Lenguaje de España-ONCE

http://www.once.es/new/otras-webs/english

ONCE, an international organization based in Madrid, has a long history of serving sight disabled people around the world.  A skype friend I chat with in Madrid has directed me to this website. She is same person helping  me understand the various languages used in Spain, that with her help I previously posted. http://www.sociedadhispanadoylestown.com/2011/03/languages-spoken-in-spain.html

In addition to the stated purpose and history of the ONCE organization, each of the various pages on the site are  translated into english, castellano, as well as other languages spoken in Spain.  The main page, which is linked above, shows how different these languages really are.  The gallego tab, for example,  shows how close that language is to Portuguese while containing aspects of castellano.  Contractions are but one example:

Portuguese:  deste ( a contraction of the preposition (de) and the adjective (este)
Castilian: de este (meaning is the same as above)

Portuguese uses several contractions (as does the language of Galicia)

When one clicks on the Catalan tab on the above linked page, it seems to me the written language  is much closer to French.