Abstract
The chapter characterizes the linguistic situation in Spain today: it deals with the languages and dialects and their role in history and in the present. It places this description in a general sociolinguistic framework (including the European context of linguistic issues and the mutual intelligibility of languages).
It describes the collective and individual language strategies of speakers, analyses language issues in some important areas of social life (e.g. education) and introduces some important concepts of contemporary Spanish sociolinguistics.