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The language known today asSpanish is derived fromspoken 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.[1] Influenced by the peninsular hegemony ofAl-Andalus in the early middle ages,Hispano-Romance varieties borrowed substantial lexicon fromArabic. Upon the southward territorial expansion of theKingdom of Castile, Hispano-Romance norms associated to this polity displaced both Arabic and theMozarabic romance varieties in the conquered territories, even though the resulting speech also assimilated features from the latter in the process.[2] The first standard written norm of Spanish was brought forward in the 13th century byAlfonso X the Wise (who usedCastilian, i.e. Spanish, along with Latin as languages of the administration), probably drawing from the speech of the upper classes ofToledo.[3] Features associated with the Castilian patterns of Hispano-Romance also spread west and east to the kingdoms ofLeón andAragón 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.[4] From the 1560s onward the standard written form followedMadrid's.[5]
The Spanish language expanded overseas in theEarly Modern period in the wake of the Spanish conquests in theAmericas (as well as theCanary Islands). Besides the Caribbean, the colonial administration in the new territories had its main centres of power located inMexico City andLima, which retained more features from the central peninsular norm than other more peripheral territories of theSpanish Empire, where adoption of patterns from the southern peninsular norm ofSeville (the largest city of the Crown in the 16th century and the port linking to the Americas) was more pervasive, even though in other regards the influence from the latter norm (associated toAndalusian Spanish) came to be preponderant in the entire Americas.[6] Spanish varieties henceforth borrowed influence fromAmerindian languages, primarily coming from the Caribbean, the Central-Andean and Mesoamerican regions.[7] Today it is theofficial language of 20 countries, as well as an official language ofnumerous international organizations, including theUnited Nations.
The development ofSpanish phonology is distinguished from those of other nearbyRomance languages (e.g.Portuguese,Catalan) by several features:
The following features are characteristic of Spanish phonology and also of some otherIbero-Romance languages, but not the Romance languages as a whole:
The Latin system of fourverb conjugations (form classes) is reduced to three in Spanish. The Latin infinitives with the endings -ĀRE, -ĒRE, and -ĪRE become Spanish infinitives in -ar, -er, and -ir respectively. The Latinthird conjugation—infinitives ending in -ĔRE—are redistributed between the Spanish -er and -ir classes (e.g.facere →hacer,dicere →decir).Spanish verbalmorphology continues the use of some Latinsynthetic forms that were replaced byanalytic ones in spoken French and (partly) Italian (cf. Sp.lavó, Fr.il a lavé), and the Spanishsubjunctive mood maintains separatepresent andpast-tense forms.
Spanishsyntax provides overt marking for somedirect objects (the so-called "personala", seedifferential object marking for the general phenomenon), and usesclitic doubling with indirect objects, in which a "redundant" pronoun (le,les) appears even in the presence of an explicitnoun phrase. (Neither feature occurs in otherWestern Romance languages,[citation needed] but both are features ofRomanian, withpe <PER corresponding to Spanisha.) With regard to subject pronouns, Spanish is apro-drop language, meaning that theverb phrase can often stand alone without the use of a subject pronoun (or a subjectnoun phrase). In some cases, such as with impersonal verbs referring to meteorological (llover "to rain",nevar "to snow") or other natural phenomena (amanecer "to get light out",anochecer "to get dark out"), it is ungrammatical to include a subject. Compared to other Romance languages, Spanish has a somewhat freersyntax with relatively fewer restrictions on subject-verb-objectword order.
Due to prolongedlanguage contact with other languages, the Spanishlexicon containsloanwords fromBasque, Hispano-Celtic (Celtiberian andGallaecian),Iberian, Germanic (Gothic),Arabic andindigenous languages of the Americas.
Accents—used in Modern Spanish to mark the vowel of the stressed syllable in words where stress is not predictable from rules—came into use sporadically in the 15th century, and massively in the 16th century. Their use began to be standardized with the advent of theSpanish Royal Academy in the 18th century. See alsoSpanish orthography.
The standard Spanish language is also calledCastilian in its original variant, and in order to distinguish it from other languages native to parts of Spain, such as Galician, Catalan, Basque, etc. In its earliest documented form, and up through approximately the 15th century, the language is customarily calledOld Spanish. From approximately the 16th century on, it is called Modern Spanish. Spanish of the 16th and 17th centuries is sometimes called "classical" Spanish, referring to theliterary accomplishments of that period. UnlikeEnglish andFrench, it is not customary to speak of a "middle" stage in the development of Spanish.
Castilian Spanish originated (after the decline of theRoman Empire) as a continuation ofspoken Latin in several areas of northern and central Spain. Eventually, the variety spoken in the city ofToledo around the 13th century became the basis for the written standard. With theReconquista, this northern dialect spread to the south, where it almost entirely replaced or absorbed the local Romance dialects, at the same time as it borrowed many words fromAndalusi Arabic and was influenced byMozarabic (the Romance speech of Christians living inMoorish territory) and medievalJudaeo-Spanish (Ladino). These languages had vanished in the Iberian Peninsula by the late 16th century.[9][10]
The prestige of Castile and its language was propagated partly by the exploits of Castilian heroes in the battles of theReconquista—among themFernán González and Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid)—and by the narrative poems about them that were recited in Castilian even outside the original territory of that dialect.[11]
The "first written Spanish" was traditionally considered to have appeared in theGlosas Emilianenses located inSan Millán de la Cogolla,La Rioja. These are "glosses" (translations of isolated words and phrases in a form more like Hispanic Romance than Latin) added between the lines of a manuscript that was written earlier in Latin. Nowadays the language of theGlosas Emilianenses is considered to be closer to theNavarro-Aragonese language than to Spanish proper. Estimates of their date vary from the late 10th to the early 11th century.[12]
The first steps towardstandardization of written Castilian were taken in the 13th century by KingAlfonso X of Castile, known as Alfonso el Sabio (Alfonso the Wise), in his court inToledo. He assembled scribes at his court and supervised their writing, in Castilian, of extensive works on history, astronomy, law, and other fields of knowledge.[13][14]
Antonio de Nebrija wrote the first grammar of Spanish,Gramática de la lengua castellana, and presented it, in 1492, toQueen Isabella, who is said to have had an early appreciation of the usefulness of the language as a tool of hegemony, as if anticipating the empire that was about to be founded with the voyages ofColumbus.[15]
Because Old Spanish resembles the modern written language to a relatively high degree, a reader of Modern Spanish can learn to read medieval documents without much difficulty.
