"the other Spanish languages"). Article III reads as follows: The Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española), on the other hand, currently uses the term in its publications. However, from 1713 to 1923, it called the language . The (a language guide published by the Royal Spanish Academy) states that, although the Royal Spanish Academy prefers to use the term in its publications when referring to the Spanish language, both terms— and —are regarded as synonymous and equally valid. Etymology The term is related to Castile ( or archaically ), the kingdom where the language was originally spoken. The name of Castile, in turn, is usually assumed to be derived from ('castle'). In the Middle Ages, the language spoken in Castile was generically referred to as and later also as . Later in the period, it gained geographical specification as ("romanz castellano", "romanz de Castiella"), "lenguaje de Castiella", and ultimately simply as (noun). Different etymologies have been suggested for the term (Spanish). According to the Royal Spanish Academy, derives from the Occitan word and that, in turn, derives from the Vulgar Latin ('of Hispania'). Hispania was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. There are other hypotheses apart from the one suggested by the Royal Spanish Academy. Spanish philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal suggested that the classic or took the suffix from Vulgar Latin, as happened with other words such as (Breton) or (Saxon). History Like the other Romance languages, the Spanish language evolved from Vulgar Latin, which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans during the Second Punic War, beginning in 210 BC. Several pre-Roman languages (also called Paleohispanic languages)—some distantly related to Latin as Indo-European languages, and some that are not related at all—were previously spoken in the Iberian Peninsula. These languages included Proto-Basque, Iberian, Lusitanian, Celtiberian and Gallaecian. The first documents to show traces of what is today regarded as the precursor of modern Spanish are from the 9th century. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era, the most important influences on the Spanish lexicon came from neighboring Romance languages—Mozarabic (Andalusi Romance), Navarro-Aragonese, Leonese, Catalan, Portuguese, Galician, Occitan, and later, French and Italian. Spanish also borrowed a considerable number of words from Arabic, as well as a minor influence from the Germanic Gothic language through the migration of tribes and a period of Visigoth rule in Iberia. In addition, many more words were borrowed from