“We hope that this book, which knows how to say the important and say it well, contributes to spread linguistic knowledge that usually receives so little attention.”
– Ramón Menéndez Pidal, in the “Prólogo” (or “Foreword”) to this book, 1942 (translation mine)
The title translates in English to “History of the Spanish Language”
So I recently finished reading a book about the history of the Spanish language – written almost entirely in Spanish. I say “almost,” because there are a few exceptions to this, which I will note later in this post. (But I'm getting ahead of myself … )
General comments about the history of the language itself
The Spanish language has a long and rich history. It is a source of endless fascination to me, with written records stretching back into the time of the Roman Empire – and beyond. It's a story of political and social change – of religious and literary ideas, which have had a vast influence on Western history. It's a story of a language that would become one of the most spoken languages on Earth, with 460 million native speakers at the time that I write this (see source). This is more than 5% of the world's population, and more than any other language in the world except Mandarin Chinese. But it's also a story of human beings – of people who are always reinventing themselves (and their language) to change with the times, and filling their culture with new life and new energy every day.
First page of the Castilian epic poem “El Cantar de Mio Cid,” which is referenced often in this book
Minimal discussion of other languages in this book ...
For those that don't already know, Spanish is part of a branch of the Indo-European family tree called the “Romance languages.” This includes Portuguese, French, Italian, and Catalan. All of these Romance languages are descended from Latin. This descent is well-attested from both written records of their respective histories, and the large number of similarities between them in virtually every area. The similarities have long been considered too numerous (and too striking) to be dismissed as a mere coincidence. Thus, the author notes them regularly when discussing how a particular word influenced other Romance languages as well. These are among the few times that he switches to another language besides Spanish. The other times are mainly footnotes to sources in other languages, such as Portuguese, French, German, Italian, and even English (a testament to the international diversity of the scholars of Spanish). The other times are in the pronunciation guides at the beginning of the book, which give foreign examples for phonetic sounds that have not survived in modern Spanish. (Or in some cases, which have survived, but only in certain dialects of Spanish; and which would thus be somewhat foreign to the speakers of the other dialects.) Most of the book, though – the vast majority of it, in fact – is in Spanish, which is part of the reason that I wanted to read this book in the first place. I'm always looking for a way to practice my Spanish.
Rafael Lapesa, a native Spanish speaker from Spain, and the author of this book
This history begins with the pre-Roman Languages (and not with the Indo-European languages)
Some others might begin a history of this kind with the Indo-European origins of the Latin language. Others might start their history with the advent of Latin itself – a language that came from the Ancient Romans. But this book's approach is somewhat different, since this author starts his history with the peoples who lived in Spain before the Romans got there. He titled his first chapter “Las lenguas prerromanas” (“the pre-Roman languages”), which is a simple title for a topic that is actually fairly complex – more than you might think. The lack of written records makes this period somewhat difficult to reconstruct, but we know of a number of words that appeared in common Latin only after its Roman advocates conquered Spain. Among them are a few words of Basque origin (the only one of the “pre-Roman languages” that still survives in Spain today), and a smattering of words from some other languages as well. These include the Celtic word that became cerveza, the Spanish word for “beer.”
Map of Spain
Words borrowed from pre-Roman languages, including “hispánico,” “España,” and “español”
As is common when one culture conquers another, the conquerors tended to borrow (with some exceptions) little more than the words for local plants, local animals, and local place names – or in other words, the things that they didn't already have a word for. These place names are of special interest to those studying this topic. Among the place names of pre-Roman origin in Spain today is Cartagena, which comes from the Roman name for the Carthaginians. The Carthaginians inhabited Spain prior to the Roman colonization, and spoke a dialect of the Phoenician language called “Punic.” But the most important pre-Roman loanword of all for Spanish – also Punic, as it turns out – may have been Hispania, the name of the region itself. The Romans later adopted it as the name for this province of their empire. Later, it also became the Spanish word “España” (Spain) with the derivative “español” (Spanish). This also includes related words like hispánico (Hispanic) used for the Spanish-speaking peoples. Thus, the very words that give the Spanish language its names and identity today have their origins in the pre-Roman inhabitants. The influence of the pre-Roman words is felt strongly in other place names as well.