TheSpanish Royal Academy was founded in 1713, largely with the purpose of standardizing the language. The Academy published its firstdictionary in six volumes over the period 1726–1739, and its first grammar in 1771,[16] and it continues to produce new editions of both from time to time. (TheAcademy's dictionary is now accessible on the Internet.) Today, each of the Spanish-speaking countries has an analogous language academy, and anAssociation of Spanish Language Academies was created in 1951.
Beginning in the late fifteenth century, the discovery and colonization of the Americas by Spanish colonizers brought the language across the Atlantic and to Mexico, Central America, and western and southern South America.[17] Under the Spanish Crown, the language was used as a tool for colonization by Spanish soldiers, missionaries, conquistadors, and entrepreneurs. In the coming centuries, their descendants continued to spread the language.[18]
Use of the language in theAmericas was continued by descendants of the Spaniards:Spanishcriollos andMestizos. After the wars of independence fought by these colonies in the 19th century, the new ruling elites extended their Spanish to the whole population, including the Amerindian majority, to strengthen national unity, and nowadays it is the first and official language of the resulting republics, except in very isolated parts of the former Spanish colonies.[19]
In the late 19th century, the still-Spanish colonies ofCuba andPuerto Rico encouraged more immigrants from Spain, and similarly other Spanish-speaking countries such asArgentina,Uruguay, and to a lesser extentChile,Colombia,Mexico,Panama andVenezuela, attracted waves ofEuropean immigration, Spanish and non-Spanish, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There, the countries' large (or sizable minority) population groups of second- and third-generation descendants adopted the Spanish language as part of their governments' official assimilation policies to include Europeans. In some countries, they had to be Catholics and agreed to take an oath of allegiance to their chosen nation's government.
WhenPuerto Rico became a possession of the United States as a consequence of theSpanish–American War, its population—almost entirely of Spanish and mixed Afro-Caribbean/Spanish (mulatto andmestizo) descent—retained its inherited Spanish language as a mother tongue, in co-existence with the American-imposedEnglish as co-official. In the 20th century, more than a millionPuerto Ricans migrated to the mainland U.S. (seePuerto Ricans in the United States).
A similar situation occurred in the American Southwest, includingCalifornia,Arizona,New Mexico andTexas, where Spaniards, thencriollos (Tejanos,Californios, etc.) followed byChicanos (Mexican Americans) and later Mexican immigrants, kept the Spanish language alive before, during and after the American appropriation of those territories following theMexican–American War. Spanish continues to be used by millions of citizens and immigrants to the United States from Spanish-speaking countries of the Americas (for example, manyCubans arrived inMiami, Florida, beginning with theCuban Revolution in 1959, and followed by other Latin American groups; the local majority is now Spanish-speaking). Spanish is now treated as the country's "second language," and over 5 percent of the U.S. population are Spanish-speaking, but mostLatino/Hispanic Americans are bilingual or also regularly speak English.
The presence of Spanish inEquatorial Guinea dates from the late 18th century, and it was adopted as the official language when independence was granted in 1968.
Spanish is widely spoken inWestern Sahara, which was a protectorate/colony of Spain from the 1880s to the 1970s.
In 1492 Spain expelled its Jewish population. TheirJudaeo-Spanish language, called Ladino, developed along its own lines and continues to be spoken by a dwindling number of speakers, mainly in Israel, Turkey, and Greece.[20][21]
In the Marianas, the Spanish language was retained until thePacific War, but is no longer spoken there by any significant number of people. As part ofChile since 1888, Spanish is spoken by most people inEaster Island along withRapa Nui language.
Language politics in Francoist Spain declared Spanish as the only official language in Spain, and to this day it is the most widely used language in government, business, public education, the workplace, cultural arts, and the media. But in the 1960s and 1970s,[citation needed] the Spanish parliament agreed to allow provinces to use, speak, and print official documents in three other languages:Catalan forCatalonia,Balearic Islands andValencia;Basque for theBasque provinces andNavarre, andGalician forGalicia. Since 1975, following the death ofFranco, Spain has become a multi-party democracy and decentralized country, constituted inautonomous communities. Under this system, somelanguages of Spain—such asAranese (anOccitan language of northwestern Catalonia), Basque, Catalan/Valencian, and Galician—have gained co-official status in their respective geographical areas. Others—such asAragonese,Asturian andLeonese—have been recognized by regional governments.
When theUnited Nations organization was founded in 1945, Spanish was designated one of its fiveofficial languages (along withChinese,English,French, andRussian; a sixth language,Arabic, was added in 1973).
