History and Evolution of the Spanish Language
1. Origin and Development of the Languages of Spain
The Iberian Peninsula was settled and inhabited by diverse peoples, including the Iberians, Celts, Basques, Phoenicians, and Greeks, each with its own language. These languages are called pre-Roman languages.
Today, Basque is the only pre-Roman language that survives, with some words added from Romance languages.
With the arrival of the Romans, Vulgar Latin became the dominant language, leading to the assimilation of Roman culture. This romanization had varying results depending on the people and the existing linguistic substrate. A long period of bilingualism ensued, eventually resulting in the mixing of pre-Roman place names with Latin.
Christianity contributed to the complete romanization of the provinces, leading to the incorporation of many Greek words into Latin.
Words derived from Latin that underwent significant transformations are called words. Those that retained their original form are called semicultismos or learned words. In cases where one word evolved into two distinct forms, they are called doublets.
The arrival of the Germanic people, specifically the Visigoths, achieved political unification but not linguistic unity, resulting in the assimilation of only a few words like “war” and “win”.
In 711, the Arabs began their conquest of the peninsula, significantly influencing the Romance languages. Arabic became the most important linguistic element after Latin until the 16th century, contributing numerous words related to war (e.g., “tower,” “lieutenant”), agriculture (e.g., “tank,” “pool”), clothing (e.g., “robe”), and science and mathematics (e.g., “number,” “algebra,” “alchemy”).
Birth of the Romance Languages: Castilian
In the northern regions not conquered by the Arabs, languages derived from Latin emerged, including Galician-Portuguese, Leonese, Castilian, and Navarro-Aragonese. In the Arab-controlled areas, the Romance language Mozarabic developed.
As the Reconquista progressed, Castilian became dominant among the Romance languages. The first written manifestations of Romance are found in the Silos Glosses in Burgos and the Emilianenses Glosses in La Rioja. These are notes in the margins of Latin texts indicating words the monks didn’t understand, demonstrating that the common language was Romance.
With the advance of the Reconquista, Mozarabic gradually disappeared, leaving behind jarchas, which were two or three verses in Mozarabic added to poems in Arabic or Hebrew.
The 13th century saw the flourishing of Castilian prose with Alfonso X and the Toledo School of Translators. They translated important ancient works and standardized the Castilian language, addressing challenges such as creating consistent sentence structures and coining new words from Latin or Arabic to fill gaps in scientific and historical terminology.
By the 15th century, linguistic unity was nearly consolidated, aided by the spread of printing. Other Romance languages declined or fragmented. Leonese and Aragonese were reduced to rural dialects, while Galician-Portuguese split into two languages. Catalan, however, flourished and expanded throughout the Mediterranean.
In 1492, Antonio de Nebrija published the first Castilian Grammar, the first attempt to standardize a Romance language. He also wrote a Latin-Castilian/Castilian-Latin Dictionary and a Spelling Guide.
With the conquest of America and the expansion of the Spanish Empire under Charles V, Castilian spread to other continents and became known as Spanish.
Authors like Juan de Valdés advocated for natural language (“I write as I speak”), while Cervantes cultivated a rich rhetoric. Later, Quevedo and Góngora experimented with complex language games.
The Royal Spanish Academy
Under Philip V, the Royal Spanish Academy was founded to regulate the language. Its initial major works included:
- Dictionary of Authorities: Included definitions and quotations from authoritative sources.
- Orthography
- Grammar
The 18th century saw significant language standardization efforts. Key aspects included:
- Standardizing the pronunciation of consonant clusters.
- Simplifying learned words with three consonants (e.g., “sumptuoso” to “suntuoso”).
- Distinguishing between the spellings ‘u’ and ‘i’ (for vowels).
In the second half of the 19th century, with the rise of nationalism, Catalan and Galician experienced a resurgence through the Renaixença and Rexurdimento movements, respectively. However, Castilian was already widely established.
2. Languages in the Spanish Constitution
Catalan
Co-official with Castilian in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Valencia, and Andorra. Catalan is a Romance language formed through contact with Occitan in southern France. It expanded until the 12th century and then again in the Mediterranean from the 15th century. After a period of decline, it was revived in the 18th century with the Renaixença cultural movement and subsequent nationalist movements.
Pompeu Fabra standardized Catalan spelling in 1913, and it was proclaimed the official language of Catalonia.
Catalan dialects are grouped into two main categories: Eastern Catalan (neutralized pronunciation of unstressed ‘a’ and ‘e’) and Western Catalan. Key differences from Castilian include:
- Frequent consonants at the end of words (e.g., “vent” vs. “viento”).
- Unstressed ‘a’ and ‘e’ do not form diphthongs (e.g., “terra” vs. “tierra”).
- Initial ‘l’ often becomes ‘ll’ (e.g., “llum” vs. “luz”).
Valencian is a dialect of Catalan and is co-official with Castilian in Valencia.
Galician
Co-official with Castilian in Galicia, bordering Portugal. Galician is a Romance language that flourished in the Middle Ages, but later declined to a rural language until its resurgence in the 19th century with the Rexurdimento (e.g., Rosalía de Castro). Unlike Catalan, it lacked strong bourgeois support and did not fully consolidate.
Despite the establishment of the Royal Galician Academy, Galician only recently gained recognition and prestige.
Its variants are divided into three zones: Eastern, Central, and Western. Two distinguishing features are geada (aspiration of /g/) and seseo (pronunciation of /c/ before /i/ and /e/ as /s/).
Due to its relative isolation, some distinguishing features include:
- Stressed ‘o’ and ‘e’ do not form diphthongs (e.g., “terra”).
- Retention of final Latin ‘e’ or initial ‘f’.
Basque
Basque is the only surviving non-Romance language in Spain. It is co-official with Castilian in the Basque Country and Navarre. It is characterized by fragmentation due to the lack of a standardized written form and the isolation of different dialects. To address this, the Royal Academy of the Basque Language created Unified Basque (Euskara Batua), promoting its use in education and media.
Basque is formed by adding prefixes and suffixes, has no grammatical gender, and features complex verb conjugation and noun declension.
Leonese and Aragonese
Neither Leonese nor Aragonese has achieved official language status.
Leonese is a group of dialects related to Asturian or Bable. Distinguishing features include:
- Frequent diminutives in -ín/-ina (e.g., “niñín/niñina”).
- Use of the formula “article + possessive” (e.g., “el mi casa”).
- Pronoun-less pronominal verbs (e.g., “¿Caíste?” vs. “¿Te caíste?”).
Aragonese has been influenced by Basque, Castilian, and Catalan. Distinguishing features include:
- Retention of ‘ll’ where Castilian has ‘j’ (e.g., “ollos” vs. “ojos”).
- Use of “o”, “lo”, “ro” or “a”, “la”, “ra” as masculine and feminine articles, respectively.