Iberian Peninsula Languages: Romanization and Evolution
Languages Before Romanization
In the second century BC, before the arrival of the Romans, the most widespread languages in the Iberian Peninsula were:
- The Indo-European Celtic languages, which, although gone, left Latin loans that reached Castilian, such as watercress or heather.
- The non-Indo-European Iberian language, related to the Hamitic languages of North Africa, also disappeared.
- The Basque language, of uncertain origin, has survived until today, contributing terms such as left or squat.
- Other minority languages: the languages of the Punic (Carthaginian), the Phoenicians, and the Tartesians.
All of them functioned as substratum languages and determined the subsequent evolution of Peninsular Latin into different Romance languages.
Romanization of the Iberian Peninsula
In 218 BC, Rome undertook the conquest of Spain, beginning the slow process of Romanization of the Iberian Peninsula. The conquered territories were integrated into the structure of the Empire and gradually adopted the Vulgar Latin spoken as a common language.
Romanization was rapid in the south and east but slower and less deep in the north of the peninsula. The ancient pre-Roman languages were relegated to the periphery until their total abandonment (except Basque) in the early Middle Ages.
Probably the decisive blow against the indigenous languages was the conversion of speakers to Christianity, as the Church adopted Latin as the language of religious and intellectual life.
The Fragmentation of Latin
The causes of this fragmentation of Latin were varied:
- The disappearance of the Roman Empire with the invasion of the Germanic peoples.
- The nature of the area in which Latin was spoken, which came to coincide with the boundaries of the empire.
- Abandoning urban life.
- Ignorance of the majority of the population.
- Isolation of the different territories.
- The existence of various substrates (linguistic features specific to each geographical area) acted as divisive forces.
In the early 5th century, Germanic peoples invaded the Roman Empire. In Iberia, the Visigoths arrived. Although these adopted Latin as the official language, some words from these Germanic languages entered Castilian, such as hostel or guardian.
The Arab Invasion
The landing in 711 of Arabs, Syrians, and Berbers in the Peninsula led some Hispanics to take refuge in the north, where the new Christian kingdoms began to take shape, while the vast majority remained in their lands under the authority of the caliphate.
The scientific advancement of Al-Andalus led to the integration of many terms of Arabic origin in various Romance varieties, including Castilian: ditch, sugar, artichokes, number, algebra, algorithm, etc.
Peninsular Romance Languages
Early Romance Texts
At first, Romance was not considered suitable for written language, for which Latin was used. However, some documents written between the 9th and 11th centuries…
Between the ninth and eleventh centuries, this was the linguistic situation in the Peninsular Romance languages:
- In the south and center, where Al-Andalus spread, there was a state of Andalusian Arabic bilingualism and the speech of Mozarabic (the Romance dialects spoken by the Christians living in Muslim lands).
- In the kingdom of León, formed by present-day Galicia, Asturias, and León, Galician and Asturian-Leonese were spoken.
- In Castile, freed from León in the eleventh century, Castilian was spoken.
- In Navarre and Aragon, the same language variety, known as Navarro-Aragonese, was spoken.
- In the county of Catalonia, belonging to the kingdom of Aragon, Catalan was spoken.
The Early Days of Castilian
The cradle of Castilian is located in a strip adjacent to the Basque country, which occupies part of La Rioja, Burgos, and Cantabria. From that area, it was expanded through the Peninsula following the progress of the Kingdom of Castile in the Reconquista.
Castilian was soon distinguished for its innovative character, its extraordinary vitality, and the originality of the solutions adopted. For example, while other Hispanic romances retained the initial f-Latin, Castilian lost it, and while the mainland Romance became the group + ll vowel-vowel, Castilla adopted j + vowel.