Thelist of Nobel laureates in Literature includes eleven authors who wrote in Spanish (José Echegaray,Jacinto Benavente,Gabriela Mistral,Juan Ramón Jiménez,Miguel Ángel Asturias,Pablo Neruda,Vicente Aleixandre,Gabriel García Márquez,Camilo José Cela,Octavio Paz, andMario Vargas Llosa).
The mention of "influences" on the Spanish language refers primarily tolexical borrowing. Throughout its history, Spanish has acceptedloanwords, first frompre-Roman languages (includingBasque,Iberian,Celtiberian andGallaecian), and later fromGreek, fromGermanic languages, fromArabic, from neighboringRomance languages, fromNative American languages[citation needed], and fromEnglish.
The most frequently used word that entered Spanish from (or through[22]) Basque isizquierda "left".[23] Basque is perhaps most evident in some common Spanish surnames, includingGarcía andEcheverría. Basqueplace names also are prominent throughout Spain, because many Castilians who took part in theReconquista and repopulation of Moorish Iberia by Christians were ofBasque lineage. Iberian and Celtiberian likewise are thought to have contributed place names to Spain. Words of everyday use that are attributed toCeltic sources includecamino "road",carro "cart",colmena "hive", andcerveza "beer".[24] Suffixes such as -iego:mujeriego "womanizer" and -ego:gallego "Galician" are also attributed to Celtic sources.
Influence of Basque phonology is credited by some researchers[who?] with softening the Spanishlabiodentals: turning labiodental[v] to bilabial[β], and ultimately deleting labiodental[f]. Others negate or downplay Basque phonological influence, claiming that these changes occurred in the affected dialects wholly as a result of factors internal to the language, not outside influence.[25] It is also possible that the two forces, internal and external, worked in concert and reinforced each other.
Some words of Greek origin were already present in the spoken Latin that became Spanish. Additionally, many Greek words formed part of the language of the Church. Spanish also borrowedAncient Greek vocabulary in the areas of medical, technical, and scientific language, beginning as early as the 13th century.[26]
The influence ofGermanic languages is very little onphonological development, but rather is found mainly in the Spanishlexicon.Words of Germanic origin are common in all varieties of Spanish. The modern words for thecardinal directions (norte,este,sur,oeste), for example, are all taken from Germanic words (comparenorth,east,south andwest inModern English), after contact with Atlantic sailors. These words did not exist in Spanish prior to the 15th century. Instead, "north" and "south" wereseptentrion andmeridion[citation needed] respectively (both virtually obsolete in Modern Spanish as nouns, unlike their not uncommon adjectival counterpartsseptentrional andmeridional), while "east" wasoriente (orlevante), and "west" wasoccidente (orponiente). These older words for "east" and "west" continue to have some use in Modern Spanish.
In 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded byMoors, who brought in theArabic language. For about eight hundred years, until the fall of theEmirate of Granada (1492), Spanish borrowed thousands of words fromAndalusi Arabic andAndalusi Romance, such asalcalde "mayor",álgebra "algebra",aceite "oil",zanahoria "carrot",alquiler "rent",achacar "to blame",adelfa "oleander",barrio "neighbourhood",chaleco "vest", to name just a few; making up 8% of the Spanish dictionary—the second largest lexical influence on Spanish after Latin.[27][28][29] It is thought that the bilingualism of theMozarabs facilitated the large transfer of vocabulary from Arabic to Castilian.[30]
The neighboring Romance languages—such asAndalusi Romance,Galician/Portuguese,Catalan,French, andOccitan—contributed greatly to the Spanish lexicon throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era.[31] Borrowing from Italian occurred most frequently in the 16th and 17th centuries, due largely to the influence of theItalian Renaissance.[32]
The creation of theSpanish Empire in theNew World led to lexical borrowing fromindigenous languages of the Americas, especially vocabulary dealing withflora,fauna, and cultural concepts unique to the Americas.[33]
Borrowing from English has become especially strong, beginning in the 20th century, with words borrowed from many fields of activity, including sports, technology, and commerce.[34]
The incorporation into Spanish of learned, or "bookish" words from its own ancestor language,Latin, is arguably another form of lexical borrowing through the influence of written language and the liturgical language of the Church. Throughout the Middle Ages and into the early modern period, most literate Spanish-speakers were also literate in Latin; and thus they easily adopted Latin words into their writing—and eventually speech—in Spanish. The form of Latin that Spaniards spoke and the loanwords came from wasClassical Latin, but alsoRenaissance Latin, the form of Latin used in original works of the time.
Spanish shares with other Romance languages most of the phonological and grammatical changes that characterizedVulgar Latin, such as the abandonment of distinctivevowel length, the loss of thecase system for nouns, and the loss ofdeponent verbs.
Syncope in the history of Spanish refers to the loss of an unstressed vowel from the syllable immediately preceding or following the stressed syllable. Early in its history, Spanish lost such vowels where they preceded or followed R or L, and between S and T.[35][36][37]
| Environment | Latin words | Spanish words |
|---|---|---|
| _r | aperīre, humerum, litteram,[38] operam, honorāre | abrir, hombro, letra, obra, honrar |
| r_ | eremum, viridem | yermo, verde |
| _l | acūculam, fabulam, insulam, populum | aguja, habla, isla, pueblo |
| l_ | sōlitārium | soltero |
| s_t | positum, consūtūram | puesto, costura |
*Solitario, which is derived fromsōlitārium, is a learned word; cf. the alternate formsoltero. As alsofábula fromfabulam, although this last one has a different meaning in Spanish.
