LCL 18: Spanish through Time

Spanish through Time

An Introduction

Flora Klein-Andreu
Stony Brook University

Spanish through time is an introduction to the development of the Spanish language, designed for readers with little or no prior experience in linguistics. It therefore stresses explanation of the workings of language and its development over time: They are viewed as attibutable to characteristics of human speakers, in particular social and historical circumstances, as illustated by the history of Spanish.

The development of Spanish from Latin is presented divided into three broad periods--"Vulgar Latin", Castilian, and Spanish--characterized by specific linguistic developments and the historical circumstances in which they occurred. In each case the mechanics of particular language changes are explained in detail, in everyday terms. Emphasis is on the more general developments that differentiate, first, various Romance languages, and finally different current varieties of Castilian-- Peninsular and Atlantic (American). Evidence is also presented for the chronology of some major changes, so as to familiarize the reader with traditional linguistic reasoning.

The presentation is designed to be covered in a normal semester or trimester unit, and is based on the author's experience teaching the subject for more than twenty years in U.S. Universities.

Contents:

Preface
List of maps
List of figures
Phonetic symbols used
Abbreviations

l. Introduction: On language and language change

1.1 Conditions that affect language and its development
1.2 Why languages can change
1.3 What changes is how we talk

Part I: ROMANCE

2. Spanish as a Romance language: theory and evidence

2.1 Theoretical evidence: comparative reconstruction
2.2 The historical evidence: the Roman Empire
2.3 Rome in Iberia

3. ‘Vulgar Latin’

3.1 Classical vs. Vulgar Latin
3.1.1 Popular vs. ‘learnèd’ words
3.1.2 Doublets
3.2 Evidence of Vulgar Latin
3.2.1 Literary imitations of ordinary speech
3.2.2 Attempts at correction
3.2.3 Inscriptions
3.2.4 Early Christian writings
3.3 Characteristics of Spanish and other differences among Romance languages
3.3.1 Substratum influence
3.3.1.1 Celtic
3.3.1.2 Basque
3.3.2 Chronological difference

4. Vulgar Latin Lexicon

4.1 Borrowings and calques
4.1.1 Celtic
4.1.2 Germanic
4.1.3 Greek
4.2 Derivation
4.2.1 Diminutives
4.2.2 Other derivations
4.3 More changes in use

5. Developments in grammar

5.1 Syntactic (analytic) vs. Morphological (synthetic) expression
5.1.1 Replacement of adverbial –e by mente
5.1.2 Comparatives and superlatives
5.1.3 The Romance future and conditional tenses
5.1.4 The passive
5.1.5 The Romance ‘perfect’ tenses
5.1.6 Loss of morphological case endings
5.1.7 Latin demonstratives and their descendants
5.2 Summary of main points

6. Another word on words and reinterpretations

6.1 Descent of Spanish words from Latin Accusatives, and some exceptions
6.1.1 The weekdays
6.1.2 Reanalysis of plurals as singulars (and vice versa)
6.2 Understanding reanalysis
6.2.1 A lexical example

7. The production of speech sounds, and the sounds of Classical Latin

7.1 Essentials of articulation
7.2. Degree of obstruction (closure) of the vocal tract: vowels vs. consonants
7.2.1 Degree of obstruction among vowels
7.2.2 Place of articulation
7.2.3 Duration (length)
7.3 Syllables
7.4 Stress
7.5 Consonants
7.5.1 The most closed articulations: stops
7.5.2 Voicing
7.5.3 Fricatives and sibilants
7.5.4 Nasals
7.5.5 Liquids (lateral [l] and tap [r])
7.5.6 Glides (semi-consonants)
7.5.7 The aspirate [h]
7.5.8 Length in consonants: geminates

8. Early changes in consonants

8.1 Sound change and phonetic context
8.2 Simple developments
8.3 A development with multiple consequences: distinctive stress
8.3.1 Loss of intertonic vowels
8.3.2 Change in syllabification of vowel sequences
8.3.3 Vocalization of first consonant in clusters
8.4 Increase in frequency of palatal glide [y] (‘yod’). Assimilation.
8.4.1 Effect of ‘yod’ on consonants
8.5 Summary: Vulgar Latin stress change and its consequences
8.6 Other palatalizations
8.7 Articulatory weakening: ´lenition´
8.8 Overall summary of early consonantal changes. Effects on the consonantal system

9. Changes in vowels

9.1 Stress vs. duration
9.2 Influence of relative energy of articulation: stressed vs. unstressed vowels; unstressed final vs. other unstressed vowels
9.3 The influence of yod
9.4 Stressed vowels
9.5 Unstressed non-final vowels
9.6 Morphological consequences of differing phonetic conditions
9.6.1 Difference in stress
9.6.2 Proximity of yod
9.7 Final vowels
9.8 Summary

