Curious Roots - A Short History of the Spanish Language
by: Bill Ross
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Word Count: 1087
First of all, the concept that there is one "mother form" of Spanish is a fallacy, and it always has been. Ancient Spanish evolved from the Latin spoken in the Iberian Peninsula, but it absorbed lots of other cultures, too: Arabic, Gothic and Celtic are just a few of them within the boundaries of Spain. Indigenous influences from Africa, Latin America and Asia have created dozens of distinct versions of Spanish in the modern world.
Here’s how it began: "Hispania" was Rome’s name for its Iberian province. Where this name came from is unknown. One view is that it was a contraction of "Hesperia Ultima" or the "Far West." Others believe the Celtic word for Sevilla -- "Hispa" -- is the source. The Basques use the word "Ezpanna" to mean "border." Maybe that’s the real reason. Or perhaps it’s derived from a Punic word that made its way from ancient Phoenicia to Carthage to Spain.
Spanish is a great-grandchild of the Vulgar Latin (i.e., the uneducated tongue of the common soldier) spoken by Roman troops and their entourages during their occupation of "Hispania." As a romance language, Spanish has "lexical similarity" with others in the family. It shares 89% of word roots with Portuguese, 82% with Italian, 75% with French and 71% with Romanian. Differences in pronunciation, however, make almost all spoken words mutually unintelligible among these sister languages.
Before the Romans came, the Iberian Peninsula was inhabited largely by Celts and by the Basques, both of them peoples of very ancient origin. Only a few Celtic words still survive in Spanish. "Cerveza" (beer) is perhaps the most famous, but there are others, like "túnel," "bruja," and "güero" (tunnel, witch and fair person, respectively).
Spanish also contains a number of words of Gothic origin. "Guardia." "agasajar," and "pantalones" are good examples. The western Goths settled in Southern France in the 4th century and from there invaded Spain. They conquered Romans as well as Vandals and other Germanic tribes they found there. The Goths remained for three centuries or more, mainly influencing the northeast corridor and the north, along the Pyrenees and Atlantic Coast. In 711, the Visigoths fell to the armies of the Moors, which had been advancing from the south for many decades.
The presence of the Moors in Spain caused the substitution of a great number of Arabic words for those of Latin origin. Of a thousand or more possible examples, it is common to cite "almohada" (pillow) and "alfombra" (rug). The "al" prefix (like the article "el") is the usual giveaway. "Aceite" (oil) "albañil" (stone mason), and "alcalde" (mayor) are others. "Café" (coffee), "calabaza" (squash), "chisme" (gossip), "rehén" (hostage) "rincón" (corner) and "taza" (cup) are all in the same group.
It is important to distinguish the Moorish influence from a much earlier impact that came from Carthage (during the Punic Wars). In the second and third centuries BC, refugees from the Rome’s utter destruction of Carthage fled to Iberia, bringing their culture with them.
But from the 9th AD century onward, the Moorish influence in Spain made the local languages much distinct from their Romance cousins in Italy, France and elsewhere. (It is worth noting, of course, that in the Middle Ages none of the modern languages had developed; Latin still predominated as the written language of the church and of the few nobles who could read.)
In the 11th century the Christian armies confronted the Moors in Toledo, the point of their most northern penetration, and started pressing them southward. By the 13th century, Cordoba was returned to Christian control. The last Moorish foothold ended in 1492 with their expulsion, along with the Sephardic Jews, from Andalucía.
But Christian Spain was still a patchwork of dialects and languages. What caused only one of them to emerge as the official language of Spain? This story starts with the marriage in 1479 of Isabella of Castile with Ferdinand of Aragon. Under their joint monarchy, Christian armies made the final push to terminate the Moorish presence in Spain. Isabella spoke "castillano," the dialect of Castile. The court adopted it as the official language of the monarchy, and so even today, "castillano" is used by native speakers all over the world to refer to the standard version of Spanish employed in the daily parlance of educated persons. "Español," on the other hand, is used to distinguish their language from non-Hispanic tongues (like English or Chinese).
Of course, the "Castillian Accent" is not used throughout the Spanish-speaking world. It is mainly found in the central provinces of Spain, where it is still considered to be the "prestige accent." Madrid (in New Castile) has been the capital of the country since 1561, when it replaced Seville. The accent comes from medieval towns like Toledo and Segovia, which is Queen Isabella’s home town. Apart from the choice of certain distinctive words that give away the accent, Castilian Spanish is most notable for its lisped "z" and soft "c." The "j" is much stronger than elsewhere and the "s" is muddied almost to "sh." Several vowels are formed farther back in the mouth and away from the teeth than is true for other Spanish-speaking areas.
On the other hand, most of the soldiers who left Spain for Africa, the New World and the Orient came from other parts of Spain, not Castile, Leon or Aragon. They came from Andalucía (where the war with the Moors had just ended) or from the poorer regions like La Mancha and Extremadura. These soldiers -- the "conquistadores" -- established whole colonies in Mexico, Peru, Colobia, the Caribbean, the Philippines, and in many other countries as well.
The soldiers did not lisp their "z’s" and soft "c’s," and their "j" was more like an English "h," and they hissed the "s." They intermarried with the cultures already found in these places, and as a result, the Castilian accent stayed in Spain, but Latin America and the Orient developed their own speech patterns.
Look for subsequent articles by the same author on basic Spanish grammar, Spanish pronunciation, and indigenous words that have come into Mexican Spanish.
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About the Author
Bill Ross writes for Green Crescent Translations, a translation firm that has served international businesses for almost 10 years. Mr. Ross is part of a professional team that translates in over 100 languages, in technical and literary fields. Website localization and subtitles are also supported, as are all major office, DTP and Web formats. To reach him, click this link to Green Crescent's web site: Spanish Translation and go to the contact page.
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