Later, after the time of intervocalic voicing, unstressed vowels were lost between other combinations of consonants:
| Environment | Latin words | Spanish words |
|---|---|---|
| b_t | cubitum, dēbitam, dūbitam | codo, deuda, duda |
| c_m, c_p, c_t | decimum, acceptōre, recitāre | diezmo, azor, rezar |
| d_c | undecim, vindicāre | once, vengar |
| f_c | advērificāre | averiguar |
| m_c, m_n, m_t | hāmiceolum, hominem, comitem | anzuelo, hombre, conde |
| n_c, n_t | dominicum, bonitāte, cuminitiāre | domingo, bondad, comenzar |
| p_t | capitālem, computāre, hospitālem | caudal, contar, hostal |
| s_c, s_n | quassicāre, rassicāre, asinum, fraxinum | cascar, rascar, asno, fresno |
| t_c, t_n | masticāre, portaticum, trīticum, retinam | mascar/masticar, portazgo, trigo, rienda |
Wordscapital,computar,hospital,recitar andvindicar are learned words; cf.capitālem,computāre,hospitālem,recitāre andvindicāre and alternate formscaudal,contar,hostal,rezar andvengar.
Whilevoiceless intervocalic consonants regularly became voiced, many voiced intervocalic stops (d,g, and occasionallyb) were dropped from words altogether through a process calledelision.[39][40] Latin/b/ between vowels usually changed to/v/ in Old Spanish (e.g.habēre >aver), while Latin/p/ became/b/ (sapere >saber). In modern times the two phonemes merged into/b/ (haber,saber), realized as[β] between vowels (seeBetacism). Latin voiced stops—/b/,/d/, and/ɡ/, which are representedorthographically as B, D, and G respectively—and also occurred in intervocalic positions also underwentlenition:[β],[ð], and[ɣ], but appeared in Spanish also through learned words from Classical Latin.
| Consonant | Latin word | Spanish word |
|---|---|---|
| b → ∅ | vendēbat | vendía |
| d → ∅ | comedere, vidēre, hodie, cadēre, pede, quō modō | comer, ver, hoy, caer, pie, cómo |
| g → ∅ | cōgitāre, digitum, legere, ligāre, lēgāle | cuidar, dedo, leer, liar, leal |
Many forms withd andg preserved, e.g.ligar,legal,dígito,crudo, are learned words (Latinisms); cf. the alternate formsliar,leal,dedo andOld Spanishcruo and its Latin origincrūdus.
An exemption to the rule: The retention of thed andg is due to the invalidity of the -ao, -aa, -oo, and -oa hiatuses in Old Spanish that would result from dropping it.
| Consonant | Latin word | Spanish word |
|---|---|---|
| d →[ð] | gradus, vadum, modus | grado, vado, modo |
| g → [ɣ] | sparagus, agustus, plāga, magus | espárrago, agosto, llaga, mago |
In virtually all theWestern Romance languages, the Latinvoicelessstops—/p/,/t/, and/k/, which are representedorthographically as P, T, and C (including Q) respectively—where they occurred in an "intervocalic" environment (qualified below), underwent one, two, or three successive stages oflenition, fromvoicing tospirantization to, in some cases,elision (deletion). In Spanish these three consonants generally undergo bothvoicing andspirantization, resulting invoicedfricatives:[β],[ð], and[ɣ], respectively.[41][42] Although it was once speculated that this change came about as a transfer of phonological features fromsubstrateCeltic andBasque languages, which were in geographical proximity to Iberian Vulgar Latin (seeSprachbund), it is now widely recognized that such change is a natural internal development.[43][44] Intervocalic/p/,/t/, and/k/ reappeared in Spanish through learned words from Classical Latin and also appeared in Spanish through consonant cluster simplification from Vulgar Latin (see below), and Latin voiced stops—/b/,/d/, and/ɡ/, which are representedorthographically as B, D, and G respectively—and also occurred in intervocalic positions also underwentlenition:[β],[ð], and[ɣ], but appeared in Spanish also through learned words from Classical Latin and also appeared in Spanish through consonant cluster simplification from Vulgar Latin.
The phonological environment of these changes is not only between vowels but also after a vowel and before asonorant consonant such as/r/ (Latinpatrem > Spanishpadre)—but not the reverse (Latinpartem > Spanishparte, not *parde).
| Consonants | Latin word | Spanish word |
|---|---|---|
| p →b[β] | aperīre, cooperīre, lupum, operam, populum, capram, superāre1 | abrir[aˈβɾir], cubrir[kuˈβɾir], lobo[ˈloβo], obra[ˈoβɾa], pueblo[ˈpweβlo], cabra[ˈkaβɾa], sobrar[soβˈɾar] |
| t →d[ð] | cīvitātem, cubitum, latum, mūtāre, scūtum, stātus, petram | ciudad[θjuˈðað], codo[ˈkoðo], lado[ˈlaðo], mudar[muˈðar], escudo[esˈkuðo], estado[esˈtaðo], piedra[ˈpjeðra] |
| c →g[ɣ] | focum, lacum, locum, pacāre, sacrātum, aqua, lucrum2 | fuego[ˈfweɣo], lago[ˈlaɣo], luego[ˈlweɣo], pagar[paˈɣar], sagrado[saˈɣɾaðo], agua[ˈaɣwa], logro [ˈloɣɾo] |
1Latinsuperāre produced bothsobrar and its learneddoubletsuperar.
2Latinlucrum produced bothlogro and its learned doubletlucro.
