Old Spanish
Old Spanish | |
---|---|
Old Castilian | |
roman, romançe, romaz | |
Pronunciation | Iberian peninsula |
Ethnicity | Castilians, later Spaniards |
Era | 9th–15th centuries |
| |
Early forms | |
Latin Aljamiado (marginal) | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | osp |
osp | |
Glottolog | olds1249 |
Old Spanish, also known as Old Castilian (
Phonology
The phonological system of Old Spanish was quite similar to that of other medieval Romance languages.
Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
laminal | apical | ||||||
Nasal
|
m | n
|
ɲ | ||||
Affricate
|
voiceless | p | t̪
|
t͡s̻ | t͡ʃ | k | |
voiced | b | d̪
|
d͡z̻ | ʒ | ɡ | ||
Fricative
|
voiceless | ɸ | s̺
|
ʃ | |||
voiced | β | z̺
|
|||||
Approximant | ʝ ~ j | ||||||
Lateral | l
|
ʎ | |||||
Trill | r
|
||||||
Flap | ɾ |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Mid | e | o | |
Open | a |
Sibilants
Among the consonants, there were seven
- Alveolar:
- Voiceless alveolar affricate /t͡s̻/: represented by ⟨ç⟩, also by ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩, and by ⟨z⟩ in word-final position or before another consonant (where the voicing contrast was neutralized)
- Voiced alveolar affricate /d͡z̻/: represented by ⟨z⟩
- Apicoalveolar:
- s̺/: represented by ⟨s⟩ in word-initial and word-final positions and before and after a consonant, and by ⟨ss⟩ between vowels
- z̺/: represented by ⟨s⟩ between vowels and before voiced consonants
- Postalveolar:
- Voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/: represented by ⟨x⟩
- Voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/ ~ Voiced postalveolar affricate /d͡ʒ/: represented by ⟨j⟩, and (often) by ⟨g⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩
- Voiceless postalveolar affricate /t͡ʃ/: represented by ⟨ch⟩
The set of sounds is identical to that found in medieval Portuguese and almost the same as the system present in the modern Mirandese language.
The Modern Spanish system evolved from the Old Spanish one with the following changes:
- The affricates //.
- The voiced sibilants then all lost their voicing and so merged with the voiceless ones. (Voicing remains before voiced consonants, such as mismo, desde, and rasgo, but only allophonically.)
- The merged /ʃ/ was retracted to /x/.
- The merged /s̺/ was instead drawn forward, merging into /s̻/.
Changes 2–4 all occurred in a short period of time, around 1550–1600. The change from /ʃ/ to /x/ is comparable to the fluctuation occurring in the sj-sound of Modern Swedish.
The Old Spanish spelling of the sibilants was identical to modern Portuguese spelling. Examples of words before spelling was altered in 1815 to reflect the changed pronunciation:[5]
- passar 'to pass' versus casar 'to marry' (Modern Spanish pasar, casar, cf. Portuguese passar, casar)
- osso 'bear' versus oso 'I dare' (Modern Spanish oso in both cases, cf. Portuguese urso [a borrowing from Latin], ouso)
- foces 'sickles' versus fozes 'base levels' (Modern Spanish hoces in both cases, cf. Portuguese foices, fozes)
- coxo 'lame' versus cojo 'I seize' (Modern Spanish cojo in both cases, cf. Portuguese coxo, colho)
- xefe 'chief' (Modern Spanish jefe, cf. Portuguese chefe)
- Xerez (Modern Spanish Jerez, cf. Portuguese Xeres)
- oxalá 'if only' (Modern Spanish ojalá, cf. Portuguese oxalá)
- dexar 'leave' (Modern Spanish dejar, cf. Portuguese deixar)
- roxo 'red' (Modern Spanish rojo, cf., Portuguese roxo 'purple')
- fazer or facer 'make' (Modern Spanish hacer, cf. Portuguese fazer)
- dezir 'say' (Modern Spanish decir, cf. Portuguese dizer)
- lança 'lance' (Modern Spanish lanza, cf. Portuguese lança)
The x in Old Spanish xeque and xerife reflects their origins from Arabic sheikh and sharif.
