Spanish: An Essential Grammar

the US Census Bureau estimated that they are the largest and fastest

growing minority numbering some 37 million or 13 per cent of the total

population.

Largely due to its popularity as a second language, many more people speak

English worldwide, but Spanish is the only other language that has a

comparable international significance. Today, the vast majority of Spanish

speakers throughout the world display characteristics of speech and writing

that are reminiscent of features long ago established in Andalusia.

Nowadays, this is usually attributed to the fact that the earliest explorers

and settlers originated in that region, that later émigrés passed through it

en route to the Canary Islands and the outposts of empire, whilst cities

such as Seville and Cadiz dominated commercial enterprise in ships crewed

by Andalusian seamen. If there is such a thing as standard Spanish, this

book seeks to reflect the fact that today rather than being purely Peninsular

it is intercontinental and especially American, but also that regional vari-

ation does not signify that it is undergoing a process of profound

fragmentation.

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Preface