The verbdecir, in its various conjugated forms, exemplifies different phonetic changes, depending on whether the letter <c> (Latin/k/) was followed by afront vowel or not. The Latin/k/ changes ultimately to Spanish/θ/ when followed by the front vowels (/i/ or/e/—thusdice,decimos, etc.), but in other forms, before aback vowel,/k/ is voiced to/ɡ/ and, in the modern language, realized as a spirant[ɣ] (as indigo,diga). This also is the pattern of a few other Spanish verbs ending in -cer or -cir, as in the table below:
| Forms with/k/ →/θ/,/s/ (before front vowels) | Forms with/k/ →/ɡ/ (before back vowels) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | Latin | Spanish | English | Latin | Spanish |
| To say, to tell It says, it tells | dīcere/ˈdiːkere/ dīcit/ˈdiːkit/ | decir/deˈθiɾ/,/deˈsiɾ/ dice/ˈdiθe/,/ˈdise/ | I say, I tell May it tell | dīcō/ˈdiːkoː/ dīcat/ˈdiːkat/ | digo/ˈdiɡo/ diga/ˈdiɡa/ |
| To do, to make It does, it makes | facere/ˈfakere/ facit/ˈfakit/ | hacer/aˈθeɾ/,/aˈseɾ/ hace/ˈaθe/,/ˈase/ | I do, I make May it make | faciō > *facō/ˈfakoː/ faciat > *facat/ˈfakat/ | hago/ˈaɡo/ haga/ˈaɡa/ |
Stressed vowels were raised when followed by[j] in the same or next syllable (except when the[j] had fused with earlier preceding /t/ or /k/, e.g.fortia →fuerza with diphthongization).[45] This blocked the later process of diphthongization.
| Change | Latin | Spanish | Change | Latin | Spanish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /e/ → /i/ | vitreum, vindēmia | vidrio, vendimia | /o/ → /u/ | lucta *[loi̯ta][46] | lucha |
| /a, ɛ/ → /e/ | bāsium, praemium | beso, premio | /ɔ/ → /o/ | octō *[ɔi̯to][47] | ocho |
A word-final unstressed /e/ is lost when following a dental or alveolar consonant other than /t/ and preceded by a vowel.[48] This happened after the voicing described above, as e.g.parietem →pared.[49]
| Latin | Spanish | Latin | Spanish |
|---|---|---|---|
| parietem | pared | mercēdem | merced |
| pānem | pan | mare | mar |
| fidēlem | fiel | mēnsem | mes |
| pācem | paz |
It is commonly thought that the reflexes of stressed short E and O of Latin were realised, after the loss of phonemic quantity, as the low-mid vowels /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ respectively in the Western Romance languages, contrasting with close-mid /e/ and /o/, which would have originated from the mergers between long E and short I and between long O and short U, respectively; this change would explain the similarity of the vowel systems in modern Romance languages such as Portuguese, Catalan and Italian. These low-mid vowels subsequently would have undergonediphthongization in many of the Western Romance languages. In Spanish this change occurs regardless ofsyllable shape (open or closed), in contrast to French and Italian, where it takes place only inopen syllables, and in greater contrast to Portuguese where thisdiphthongization does not occur at all. As a result, Spanish phonology exhibits a five-vowel system, not the seven-vowel system that is typical of many other Western Romance languages.[51][52][53] The stressed short[e] and[o] reappeared in Spanish through learned words from Classical Latin and also evolved from short vowels/i/ and/u/ from Vulgar Latin, and was retained from long vowels[eː] and[oː] from Vulgar Latin.
| Syllable shape | Latin | Spanish | French | Italian | Portuguese | Catalan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open | petram, focus | piedra, fuego | pierre, feu | pietra, fuoco | pedra, fogo | pedra, foc |
| Closed | festa, porta | fiesta, puerta | fête, porte | festa, porta | festa, porta | festa, porta |
Diphthongized/ie/ and/ue/ were sometimes later monophthongized to/i/ and/e/ respectively. In the case of/ie/ this always happened when followed by/ʎ/. It was also common in/ue/ when it was preceded by/ɾ/ or/l/.[54]
| /ie/ →/i/ | /ue/ →/e/ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latin | Old Spanish | Spanish | Latin | Old Spanish | Spanish |
| castellum | castiello | castillo | frontem | fruente | frente |
| cultellum | cuchiello | cuchillo | colobram | culuebra | culebra |
Learned words—that is, "bookish" words transmitted partly through writing and thus affected by their Latin form—became increasingly frequent with the works ofAlfonso X in the mid-to-late 13th century. Many of these words containedconsonant clusters which, in oral transmission, had been reduced to simpler consonant clusters or singleconsonants in previouscenturies. This same process affected many of these new, more academic, words, especially when the words extended into popular usage in theOld Spanish period. Some of the consonant clusters affected were -ct-, -ct[i]-, -pt-, -gn-, -mn-, -mpt-, and -nct-. Most of the simplified forms have since reverted to the learned forms or are now considered to be uneducated.[55]
| Consonant cluster | Latin form | Learned form | Old Spanish form | Modern Spanish form |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ct →t | effectum, perfectum, respectum, aspectum, dīstrīctus, sectam | efecto, perfecto, respecto, aspecto, districto, secta | efeto, perfeto, respeto, aspeto, distrito, seta | efecto, perfecto, respeto/respecto, aspecto, distrito, secta |
| ct[i] →cc[i] →c[i] | affectiōnem, lectiōnem, perfectiōnem | affección, lección, perfección | afición, lición, perfeción | afición/afección, lección, perfección |
| pt →t | acceptāre, baptismum, conceptum, raptus | aceptar, baptismo, concepto, rapto | acetar, bautismo, conceto, rato | aceptar, bautismo, concepto, rato |
| gn →n | dīgnum, magnīficum, signīficāre | digno, magnífico, significar | dino, manífigo, sinifigar | digno, magnífico, significar |
| mn →n | columnam, solemnitātem, alūmnus | columna, solemnidad, alumno | coluna, solenidad, aluno | columna, solemnidad, alumno |
| mpt →nt | promptum, exemptum | prompto, exempto | pronto, exento | pronto, exento |
| nct →nt | sanctus, distīnctum | sancto, distincto | santo, distinto | santo, distinto |
Most of these words have modern forms which more closely resembleLatin thanOld Spanish. In Old Spanish, the simplified forms were acceptable forms which were in coexistence (and sometimescompetition) with the learned forms. The Spanisheducational system, and later theReal Academia Española, with their demand that all consonants of a word be pronounced, steadily drove most simplified forms from existence. Many of the simplified forms were used inliterary works in theMiddle Ages andRenaissance (sometimes intentionally as anarchaism), but have since been relegated mostly to popular and uneducated speech. Occasionally, both forms exist in Modern Spanish with different meanings or inidiomatic usage: for exampleafición is a "fondness (of)" or "taste (for)", whileafección is "illness"; Modern Spanishrespeto is "(attitude of) respect", whilecon respecto a means "with regard to".