Bilabial consonants
Voiced
The
Voiceless
At an archaic stage, there would have existed three allophones of /f/ in approximately the following distribution:[7]
- [ɸ] before non-back vowels, [j], [ɾ] or [l]
- [h] before the back vowels [o] and [u]
- [ʍ] or [hɸ] before [w]
By the early stages of Old Spanish, the allophone [h][a] had spread to all prevocalic environments and possibly before [j] as well.[8]
Subsequently, the bilabial allophones of /f/ (that is, those other than [h]) were modified to the labiodental [ 'fable'. In some cases, doublets appear in apparently native vocabulary, possibly the result of borrowings from other Ibero-Romance varieties; compare modern hierro 'iron' and fierro 'branding iron' or the names Hernando and Fernando.
Orthography
Writing systems
Old Spanish was generally written with some variation of the Latin script. In addition, the Arabic script was used by crypto-Muslims for certain writings in dialectal Spanish or Aragonese in a writing system called Aljamiado.[12]
Spelling
Palatal nasal and lateral
The palatal nasal /
⟨ch⟩
Old Spanish had ⟨ch⟩, just as Modern Spanish does, which represents a development of earlier */jt/ (still preserved in Portuguese), in most cases from Latin ⟨ct⟩. The use of ⟨ch⟩ for /t͡ʃ/ originated in Old French[citation needed] and spread to Spanish, Portuguese, and English despite the different origins of the sound in each language:
- leche 'milk' from earlier leite[citation needed] (Latin lacte, cf. Portuguese leite)
- mucho 'much', from earlier muito (Latin multum, cf. Portuguese muito)
- noche 'night', from earlier noite (Latin noctem, cf. Portuguese noite)
- ocho 'eight', from earlier oito (Latin octō, cf. Portuguese oito)
- hecho 'made' or 'fact', from earlier feito (Latin factum, cf. Portuguese feito)
Greek digraphs
The Graeco-Latin digraphs (digraphs in words of Greek-Latin origin) ⟨ch⟩, ⟨ph⟩, ⟨(r)rh⟩ and ⟨th⟩ were eventually reduced to ⟨c⟩, ⟨f⟩, ⟨(r)r⟩ and ⟨t⟩, respectively in Modern Spanish:
- christiano (Modern Spanish cristiano)
- triumpho (Modern Spanish triunfo)
- myrrha (Modern Spanish mirra)
- theatro (Modern Spanish teatro)
Word-initial Y to I
Word-initial [i] was spelled ⟨Y⟩, which was later simplified to ⟨I⟩ in Modern Spanish.
Morphology
In Old Spanish, perfect constructions of movement verbs, such as ir ('(to) go') and venir ('(to) come'), were formed using the auxiliary verb ser ('(to) be'), as in Italian and French: Las mugieres son llegadas a Castiella was used instead of Las mujeres han llegado a Castilla ('The women have arrived in Castilla').
Possession was expressed with the verb aver (Modern Spanish haber, '(to) have'), rather than tener: Pedro ha dos fijas was used instead of Pedro tiene dos hijas ('Pedro has two daughters').
In the
: María ha cantadas dos canciones was used instead of Modern Spanish María ha cantado dos canciones ('María has sung two songs'). However, that was inconsistent even in the earliest texts.The prospective aspect was formed with the verb ir ('(to) go') along with the verb in infinitive, with the difference that in Modern Spanish it's included the preposition a:
- Al Çid beso la mano, la senna ua tomar. (Cantar de mio Cid, 691)
- Al Cid besó la mano, la enseña va a tomar. (Modern Spanish equivalent)
The future and the conditional tenses were not yet fully
- E dixo: ― Tornar-m-é a Jherusalem. (Fazienda de Ultra Mar, 194)
- Y dijo: ― Me tornaré a Jerusalén. (literal translation into Modern Spanish)
- E disse: ― Tornar-me-ei a Jerusalém. (literal translation into Portuguese)
- And he said: "I will return to Jerusalem." (English translation)
- En pennar gelo he por lo que fuere guisado (Cantar de mio Cid, 92)
- Se lo empeñaré por lo que sea razonable (Modern Spanish equivalent)
- Penhorá-lho-ei pelo que for razoável (Portuguese equivalent)
- I will pawn them it for whatever it be reasonable (English translation)
When there was a stressed word before the verb, the pronouns would go before the verb: non gelo empeñar he por lo que fuere guisado.
Generally, an unstressed pronoun and a verb in
The
- Si vos assi lo fizieredes e la ventura me fuere complida
- Mando al vuestro altar buenas donas e Ricas (Cantar de mio Cid, 223–224)
- Si vosotros así lo hiciereis y la ventura me fuere cumplida,
- Mando a vuestro altar ofrendas buenas y ricas (Modern Spanish equivalent)
- Se vós assim o fizerdes e a ventura me for comprida,
- Mando a vosso altar oferendas boas e ricas. (Portuguese equivalent; 'ventura' is an obsolete word for 'luck'.)
