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Mozarabic was a continuum
Dialect continuum

A dialect continuum is a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater....
 of closely related Romance dialects
Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages comprising all the languages that descend from Latin language, the language of ancient Rome....
 spoken in Muslim dominated areas of the Iberian Peninsula
Al-Andalus

Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Arab Muslims, at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
 during the early stages of the Romance languages' development in Iberia
Iberian Romance languages

This article is about a subdivision of the Romance language family. For the broader group of languages spoken in the Iberian Peninsula, see Iberian languages....
. Mozarabic descends from Late Latin and early Romance dialects spoken in the Iberian Peninsula from 5th to 8th centuries (Hispania
Hispania

Hispania was the name given by the Ancient Rome to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula . When Rome was a Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into Roman provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior....
 was the name of a group of three provinces of the Peninsula and the name more commonly used at Roman and Visigothic times). This set of dialects came to be known as the Mozarabic language, though there was never a common standard.






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Mozarabic was a continuum
Dialect continuum

A dialect continuum is a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater....
 of closely related Romance dialects
Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages comprising all the languages that descend from Latin language, the language of ancient Rome....
 spoken in Muslim dominated areas of the Iberian Peninsula
Al-Andalus

Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Arab Muslims, at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
 during the early stages of the Romance languages' development in Iberia
Iberian Romance languages

This article is about a subdivision of the Romance language family. For the broader group of languages spoken in the Iberian Peninsula, see Iberian languages....
. Mozarabic descends from Late Latin and early Romance dialects spoken in the Iberian Peninsula from 5th to 8th centuries (Hispania
Hispania

Hispania was the name given by the Ancient Rome to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula . When Rome was a Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into Roman provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior....
 was the name of a group of three provinces of the Peninsula and the name more commonly used at Roman and Visigothic times). This set of dialects came to be known as the Mozarabic language, though there was never a common standard. (Mozarab
Mozarab

The Mozarabs were Iberian Peninsula Christians who lived under Moors Muslim rule in Al-Andalus. Their descendants remained unconverted to Islam, but did however adopt elements of Arabic language and Arab culture....
 comes from the Arabic
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
 word ?????? - musta'rab, i.e. "Arabized
Arabization

Arabization describes a growing cultural influence on a non-Arab area that gradually changes into one that speaks Arabic language and/or incorporates Arab culture....
").

Native name

Although the name Mozarabic is today used for this Romance language, the native name (autonym
Autonym

Autonym may refer to*an endonym, the self-assigned name of an ethnic group*autonym , an automatically created infraspecific name...
 or endonym) of the language was not "muzarab" or "mozarab" but latinus or Latino. Mozarabs themselves never called their own language "mozarabic" but by the name that meant "Latin" (i.e. Romance language). They did not call themselves by the name "mozarabs".
At times Christian communities prospered in Muslim Spain; these Christians are now usually referred to as Mozárabes, although the term was not in use at the time (Hitchcock 1978)
It was only in the 19th century that Spanish historians started to use the words "mozarabs" and "mozarabic" to refer to those Christians who lived under Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages and their language. Another very common Arab exonym for this language was al-ajamiya ("stranger/foreign") that had the meaning of Romance language in Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus

Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Arab Muslims, at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
. So the words "mozarabic" or "ajamiya" are exonyms and not an autonym of the language.

Roger Wright, in his book about the evolution of early Romance languages in France and in the Iberian Peninsula Late Latin and Early Romance in Spain and Carolingian France, page 156, states that:
The Early Romance of Moslem Spain was known to its users as latinus. This word can lead to confusion; the Visigothic scholars used it to contrast with Greek or Hebrew, and Simonet (1888: XXIII-IV, XXXV-VII) established that in Moslem Spain it was used to refer to the non-Arabic vernacular (as was Arabic Al-Lathini)


Also in the same book, page 158, the author states that:
The use of latinus to mean Latin-Romance, as opposed to Arabic, is also found north of the religious border
This means that the word latinus or Latino had the meaning of spoken romance language and it was only contrasted with classical Latin (lingua Latina) a few centuries later. To contemporary romance speakers of the Iberian Peninsula of that time their vernacular spoken language was seen as "Latin". This happens because classical Latin was seen as an educated speech not as a different language.

