History and Evolution of the Castilian Language
Origin and Evolution of the Castilian Tongue
Formation of Peninsular Romance Languages
The Pre-Roman Epoch: Before the Roman conquest, the Peninsula was inhabited by peoples speaking various primitive languages. The Iberian languages, also known as pre-Roman, gradually disappeared as the Roman conquerors imposed a unique language. The only pre-Roman language preserved on the peninsula today is Basque or Euskera.
The Roman Conquest
In 218 BC, the Romans invaded the peninsula, which became the Roman province of Hispania. The region fully incorporated the culture and language of Rome. The Romance or Neo-Latin languages of Spain were the result of the evolution of spoken or Vulgar Latin over the centuries.
The Germanic and Visigothic Invasions
The Germanic invasions separated the provinces of the empire and broke their linguistic unity. The Visigoths, the most numerous Germanic people to invade the peninsula, did not impose their language but were instead romanized. Nevertheless, peninsular languages preserved several Germanic words, known as Germanisms.
The Arab Conquest
The Arabs conquered the peninsula and lived there for eight centuries, during which time the Arab and Romance languages coexisted. There are numerous Arabisms in Spanish, covering:
- Everyday vocabulary
- Philosophy
- Architecture
- Agriculture
- Geography
These terms reflect areas of knowledge in which the Arab civilization was far superior at the time.
Emergence of the Romance Languages
Following the Arab conquest, Christians grouped in the north of the peninsula in small pockets of resistance that eventually constituted the various peninsular kingdoms. During this time, Latin finished diversifying into the Romance languages: Galician, Portuguese, Asturian-Leonese, Castilian, and Navarrese-Aragonese, alongside the Catalan domain. In areas under Arab rule, Christians spoke a Latin dialect known as Mozarabic.
The Castilian Language
The earliest preserved writings in Castilian date back to the tenth century. These consist of notes that monks from the monasteries of Santo Domingo de Silos and San Millán de la Cogolla made in the margins of manuscripts to explain parts of the Latin text in the vernacular. Known as the Glosas Emilianenses and Glosas Silenses, these documents are of great importance for dating the origins of Castilian.