From Medieval to Present day Spelling in Spanish Literature

The Spanish language has radically improved through the very last one particular thousand many years. At the starting of the 11th century A.D., Spanish literature began its journey as Muslims in Iberia wrote “jarchas”- a combination of Arabic and Latin poetry. Commencing in the 13th century, non-Muslims Christians in Spain and Portugal wrote several works in poetry and prose. In equally nations, the language in these early Iberian texts was a synthesis of dialects of earlier conquerors: Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Visigoths, Jews and Muslims. Alfonso X, “wise” king of Portugal composed an exhaustive range of poetic literature, but most of these functions are in Galician-Portuguese. In the 14th century, writers from Spain composed a the greater part of its poetry and prose. The spelling of a lot of outdated Spanish text is erratic and complicated, but I have involved a record of medieval-fashionable translated rates and text from Previous Spanish texts.

Check out looking at these prices from two Medieval Spanish texts:

1.Dixo Dina: – Dizen que avia un rrico ome en una cibdat e tenia una mugger muy ‘fermosa e entendida.’ (Calila e Dimna, 15).

Present day spelling: Dijo Digna:- Dicen que había un rico hombre en una ciudad y tenía una mujer muy ‘hermosa y entendida’. Translation: Digna stated, “They say there was a rich person in a metropolis, and had a really gorgeous and sensible wife (female).”

2.Ya lo vee el Cid que del rrey non avie gracia. Partios de la puerta por Burgos aguijava, lego a Santa Maria luego descalvaga, ‘finco los inojos de coracon rrogava. La oracion fecha luego cavalgava salio por la puerta e (en) Arlancion passava. (El Poema del Cid, 52-57).

Modern-day spelling: Ya lo ve el Cid que del rey no había gracia. Partió de la puerta por Burgos aguijaba, llegó a Santa María luego descalbaga, hincó los inojos de corazón rogaba. La oración hecha luego cabalgaba salió por la puerta y en Arlanción pasaba.

Translation: The Cid knew the king was angry. He turned away from the doorway, galloped by way of Burgos, straight to Saint Mary’s cathedral, in which he dropped from his horse. He fell on his knees, and prayed from his coronary heart. The moment his prayer was concluded, he departed. He still left by way of the gate and crossed the Arlacion (River).

Basic spelling regulations from Medieval Spanish are grouped as follows:

v-b: avere-(h)aber,(to have) fablava-hablaba, (spoke) avia-(h)abia, (experienced)

f-h: fablar-hablar, (to communicate) fazer-hacer, (to make, do) fasta-hasta,(right up until) fijo/a-hijo/a,(son, daughter) fallar-hallar,(to uncover) fer-ser, (to be) fago-hago, (I make, do)

z-c: fazer-hacer, (to make, do) dezir-decir, (to say) plazer-placer, (to please). (The “z” provides the phrases a “z” or “ts” sound.)

qu-cu (at the beginning of the term): quando-cuando,(when) qual-cual, (what, which) quanto-cuanto, (amount) quarto-cuarto, (quarter) quarto-cuatro, (4).

t-d (at the close of the word): maldat-maldad, (evil) verdat-verdad, (truth) cibdat-ciudad, (town) piedat-piedad, (piety).

x-j: dixo-dijo, (said) Ximena-Jimena, (name for a female) dexo-dejo, (I depart). (The “x” will make a “sh” seem.)

ss-s: passar-pasar,(spend time, pass) vassalos-vasallos (vassals)

rr-r: rrico-rico, (rich), rrey-rey (king). (The two r’s at the commencing of a phrase make the “trill” audio.)

l-ll: lorar-llorar (cry) lueve-llueve (it is raining) lover-llover (to rain). The two LL’s jointly are pronounced like a “y”.

Phrases that began with “de” ended up contracted to text that now are different:

Dello-de ello, deste-de este, della-de ella, dalli-de alli, daquel-de aquel

m-n before “b” or “p”: lunbra-lumbra, (light) canpos-campos, (fields) nonbre-nombre (name).

u-v: oluidar-olvidar, (to overlook) auia-avia,(had) caualgar-cavalgar (to ride a horse).

Other words and phrases in Medieval Spanish contain:

agora-ahora (now)

omne, ome, ombre-hombre (man)

mugger, muggier-mujer (girl, wife)

do-donde, (the place) doquiera-dondequiera (where ever)

ca-causa (since)

non-no

nin-ni (neither).

This list is only a primary guidebook to spelling phrases in Medieval Spanish literature. If you examine all of the Castilian literature among the 11th by way of the 15th centuries, you would almost certainly not realize all words and phrases for the reason that there is a staggering sum of various spellings. The spelling is erratic. In El Poema del Mio Cid, many words and phrases are scattered or lacking. There are spaces involving words, letters and accents it is no speculate quite couple of is effective had been compiled for the duration of the 11th century. By the 14th and 15th hundreds of years, grammar utilised in poetry grew to become a lot extra secure, and the phrases much more recognizable. The modify in spelling also bundled nominal modifications in pronunciation and grammar. Prose followed a significantly less erratic pattern of disjointed letters, accents, words and phrases its sentences had been considerably additional extensive.

In the late 15th century, the Renaissance that was born in Italy was adopted by Spanish lifestyle. A lot of students imagine this tradition phenomenon commenced in 1492 when Elio Antonio de Nebrija wrote the initially Spanish grammar e book, La Grammática de la Lengua Castellana, which set standardized principles for Spanish spelling, pronunciation and grammar. At the same time, several literary performs were created, these as: Amadís of Gaula, La Celestina, La Jaula de Amor, and poetic compositions of Jorge Manrique, the marqués de Santillana, Íñigo López de Mendoza, and nameless writers, as very well. Well-known productions like romances, carols and like songs had been also prepared and sung. A the vast majority of operates have been written in “Early Contemporary” Spanish, because there were being some terms and sounds that had developed from Medieval Spanish but that was about to transform.

In the 16th century, writers’ phrases started to resemble the way Spanish words and phrases are spelled currently. Very well-identified is effective like Lazarillo de Tormes ended up published, which broke the awkward spelling of Spanish vocabulary. In the 17th century, fashionable Spanish words are fully recognizable in Miguel de Cervantes’ well-known perform, Don Quijote de la Mancha.

At this time, Spain also colonized areas of the North American and all of Central and South The usa, besides Brazil. Spanish grew to become even much more important as a language, not just for Spain but its colonies. Today, Spanish is spoken by 400 million people in in excess of 20 countries. Modern day Spanish includes quite a few additional words and phrases, accents, and dialects from all of these international locations that had been impacted by Spain.

The 11th century brought spelling adjustments to the Spanish language. Considering the fact that the composition of El Poema del Mio Cid to the most recent 21st century publications of Spanish and Latin American authors, linguistic alterations have been documented as a result of prepared literature. That becoming reported, the Spanish language has progressed around time, likely a lot more so than any other Romance language, even probably most languages.