Another important issue referring to this old Romance language is the name that Sephardic Jews gave to their spoken Romance language in Iberia - ladino and also the name that an Alpine romance speaking people, the Ladins, give to their language - ladin.

In the Iberian Peninsula:
The word Ladino (linguistic meaning
Linguistic meaning

Some arguei hate people meanings to be abstract logical objects but some philosophers, including Plato , Augustine of Hippo, Peter Abelard, Gottlob Frege, Ludwig Wittgenstein, J....
 of "Spanish written by Jews" (Roger Wright 1982, p. 158)
This is one of the main reasons why Iberian Jews (Sephardim) from central and southern regions called their everyday language ladino, because this word had the sense of spoken Romance language (Ladino is today a Romance language more closely related to Spanish, mainly to Old Spanish, spoken by some Jews of Sephardic ancestry).

In the Alps: For the same reason, speakers of ladin
Ladin

Ladin is a Rhaetian languages spoken in the Dolomites mountains in Italy between the regions of Trentino-Alto Adige/S?dtirol and Veneto. It is closely related to the Swiss Romansh language, Surselvan, and Friulian language....
, another Romance language (spoken in eastern Switzerland in two valleys in Graubünden and northern Italy in the Trentino Alto-Ádige/Südtirol and Veneto
Veneto

Veneto or Venetia , is one of the 20 Regions of Italy of Italy. Its population is about 4.8 million, and its capital is Venice. Once the cradle of the renowned Republic of Venice, then a land of mass emigration, Veneto is today among the wealthiest and most industrialized regions of Italy....
 regions), call their own language ladin i.e. "Latin".

This word had the sense of spoken Romance language not only in Iberian Peninsula but also in other Romance language regions in early Middle Ages.

Scripts

Because Mozarabic was not a language of high culture it didn't have an official script. Unlike most Romance languages, Mozarabic was primarily written in the Arabic alphabet
Arabic alphabet

The Arabic alphabet is the writing system used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa, such as Arabic language, Persian language, and Urdu language....
 rather than the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumae alphabet, and was initially developed by the Ancient Romes to write the Latin....
, though it was also written in the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumae alphabet, and was initially developed by the Ancient Romes to write the Latin....
 and less so in the Hebrew alphabet
Hebrew alphabet

The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language. Five of these letters have a different form when appearing as the last letter in a word....
. Most documents were in the Arabic alphabet. Mozarab scholars wrote words of the Romance vernacular in alternative scripts in the margins or in the subtitles of Latin language texts (glosses).

The two languages of culture in Medieval Iberia were Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 in the north (although it was also used in the south by Mozarab scholars) and Arabic in the south (which was the principal literary language of Mozarab scholars). These are the languages that constitute the great majority of written documents of the Peninsula at that time.

Mozarabic is first documented in writing in the Peninsula as choruses (kharja
Kharja

The kharja , also known as jarcha in Spanish language, is the final refrain of a muwashshah, a lyric genre of Al-Andalus written in Classical Arabic or Hebrew languages....
s) (9th century) in Arabic
Arabic language

Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages languages such as Hebrew language and Aramaic language....
 lyrics called muwashshah
Muwashshah

Muwashshah or muwa??ah is an Arabic poetry form, as well as a secular Arabic music musical genre in the Mashriq of the Arab world using muwa??ah texts as lyrics....
s. As these were written in the Arabic alphabet
Arabic alphabet

The Arabic alphabet is the writing system used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa, such as Arabic language, Persian language, and Urdu language....
, the vowel
Vowel

In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis....
s had to be reconstructed when transliterating it into Latin script.

Morphology and phonetics

In some aspects, it is more archaic than the other Romance languages
Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages comprising all the languages that descend from Latin language, the language of ancient Rome....
. Based on the written documents that are identified as Mozarabic, some examples of these more archaic features are the preservation of Latin language consonant clusters CL, FL, PL, and intervocal P, T and C (K); like the Mozarabic words lopa (she-wolf), toto (all) and formica (ant).