Most words with consonant clusters in syllable-final position are loanwords from Classical Latin, examples are:transporte[tɾansˈpor.te],transmitir[tɾanz.miˈtir],instalar[ins.taˈlar],constante[konsˈtante],obstante[oβsˈtante],obstruir[oβsˈtɾwir],perspectiva[pers.pekˈti.βa],istmo[ˈist.mo]. A syllable-final position cannot be more than one consonant (one of n, r, l, s or z) in most (or all) dialects in colloquial speech, reflecting Vulgar Latin background. Realizations like[trasˈpor.te],[tɾaz.miˈtir],[is.taˈlar],[kosˈtante],[osˈtante],[osˈtɾwir], and[ˈiz.mo] are very common, and in many cases, they are considered acceptable even in formal speech.
Another type of consonant cluster simplification involves"double" (geminate) plosives that reduced to single: -pp-, -tt-, -cc-, -bb-, -dd-, -gg-/pː,tː,kː,bː,dː,gː/ > -p-, -t-, -c-, -b-, -d-, -g-/p,t,k,b,d,g/. The simplified Spanish outcomes of the Latin voiced series -bb-, -dd-, -gg-/bː,dː,gː/ remainvoiced, inducingphonemic merger with intervocalic /b/, /d/, /g/ that issued from voicing of Latin /p/, /t/, /k/, so that all are subject to the same phonetic realization asvoicedfricatives:[β],[ð], and[ɣ], respectively.
| Consonant | Latin word | Spanish word |
|---|---|---|
| bb[bː] →b[β] | ABBĀTEM | abad |
| dd[dː] →d[ð] | IN + ADDERE, ADDICTUS, ADDICTIŌNEM | añadir, adicto, adicción |
| gg[gː] →g[ɣ] | AGGRAVARE | agravar |
| pp[pː] →p[p] | CUPPAM, CIPPUS, VAPPA, SUPPORTĀRE, SUPPŌNĒRE | copa, cepo, guapo, soportar, suponer |
| tt[tː] →t[t] | CATTUM, GUTTAM, QUATTUOR, LITTERAM, ATTENDĒRE, ATTRAHERE, ATTRIBUERE, RATTUS | gato, gota, cuatro, letra, atender, atraer, atrever, rata |
| cc[kː] →c[k] | VACCAM, PECCĀRE, SICCUS, ACCŪSĀRE, OCCURRERE, BUCCAM | vaca, pecar, seco, acusar, ocurrir, boca |
The term "vocalization" refers to the change from a consonant to the vowel-like sound of a glide. Some syllable-final consonants, regardless of whether they were already syllable-final in Latin or brought into that position bysyncope, becameglides.Labials (b,p,v) yielded therounded glide[w] (which was in turn absorbed by a precedinground vowel), while thevelarc ([k]) produced thepalatal glide[j] (which couldpalatalize a following[t] and be absorbed by the resultingpalatalaffricate). (The formsdebda,cobdo, anddubdar are documented in Old Spanish; but the hypothetical forms *oito and *noite had already given way toocho andnoche by the time Castilian became a written language.)[56][57][58]
| Change | Latin word | Intermediate form | Spanish word |
|---|---|---|---|
| p →w | baptistam, capitālem | (none for baptistam), cabdal | bautista, caudal |
| b →w | dēbitam | debda | deuda |
| (u)b →w → Ø | cubitum, dubitāre | cobdo, dubdar | codo, dudar |
| v →w | cīvitātem | cibdad | ciudad |
| ct →ch | octō, nōctem | *oito, *noite | ocho, noche |
Most Romance languages have maintained the distinction between a phoneme/b/ and a phoneme/v/: avoicedbilabialstop and avoiced, usuallylabiodental,fricative, respectively. Instances of the/b/ phoneme could be inherited directly from Latin/b/ (unless between vowels), or they could result from the voicing of Latin/p/ between vowels. The/v/ phoneme was generally derived either from an allophone of Latin/b/ between vowels or from the Latin phoneme corresponding to the letter ⟨v⟩ (pronounced[w] in Classical Latin but laterfortified to the status of africative consonant in Vulgar Latin). In most Romance-speaking regions,/v/ hadlabiodental articulation, but inOld Spanish, which still distinguished /b/ and /v/, the latter was probably realized as abilabialfricative[β]. The contrast between the two phonemes wasneutralized in certain environments, as the fricative[β] also occurred as an allophone of /b/ between vowels, after a vowel, and after certain consonants in Old Spanish.[59] The similarity between the stop[b] and fricative[β] resulted in their complete merger by the end of the Old Spanish period (16th century).[60] In Modern Spanish, the letters ⟨b⟩ and ⟨v⟩ represent the same phoneme (usually treated as/b/ in phonemic transcription), which is generally realized as the fricative[β] except when utterance-initial or after a nasal consonant, when it is realized as the stop[b]. The same situation prevails inNorthern Portuguese and inGalician, but the otherPortuguese dialects maintain the distinction. The merger of/b/ and/v/ also occurs in StandardCatalan in eastern Catalonia, but the distinction is retained in most varieties ofValencian and in some areas in southern Catalonia, in theBalearic dialect, as well as inAlgherese.
