Old Leonese language
| Old Leonese | |
|---|---|
| Region | Kingdom of León |
| Ethnicity | Asturians Leonese |
| Era | Evolved into Asturian, Leonese, Mirandese, and possibly Cantabrian and Extremaduran by 1500. |
Early forms | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
 The extent of the language around the 13th to 14th centuries | |
Old Leonese or Medieval Leonese is a West Iberian dialect of Vulgar Latin spoken in several regions of the Kingdom of León and the medieval Principality of Asturias. It was the ancestor of several languages, all forming the Asturleonese language family. Old Leonese was spoken until around the year 1500, and was attested starting from the 10th century with the Nodicia de kesos.
Phonology
[edit]Consonants
[edit]- The sound change [ʎ] to [ʝ] in some contexts may appear in Old East and Central Leonese (such as in muyer and meyor).[1] According to some researchers, this trait might have contributed to the spread of yeísmo in Castilian, brought by Asturian and Leonese settlers.[2]
Vowels
[edit]- Latin ŏ and ĕ developed in Old Leonese to /we/ and /je/ respectively, such as in puerta.[3] Compare Old Galician-Portuguese porta. However, in areas of Galician-Portuguese influence, monophthongisation may occur, more often in /we/ reverting to /ɔ/. Some texts shown both forms though (bono & bueno, corpo & cuerpo, etc.).[4]
- Over diphthongisation was a common feature of Old Leonese, alongside other Ibero-Romance varieties.[5]
Literature
[edit]The first text in the Leonese vernacular was the Nodicia de kesos, dated from the 10th century.[6] Meanwhile, in 1155, Fueru d'Aviles was written, being the oldest text in the Asturian vernacular.[7] The majority of Old Leonese texts from the 13th century are in the book Étude sur l'ancien dialecte léonais d'après des chartes du XIIIe siècle by Erik Staaff in 1907. A notable text is the translation of liber iudiciorum, the Fuero juzgo or Fueru xulgu.
References
[edit]- ^ Zampaulo, André (2019-09-19). Palatal Sound Change in the Romance Languages: Diachronic and Synchronic Perspectives. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-253429-3.
- ^ Penny, Ralph (1991). "El origen asturleonés de algunos fenómenos andaluces y americanos" (PDF). Lletres asturianes: Boletín Oficial de l'Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (in Spanish). 39: 33–40. ISSN 0212-0534. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 June 2013. Retrieved 20 November 2022.
- ^ Amador Calzado, Pablo (2022). El leonés medieval: rasgos lingüísticos y análisis de documentos [Medieval Leonese: linguistic traits and document analysis] (in Spanish). Salamanca, Spain: University of Salamanca. p. 3.
- ^ Gessner, Emil (1900). Das Altleonesische, ein Beitrag zur Kenntniss des Altspanischen (in German). p. 5.
- ^ Fink, Oskar (2021-09-07). Studien über die Mundarten der Sierra de Gata (in German). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. ISBN 978-3-11-243442-0.
- ^ ILEÓN, Redacción (2024-01-18). "Estudio a fondo sobre 'La Nodicia de Kesos', el escrito romance más antiguo de la península ibérica". iLeón (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-06-13.
- ^ "Asturianu - Language or Dialect? - Asturian-American Migration Forum". Asturianus. Retrieved 2024-06-13.