Iberian Romance languages

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Iberian Romance
Ibero-Romance, Iberian
Geographic
distribution
Originally Iberian Peninsula and southern France; now worldwide
Linguistic classification Indo-European
Subdivisions
Glottolog sout3183  (Shifted Iberian)
unsh1234  (Aragonese–Mozarabic)

The Iberian Romance, Ibero-Romance [3] or sometimes Iberian languages [note 1] are a group of Romance languages that developed on the Iberian Peninsula, an area consisting primarily of Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Andorra and southern France. They are today more commonly separated into West Iberian and Occitano-Romance language groups.

Contents

Evolved from the Vulgar Latin of Iberia, the most widely spoken Iberian Romance languages are Spanish and Portuguese, followed by Catalan-Valencian-Balear and Galician. [4] These languages also have their own regional and local varieties. Based on mutual intelligibility, Dalby counts seven "outer" languages, or language groups: Galician-Portuguese, Spanish, Asturleonese, "Wider"-Aragonese, "Wider"-Catalan, Provençal+Lengadocian, and "Wider"-Gascon. [5]

In addition to those languages, there are a number of Portuguese-based creole languages and Spanish-based creole languages, for instance Papiamento.

Origins and development

Linguistic map of southwestern Europe Linguistic map Southwestern Europe-en.gif
Linguistic map of southwestern Europe

Like all Romance languages, [6] the Iberian Romance languages descend from Vulgar Latin, the nonstandard (in contrast to Classical Latin) form of the Latin language spoken by soldiers and merchants throughout the Roman Empire. With the expansion of the empire, Vulgar Latin came to be spoken by inhabitants of the various Roman-controlled territories. Latin and its descendants have been spoken in Iberia since the Punic Wars, when the Romans conquered the territory [7] (see Roman conquest of Hispania).

The modern Iberian Romance languages were formed roughly through the following process:

Ibero-Romance  
  Old Leonese   

Asturian (ast)

Leonese (mwl)

Mirandese (mwl)

Old-Castillian   

Spanish (spa)

  Galician-Portuguese   

Portuguese (por)

Galician (glg)

Xalimego (fax)

Common traits between Portuguese, Spanish and Catalan

This list points to common traits of these Iberian subsets, especially when compared to the other Romance languages in general. Thus, changes such as Catalan vuit/huit and Portuguese oito vs. Spanish ocho are not shown here, as the change -it- > -ch- is exclusive to Spanish among the Iberian Romance languages.

Between Portuguese, Spanish and Catalan

Phonetic

  • The length difference between r/rr is preserved through phonetic means as [ɾ]/[r], so that the second consonant in words such as caro and carro are not the same in any of the three.
  • Latin U remains [u] and is not changed to [y].

Semantic

  • The Iberian Romance languages all maintain a complete essence-state distinction in the copula (the verb "to be"). The "essence" form (Portuguese and Spanish ser and Catalan ser and ésser) is derived in whole or in part from the Latin sum (the Latin copula), while the "state" form (estar in all three languages) is derived from the Latin stāre ("to stand").

Between Spanish and Catalan, but not Portuguese

Phonetic

  • The distinction between Latin short -n-, -l- and long -nn-, -ll- was preserved by means of palatalizing -nn-, -ll- to /ɲ,ʎ/, as in Latin annum > Spanish año, Catalan any vs. Latin manum > Spanish mano, Old Calatan man (modern Catalan ). This also affects some initial L in Catalan. However, in most dialects of Spanish, original /ʎ/ has become delateralized. Portuguese maintains the distinction, but in a different way; compare ano vs. mão.

Between Spanish and Portuguese, but not Catalan

Phonetic

  • Initial Latin CL/FL/PL are palatalized further than in Standard Italian, and become indistinguishable (to CH in Portuguese and LL in Spanish).
  • Final e/o remains (although its pronunciation changed in Portuguese, and some dialects drop final E).

Grammatical

  • The synthetic preterite, inherited from earlier stages of Latin, remains the main past tense.

Between Portuguese and Catalan, but not Spanish

Phonetic

  • Velarized L [ɫ], which existed in Latin, is preserved at the end of syllables, and was later generalized to all positions in most dialects of both languages.
  • Stressed Latin e/o, both open and closed, is preserved so and does not become a diphthong.

