Old Spanish (roman,romançe,romaz;^[3]Spanish:español medieval), also known asOld Castilian orMedieval Spanish, refers to the varieties ofIbero-Romance spoken predominantly inCastile and environs during theMiddle Ages. The earliest, longest, and most famous literary composition in Old Spanish is theCantar de mio Cid (c. 1140–1207).

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A manuscript of theCantar de mio Cid, 13th century
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v t e

(/s/ and/z/ wereapico-alveolar.)

These were still distinctphonemes in Old Spanish, judging by the consistency with which thegraphemes⟨b⟩ and⟨v⟩ were distinguished.^[a] Nevertheless, the two could beconfused in consonant clusters (as inalba~alva “dawn”) or in word-initial position, perhaps after/n/ or a pause./b/ and/β/ appear to have merged in word-initial position by about 1400 and in all other environments by the mid–late 16th century at the latest.^[4]

At an archaic stage, the realizations of/h/ (from Latin/f/) would have been approximately as follows:^[5]

• [ɸ] before[iea] or[jɾl]
• [h]^[b] before[o] or[u]
• [ʍ] or[hɸ] before[w]

By early Old Spanish,[ɸ] had been replaced with[h] before all vowels^[6] and possibly before[j] as well.^[7]

In later Old Spanish, surviving[ɸ] and[ʍ]/[hɸ] were modified to[f] in urban speech, likely due to the influx of numerousFrench andOccitan speakers (and their particular pronunciation of Latin) beginning in the twelfth century.^[8] Various words with[f] were then borrowed into Spanish, leading tominimal pairs like[ˈfoɾma] “form” (a borrowing) and[ˈhoɾma] “shoemaker's last” (inherited from Latinforma). The result was a new phoneme/f/, distinct from/h/.^[9]

Possibly realized as[d͡ʒ] after pauses or certain consonants^[10] (judging by outcomes inJudeo-Spanish).^[11]

1. /t͡sd͡z/ deaffricated to/s̻z̻/.^[c]
2. /z̻zʒ/ devoiced and merged into/s̻sʃ/.^[d]
3. /ʃ/ was retracted to/x/.
4. /s̻/ (depending on dialect) merged into/s/ or fronted to/θ/.

Old Spanish was generally written in some variation of theLatin script. It was also sometimes written inArabic script in a practice calledAljamiado.

These sounds were spelt⟨nn⟩ and⟨ll⟩ respectively.^[e]⟨nn⟩ was oftenabbreviated to⟨ñ⟩, which went on to become the normal spelling of/ɲ/ in Modern Spanish.

Old Spanish featured the digraphs⟨ch⟩,⟨ph⟩,⟨(r)rh⟩, and⟨th⟩ which were simplified to⟨c⟩,⟨f⟩,⟨(r)r⟩,⟨t⟩ in Modern Spanish. Examples include:

• christiano (moderncristiano)
• triumpho (moderntriunfo)
• myrrha (modernmirra)
• theatro (modernteatro)

⟨y⟩ often stood for/i/ in word-initial position. In this context it has since been respelt to⟨i⟩ in Modern Spanish.

(The following table does not account forsandhi contexts.)

In Old Spanish,perfect constructions of movement verbs, such asir ('(to) go') andvenir ('(to) come'), were formed using the auxiliary verbser ('(to) be'), as in Italian and French:Las mugieresson llegadas a Castiella was used instead ofLas mujeres han llegado a Castilla ('The women have arrived in Castilla').

Possession was expressed with the verbaver (Modern Spanishhaber, '(to) have'), rather thantener:Pedro ha dos fijas was used instead ofPedro tiene dos hijas ('Pedro has two daughters').

In theperfect tenses, thepast participle often agreed with thegender andnumber of thedirect object:Maríaha cantadas dos canciones was used instead of Modern SpanishMaría ha cantado dos canciones ('María has sung two songs'). However, that was inconsistent even in the earliest texts.

