Posts Tagged ‘history of Spanish’

Origin and history of Spanish (4/4): From Castilian to Spanish.

Friday, August 16th, 2013

The word Castilian for the language was used for a long time as reference to Castille, the place were it originated. In 1925 the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) officially adopted the term “Spanish” to refer to the language. It was after the 15th publication of the dictionary that it started being called the dictionary of the Spanish language. In the 14 previous editions it was called Castilian language.

That moment coincides with determined circumstances when a great literary production was generated in America. An important example is the Nicaraguan Rubén Darío, but there is a great representation of literary movements at the end of the XIXth century and at the beginning of the XXth century, with great influences from Latin American writers. In 1925 the RAE decides to adopt the term Spanish to refer to the whole of the language as practised in all the Spanish speaking countries.

Origin and history of Spanish language: From Castilian to Spanish.

Instituto Cervantes in Madrid.

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Origin and history of Spanish (3/4): The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE, Real Academia Española)

Thursday, July 4th, 2013

The major literary prosperity of Castilian took place in a period comprised between the XVIth and the XVIIth centuries with very important writers, specially Garcilaso de la Vega, in the XVIth century. In that century Castilian was declared official language. Immediately after that came Miguel de Cervantes, author of “Don Quijote de la Mancha”, the most edited and translated work in universal literature, except the bible.

Palacio del marqués de Villena, Royal Spanish Academy in 1713. Spanish in Tour: Spanish courses in Spain.

Palacio del marqués de Villena, Royal Spanish Academy in 1713.

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Origin and history of Spanish (2/4): Antonio de Nebrija.

Tuesday, June 4th, 2013

Fernando III, the Saint, during the first half of the XIIth century as well as his son Alfonso X the Wise during the other half, widened the limits of the Castilla y Leon territory in their offensive against Muslims until the frontiers of the Reign of Granada. It was an important period for the building and consolidation process of Castilian. Fernando III promoted the translation of Fuero Juzgo, legal body of around 500 laws proceeding from an old translation from Latin named Liber luciciorum, from the Visigothic period.

Origin and history of Spanish language: Antonio de Nebrija.

Origin and history of Spanish language: Antonio de Nebrija.

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Origin and history of Spanish language (1/4): First manuscripts.

Friday, May 24th, 2013

Nowadays there are more than 495 million people who have Spanish as their mother tongue. The origin of this language is vulgar Latin, which propagated in Spainat the end of the IIIrd century after Christ.

The first revelations of the Spanish language were initially linked to some manuscripts from the Xth century, around year 974, when a monk wrote small annotations in several languages: Latin, medieval Basque, Hispanic Romance and a variety from Rioja of Spanish or of Navarro-Aragonese. We call these writings the Glosas Emilianenses because they were composed in the Monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, which is located at about40 km from Logroño. At first these documents were thought to be the beginning of Castilian, but later studies classified the documents as mostly written in Navarro-Aragonese, not in Castilian.

Origin and history of Spanish language: First manuscripts.

Origin and history of Spanish language: First manuscripts. Cartularios de Valpuesta.

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