Spanish_Language_Development

“Trace the development of the Spanish language from its origin in Europe to its current situation in Latin America.” This essay will discuss the development of the Spanish language, ‘mother tongue of about 350 million people’, from which ‘about 85% live in Latin America’.1 The subjects discussed will be the formation of the Castilian language, variation between Toledo and Sevillian norm, and further expansion of Spanish in the Canary Islands and South and Central Americas. The Castilian language was not so significant in the beginning of Middle Ages, compared to Galician or Catalan. All these languages have roots in the Latin, the Romance language. It is discussed that Alfonso X The Learned, the King of Castile and León (1252-84), has created the Standard Spanish. The writing was made in a spelling system, which helped to specify the vernacular pronunciation. This type of writing has become more common and more often used in Castile Kingdom in the late twelfth and beginning of thirteenth century. The King Alfonso X was translating into Spanish some ‘historical, legal and scientific works’ of the time. The consistent use of language by the King Alfonso X for administration purposes had another impact. This language by religious neutrality had culturally unifying advantages in linguistically diversified Spain. As the Castilian Kingdom started becoming more powerful and important the language progressed to spread even wider. Another factor influencing the spread of language was banning the use of Latin Lingo, which was used only by the intellectual elites. Finally since the Reconquest in 1492 and conquest of New World led to the Castilian expansion further and wider, reaching today’s level. The speech of Toledo, which has formed the very basis of the written Castilian language, did not impact the speech in other regions. At that time Seville was the biggest and economically most developed city. The speech in Seville varied from the Toledo norms. The characteristics of this norm were including phonological, morphosyntactical and etymological differences. Though the Toledo’s norm Spanish, superseded in the 1560’s by Madrid, was established as the main language during the Golden Age of Spanish Literature (15th-17th century), and expanded towards the Catalan and Galician areas and the rest of Peninsula. Those areas have become bilingual. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Spanish expanded by colonists, troops, clergymen, (etc.) to different areas. These areas included the Canaries, New World, Philippines, the Mediterranean and Balkans. The Spanish brought to Canary Islands in the fifteenth century was of the Andalusian norm (Seville), containing ‘yeismo (neutralization of the opposition /y/ - upside down /y/ in favour of the latter), seseo (neutralization of /ø/ and /s/ in favour of the latter, and the use of ustedes rather than vosotros.’ The Canary Islands being a stop on the way to and from America, were in closer contact to the New World settlers than Spain, therefore they share common features not recognisable in Peninsula. The language there varies from European Spanish lexically and grammatically, where common for most Latin American countries and Canary Islands is absence of the informal second-person- plural and formal form. With Christopher’s Columbus accidental discovery of the New World in 1492 the new journey of language began. His four trips to America took him to e.g., Hispaniola and Cuba, where he arranged settlements on those islands, from which became eventually a ‘staging-post for the conquest and settlement of northern and southern continents.’ Conquest of Inca Empire by Pizzaro expanded the land down south to current capital of Peru- Lima. The conquest of Mexico by Cortés gained Spain new territories. Lima and Mexico City have turned into most important cultural and administrative places of Spanish America. The ships to the New World were leaving mainly from Seville’s port, but also from another Andalusian ports of Càdiz, San Lùcar, Huelva and from the Canary Islands. It is discussed by Boyd-Bowman (1956, 1964) that similarities between the Latin American countries and Andalusian speech are due to this factor. Another factor mentioned is that the colonists before departing to New World stayed in Seville sometimes for months, so they naturally picked Sevillian norm speech features. Men from Andalusian and Castilian areas were dominating settlers on new lands during early periods of colonisation, where Andalusians mainly occupied the coastal areas. That coastal areas were the Caribbean, Southern American Pacific coast and a small part the River Plate. The first settlers were people who, for various reasons didn’t do well financially or socially in Europe and small landowners, mostly people representing the middle class society. Life in Spanish America for new settlers was much harder than they had in Spain. They had to participate in tasks, which in Spain only the servants would take. Very often they worked with indigenous people side by side. Spaniards have come across new words describing ‘flora, fauna, peoples, cultures and meteorological phenomena’. Caribbean origin words, like: aji-pepper or hamaca-hammock have spread throughout whole South and Central America and even in