on the island at Quaker Harbour . Weddell's book A Voyage Towards the South Pole documented, inter alia, certain events and persons of local history, including his running across the privateer David Jewett and
9120-428: The island were seal hunters . While some seal skins were taken from the Falklands by Bougainville in 1764, a large scale sealing industry was only developed since the 1770s by American and British sealers who frequented Weddell and nearby islands in the process. The first to bring their sealing vessels to the Falklands were probably Capts. Gamaliel Collins, David Smith and Greenwood from New England in 1774. Due to
9234-408: The island with over fifteen thriving tufts located away from its original hedge lines, and needs control. Besides gorse, the introduced species currently posing the highest threats in the Falklands are Calafate ( Berberis microphylla ), Creeping thistle ( Cirsium arvense ) and Spear thistle ( Cirsium vulgare ). In the rivers and streams of the archipelago, introduced European brown trout ( Salmo trutta )
9348-561: The island's summit Mount Weddell rising to 383 m (1,257 ft). Weddell has a maritime climate in the transition region between the tundra and subpolar zones under the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. It is influenced by the island's location north and west of the physical boundary of the Antarctic region, the Antarctic Convergence running broadly S-shaped in between the Falklands and South Georgia, and east of
9462-680: 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 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
9576-535: 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,
9690-421: The line linking New Year Cove on the southeast to Kelp Creek House on the northwest. The remaining two thirds of Weddell are sparsely visited, making it the wildest of the larger Falkland Islands. Along with a diverse and abundant local wildlife, the island's tourist attractions include also some spectacular landscapes featuring the famous Falklands stone runs that excited Charles Darwin 's interest and became
9804-500: The local conditions for survival, American sealer Edmund Fanning reviewed the available sources of food and fuel to conclude in his memoirs: In fact, a person would be able to subsist at the Falkland Islands for a considerable length of time, without experiencing any great degree of suffering . As a reminder of that period, many place names in the Weddell Island area honour sealers and sealing vessels, mostly American. The sealers favoured Weddell and nearby Beaver Island and New Island as
9918-560: The location of the Falklands’ southwesternmost islands made them the ideal staging post for a final southbound 540 nmi (1,000 km) sailing leg to the new hunting grounds in Antarctica, with an occasional stopover at Staten Island (present Isla de los Estados) for the provision of necessary timber unavailable on the Falklands. The Americans came to regard the Falklands seal fisheries as their traditional industry pursued freely since before
10032-438: The mainstay of Falklands economy, a role shared with fishing, tourism and offshore hydrocarbon exploration . Sheep were farmed commercially for wool on the islands from the 1860s. Sheep raising on Weddell Island was established in 1871 by the Williams family who bought the island, and the island's farm at Weddell Settlement has been permanently populated since then. The small population of the island lives in Weddell Settlement on
10146-686: 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
10260-460: The most exceptional stone runs in terms of diversity, size and abundance. The highly specific combination of particular climatic conditions and rock varieties that existed there during the Quaternary explains both the formation of stone runs in certain areas of those two territories, and their absence in areas with otherwise comparable nature conditions. On the Falklands, stone runs form on outcrops of
10374-498: The most remarkable Weddell Island ship was the wooden two-masted cutter Feuerland (the German for Tierra del Fuego ), originally sailed from Europe to Punta Arenas by the German naval aviator and WWI war hero Gunther Plüschow , and used as an expedition ship supporting his pioneering aerial survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego . The ship was sold in 1929 to John Hamilton, brought to
10488-581: The nature of their trade, the sealers used to spend extensive periods of time ashore, and sometimes overwintered. So did Capt. Greenwood in his vessel King George at Port Egmont in 1774, and the British sealer United States under Capt. Benjamin Hussey in 1785 in Hussey Harbour – probably the estuary States Harbour on the southeast side of States Bay (current names States Cove and Chatham Harbour respectively). On
10602-711: 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
10716-485: The originally uninhabited islands, their mapping remained rudimentary up to the late 18th century. It was not until after the early British and Spanish hydrographic and land surveys in 1766–1770 that the islands were mapped faithfully to any detail, first their northeastern and northwestern parts where Port St. Louis (later renamed Puerto Soledad) and Port Egmont settlements were located respectively, and eventually their southeastern and southwestern areas. The oldest rocks in
10830-529: 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 ,