- If you do so and fortune is favourable toward me,
- I will send to your altar fine and rich offerings (English translation)
Vocabulary
Latin | Old Spanish | Modern Spanish | Modern Portuguese |
---|---|---|---|
acceptāre, captāre, effectum, respectum | acetar, catar, efeto, respeto | aceptar, captar, efecto, respecto, respeto | aceitar, captar, efeito, respeito |
et, nōn, nōs, hīc | e, et; non, no; nós; í | y, e; no; nosotros; ahí | e; não; nós; aí |
stābat; habuī, habēbat; facere, fecisti | estava; ove, avié; far/fer/fazer, fezist(e)/fizist(e) | estaba; hube, había; hacer, hiciste | estava; houve, havia; fazer, fizeste |
hominem, mulierem, īnfantem | omne/omre/ombre, mugier/muger, ifante | hombre, mujer, infante | homem, mulher, infante |
crās, māne (māneāna); numquam | cras, man, mañana; nunqua/nunquas | mañana, nunca | manhã, nunca |
quandō, quid, quī (quem), quōmodo | quando, que, qui, commo/cuemo | cuando, que, quien, como | quando, que, quem, como |
fīlia | fyia, fija | hija | filha |
Sample text
The following is a sample from
The poem
Ya
estas,
Fezist çielo e tierra, el terçero el mar,
Fezist estrelas e luna, e el sol pora escalentar,
Prisisten carnaçion en sancta maria madre,
En belleem apareçist, commo fue tu veluntad,
Pastores te glorificaron, ovieron de a laudare,
arabiate vinieron adorar,
Melchior e gaspar e baltasar, oro e tus e mirra
Te offreçieron, commo fue tu veluntad.
Saluest a jonas quando cayo en la mar,
Saluest a daniel con los leones en la mala carçel,
Saluest dentro en Roma al sennor san sabastián,
Saluest a sancta susanna del falso criminal,
Por tierra andidiste xxxii annos, sennor spirital,
Mostrando los miraculos, por en auemos que fablar,
Del agua fezist vinoe dela piedra pan,
Resuçitest a Lazaro, ca fue tu voluntad,
Alos judios te dexeste prender, do dizen monte caluarie
golgota,
Dos ladrones contigo, estos de sennas partes,
El vnoel otronon entro ala,
Estando en la cruz vertud fezist muy grant,
Longinosera çiego, que nuquas vio alguandre,
Diot con la lança enel costado, dont yxio la sangre,
Corrio la sangre por el astil ayuso, las manos se ouo de vntar,
Alçolas arriba, legolas a la faz,
Abrio sos oios, cato atodas partes,
En ti crouo al ora, por end es saluo de mal.
Enel monumento Resuçitest e fust alos ynfiernos,
Commo fue tu voluntad,
Quebranteste las puertas e saqueste los padres sanctos.
Tueres Rey delos Reyes e de todel mundo padre,
Ati adoro e creo de toda voluntad,
E Ruego a san peydro que me aiude a Rogar
Por mio çid el campeador, que dios le curie de mal,
Quando oy nos partimos, en vida nos faz iuntar.
Oh Señor glorioso, Padre que en el cielo estás,
Hiciste el cielo y la tierra, al tercer día el mar,
Hiciste las estrellas y la luna, y el sol para calentar,
Te encarnaste en Santa María madre,
En Belén apareciste, como fue tu voluntad,
Pastores te glorificaron, te tuvieron que loar,
Tres reyes de Arabia te vinieron a adorar,
Melchor, Gaspar y Baltasar; oro, incienso y mirra
Te ofrecieron, como fue tu voluntad.
Salvaste a Jonás cuando cayó en el mar,
Salvaste a Daniel con los leones en la mala cárcel,
Salvaste dentro de Roma al señor San Sebastián,
Salvaste a Santa Susana del falso criminal,
Por tierra anduviste treinta y dos años, Señor espiritual,
Mostrando los milagros, por ende tenemos qué hablar,
Del agua hiciste vino y de la piedra pan,
Resucitaste a Lázaro, porque fue tu voluntad,
Por los judíos te dejaste prender, en donde llaman Monte Calvario
Te pusieron en la cruz, en un lugar llamado Golgotá,
Dos ladrones contigo, estos de sendas partes,
Uno está en el paraíso, porque el otro no entró allá,
Estando en la cruz hiciste una virtud muy grande,
Longinos era ciego que jamás se vio,
Te dio con la lanza en el costado, de donde salió la sangre,
Corrió la sangre por el astil abajo, las manos se tuvo que untar,
Las alzó arriba, se las llevó a la cara,
Abrió sus ojos, miró a todas partes,
En ti creyó entonces, por ende se salvó del mal.