In Modern Spanish, from the 16th century onward, the choice of orthographic ⟨b⟩ or ⟨v⟩ depends mainly on the etymology of the word. The orthography attempts to mimic the Latin spelling, rather than to keep the pronunciation-based spelling of Old Spanish.[8] Thus, Old Spanishbever "to drink",bivir/vivir "to live" becomebeber,vivir, respectively, following the Latin spellingbibere,vīvere. The Spanish placenameCórdoba, often spelledCordova in Old Spanish (the spelling that prevailed in English until the 20th century), now reflects the spelling used by the city's Roman founders,Corduba.
F was almost always initial in Latin words, and in Spanish most phonemes /f/ followed by a simple vowel passed through a stage in which the consonant eventually developed to[h] and then was lost phonologically. Spelling conventions havegrapheme ⟨h⟩ used in words such ashumo "smoke",hormiga "ant",hígado "liver" (compare Italianfumo,formica,fegato, with/f/ intact), but in terms of both structure and pronunciation, the initial consonant has been lost:/ˈumo/,/orˈmiɡa/,/ˈiɡado/. It is thought that ⟨f⟩ represented thelabiodental[f] in Latin, which underwent a series oflenitions to become, successively,bilabial[ɸ] and thenglottal[h] (hence the modern spelling), and it was then lost altogether in most varieties; ⟨h⟩ is assumed to have been "silent" in Vulgar Latin. The first written evidence of the process dates from 863, when the Latin nameForticius was written asOrtiço, which might have been pronounced with initial[h] but certainly not[f]. (The same name appears asHortiço in a document from 927.) The replacement of ⟨f⟩ by ⟨h⟩ in spelling is not frequent before the 16th century, but that is thought not to reflect preservation of/f/. Rather, ⟨f⟩ was consistently used to represent/h/ until the phoneme/f/ reappeared in the language (around the 16th century, as a result ofloanwords from Classical Latin). Then, it became necessary to distinguish both phonemes in spelling.
The change from/f/ to/h/ occurred in the Romance speech ofOld Castile, easternAsturian, andGascon, but nowhere else nearby.[61] Since much of this area was historically bilingual withBasque, and Basque once had[h] but no[f], it is often suggested that the change was caused by Basque influence. However, this is contested by many linguists.
Most current instances of /f/ are either learned words (those influenced by their written Latin form, such asforma,falso,fama,feria), loanwords of Arabic and Greek origin, or words whose initial ⟨f⟩ in Old Spanish is followed by a non-vowel (⟨r⟩, ⟨l⟩, or theglide element of adiphthong), as infrente,flor,fiesta,fuerte.[62][63][64] That, along with the effect of preservation of/f/ regionally (Asturianfumu "smoke",formiga "ant",fégadu "liver"), accounts for moderndoublets such asFernando (learned) andHernando (inherited) (both Spanish for "Ferdinand"),fierro (regional) andhierro (both "iron"),fastidio andhastío (both Spanish for "boredom"), andfondo andhondo (fondo means "bottom" andhondo means "deep"). Also,hacer ("to make") is the root word ofsatisfacer ("to satisfy"), andhecho ("made") is the root word ofsatisfecho ("satisfied") (cf.malhechor andfechorías).
As mentioned above,/h/ was not lost in all varieties. As of the late 20th century, word-initial⟨h⟩ was pronounced as an/h/ in lower-class, predominantly rural speech in a number of western regions of Spain, specifically westernAndalusia andExtremadura, the Canary Islands, part of westernSalamanca, part ofCantabria, a northeastern area inLeón, and in the Asturian language as spoken in easternAsturias,[61] as well as in much of Latin America, where it similarly tends to be confined to lower-class and rural speech.[65] The distribution of this pronunciation throughout so much of western Spain suggests that its spread was due in large part to the role of eastern Asturians in the reconquest of these zones.[61] At least in Latin America, the Canaries, Andalusia, and Extremadura, this/h/ is merged with the phoneme/x~h/, which comes from medieval/ʃ/ and/ʒ/.[66]
| Consonants | Latin word | Old Spanish form | Modern Spanish word |
|---|---|---|---|
| f- →h- | fabulāri,facere,faciendam,factum,faminem, farīnam,fēminam,fīcatum,fīlium,folia, fōrmōsum,fūmum,fungum,furcam | fablar,fazer,fazienda,feito,fambre, farina,fembra,fígado,fijo,foja, formoso,fumo,fongo,forca | hablar,hacer,hacienda,hecho,hambre, harina,hembra,hígado,hijo,hoja, hermoso,humo,hongo,horca |
Fabulāri is translated as "make stories", opposed to its Spanish derivativehablar which means "speak" or "to talk".
