Spanish Language and Literature

SPANISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. The Iberian Peninsula was, up to the fifteenth century, linguistically more diversified than at present. The chief languages and dialects were Castilian, Asturian-Leonese, Navarro-Aragonese, Mirandese, Catalan and Galician-Portuguese (Northern and Southern Dialects). The Mirandese dialect acquired at an early date Galician-Portuguese characteristics; Catalan is a Provençal dialect; Castilian absorbed the Asturian-Leonese and Navarro Aragonese languages and in later years gave rise to a literature which was quantitatively and qualitatively the most important amongst Peninsular literatures. Its authority gradually extended beyond the geographical limits of Old and New Castile, even Catalan and Portuguese authors writing in Castellano. The Spanish-speaking world has between 8o and 90 million inhabitants (about twice as many as those speaking French and nearly three times as many as those speaking Italian). The Castilian language has become identified with Spanish (Espanol).

Spanish and Latin.

Romance languages in their morphology and syntax derive from spoken Latin, older than the written Latin of the classical writers and probably differing from it in its syntax, as the syntax of the Romance languages, which is more closely akin to that of High German or of modern Greek than to that of written Latin, tends to show. A definite Latin influence is the Spanish use of the Subjunctive. Generally speaking Span ish syntax is very elastic; thus the position of the subject is more variable than in French or even in English. The Peninsula be gan to be latinised at the end of the third century B.C., long be fore Gaul and Northern Italy. But our knowledge of spoken Latin is necessarily slight, and early latinisation alone does not account for the characteristics of Spanish, as compared to the other Romance languages.

The influence of pre-Roman Iberian languages is doubtful There remain, besides place-names, vega (open plain, mead), nava (plain surrounded by mountains) and the word 'Aram° (deserted plain, moor) which appears on a votive altar, dedicated to Diana and discovered in Leon, in an inscription according to which Tullius offers Diana the antlers which he has hunted in parami aequore—on the desert plain.

The Phonetics of Modern

Spanish.—The Spanish vowels are very close to the standard vowels of the phonetic scheme. The following points should be noticed: I. The "a" is distinctly velar before back vowels like o and u, before 1, and any velar consonant such as k, x, g, etc. This is particularly noticeable in caja = Ka)0.

2. The difference between open and close e (e, e) is generally much less marked than in French for example, the most extreme cases of difference being seen in cielo and tierra. The closed e is more open than the French é in eté.

3. The same remarks apply to the open and closed o (3, o), the closed o being also more open than the French o in tot.

4. The closed vowels occur as a rule in open syllables and the open vowels in closed syllables or in contact with a double r, but the closed e also occurs in a syllable closed by s or a nasal, as in cesta and atento.

5. The semi-vowels in such words as ley, soy are preceded by an open vowel.

6. The semi-vowel u velarises the preceding a in such words as causa.

There is a general tendency in Spanish to combine groups of vowels into one syllable, so that we find tripthongs in which the first vowel (u or i) has become a semi-consonant and the last (u or i) semi-vowel: averigueis, cambibis. This blending of vowels to form one syllable occurs also when the vowels are not contained in one word, thus Italiaha intervenidoen la guerra europea. This, as spoken by a Spaniard at a normal pace, would contain twelve syllables, the last two vowels of "europea" forming two separate syllables.

The general smooth fluency of Spanish speech is seen in the historical development of consonants which have come down by oral tradition, and in the treatment of words derived from foreign sources or learned words of Latin origin which often con tain difficult consonant groups: Lat. nata > nada (5) Lat. par ticiple ending in -atu>-ado.