Spain. Writers, such as Bernal Diaz de Castillo or Cervantes and Spanish visitors of New World returning back, introduced Americanismos, words originated in Latin America, to Iberian Peninsula. There are many variations of Spanish language in America, not all attested in Spain. Those variations in pronunciation or syntax are almost impossible to explain whether they are a ‘linguistic drift, the inheritance of Spanish settlers or borrowing from neighbouring dialects’. It is believed that impact on language by indigenous peoples in Caribbean was not so major, because the indigenous populations vanished in a short time. In Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile populations were forced by Spaniards to move away. ‘In much of Colombia, and Costa Rica, and in Coastal Peru and Ecuador’, colonists had minor contact with native peoples. All those countries are very opposite to Mexico, Paraguay and the countries in Andes, where language is still lively and settlers learned the indigenous language and use it as well. Henriquez Ureña classified native people’s language in South America into five groups: Mexicans, and majority of Central America {Nahuatl}, the Caribbean with Colombia’s and Venezuela’s coast {Carib/Arawak}, Colombia’s, Bolivia’s and northern Chile’s highlands {Quechua}, central and southern Chile {Mapuche/Araucano} and Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay {Guarani}. Spanish though is the most respectable language amongst Latin American countries. Although Guarani in Paraguay is used together with Spanish as an official tongue, people tend to not use the native language, for the lack of prestige and official status. Lipski discussed that national boundaries have not much in common with dialect varieties. Latin Americans don’t use terminology to describe someone’s dialect as “Andean” or “Central American Spanish”, but rather simply “Mexican”or “Argentinean.” It’s been a long journey of the Spanish language to place itself in current position. Spanish language currently in the Southern America ‘is an official language in some 19 (…) countries’ and ‘is spoken by majority of population’. Nowadays it is the third world mostly spoken language in the world, with speakers stretching from the North to the very South of America, Europe and also is used in Asia and Africa. Not all of the people speak it as their first language, there are many people bilingual, like Catalan in Valencia, or Guarani in Paraguay. In Southern America and Central America a few million people speak Spanish as their second language. On the African continent some people in Equatorial Guinea speak the language and in northern parts, in cities like Tetuàn and Tangier in Morocco. Many populations are using Spanish as their second language, for this reason it cannot be used in a native way, although it remains as the language of education and media. Bibliography: Lipski, John M., Latin American Spanish, (New York: Longman, 1994) Penny, Ralph, A History of the Spanish Language, 2nd edition, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) Richardson, Bill, Spanish Studies: an Introduction, 1st edition, (London: Hodder Headline Group, 2001) Spaulding, Robert K., How Spanish Grew, 6th edition, (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971) -------------------------------------------- [ 1 ]. Ralph, Penny, A History of the Spanish Language, 2nd edition, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) p. 20 [ 2 ]. Robert, K., Spaulding, How Spanish Grew, 6th edition, (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971) p .65 [ 3 ]. Ralph, Penny, A History of the Spanish Language, 2nd edition, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) p. 20 [ 4 ]. Bill Richardson, Spanish Studies: an Introduction, 1st edition (London, Hodder Headline Group, 2001), p. 66 [ 5 ]. Ralph, Penny, A History of the Spanish Language, 2nd edition, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p.21 [ 6 ]. Ibid., p. 22 [ 7 ]. John, M., Lipski, Latin American Spanish, (New York: Longman, 1994) , p.36 [ 8 ]. Ralph, Penny, A History of the Spanish Language, 2nd edition, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 22 [ 9 ]. Ibid., p. 23 [ 10 ]. Ralph, Penny, A History of the Spanish Language, 2nd edition, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 23 [ 11 ]. John, M., Lipski, Latin American Spanish, (New York: Longman, 1994), p. 35 [ 12 ]. Ralph, Penny, A History of the Spanish Language, 2nd edition, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p.26 [ 13 ]. John, M., Lipski, Latin American Spanish, (New York: Longman, 1994), p. 38 [ 14 ]. Ibid., p. 40:41 [ 15 ]. Ibid., p. 42 [ 16 ]. Ibid., p. 63 [ 17 ]. John, M., Lipski, Latin American Spanish, (New York: Longman, 1994), p. 64 [ 18 ]. John, M., Lipski, Latin American Spanish, (New York: Longman, 1994), p. 64 [ 19 ]. Ibid., p.6 [ 20 ]. Bill Richardson, Spanish Studies: an Introduction, 1st edition (London, Hodder Headline Group, 2001), p. 68 [ 21 ]. John, M., Lipski, Latin American Spanish, (New York: Longman, 1994), p.161 [ 22 ]. Bill Richardson, Spanish Studies: an Introduction, 1st edition (London, Hodder Headline Group, 2001), p. 5 [ 23 ]. Ralph, Penny, A History of the Spanish Language, 2nd edition, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 32