Statuses

Politically (not linguistically), there are four major officially recognised Iberian Romance languages:

Additionally, Asturian (dialect of Asturleonese), although not an official language, [23] is recognised by the autonomous community of Asturias. It is one of the Asturleonese dialects along with Mirandese , which in Portugal holds an official status as a minority language. [24]

Family tree

Ibero-Romance languages around the world Ibero-Romance.PNG
Ibero-Romance languages around the world


The Iberian Romance languages are a conventional group of Romance languages. Many authors use the term in a geographical sense although they are not necessarily a phylogenetic group (the languages grouped as Iberian Romance may not all directly descend from a common ancestor). Phylogenetically, there is disagreement about what languages should be considered within the Iberian Romance group; for example, some authors consider that East Iberian, also called Occitano-Romance, could be more closely related to languages of northern Italy (or also Franco-Provençal, the langues d'oïl and Rhaeto-Romance). A common conventional geographical grouping is the following:

Daggers (†) indicate extinct languages

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catalan language</span> Western Romance language

Catalan, known in the Valencian Community and Carche as Valencian, is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spain: Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community, where it is called Valencian. It has semi-official status in the Italian comune of Alghero, and it is spoken in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France and in two further areas in eastern Spain: the eastern strip of Aragon and the Carche area in the Region of Murcia. The Catalan-speaking territories are often called the Països Catalans or "Catalan Countries".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occitan language</span> Romance language of Western Europe

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portuguese language</span> Romance language

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romance languages</span> Direct descendants of Vulgar Latin

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asturleonese language</span> Romance language spoken in Spain and Portugal

Asturleonese is a Romance language or language family spoken in northwestern Spain and northeastern Portugal, namely in the historical regions and Spain's modern-day autonomous communities of Asturias, northwestern Castile and León, Cantabria and Extremadura, and in Riudenore and Tierra de Miranda in Portugal. The name of the language is largely uncommon among its native speakers, as it forms a dialect continuum of mutually intelligible varieties and therefore it is primarily referred to by various regional glossonyms like Leonese, Cantabrian, Asturian or Mirandese. Extremaduran is sometimes included as well. Asturleonese has been classified by UNESCO as an endangered language, as the varieties are being increasingly replaced by Spanish and Portuguese.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Name of the Spanish language</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Iberian languages</span> Branch of the Ibero-Romance languages

West Iberian is a branch of the Ibero-Romance languages that includes the Castilian languages, Astur-Leonese, and the descendants of Galician-Portuguese. Pyrenean–Mozarabic may also be included.

Judaeo-Romance languages are Jewish languages derived from Romance languages, spoken by various Jewish communities originating in regions where Romance languages predominate, and altered to such an extent to gain recognition as languages in their own right. The status of many Judaeo-Romance languages is controversial as, despite manuscripts preserving transcriptions of Romance languages using the Hebrew alphabet, there is often little-to-no evidence that these "dialects" were actually spoken by Jews living in the various European nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iberism</span> Pan-nationalist ideology supporting the union of all the Iberian Peninsula

Iberism, also known as pan-Iberism or Iberian federalism, is the pan-nationalist ideology supporting a unification of all the territories of the Iberian Peninsula. It mostly encompasses Andorra, Portugal and Spain, but may also include: Gibraltar and territories of France such as Northern Catalonia or the French Basque Country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italo-Western languages</span> Romance language branch

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonese language</span> Set of certain vernacular Romance dialects

Leonese is a set of vernacular Romance language varieties currently spoken in northern and western portions of the historical region of León in Spain, the village of Riudenore and Guadramil in Portugal, sometimes considered another language. In the past, it was spoken in a wider area, including most of the historical region of Leon. The current number of Leonese speakers is estimated at 20,000 to 50,000. Spanish is now the predominant language in the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Spain</span>

The majority of languages of Spain belong to the Romance language family, of which Spanish is the only one with official status in the whole country. Others, including Catalan/Valencian and Galician, enjoy official status in their respective autonomous regions, similar to Basque in the northeast of the country. A number of other languages and dialects belonging to the Romance continuum exist in Spain, such as Aragonese, Asturian, Fala and Aranese Occitan.

There have been many languages spoken in the Iberian Peninsula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Spanish language</span>

The language known today as Spanish is derived from spoken Latin, which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans after their occupation of the peninsula that started in the late 3rd century BC. Today it is the world's 4th most widely spoken language, after English, Mandarin Chinese and Hindi. Influenced by the peninsular hegemony of Al-Andalus in the early middle ages, Hispano-Romance varieties borrowed substantial lexicon from Arabic. Upon the southward territorial expansion of the Kingdom of Castile, Hispano-Romance norms associated to this polity displaced both Arabic and the Mozarabic romance varieties in the conquered territories, even though the resulting speech also assimilated features from the latter in the process. The first standard written norm of Spanish was brought forward in the 13th century by Alfonso X the Wise, probably drawing from the speech of the upper classes of Toledo. Features associated with the Castilian patterns of Hispano-Romance also spread west and east to the kingdoms of León and Aragón for the rest of the middle ages, owing to the political prestige achieved by the Kingdom of Castile in the peninsular context and to the lesser literary development of their vernacular norms. From the 1560s onward the standard written form followed Madrid's.

