History of Spanish

History of Spanish OSHER 457 - 001 Dates: Thursdays, 9/26/2013 – 11/7/2013, no class 10/17/13 Times: 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM Location: Commander’s House, Fort Douglas Instructor: Mauricio Mixco [email protected] Course Overview As with every language, Spanish has a genealogy, millennia of ancestry, back to a Neolithic, “great-great-grandmother,” Indo-European, (as with cells, languages need no daddies). I-E begat Italic one of several baby granma branches. One Italic daughter was Early Latin; later on the tongues of the elite and rabble of the Western Roman Empire, it engulfed Iberia/Hispania (now, Spain and Portugal sharing the Iberian Peninsula.) This course tracks Street Latin (Vernacular not Classical) eventually becoming Spanish (street and genteel, rural and urban.) Let’s see why Iberian/Hispanic Latin was more conservative due to an earlier (partial only) conquest than elsewhere (210 B.C) and how pre-Roman, tribal languages left a mark; one was the ancestor of Basque. Pre-Roman Celtic, Greek, Phoenecian, Carthaginian and, much later, Gothic (400s-711 AD) did the same, as did Hebrew and Arabic (711-1492 AD). In las Américas, as with our faces and music, after 600 years, our many Spanishes bear the imprint of Africa and Native America, North and South. European neighbors contributed lots; Spanish returned the favor, (our cowboys were once buckaroos from Spanish vaqueros; if naughty, they landed in the hoozgow < rural Spanish juzgao, standard juzgado ‘judged;’ they broke broncos in a rodeo, led a remuda of pack animals through the chaparral, roped mustangs < mesteños with a lariat < la reata, spooked a coyote crossing the arroyo, skirted a mesquite on the mesa, headed back to the ranch < rancho to eat barbecue < barbacoa under a ramada, etc.) Be part of this fun journey into the past of the world’s third major language. You’re sure to enjoy it despite your, possibly, non-existent Spanish. Just bring your curiosity and the adventure begins! Some Suggested Texts (#3-#6, only if you’re interested; more titles upon request): 1. Google (it has almost everything you need, from maps to detailed descriptions at all phases) 2. Class Handouts (unavoidable; please read them) 3. Robert E. Spaulding. How Spanish Grew. University of California Press. Berkeley. 1971 (easy) 4. Antonio Alatorre. Los 1,001 Años de la Lengua Española. Tezontle. Fondo de Cultura Económica. México. D.F. 1989. (easy) 5. Rafael Lapesa. Historia de la Lengua Española. Las Américas Publishing Co. Madrid. 1965. (easy but maybe a bit stodgy) 6. Ralph Penny. A History of the Spanish Language. Cambridge University Press. New York. 1991 (very scholarly and technically detailed) Tentative Schedule of Topics: Week 1: Pre-Roman to Roman Spain and after: How Latin started it all on the Peninsula. Week 2: The Visigoths conquerors and conquered; Islam, Arabic loanwords and Spanish’s extinct Great Aunt, Mozárabe Week 3: A Militant Christian Refuge in Northern Mountains: The Birth of Multiple Spains; Epic Spanish (El Cid Campeador) and its peninsular sisters Week 4: La Reconquista (800-1492): From Old to Early Modern Spanish, Castilla la Vieja to Castilla la Nueva and beyond; loans from Classical Latin Week 5: From the Golden Age to Imperial Spanish (on which the sun never set); La Real Academia de la Lengua molding Standard Spanish but not so much Week 6: The Spanishes of the Americas; How to tell Argentinians, Central Americans, Colombians, Cubans and Mexicans, etc. apart; fun with Spanglish. .

Load more