'H' is originally pronounced in Classical Latin, but became silent in Vulgar Latin. Thus, words were spelled without any such consonant in Old Spanish; in Modern Spanish, from the 16th century onward, it attempts to mimic the Latin spelling rather than continue Old Spanish orthography.
| Consonants | Latin word | Old Spanish form | Modern Spanish word |
|---|---|---|---|
| h- → ∅ →h- | habēbat,habēre,habuī,hodiē,hominem,honorāre,hospitālem,humerum | avié; aver; ove; oy; omne, omre, ombre; onrar; ostal; ombro | había,haber,hube,hoy,hombre,honrar,hostal/hospital,hombro |
During the 16th century, the three voicedsibilant phonemes—dental/d͡z/, apico-alveolar/z/, and palato-alveolar/ʒ/ (as inOld Spanishfazer,casa, andojo, respectively) lost their voicing and merged with theirvoiceless counterparts:/t͡s/,/s/, and/ʃ/ (as incaçar,passar, andbaxar respectively). The character ⟨ç⟩, called⟨c⟩cedilla, originated inOld Spanish[67] but has been replaced by ⟨z⟩ in the modern language.
Additionally, theaffricate/t͡s/ lost itsstop component, to become a laminodentalfricative,[s̪].[68] As a result, the sound system then contained two sibilant fricative phonemes whose contrast depended entirely on a subtle distinction between theirplaces of articulation:apicoalveolar, in the case of the/s/, andlaminodental, in the case of the new fricative sibilant/s̪/, which was derived from the affricate/t͡s/. The distinction between the sounds grew in the dialects of northern and central Spain byparadigmatic dissimilation, but dialects inAndalusia and the Americasmerged both sounds.
The dissimilation in the northern and central dialects occurred with thelaminodental fricative moving forward to aninterdental place of articulation, losing itssibilance to become[θ]. The sound is represented in modern spelling by ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩ and by ⟨z⟩ elsewhere. In the south of Spain, the deaffrication of/t͡s/ resulted in a direct merger with/s/, as both were homorganic,[citation needed] and the new phoneme became either laminodental[s̪] ("seseo", in the Americas and parts of Andalusia) or[θ] ("ceceo", in a few parts of Andalusia). In general, coastal regions of Andalusia preferred[θ], and more inland regions preferred[s̪] (see the map atceceo).
During the colonization of the Americas, most settlers came from the south of Spain; that is the cause, according to almost all scholars, for nearly all Spanish speakers in theNew World still speaking a language variety derived mainly from the Western Andalusian and Canarian dialects.
Meanwhile, the alveopalatal fricative/ʃ/, the result of the merger of voiceless/ʃ/ (spelled ⟨x⟩ in Old Spanish) with voiced/ʒ/ (spelled with ⟨j⟩ in some words and in others with ⟨g⟩ before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩), was moved backward in all dialects, to become (depending ongeographical variety) velar[x], uvular[χ] (in parts of Spain) or glottal[h] (in Andalusia, Canary Islands, and parts of the Americas, especially theCaribbean region).[69][70]
One unusual feature of Spanish etymology is the way in which theliquids/r/ and/l/ have sometimes replaced each other in words derived from Latin, French and other sources. For example, Spanishmilagro, "miracle", is derived from Latinmiraculum. More rarely, this process has involved consonants like/d/ and/n/ (as inalma, from Latinanima). Here is an incomplete list of such words:
Documents from as early as the 15th century show occasional evidence of sporadic confusion between the phoneme/ʝ/ (generally spelled ⟨y⟩) and the palatal lateral/ʎ/ (spelled ⟨ll⟩). The distinction is maintained in spelling, but in most dialects of Modern Spanish, the two have merged into the same, non-lateral palatal sound. Thus, for example, most Spanish-speakers have the same pronunciation forhaya (from the verbhaber) as forhalla (fromhallar). Thephonemic merger is calledyeísmo, based on one name for the letter ⟨y⟩.[71][72][73]
Yeismo is a trait of theAndalusian dialect, among others. Since more than half of the early settlers of Spanish America came from Andalusia,[74][75][76] most Spanish-speaking regions of the Americas haveyeísmo, but there are pockets in which the sounds are still distinguished. Native-speakers of neighboring languages, such asGalician,Astur-Leonese,Basque,Aragonese,Occitan andCatalan, usually do not featureyeísmo in their Spanish since those languages retain the/ʎ/ phoneme.
A related trait that has also been documented sporadically for several hundred years isrehilamiento (literally "whizzing"), the pronunciation of/ʝ/ as a sibilant fricative[ʒ] or even anaffricate[dʒ], which is common among non-native Spanish speakers as well. The current pronunciation varies greatly depending on the geographicaldialect andsociolect (with[dʒ], especially, stigmatized except at the beginning of a word).Rioplatense Spanish (ofArgentina andUruguay) is particularly known for the pronunciation[ʒ] of both/ʝ/ and original/ʎ/. A further development, the unvoiced pronunciation[ʃ], during the second half of the twentieth century came to characterize the speech of "most younger residents of Buenos Aires" and continues to spread throughout Argentina.[77]
Many modern dialects debuccalize the /s/ to [h], some further undergo deletion and compensatory lengthening of nearby vowel or consonant.
