If you're a Spanish learner, then I'm sure you've been wondering which is correct - español or castellano? Are these two terms different from each other or absolutely the same and interchangeable? Let's finally find it out!
First of all, let's just say that español and castellano refer to the same language - Spanish. They are synonyms, even though there is sometimes a slight difference between them. And the important thing to understand here is that the difference is not linguistic, but more likely geographical, because the term castellano is more often referred to the language spoken in Spain, meanwhile español is said to be the language spoken in Latin America.
A BIT OF HISTORY
Which of these two appeared first - español or castellano? Yes, the latter! As you may know, in the Middle Ages there was no "Spain" yet. Instead, there were several kingdoms that spread over the Iberian Peninsula. One of them was the Kingdom of Castile, exactly where the Castilian language (castellano) was formed.
The term Spanish / español appeared much later. It is believed that the Castilian language began to be called Spanish in the 18th century, mainly after the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714).
With the beginning of the Spanish colonization of the Americas, castellano started appearing in Latin America (starting from 1492 with the first trip of Christopher Columbus). And as the term español wasn't used until the 18th century, Latin American countries borrowed the same language as the one of the colonizers - Castilian. And only after some centuries, several Latin American countries changed their tradition of calling the language "castellano" to "español", while other countries kept on using the term "castellano".
SPAIN
Interestingly, in Spain people use both terms and very often interchangeably. Español is used mostly to show contrast between other languages outside Spain (English, French, Italian, etc.), while castellano is used to show the difference between other languages inside the country (Catalan, Galician, Basque, etc,), so that to contrast the regional characteristics and to refer exactly to the dialect of Spanish spoken in Castile.
LATIN AMERICA
Español is the most widespread term to refer to the Spanish language in general and is commonly used in all the Latin American countries and other former Spanish colonies. It is a neutral name. However, the term castellano is used more often in such countries as Argentina, Chile and sometimes Peru.
But even so, the usage of español and castellano is the question of each person's preference and the terms are usually used as synonyms.
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