Castilian is the oldest iteration of the language nowadays known as Spanish. It is a Romance language originating from Iberia. In its modern iteration, it is the third most spoken language in the world. In Spain, the term “Castilian” is used nowadays to designate Modern Spanish.
Old Castilian or Old Spanish originated from Vulgar Latin on the 3rd century AD in the North of the Iberian Peninsula. In the same area, as well, other languages of the Middle Ages emerged: Galico-portuguese, Astur-leonese, and Navarro-aragonese. The earliest attestations of the language are found in marginal notes in manuscripts containing Latin texts. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Iberian Peninsula was populated by a Germanic tribe known as the Visigoths, as well as Arabic-speaking communities of Al-Andalus. Both the language of the Visigoths and Arabic (as well as Andalusi romance) had a substantial influence in the Castilian language. The grammar and orthography of the language was not regulated until the reign of Alphonse X the Wise (r. 1252–1284) in Castile. Alphonse’s administration is known for its use of Castilian as legislative language. During his reign, too, his acculturating efforts through the composition of Estoria de España, General Estoria, among others, helped in defining certain norms in written language. It was not until the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, the so-called unification of the Spanish Kingdom, and the expansion of the Castilian-Aragonese domain to the South of the Peninsula, that the language became of significance in written production.
The language is usually written in the Latin alphabet, although there is evidence that some Castilian texts were written in Hebrew and Arabic script, particularly Arabic. This is known as aljamiado. Old Castilian began using the abbreviation “ñ” for “nn”, which later became the designated letter for the sound /ɲ/. In medieval times, “ch”, “ph”, and “th” (among others), were still spelled with an “h” (as in English “theatre”, Modern Spanish “teatro”). Judeo-Spanish or Ladino, a language derived from Old Castilian and spoken by the displaced Sephardic Jewish communities, preserves more traits of Old Castilian than Modern Spanish does.
Although it has been said that the epic song Cantar de mio Cid is the earliest attestation of the Spanish language in written form, this has been more recently contended. In fact, the first attestations of Castilian are two Visigothic cartularies of the 9th century, written in Vulgar Latin, with some words in Old Castilian. Before they were declared the oldest Castilian text in 2010, the Glosas Emilianenses, a group of glosses from the 10th and 11th centuries were considered the oldest texts in the language. The Cantar de mio Cid (1207) and the Tragedia de Calisto y Melibea (or La Celestina, 1499), are traditionally used to mark the beginning of medieval Castilian literature and the transition to Middle Spanish in the Renaissance. The Estoria de España and the General Estoria are among the most important works in Castilian of the Middle Ages. During the High Middle Ages, many translations of important works had been done: this includes all sorts of treatises (medicine, astrology, etc.) from Arabic and Hebrew, as well as translations of religious texts and hagiographies (Flor de los Santos), and literary works such as Dante’s Commedia, among many others. Romances did not appear in Castilian until the later part of the Middle Ages, thanks to the importation of the printing press. Other important works of the Castilian Middle Ages are Libro de buen amor, El conde Lucanor, and Libro del caballero Zifar.
Castilian became the primary language of the unified kingdoms of Aragon and Castile during the Catholic Monarchs’ reign (late 15th century). The political missions of the Catholic Monarchs entailed a program of expansionism and colonisation that ultimately led to the wide-spread use of Spanish in the modern world. Nowadays, Spanish is the official language of twenty countries, with over 400 million speakers world-wide. The fact that Castilian became the hegemonic language of many of the conquered and colonised territories of the Spanish Empire means that we have now lost records of many indigenous languages such as Guanche, the pre-colonial language spoken in the Canary Islands. Some words of the indigenous languages of the Americas survive in modern Spanish: “chocolate”, “aguacate”, “poncho”, among others.
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