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Castile and León [a] is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. It was created in 1983 by the merging of the provinces of the historic region of León: León, Zamora and Salamanca with those of Old Castile ( Castilla la Vieja ): Ávila, Burgos, Palencia, Segovia, Soria and Valladolid. The provinces of Santander and Logroño, which until ...
- Valladolid (de facto)
- Overview
- Religion
Castilian, which contains many words of Arabic origin, began as a dialect spoken in northern Spain. It became the language of the court of the kingdoms of Castile and León in the 12th century, and the dominance of Castile within Spain allowed it to become the official language of the state.
There are differences in accent and, to a lesser extent, in vocabulary in Castilian as it is spoken in various regions of the country. The most significant difference is in the pronunciation of c before i or e. In northern Castile, where the language is said to be spoken in its purest form, this is pronounced as an English th; in southern and western Spain it is pronounced as an English s. The prominence of people from these latter regions in the colonization of Latin America led to their pronunciation becoming the standard in American Spanish. The Cervantes Institute promotes the Spanish language and Spanish culture in many countries.
Roman Catholicism became the official religion of Spain in 589 and has been closely identified with the country ever since. The advent of political liberalism at the beginning of the 19th century led to a series of conflicts between church and state, especially over land ownership and the control of education. Even so, Catholicism remained the official religion of the state until the Second Republic (1931–36). After the Spanish Civil War, General Francisco Franco restored it as the state religion, and it retained that status until the proclamation of the constitution of 1978. Since then Spain has had no official religion, but the Roman Catholic Church continues to receive financial support from the state. The legalization of divorce and abortion along with educational reforms in the 1980s brought the church into conflict with the government once again but with less intensity than previously.
The vast majority of the population is Roman Catholic, yet for many—and especially for those born after 1950—this has little meaning beyond being baptized, married, and buried within the church. There are several hundred thousand non-Catholic Christians in Spain. American-based denominations such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Seventh-day Adventists as well as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) have been active in the country since the 1970s. In addition, there are hundreds of thousands of adherents of Islam, whose numbers have grown rapidly because of immigration. Some 100,000 Jews fled Spain during the Spanish Inquisition in the late 15th century, when the inquisitor general Tomás de Torquemada persuaded the country’s rulers to expel any Jew who refused to be baptized. To remain in the country, many Jews converted to Christianity (becoming known as conversos); those known as Marranos converted to Christianity but continued surreptitiously to practice Judaism. Restrictions on Judaism were eased only in the 20th century, and by the early 21st century there were some 15,000 Jews in Spain.
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The Leonese dialect heard in parts of the region derives from the vernacular of the Visigothic period; it is spoken in León, Zamora, Salamanca, and Valladolid provinces. Farmsteads in the mountains are ordinarily multistoried and built of stone and wood, while those in the central plateau are built of adobe.
Originally the local dialect of Cantabria in north central Spain, Castilian spread to Castile. After the merger of the kingdoms of Castile, Leon, and Aragon in the late 15th century, it became the standard language of all Spain and in the following centuries the language also of Spanish America .
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
May 9, 2023 · The official language in Castilla y Leon is Spanish. This version of Spanish is called Castilian Spanish, which is the language that is heard, spoken, and taught throughout the region, as well as the majority of Spain.
Spanish is the main language. Everyone in Castile and Leon speaks Spanish, but in the provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca, Leonese is also spoken by a small minority. Get in [edit] By plane [edit] The most important airport for the region is Madrid-Barajas (MAD), although it is not in Castile-León, but in the neighbouring region of Madrid.
In Merindad de Sotoscueva (province of Burgos) a Castilian is spoken with some dialectal features of the Asturian-Leonese. Share this: Spanish is the only official and preponderant language throughout the territory. A large part of the “Route of the Castilian language” passes through the autonomous community, which indica...
