What was spoken first Spanish or English?

Answer 1

The exact starting points for English and Spanish ,specifically Castillian, are hard to pinpoint. With Spanish, the difficulties concern how far into Hispanic Medieval Latin dialects you are willing to count as Spanish. Would you draw the line at the first books written that a modern Spanish speaker would be able to understand at over 90%, 80% (if we choose 100%, then we move into much more modern territory). With Castillian, this was a language of the court, that is to say that orders and decrees were published in Castillian. Documents from the late 1400s and early 1500s are relatively clearly Spanish.

English by contrast was a melange of Germanic dialects spoken by the Anglo-Saxon invaders, Latin from the remaining Romans of Britannia, minute amounts of Celtic from Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and Norman French from the Norman invasions. This means that Old and Middle English are vastly different languages from Modern English and only with study can Old/Middle English become understood. Also, English was not a language of the court as the English monarchies spoke French. As a result, the point at which Middle English becomes Modern English is muddled.

As concerns literature, Cervantes is considered one of Castilian's first and foremost authors and he wrote in the 15th century. Shakespeare is considered one of Modern English's first and foremost writers and he wrote in the 17th century. If we use these two as arbitrary markers, Castilian was spoken first.

Answer 2

Historically, Spanish was spoken before English. Spanish was brought to the Americas during the Age of Exploration in the late 15th century, while English began to be established in North America during the early 17th century.