WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE CASTILIAN LANGUAGE? - HISTORY - 2025

The origin of the Castilian language takes place with Latin, which was the language spoken in the Roman Empire. It was vulgar Latin that allowed the birth of this new language. With the fall of the Roman Empire, cultured Latin lost its sphere of influence.

The Latin spoken by the common people acquired greater importance. With the passage of time, the speakers began to make Latin mutate, which allowed the birth of various vernacular languages.

Roman Empire in Hispania

One of these vernacular languages ​​was Florentine - which would give rise to standard Italian - and old Spanish, which would later form the different variants of Spanish that exist today, including Castilian.

With the Arab invasions, the language mutated again, giving rise to the formation of modalities of Romance languages ​​derived from Spanish: Aragonese, Galician and Castilian.

Castilian arose during the Middle Ages, in the county of Castilla, located south of Cantabria, Spain. It took aspects of Latin, Arabic, Basque, and the Germanic languages ​​of the Visigoths. Later, it expanded throughout the rest of the kingdom and reached America thanks to the conquest.

The fall of the Roman empire

The Castilian language originated after the fall of the Roman Empire. The influence of this empire had made Latin the dominant language in Europe. However, when the empire lost its power, the same happened with cultured Latin, which was relegated.

Barbarian Invasions

In the 5th century, the invasions of the barbarian peoples took place, among which the Visigoths stood out. These peoples reached the Iberian Peninsula and had to adopt Vulgar Latin in order to communicate.

As a legacy, they left a series of words that are used today and that are called Germanisms. These include:

1. Blade
2. Spy
3. Goose
4. guard
5. Top
6. North
7. This
8. South
9. West

Arab invasions

In the 8th century, the Arab invasions occurred. This culture occupied the Spanish territory for almost eight centuries without interruption. For this reason, the Spanish language incorporated a large number of words of Arabic origin, among which the following stand out:

1-Words that begin with al-: bricklayer, bedroom, sewer, carpet, pillow, bathrobe, algebra, alcohol, alembic, fortress, ensign, wallflower, alfalfa, artichoke, apricot, cotton, among others.

2-Lily, orange blossom, sulfur, roof and tile.

3-Syrup and rider.

4-Cup, partition and platform

Spanish training

In north-central Spain, certain Christian groups began to oppose the invading Arabs. In this way, a variant of Latin, Old Castilian, began to emerge in Toledo (Castile), which became the standard language used in 13th century writing.

Spanish expansion

The aspects that influenced the expansion of Spanish were diverse. The most important of all was the strength and prestige of Castile, which led the fight against the Moors.

With the Reconquest (which is the name given to the movement to expel the Arabs), the influence of the Christians increased, until finally the Arabs were forced to leave the territory. The use of old Castilian Spanish spread along with Christianity.

Thus, this language was replacing the other Romance dialects that were spoken in the territory, such as the Ladino spoken by the Spanish Jews and the Mozarabic languages, dialects of Romance origin with strong Arabic influence. By the 16th century, much of these minor dialects had already disappeared.

The writings in the Castilian language were other important elements that favored the expansion of this language. Different poems were composed, especially songs of deed, which told the stories of medieval heroes. An example of this was the poem by Mío Cid.

Standardization of Spanish

In the 13th century, King Alfonso X of Castile, better known as Alfonso the Wise, took the first step towards the standardization of Spanish as a written language.

To do this, he summoned the scribes to his court and entrusted them with the writing of texts in Spanish on topics such as history, astronomy, laws, among other areas of knowledge.

"Grammar of the Spanish language"

Antonio Nebrija wrote the first grammar book of this language, entitled “Grammar of the Castilian language”. In 1492, he offered this book to Queen Elizabeth, who considered language to be an essential element in establishing hegemony. This book was useful in the formation of the Spanish Empire.

Castilian in America

Between the 15th and 16th centuries, the Spanish conquered much of America and introduced Castilian to their colonies.

Today, this language is still spoken in Central America, South America (except Brazil) and in some Caribbean islands such as Cuba and Puerto Rico.

However, each region has adapted this language, leading to a number of variations in pronunciation and lexicon.

In addition to this, the Spanish spoken in the different areas of America shows the influence of African languages ​​(since these peoples came to the continent with Spanish) and of the different aboriginal dialects existing in the territory.

The Royal Spanish Academy

The Royal Spanish Academy is the foundation in charge of regulating and standardizing the Spanish language. This academy was founded in 1713.

Between 1726 and 1739, the Royal Spanish Academy published its first dictionary, which was presented in six volumes. In 1771, the first grammar book of the Spanish language was presented.

Since then, new editions have been published, in which words and meanings that were accepted as part of the language are added, the rules of Spanish are rewritten, among other aspects.

Influences of other languages ​​in Spanish

It has already been said that the language of the Visigoths and Arabic influenced Spanish, so today there are thousands of words that are of this origin are used.

To a lesser extent, Celtic languages ​​were also incorporated into Spanish. Among the words that are of Celtic origin, are: road, car and beer.

References

1. A History of the Spanish Language. Retrieved on December 30, 2017, from salemstate.edu
2. Castillian dialect. Retrieved on December 30, 2017, from britannica.com
3. Castillian Spanish. Retrieved on December 30, 2017, from orbilat.com
4. History of the Castillian / Spanish Language. Retrieved on December 30, 2017, from antimoon.com
5. History of the Spanish language. Retrieved on December 30, 2017, from wikipedia.org
6. History of Spanish Language in Spain: Castillian Spanish. Retrieved on December 30, 2017, from trustedtranslations.com
7. Spanish. Retrieved on December 30, 2017, from alsintl.com
8. Spanish language. Retrieved on December 30, 2017