- Influences on the Spanish language
The
Spanish language has a long history of borrowing words, expressions and subtler features of other languages it has come in contact with.Spanish developed from
Vulgar Latin , with influence from Celtiberian, Basque and Arabic, and Visigothic in the north of theIberian Peninsula .Formative influences
As Spanish went through its first stages of development in
Spain , it received influences from neighbouring related languages, and from Basque, which is alanguage isolate and thus completely unrelated to Spanish in origin. Umbrian and Oscan influences have also been postulated.Visigothic
Spain was controlled by the
Visigoth s between the 5th and 8th century. However, the linguistic influence of the Visigothic language (an East Germanic language) on Spanish was relatively limited, because the invaders were already Romanized and also spoke their own dialect of Latin. Besides a few military words, Spanish borrowed the following from Visigothic:*A new noun
declension (nominative "-â", oblique "-âne"), which was used mostly with proper names (whence modern Spanish "Froilán" and also "guardián").
*The adjectivizing suffix "-engo" (Germanic "-ing"), as in "abolengo".
*The suffixes "-iz", "-ez", "-oz", now found in surnames ("Pérez", "López", "Ruiz", etc.), from Germanic patronymics in "-iks".Arabic
Spain was then (711 CE) invaded by
Islam ic forces, which brought theArabic language to the Peninsula. Over the course of the following centuries, Spanish borrowed words from Arabic in many semantic fields:*Common everyday items such as "alcoba" "alcove, room", "aldea" "village", "alfombra" "carpet", "almohada" "pillow", "guitarra" "guitar";
*Government and military terms such as "alcázar " "fortress" (curiously, Arab itself took the word from Latin "castrum", castle), "alcalde" "mayor", "barrio" "ward, neighborhood";
*Legal terms such as "asesino" "assassin, murderer", "rehén" "hostage", "tarifa" "tariff, fee", "arancel" "fee";
*Food and beverage names such as "aceite" "oil", "arroz" "rice", "espinaca" "spinach", "naranja" "orange", "café" "coffee";
*Masonry and craftsmanship terms such as "albañil" "mason", "tabique" "dividing wall", "adoquín" "paving stone", "alfarero" "potter", "taza" "cup", "jarra" "pitcher";
*Chemical substances and materials such as "alcohol" "alcohol", "álcali" "alkali", "adobe" "adobe", "laca" "lacquer";
*Mathematical and astronomical terms such as "cero" "zero", "cifra" "cipher, figure", "álgebra" "algebra ", "cénit" "zenith", "guarismo" "number, figure";
*Expressions such as "ojalá" ("may it be that. ..", originally "May Allah want. .."), "albricias" "joy!".As is obvious, many of these borrowings (especially in the scientific field) were then passed on to other languages (English got most of them via French).
Most of the Spanish words starting with the particle -al- have their origin in Arabic.It's estimated that about 4000 words in Spanish are of Arabic origin.
Morphological borrowing was scarce. The suffíx "-í" (deriving adjectives from place names, in as "iraquí" "Iraqi, Iraq's") is an example.
Possible Basque influence
Many Castilians who took part in the
reconquista and later repopulation campaigns were of Basque lineage and this is evidenced by manyplace name s throughoutSpain . The change fromLatin 'f-' to Spanish 'h-' (discussed at length below) was once commonly ascribed to the influence of Basque speakers for a few reasons. The change from f to h was first documented in the areas around Castile and La Rioja, areas where many Basques were known to have lived. The change to h took place to a greater degree in theGascon language inGascony inFrance , an area also inhabited by Basques. TheBasque language lacked the f sound and thus substituted it with h, the closest thing to f in that language.