Judaeo-Aragonese was a Judaeo-Romance language, a Jewish language that was derived from Aragonese. It was used by Spanish Jews in north-central Spain from the mid-8th century to the 1492 Alhambra Decree, which expelled Jews from Spain. Later, it either merged with the various Judaeo-Spanish dialects or fell out of use because of the far more influential Judaeo-Spanish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Occitano-Romance languages</span> Branch of the Romance language group

Occitano-Romance is a branch of the Romance language group that encompasses the Catalan/Valencian, Occitan languages and sometimes Aragonese, spoken in parts of southern France and northeastern Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Romance languages</span> Subdivision of the Romance languages

Western Romance languages are one of the two subdivisions of a proposed subdivision of the Romance languages based on the La Spezia–Rimini Line. They include the Gallo-Romance, Occitano-Romance and Iberian Romance branches. Gallo-Italic may also be included. The subdivision is based mainly on the use of the "s" for pluralization, the weakening of some consonants and the pronunciation of "Soft C" as /t͡s/ rather than /t͡ʃ/ as in Italian and Romanian.

There is a variety of Vernacular languages spoken in Spain. Spanish, the official language in the entire country, is the predominant native language in almost all of the autonomous communities in Spain. Six of the seventeen autonomous communities in Spain have other co-official languages in addition to Spanish. Bilingualism in different degrees and in distinct communicative situations between Spanish and another language is a habitual practice for many of the Spanish people who reside in one of these autonomous communities.

References

  1. Iberian languages is also used as a more inclusive term for all languages spoken on the Iberian Peninsula, which in antiquity included the non-Indo-European Iberian language.
  1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2022-05-24). "Glottolog 4.8 - Shifted Western Romance". Glottolog . Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on 2023-11-27. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  2. "Ibero-Romance" . Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  3. Pharies, David A. (2007). A Brief History of the Spanish Language. University of Chicago Press. p. 13. ISBN   978-0-226-66683-9.
  4. Ethnologue: Statistical Summaries
  5. Dalby, David (2000). "5=Indo-European phylosector" (PDF). The Linguasphere register of the world's languages and speech communities. Vol. 2. Oxford: Observatoire Linguistique, Linguasphere Press.
  6. Thomason, Sarah (2001). Language Contact. Georgetown University Press. p. 263. ISBN   978-0-87840-854-2.
  7. Brown, Keith; Ogilvie, Sarah (2008). Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World. Elsevier Science. p. 1020. ISBN   978-0-08-087774-7.
  8. Penny, Ralph (2002). A History of the Spanish Language. Cambridge University Press. p. 8. ISBN   978-0-521-01184-6.
  9. Penny (2002) , p. 16
  10. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition (2009). "Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Western, Gallo-Iberian, Ibero-Romance, West Iberian" . Retrieved 13 August 2010.
  11. Turell, M. Teresa (2001). Multilingualism in Spain: Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Aspects of Linguistic Minority Groups. Multilingual Matters. p. 591. ISBN   978-1-85359-491-5.
  12. Cabo Aseguinolaza, Fernando; Abuín Gonzalez, Anxo; Domínguez, César (2010). A Comparative History of Literatures in the Iberian Peninsula. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 339–40. ISBN   978-90-272-3457-5.
  13. Lapesa, Rafael (1968). Historia de la lengua española (7th ed.) (in Spanish). Gredos. p. 124. ISBN   84-249-0072-3. ISBN   84-249-0073-1.
  14. "Lengua Española o Castellana". Promotora Española de Lingüística (in Spanish).
  15. Ethnologue: Table 3. Languages with at least 3 million first-language speakers
  16. See Ethnologue
  17. Constitution of Andorra (Article 2.1)
  18. Bec, Pierre (1973), Manuel pratique d'occitan moderne, coll. Connaissance des langues, Paris: Picard
  19. Sumien, Domergue (2006), La standardisation pluricentrique de l'occitan: nouvel enjeu sociolinguistique, développement du lexique et de la morphologie, coll. Publications de l'Association Internationale d'Études Occitanes, Turnhout: Brepols
  20. Myers-Scotton, Carol (2005). Multiple Voices: An Introduction to Bilingualism. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 57. ISBN   978-0-631-21937-8.
  21. 1 2 Ethnologue
  22. Posner, Rebecca (1996). The Romance Languages. Cambridge University Press. p. 57. ISBN   978-0-521-28139-3.
  23. "La jueza a Fernando González: 'No puede usted hablar en la lengua que le dé la gana'". El Comercio. 12 January 2009.
  24. See: Euromosaic report