The prospective aspect was formed with the verbir ('(to) go') along with the verb in infinitive, with the difference that Modern Spanish includes the prepositiona:

Al Çid beso la mano, la sennaua tomar. (Cantar de mio Cid, 691)

Al Cid besó la mano, la enseñava a tomar. (Modern Spanish equivalent)

Personal pronouns andsubstantives were placed after the verb in any tense ormood unless a stressed word was before the verb.^{[example needed]}

The future and the conditional tenses were not yet fullygrammaticalised as inflections; rather, they were still periphrastic formations of the verbaver in the present or imperfect indicative followed by the infinitive of a main verb.^[13] Pronouns, therefore, by the general placement rules, could be inserted between the main verb and the auxiliary in these periphrastic tenses, as still occurs withPortuguese (mesoclisis):

E dixo: ― Tornar-m-é a Jherusalem. (Fazienda de Ultra Mar, 194)

Y dijo: ―Me tornaré a Jerusalén. (literal translation into Modern Spanish)

E disse: ― Tornar-me-ei a Jerusalém. (literal translation into Portuguese)

And he said: "I will return to Jerusalem." (English translation)

En pennargelo he por lo que fuere guisado (Cantar de mio Cid, 92)

Se lo empeñaré por lo que sea razonable (Modern Spanish equivalent)

Penhorar-lho-ei pelo que for razoável (Portuguese equivalent)

I will pawnthem it for whatever it be reasonable (English translation)

When there was a stressed word before the verb, the pronouns would go before the verb:nongelo empeñar he por lo que fuere guisado.

Generally, an unstressed pronoun and a verb insimple sentences combined into one word.^{[clarification needed]} In acompound sentence, the pronoun was found in the beginning of theclause:la manol va besar =la mano le va a besar.^{[citation needed]}

Thefuture subjunctive was in common use (fuere in the second example above) but it is generally now found only in legal or solemn discourse and in the spoken language in some dialects, particularly in areas ofVenezuela, to replace the imperfect subjunctive.^[14] It was used similarly to its Modern Portuguese counterpart, in place of the modern present subjunctive in a subordinate clause aftersi,cuando etc., when an event in the future is referenced:

Si vos assi lofizieredes e la ventura mefuere complida

Mando al vuestro altar buenas donas e ricas (Cantar de mio Cid, 223–224)

Si vosotros así lohiciereis y la ventura mefuere cumplida,

Mando a vuestro altar ofrendas buenas y ricas (Modern Spanish equivalent)

Se vós assim ofizerdes e a ventura mefor cumprida,

Mando a vosso altar oferendas boas e ricas. (Portuguese equivalent.)

If you do so and fortune is favourable toward me,

I will send to your altar fine and rich offerings (English translation)

The following is a sample fromCantar de Mio Cid (lines 330–365), withabbreviations resolved, punctuation (the original has none), and some modernized letters.^[15] Below is the original Old Spanish text in the first column, along with the same text in Modern Spanish in the second column and an English translation in the third column.

• History of the Spanish language
• Early Modern Spanish (Middle Spanish)
• Judeo-Spanish preserves some of the sounds and terms of Old Spanish that have been lost in Modern Spanish.

• Bradley, Travis G.; Lozano, Claire Julia (2022)."Language contact and phonological innovation in the voiced prepalatal obstruents of Judeo-Spanish".Languages.7 (4): 313.doi:10.3390/languages7040313.
• Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D. (2020).Ethnologue: Languages of the World (23rd ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International.Archived from the original on 6 April 2006. Retrieved22 June 2002.
• Hualde, José Ignacio (2013). "Intervocalic lenition and word-boundary effects".Diachronica.30 (2):232–266.doi:10.1075/dia.30.2.04hua.
• Lloyd, Paul M. (1987).From Latin to Spanish. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.
• Penny, Ralph (2002).A History of the Spanish Language (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0521011846.

• An explanation of the development of Mediaeval Spanish sibilants in Castile and Andalusia.

• Diccionario de la prosa castellana del rey Alfonso X (part of Dictionary of the Old Spanish Language)

• History of the Spanish language
• Medieval languages
• Languages attested from the 12th century

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