Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula, located in southwestern Europe and comprising primarily Spain and Portugal, is home to a rich mosaic of languages that reflect its complex historical, cultural, and political evolution.

Asterix visited Spain of course in the album Asterix in Spain. In the upcoming album Asterix in Lusitania he is expected to visit Portugal.

The two dominant national languages are Spanish and Portuguese, both of which are Romance languages derived from Vulgar Latin. In the English-speaking world, “Spanish” typically refers to the language spoken in Spain and much of Latin America, but within Spain itself, it is commonly called Castellano (Castilian). This term originates from the historical Kingdom of Castile, where the language first took shape before expanding across the Iberian Peninsula through the Reconquista and later becoming the official language of the unified Spanish state.

Today, Castilian Spanish is the official language of Spain as a whole, but it exists alongside several other officially recognized regional languages.

Catalan

One such language is Catalan, spoken in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and Valencia (where it is known as Valencian). Catalan is a distinct Romance language with its own grammar and literary tradition, and it holds co-official status in its respective regions.

Galician

Another regional language is Galician, spoken in the autonomous community of Galicia in northwestern Spain. Closely related to Portuguese, Galician shares many lexical and grammatical similarities with its southern neighbor but remains politically and culturally distinct.

Basque

In the Basque Country and parts of northern Navarre, Basque (or Euskara) is spoken; it is a linguistic isolate with no known relatives and predates the arrival of Indo-European languages in the Iberian Peninsula.

Occitan and Asturian

Furthermore, the Aranese dialect of Occitan is spoken in the Val d’Aran, a small valley in the Catalan Pyrenees, and it also enjoys co-official status. In addition to these, there are lesser-known regional varieties and dialects, such as Astur-Leonese (or Bable) in Asturias and Extremaduran in western Spain, which are recognized to varying degrees and have active preservation movements, though they do not hold official status nationwide.

Portuguese and Mirandese

In Portugal, Portuguese is the sole official language, spoken natively by virtually the entire population, although regional varieties exist, including the Mirandese language spoken by a small community in the northeastern region of Miranda do Douro. Mirandese, a descendant of the Astur-Leonese branch, is officially recognized at the local level and protected by law. The linguistic landscape of the Iberian Peninsula is thus characterized by a dynamic interplay between dominant state languages and regionally rooted languages with varying degrees of institutional support, all of which coexist within complex legal and cultural frameworks.

The Spread

Spanish and Portuguese came to the Americas primarily through the processes of European exploration, colonization, and imperialism that began in the late 15th century. Following the voyages of Christopher Columbus, Spain established vast colonial territories in the Caribbean, Central America, and most of South America, with the exception of Brazil. The Spanish crown implemented policies aimed at cultural and linguistic assimilation, leading to the widespread use of Castilian Spanish among indigenous populations, often through religious missions, administrative institutions, and educational systems. Portuguese, meanwhile, became the dominant language in Brazil as a result of the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), which divided newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and Spain. The Portuguese crown developed colonial institutions in Brazil parallel to the Spanish model, similarly using language as a tool of integration and control.

Over time, both languages evolved in the Americas, incorporating vocabulary and structures from indigenous languages, African languages brought by enslaved peoples, and immigrant languages. Today, Spanish is the official or dominant language in over 18 countries in Latin America, including Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, and Peru. Portuguese is the sole official language of Brazil, which is the largest country in South America both in size and population.

These linguistic legacies are reinforced through national education systems, media, and government institutions. Despite the historical suppression of indigenous and Afro-descendant languages during colonization, many of these languages persist, and in recent decades, there has been a growing movement for bilingual education and cultural recognition.

In sum, the presence of Spanish and Portuguese in Latin America is a direct result of Iberian colonial expansion, and these languages continue to shape the region’s identity and global interactions.