10. Evidence of early developments

10.1 The Appendix Probi
10.2 Inscriptions
10.3 The Peregrinatio (‘Pilgrimage’)

11. The Germanic invasions

11.1 Effect on Latin
11.2 The Visigoths in Iberia
11.3 A possible calque from Germanic
11.4 Phonetic adaptation of Germanic words
11.5 A Germanic borrowing from Latin

12. The Arab invasions

12.1 Some background
12.2 Cultural and linguistic influence
12.3 Linguistic adaptation of arabisms
12.3.1 Reinterpretation of meaning
12.3.2 Phonetic adaptation
12.4 Romance developments in arabisms
12.5 Calques from Arabic

13. French influence

13.1 Historical background
13.2 Borrowings from French (‘Gallicisms’)
13.3 Phonetic adjustment of loanwords
13.4 Apocope of final vowels
13.5 The spelling ch

Part II: CASTILIAN

14. Characteristics of Castilian

14.1 Castilian and western dialects
14.2 Castilian and eastern dialects
14.3 Castilian developments

15. Early evidence of Castilian

15.1 The Glosses
15.2 Some examples
15.3 A caveat
16. Morphology: Developments in form

16.1 Changes in form due to sound change
16.2 Changes in form influenced by meaning: analogy
16.3 Latin strong preterites and participles
16.4 Suppletion

17. The Rise of Castilian

17.1 Castilla and the ‘Reconquista’
17.2 The western periphery: gallego-portugués
17.3 The eastern periphery: varieties of catalán
17.4 A non-Romance language: Basque
17.5 Political unification
17.6 Spanish as a world language
17.7 Spanish culture and the ‘Siglo de Oro’

18. Standardization

18.1 Alfonso X ‘El Sabio’
18.2 Nebrija and the first grammar of Spanish
18.3 Later Spanish grammars
18.4 Grammars as evidence of the state of development of Castilian. Grammars for foreigners.
18.5 Summary

19. Modern changes in sound and major current varieties

19.1 Judeo-Spanish
19.2 Northern and Southern Castilian
19.3 Loss of the aspirate [h]
19.4 Merger of medieval [b] and [β]
19.5 Developments in sibilant sounds
19.5.1 Unvoicing of voiced sibilants
19.5.2 Deaffrication of dental affricates: the south
19.5.3 ‘Ceceo’ and ‘seseo’
19.5.4 Deaffrication of dental affricates: the north
19.5.5 Development of the palatal [š]
19.6 Merger of [Ł] and [y]: ‘yeísmo’
19.7 Summary of modern consonant changes
19.8 A suggestion

20. More reinterpretations

20.1 Changes in lexical meaning
20.1.1 Taboo and euphemism
20.1.2 Technical and other cultural developments
20.1.3 Competition with newer terms
20.1.4 Different varieties of Spanish
20.1.5 Learnèd vs. Popular vocabulary
20.2 Reinterpretation in grammar
20.2.1 The negatives nada and ningun(o/a)
20.2.2 Terms of address (´tratamientos´)
20.2.3 Development of haber: contributing factors and various consequences
20.2.4 Grammaticalization of STARE > estar
20.2.5 Another ongoing trend: interpreting –a/-o endings as feminine/masculine

PART III: SPANISH

21. Spanish beyond Spain

21.1 Judeo-Spanish
21.2 The Americas
21.2.1 The Spread of Spanish
21.2.2 American Spanish and the theory of ‘Andalucismo’
21.2.2.1 Historical basis: the circumstances of early colonization
21.2.2.2 Linguistic basis: southern Peninsular features in American Spanish
21.2.3 Conservation of vos: ‘voseo’
21.2.4 Native American influence on general Spanish: ‘indigenismos’
21.3 Equatorial Guinea
21.4 The Philippines
21.5 Spanish-lexified Creoles

22. The Academy. Modern changes in spelling.

22.1 ‘La Real Academia de la lengua española’
22.2 Orthographic reforms

23. Spanish in our time: Some ongoing developments.

23.1 Influence of English
23.1.1 Adaptation of borrowings
23.1.2 Reinterpretation of borrowings
23.1.3 Calques and puristic resistance
23.2 Spanish as a Transatlantic language
23.2.1 Spanish in the United States
23.2.2 Spanish as a second language

Subject Index

Bibliography

ISBN 9783895864308. LINCOM Coursebooks in Linguistics 18. 209pp. 2010. Students' discounts available! Please ask.