The morphology of some words is closer to Latin than other Iberian Romance or Romance languages in general. This Romance variety had a significant impact in the formation of Portuguese
Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....
, Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
 and especially Andalusian Spanish
Andalusian Spanish

The Andalusian dialect of Spanish language is spoken in Andalusia, Ceuta, Melilla, and parts of southern Extremadura. It is perhaps the most distinct of the southern dialects of peninsular Spanish, differing in many respects from northern dialects as well as from Standard Spanish....
, which explains why these languages have several words of Andalusi Arabic
Andalusi Arabic

Andalusian Arabic was a Varieties of Arabic of the Arabic language spoken in Al-Andalus, the regions of the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule....
 origin (Mozarabic was, understandably, quite influenced by Arabic and vice versa). In Portugal, the local Mozarabic dialects are known today as Lusitanian Mozarabic .

It was spoken by Mozarab
Mozarab

The Mozarabs were Iberian Peninsula Christians who lived under Moors Muslim rule in Al-Andalus. Their descendants remained unconverted to Islam, but did however adopt elements of Arabic language and Arab culture....
s (Christians living as dhimmi
Dhimmi

A dhimmi is a non-Muslim subject of a state governed in accordance with sharia. The term connotes an obligation of the state to protect the individual, including the individual's life, property, and freedom of religion and worship, and required loyalty to the empire, and a poll tax known as the jizya....
s), Muladi
Muladi

The Muladi...
s (the native Hispanic population converted to Islam) and some layers of the ruling Arabs and Berbers. The cultural language of Mozarabs continued to be Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
, but as time passed, young Mozarabs studied and even excelled at Arabic. Due to the Northwards migration of Mozarabs, we can find Arabic placenames in areas where Islamic rule did not last long. With the deepening of Islamization and the advance of the Reconquista
Reconquista

The Reconquista was a period of 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula succeeded in retaking the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims....
, Mozarabic was substituted by either Northern Romances or Arabic depending on the area and century.

Documents in Mozarabic (Old Southern Iberian Romance)

Some texts found in manuscripts of poetry in Moslem Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus), although mainly written in Arabic, have however some stanzas in mozarabic (Latino) or in what seems to be Mozarabic. These are important texts because there are few examples of written Mozarabic language.

In Late Latin and Early romance Roger Wright also makes an analysis of these poetry texts known as kharjas:
Moslem Spain has acquired philological interest for a further reason: the kharjas. These are apparently bilingual (Arabic-Romance) or macaronic final stanzas of some verses in the Hispano-Arabic muwashshaha form discovered in some Arabic and Hebrew manuscripts (...). Analyses of these have been hampered in the past by the belief that we know too little about mozárabe Romance to discuss the "Romance" element on a sound basis; but this is not entirely true. (...) The detailed investigations by Galmés de Fuentes (e.g. 1977, 1980) on later documents and toponyms have established the main features of mozárabe phonology, and many features of its morphology (...). The conclusion seems to be that mozárabe Romance is not particularly different from that of other parts of Iberia.


Sample text (11th century)


See also

  • Aljamiado
    Aljamiado

    Aljamiado texts are manuscripts which utilize the Arabic alphabet for transcribing Romance languages such as Mozarabic language or Ladino language....
    , the practice of writing a Romance language with the Arabic or Hebrew scripts.
  • Mozarab
    Mozarab

    The Mozarabs were Iberian Peninsula Christians who lived under Moors Muslim rule in Al-Andalus. Their descendants remained unconverted to Islam, but did however adopt elements of Arabic language and Arab culture....
    , the Christian population under Islamic rule.
  • Mozarabic art
  • Mozarabic Rite
    Mozarabic Rite

    The Mozarabic, Visigothic, or Hispanic Rite is a form of Catholicism worship within the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church, and in the Spanish Reformed Episcopal Church ....
    , the Christian liturgy preserved by the Mozarabs.
  • Muwashshah
    Muwashshah

    Muwashshah or muwa??ah is an Arabic poetry form, as well as a secular Arabic music musical genre in the Mashriq of the Arab world using muwa??ah texts as lyrics....
    , an Arabic poetic form.
  • Kharja
    Kharja

    The kharja , also known as jarcha in Spanish language, is the final refrain of a muwashshah, a lyric genre of Al-Andalus written in Classical Arabic or Hebrew languages....
    , a part of the muwashshah.
  • Ladino language, the Spanish language spoken by Sephardic Jews.


External links