There are some difficulties with attributing this change to Basque though. There is no hard evidence thatmedieval Basque had an h sound, but there is also no hard evidence that it "didn't." Adding to this is the fact that the f to hphenomenon is not peculiar to Spanish. In fact, the change from f to h is one of the most common phonological changes in all kinds of world languages. According to the explanations which negate or downplay Basque influence, the change occurred in the affected dialects wholly independent of each other as the result of internal change (i.e. linguistic factors, not outside influence). It is also possible that the two forces worked in concert and reinforced each other.Possible Celtic influence
Two specific types of
lenition , the voicing ofvoiceless consonant s and theelision ofvoiced consonant s (both of which are discussed at greater length below), are the phonological changes of Spanish which are most often attributed to the influence ofCeltic language s. While examples of these two types of lenition are ubiquitous and well-documented in Spanish, two assumptions need to be made if these two types of lenition are to be attributed to patterns of lenition in Celtic languages. The first assumption is that a population of bilingual Celtiberian-Romance speakers existed long enough to have had an influence on the development of Castilian. The second assumption is that Continental Celtic, an extinct branch of Celtic, did indeed exhibit the types of lenition which are known to exist in modernInsular Celtic languages . (Furthermore, it should be noted that such lenitions are a very common kind of change in languages all around the world, and similar phenomena are found also in Romance languages such as Corsican and Sardinian, where no Celtic causation is plausible; the Spanish development may therefore just be an internal process, not due to outside influence.)Germanic influence
Although
Germanic languages by most accounts affected the phonological development very little, many Spanish words of Germanic origin are very common in all varieties of everyday Spanish. The words forcardinal directions (norte, este, sur, oeste) are all taken from Germanic words (north ,east ,south andwest in Modern English) after the contact with Atlantic sailors.Influences from Native American languages
The last Moorish kingdom fell to Spanish forces in
1492 , shortly before the arrival ofChristopher Columbus to theAmericas . Spanish settlers then came in contact with a host of native languages. Most of these were wiped out or severely reduced in number of speakers and distribution area during the conquest, but Spanish adopted a number of words from some of them. The following list is by no means exhaustive.*From
Nahuatl : "tomate" "tomato", "chocolate" "chocolate", "ajolote" "axolotl", "cacao" "cocoa", "coyote" "coyote".
*From Quechua "cóndor" "condor " (orig. "kuntur"), "cancha" "playing field", "alpaca", "caucho", "coca", "guano", "gaucho " (orig. "wakcha" "poor person"), "guanaco ", "llama" (the animal), "puma ", "pampa " "plains, flat terrain".
*from Guaraní "caracú" "bone marrow ", "catinga" "body odor", "chamamé ", "tapera" "ruins", "jaguar", "yaguareté" "jaguar", "mate" (an infusion, orig. "mati" "pumpkin")..
*From Carib "caimán" "caimán", "huracán" "hurricane".
*From Tupi "caníbal" "cannibal", "capibara " (the largestrodent on Earth), "jacarandá " (a tree).Those words referring to local features or animals might be limited to regional usage, but many others like "condor", "canoa" or "chocolate" are extended even to other languages.
Modern borrowings
Spanish borrowed words from other European languages (its close neighbors such as Catalan, other
Romance language s like French (this particularly during the Neoclassicist to Napoleonic periods, when French language and culture became the fashion at the royal court) and Italian, andGermanic language s like English). For example:*"chao", "chau" "bye" from Italian
ciao (sometimes co-existing with "adiós")
*"carnet" from French
*"chofer" "chauffeur" from French (co-existing with "conductor")
*"elenco" "team" from Italian (co-existing with "equipo")
*"sandwich", from English (Originally "bocadillo" o "emparedado")
*"briquet" from French (used in Colombia, co-existing with "encendedor")
*"Capot" from French
*"Fútbol" from English (football) (originally "balompié")
*"Gendarme" from French (Prison guards).Recent borrowings
In recent times, Spanish has borrowed many words and expressions from English, especially in the fields of computers and the Internet. In many cases, technical expressions which superficially employ common Spanish words are in fact
calque s from English equivalents. For example, "disco duro" is a literal translation of "hard disk". Words likeblog ,chat , andweblog are used, though "bitácora" (from "cuaderno de bitácora", thecaptain's log on aboat ) is also common.Words of non-Latin origin
Seventy-five percent of Spanish words have come from Latin [ [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0807117358&id=h79ViVeChFIC&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=percent+arabic+spanish+latin&sig=JPhAGySSZqVhp4IBFexudZK_jAs "A new history of Spanish literature"] By Richard Eugene Chandler, Kessel Schwartz] and were in use in
Spain before theCommon Era . The remaining 25 percent come from other languages. Of theselanguage s (and language families), the four which have contributed the most words are Arabic,Indigenous languages of the Americas , Germanic, and Celtic in roughly that order.Lists of Spanish etymology
African –
Americas –
Arabic –
Austronesian –
Basque/Iberian –
Celtic –
Chinese –
Etruscan –
French –
Germanic –
Indo-Aryan –
Iranian –
Italic –
Semitic –
Turkic –
uncertain –
various origins.Notes
ee also
*
History of the Spanish language
*Iberian language
*Vulgar Latin
*Romance languages
*List of English words of Spanish origin ources
* [http://spanish.about.com/cs/historyofspanish/a/arabicwords_2.htm "Spanish Words Derived from Arabic"] , from [http://www.about.com/ About.com] .
* [http://www.zompist.com/indianwd.html "Amerindian Words in English"] , compiled by Mark Rosenfelder.
* [http://assets.cambridge.org/052180/5872/sample/0521805872ws.pdf "A History of the Spanish language"] (sample from the second edition, 2002), by Ralph Penny
* [http://latine.iespana.es/latine.index.html Spanish words of Latin origin] Spanish , a romance language.
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