Roman wall at Ampurias, where the Romans first entered the Iberian Peninsula (which includes Spain)
The Latin heritage of Spanish, with plenty of Greek borrowings ...
You might expect that the author would follow up his coverage of these “pre-Roman languages” with an extensive look at the history of Latin, the mother tongue of Spanish. But although he does cover Latin in some depth, he doesn't try to delve into its entire history – he just covers the experience of the Latin language in Spain itself. Thus, he doesn't try to cover the history of Latin before that, since that would be a task that could fill up volumes. Some of the words that entered the Latin language prior to its colonization of Spain are noted for classification purposes – particularly the many Greek words, which entered the Latin language during the Roman era in large numbers (and continued to do so afterwards). The Spanish words resulting from this Latin borrowing are probably best classified as Greek words rather than “Latin words.” This may be why the author makes this exception to his own rule here for them, by discussing Latin history prior to its invasion of Spain.
Roman theater in Mérida, Spain
Coverage of Latin begins at its arrival in Spain, and focuses entirely on Spain itself
Nonetheless, the author does not attempt anything like an overview of the prior history of Latin, but starts his coverage instead at the Roman colonization of Spain. Thus, he confines himself geographically to that region, instead of trying to cover the many other regions that were speaking Latin at that time. Given how many people were speaking Latin in other regions (and the many modern languages deriving from this experience of Latin in those regions), it was probably a wise move not to try to cover those regions in any depth. Rather, the author just confined their mention to occasional comparisons with the other Romance languages. These are all done quite briefly – and even then, only to show how some of the words from these Latin periods survived elsewhere, even at times when they did not persist in Spanish itself. Incidentally, the Latin of the later periods was then known (and is still known) as “Vulgar Latin,” meaning “common Latin” – a term that actually has nothing to do with “crudeness,” of either the real or perceived varieties (the usual meaning of “vulgar” today). This would later transition into the Proto-Romance language – and eventually, into a separate language called “Castellano” (“Castilian”), another word for the language that we today call “Spanish.” The name “Castilian,” incidentally, comes from the “Castile” region of Spain, in case you're wondering.
Roman aqueduct at Tarragona, Spain
Arabic influence on the Spanish language during the Muslim invasions of Spain
Besides the Spanish mother tongue of Latin, the language that probably had the greatest influence on Spanish was actually Arabic, owing to the extensive and frequent incursions into Spain from nearby Muslim North Africa. The Arabic-speaking people called the “Moors,” for some seven centuries, would be a major factor in Spanish history both culturally and linguistically. The Moors were finally kicked out a few months after Columbus's arrival in the Americas in 1492. This would be a major year in Spanish history for a number of reasons, including these ones. Among the many Arabic loanwords in Spanish are several words beginning with the prefix al-, some of which actually have English cognates – such as the word alcohol (spelled the same way in both languages, but pronounced differently in each). This is a common word in both languages that can be traced to Arabic, which I use as an example for English speakers because of its familiarity. The Muslim territories in Spain and Portugal in this time were known politically as al-Ándalus, with the English cognate al-Andalus). The “Andalusia” region of Spain (Spanish Andalucía) actually gets its name from the invading Muslims of this time. But possibly the most interesting Spanish word of Arabic origins is the oft-cited example of ojalá – which comes from the Arabic word for “Allah” (Spanish Alá). Its original meaning meant “If God wills” (or “if Allah wills”), but it now means “I wish” or “I hope.” This is true even when the person speaking has no belief in Islam – a testament to how deeply the Arabic influence is ingrained in Spanish.
