Mozarabic

Currently, this language has become extinct, or rather, dissolved in the environment of closely related Spanish (Castilian), Portuguese and Catalan (also Romanesque in origin) languages. It was native to Mosarabs - the collective name for Christians of Roman origin who lived in the territories of the Iberian Peninsula, controlled by Muslims (various caliphates and sultanates that existed on the peninsula from 711 to 1492). Many of them, despite their adherence to Christianity , adopted Eastern attributes, lifestyle, knew the Arabic language and even considered it native. As a result, the Mosarab language was very strongly influenced by Arabic vocabulary and grammar, although it retained a pronounced Romanesque character. However, even those who considered him native used the Arabic alphabet to record Romanesque speech. During the Reconquista, the Mozarabic language loses its position in favor of Spanish and Portuguese at the colloquial level and Latin used in writing and in the official sphere.

According to the analysis of Sola-Sole (1973), the share of Arabisms in the vocabulary of the Mosarab language reached 40%, while nouns were more often borrowed from Arabic. Verbs retained predominantly Romanesque origin.

An analysis of the surviving Mosarab inscriptions indicates that in phonetic terms, the Mosarab idioms as a whole, apparently, were closer to the Galician-Portuguese language than to the Castilian: at least, differences in the longitude and shortness of the Latin vowels were preserved in them. At the same time, one should not forget about the pronounced dialectic character of the Mozarabic language and its significant variability from settlement to settlement, although the Arabic language had its unifying influence.

In the Middle Ages, there was no concept of a single literary Mosarabic language (it was introduced later by linguistic scholars), which means that it did not have orthoepic norms. This idiom , apparently, consisted of several disparate groups of dialects, which were united by a common Latin origin, as well as the strong influence of the Semitic substrate and superstratum (in the form of several varieties of the Arabic language with Berber impurities). Being cut off from the main Romanesque range, archaic Latin features are better preserved in Mosrabic dialects: forms with the Latin group pl- are found in Mosarab lyrics. Portuguese replaced cl- , fl- , pl- with [ʃ]. Samples of poetry that have come down to us in dialects of Mosarabian typology confirm the hypothesis of conservatism of vowels and a greater closeness to the Tuscan versions of Italian folk Latin, including in vocabulary ( mamma , uelio , gaio ). The final -e is preserved in infinitives ( amáre ) and adverbs ( male ), although the final -o is dropped ( cuánd ). The diminutive suffix -ēlla ( yermanēlla ) differs from Castilian -ita / ica and Portuguese -inha . A number of consonants are distinguished by a number of innovations: s> š; t> ț; tion (em)> chón ( corachón ). Numerous Arabisms: habib . The names of the Mosarabs are strongly Arabized: Ibn Gharshya (Garcia), Ibn Mardanish (Martinez), Ibn Faranda (Fernandez).

The Mozarabic substrate is most noticeable in modern Spanish. It was he who usually was a kind of conductor of quite numerous Arabic borrowings from the Andalusian-Arabic dialect into Castilian speech. Of no small importance was the phonetic influence of the Mosarabian language, which led to the transition of sound quality j from "w" to "x", alveolization S.

Some borrowings from Mozarabic, for example the word "chocho" (bean, haricot) from Mosar. "Šóš", go back to lat. "Salsus" (literally. Salty) ^[1] , that is, they are doublets . The same word in dialects, including in Latin America , got the meaning "senile", "soft-bodied": un viejo ridiculo y chocho - "old ridiculous senile" ^[2] .

Another common Mosarabism is the word marchito, ta “wilted” and the verb marchitarse “wither” (from Mosar. * Marčiṭ [o] , going back to the Latin name * marcītus , from the classical Latin root marcēre ) ^[3] .

This idiom did not enjoy prestige in Muslim Spain, including among the Mosarabs themselves, who preferred to use classical Latin in officialdom. In Mosarab dialects, there is practically no official documentation. However, like spoken Arabic, Mosarab was the language of the street and a means of communication. Some local poets recorded their verses ( muvashshahs and harjah ) on it.

• Romance languages
• Mozarabic rite

• Brief information about Mosarabic