10944-411: The quartz rock, forming ‘streams of stones.’ These have been mentioned with surprise by every voyager since the time of Pernety. The blocks are not waterworn, their angles being only a little blunted; they vary in size from one or two feet in diameter to ten, or even more than twenty times as much. They are not thrown together into irregular piles, but are spread out into level sheets or great streams. … In
11058-479: The sight of the innumerable quantity of stones of all sizes, overthrown on each other, and yet arranged, as if they had been piled up carelessly to fill gullies. One does not hesitate to admire the prodigious effects of Nature. The young Darwin, who visited and explored the Falklands twice, in March 1833 and March–April 1834, wrote: In many parts of the island the bottoms of the valleys are covered in an extraordinary manner by myriads of great loose angular fragments of
11172-464: The southern Andes topographic barrier. The weather on Weddell Island is slightly warmer and notably more arid than that in Stanley , with an average annual temperature of about 6 °C (43 °F) and 500 mm annual precipitation, as compared to 5.5 °C (42 °F) and 600 mm in the latter. The variation between the average temperature of the warmest months (January and February) and that of
11286-506: The stones . Following his encounter with James Weddell on New Island in 1821, the latter popularized Barnard's castaway story by his book published in 1825. Certain inaccuracies in Weddell's retelling of events and his attempt at embellishing his compatriots’ motives for taking over Barnard's ship Nanina and claiming it as a prize of the War of 1812 (subsequently, Barnard appealed successfully against
11400-420: The subject of much debate on their origins. Trekking the stone runs might be as hard and risky as any sport, even though the stone run boulders are fixed quite stably, providing for better safety. Otherwise, the local terrain is walker and driver friendly – mostly hilly and well drained, lacking the boggy areas encountered elsewhere in the archipelago. The tourist and farming infrastructure at Weddell Settlement
11514-528: 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
11628-444: 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,
11742-623: 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
11856-515: The torpedoes. On the occasion, the submarine proceeded with the transportation of a six-member Special Boat Service detachment led by Lieut. David Boyd and Sgt. William Lewis to carry out reconnaissance of Weddell Island, take out any observation posts providing guidance for approaching enemy aircraft (none, it turned out), and insert a British team to send last minute warnings of the number and flight directions of inbound Argentine Air Force planes. Five vessels were reportedly lost in Weddell waters:
11970-404: The two provides evidence that the block of sandstone sediments that contains the islands has rotated. Rocks in the central part of West Falkland contain fossils of marine organisms that lived in shallow water. The modern Falklands landscape owes some of its most remarkable aspects to the polar climate of the last ice age . The islands have largely remained free of glaciers, with the exception of
12084-420: The west, Beaver Island to the northwest, and Penn Island , Barclay Island and Quaker Island to the north, with New Island lying further away on the northwest. The island is roughly inverted triangular in shape, almost entirely bisected by Chatham Harbour . Weddell extends 26.8 km (16.7 mi) in south–north direction and 22.4 km (13.9 mi) in east–west direction. Its highly indented coastline
12198-580: 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 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
12312-631: 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
12426-496: Was discovered in 1766 by the British navigator and accomplished military commander John MacBride during the first hydrographic survey of the Falklands archipelago carried out by his ship HMS Jason out of Port Egmont , the early British settlement situated on Saunders Island off the northwest coast of West Falkland. Of his new discoveries Capt. MacBride wrote unfavourably: We found a mass of islands and broken lands, beaten by storms almost perpetual . His temperature records for
12540-604: 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
12654-713: 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")
12768-453: Was hostile, regarding sealer presence and activities as a challenge to its sovereignty claim of the Falklands. Nevertheless, the Spaniards refrained from using force against the sealers, and following the abandonment of Puerto Soledad in 1811, sealer presence spread throughout the Falklands. Finally, with the discovery of Livingston Island and other territories south of 60° south latitude in 1819,
12882-613: Was made by Miguel de Bernasani and Lieut. Francisco Orduña, from Port Stephens area, in the course of their overland trip across West Falkland in April 1769 (April 1768 according to other sources). Following a survey of the island and its principal embayment Chatham Harbour carried out by Capt. Manuel Pando in the ship San Francisco de Paula in July 1770, Weddell appeared on the map made by the ship's pilot Joseph Puig (and widely copied by other Spanish cartographers) together with Beaver and New Islands ,
12996-462: 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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