5 facts about the Spanish language: 1. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world, with over 500 million native speakers. 2. Spanish is the official language of 21 countries, including Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Peru. 3. Spanish is a Romance language, which means that it is descended from Latin. 4. Spanish has a phonetic alphabet, which means that the way a word is spelled is usually the way it is pronounced. 5. Spanish has two names: castellano and español. Castellano is the older name, while español is the more common name used today.