This paper offers an estimation of the number of Spanish speakers in Europe in order to analyze the demographic dynamics according to their migratory backgrounds. This demolinguistic approach allows us to quantify this group of Spanish heritage speakers and outline their demographic and linguistic profiles. Through analyzing specific family, social, educational, and geographic settings, this paper identifies a heterogeneous group of 1.7 million Spanish heritage speakers. Moreover, we discuss the social dynamics involved in the intergenerational transmission of the Spanish language in different contexts: spaces in which Spanish is an official language and in which different geographic varieties coexist, and spaces beyond the national borders of predominantly Spanish-speaking countries. In the latter, the demolinguistic analysis suggests that barely a third have been linguistically socialized in environments favorable to the intergenerational transmission of the Spanish language.

Este trabajo responde al interés científico y social por el análisis comparado de la importancia internacional de las lenguas. En él se ensaya una clasificación que ordena las propuestas existentes según los criterios en que se basan: la percepción de la importancia, la estimación de la importancia y el cálculo de índices complejos. En segundo lugar, el texto presenta una actualización del índice internacional de las lenguas y de sus indicadores para 2020. Por último, se analizan los resultados del cálculo y se comparan con índices anteriores. El análisis permite describir un panorama lingüístico plural y policéntrico, definido por distintas lenguas internacionales y sus respectivas áreas de influencia y expansión.

Family and educational institutions are the main centers of socialization in heritage language. Beyond the communicative and learning dynamics that take place in both environments, linguistic socialization also depends to a large extent on the relationship of families with educational spaces. The aim of this paper is to discuss families’ expectations regarding the intergenerational transmission of Spanish and to explore their attitudes towards heritage language and educational programs in Germany. For this purpose, the results of an exploratory study based on surveys will be presented to compare the main arguments justifying Spanish-speaking families’ decision to include heritage language courses or bilingual education spaces in their family language management in the German context. The analysis of the perception of families and their attitudes shows that the positive valuation of the family and instrumental dimension of heritage language influence families to include bilingual programs or heritage language classes in their family language management.

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