En el monumento resucitaste y fuiste a los infiernos,
Como fue tu voluntad,
Quebrantaste las puertas y sacaste a los padres santos.
Tú eres Rey de los reyes y de todo el mundo padre,
A ti te adoro y en ti creo de toda voluntad,
Y ruego a San Pedro que me ayude a rogar
Por mi Cid el Campeador, que Dios le cuide del mal,
Cuando hoy partamos, en vida haznos juntar.
English translation
O glorious Lord, Father who art in Heaven,
Thou madest Heaven and Earth, and on the third day the sea,
Thou madest the stars and the Moon, and the Sun for warmth,
Thou incarnatedst Thyself of the Blessed Mother Mary,
In Bethlehem Thou appearedst, for it was Thy will,
Shepherds glorified Thee, they gave Thee praise,
Three kings of Arabia came to worship Thee,
Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar; offered Thee
Gold, frankincense, and myrrh, for it was Thy will.
Thou savedst Jonah when he fell into the sea,
Thou savedst Daniel from the lions in the terrible jail,
Thou savedst Saint Sebastian in Rome,
Thou savedst Saint Susan from the false charge,
On Earth Thou walkedst thirty-two years, Spiritual Lord,
Performing miracles, thus we have of which to speak,
Of the water Thou madest wine and of the stone bread,
Thou revivedst Lazarus, because it was Thy will,
Thou leftest Thyself to be arrested by the Jews, where they call Mount Calvary,
They placed Thee on the Cross, in the place called Golgotha,
Two thieves with Thee, these of split paths,
One is in Paradise, but the other did not enter there,
Being on the Cross Thou didst a very great virtue,
Longinus was blind ever he saw Thee,
He gave Thee a blow with the lance in the broadside, where he left the blood,
Running down the arm, the hands Thou hadst spread,
Raised it up, as it led to Thy face,
Opened their eyes, saw all parts,
And believed in Thee then, thus saved them from evil.
Thou revivedst in the tomb and went to Hell,
For it was Thy will,
Thou hast broken the doors and brought out the holy fathers.
Thou art King of Kings and of all the world Father,
I worship Thee and I believe in all Thy will,
And I pray to Saint Peter to help with my prayer,
For my Cid the Champion, that God nurse from evil,
When we part today, that we are joined in this life or the next.
See also
- History of the Spanish language
- Early Modern Spanish (Middle Spanish)
- Judeo-Spanishpreserves some of the sounds and terms of Old Spanish that have been lost in Modern Spanish.
Notes
- ^ Originally the result of dissimilation, via delabialization, of [ɸ] before the rounded ('labial') vowels [o] and [u].
References
- ^ Eberhard, Simons & Fennig (2020)
- ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2022). "Castilic". Glottolog 4.6. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
- ^ a b c Boggs, Ralph Steele (1946). "roman". Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish. the compilers. p. 446-447. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
- ^ Penny (2002:96)
- ^ Ortografía de la lengua castellana – Real Academia Española –. Imprenta real. 1815. Retrieved 2015-05-22 – via Internet Archive.
ortografía 1815.
- ^ Penny (2002:96–98). This citation covers the preceding paragraph.
- ^ Lloyd (1987:214–215); Penny (2002:92)
- ^ Per Penny (2002:92)). Lloyd (1987:215–216, 322–323)) broadly agrees, except on the matter of [h] spreading before [j].
- ^ Penny (2002:92); Lloyd (1987:324)
- ^ Penny (2002:103–104)
- ISSN 1988-2955.
- ISSN 2212-9421.
- ^ Penny (2002:210)
- ^ Diccionario de dudas y dificultades de la lengua española. Seco, Manuel. Espasa-Calpe. 2002. Pp. 222–3.
- ^ A recording with reconstructed mediaeval pronunciation can be accessed here, reconstructed according to contemporary phonetics (by Jabier Elorrieta).
Bibliography
- Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D. (2020). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (23rd ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Archived from the original on 6 April 2006. Retrieved 22 June 2002.
- Lloyd, Paul M. (1987). From Latin to Spanish. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.
- Penny, Ralph (2002). A History of the Spanish Language (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521011846.