Medieval mosque at Córdoba, Spain
A full three chapters are dedicated to the Spanish Golden Age (“El Siglo de Oro”)
This book actually dedicates a full three chapters to “El español del Siglo de Oro” (“the Spanish of the Golden Age”) – that is to say, the Golden Age of Spain. The first of these three chapters covers “La expansión imperial” (imperial expansion) and “El clasicismo” (“classicism”). The second of these chapters covers “La literatura barroca” (“Baroque literature”), including the effects of the literary masterpiece “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes. Cervantes may have a status in Spanish literature similar (and comparable) to that of William Shakespeare in English literature. And the last of these three chapters covers “Cambios lingüísticos generales” (“general linguistic changes”) during this period. These chapters felt like a sort of “unit” within the book, and getting through them felt like something of an accomplishment in and of itself. People who are into Spanish literature might especially enjoy the Baroque literature chapter, but I freely admit that literature is not really my thing. I still enjoyed the chapter about it despite this, but my favorite of these chapters was probably the one on general linguistic changes. I suppose that this might be weird to some, but I actually found this sort of thing to be one of the real highlights of the book.
Miguel de Cervantes, the author of the literary masterpiece “Don Quixote” (a classic in the Spanish language)
Minimal coverage of the history of the Spanish language in Latin America
You might expect that this book would discuss Latin America in great depth, and it's true that it does cover it. But there is actually just one chapter in the book which talks about Spanish in the Americas, since most of this book is focused on events in Europe. There's a very simple reason for this, which is that most of the history of Spanish was back in Spain. The Spanish colonization of the Americas actually began only after Columbus's arrival in 1492. Thus, the majority of this book takes place in Europe, over on the Iberian Peninsula where Spain is. There were some fairly important developments in Latin America for the history of Spanish – such as the elimination of “vosotros,” or the retention of the pronoun “vos” in certain regions. But the history of Spanish in Latin America is considerably shorter than the history of Spanish in Europe, and so it gets only one chapter in this book. This is a good chapter despite its brevity, though, which places the Latin American experience within the context of Hispanic history. Although it might not satisfy people preferring to focus more exclusively on Latin America, I personally found it satisfactory. I would hasten to add that there may be some other books out there which focus on Latin American Spanish. These would probably better satisfy someone seeking a more in-depth focus on this.
Replicas of the ships of Christopher Columbus
Conclusion: Spanish has a long, rich, and fascinating heritage
There is much in this book that I haven't mentioned in the interest of time, and one could write an entire blog post on the Visigoth era Spanish, or that of the literature of Alfonso the Wise – each of which gets its own chapter in this book. There is also a short but notable chapter on the dialect called “Judaeo-Spanish,” also known by the name “Ladino”. It was spoken by a group of Jewish folks who were kicked out of Spain simultaneously with the Moors in 1492. (A major year in Spanish history for more than one reason, as I said before.) But I hope that I have done some justice, at least, to the history of Spanish in this brief outline, which may help to communicate the depth of the language's long, rich, and fascinating heritage.
Map of Latin America
A taste of the Spanish, from the front inside cover of the book:
“La Historia de la lengua española, de Rafael Lapesa, es obra de ejemplaridad casi única en el campo lingüístico y literario. Hace ya casi cuarenta años que llegó al público por primera vez, y desde entonces ha formado, enriquecido y deleitado a muchas generaciones de estudiosos. Aparece ahora esta nueva edición, reelaborada y actualizada con exigente entusiasmo: su volumen ha crecido en más de un tercio, la bibliografía es ya un río. Y de nuevo se impone concluir: nadie conoce como Lapesa la historia de nuestra lengua; nadie sabe contarla con tanta eficacia, con tanto encanto.”
– From the front inside cover of Rafael Lapesa's “Historia de la lengua española,” 9th edition, 1981 (see the following footnote for a translation)
Footnote to this blog post:
English translation of the above:
“The History of the Spanish Language, by Rafael Lapesa, is an exemplary work that is almost unique in the linguistic and literary field. Almost forty years ago, it reached the public for the first time; and since then it has formed, enriched and delighted many generations of scholars. Now appears this new edition, reworked and updated with demanding enthusiasm: its volume has grown by more than a third, the bibliography is already a river. And again one must conclude: nobody else knows the history of our language as Lapesa does; nobody else can tell it with such effectiveness and charm.”
– From the front inside cover of Rafael Lapesa's “Historia de la lengua española,” 9th edition, 1981 (translation mine)
Book at Amazon
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My experience with Spanish (two parts)
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