Iberian Romance languages

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about a subdivision of the Romance language family. For the broader group of languages spoken in the Iberian Peninsula, see Iberian languages.

The formation of Iberian Romance languages followed more or less this process:

A common Romance language with dialectal differences was spoken throughout the ancient Roman Empire. During this stage, we can speak of the Romance language, although it was probably somewhat different from one region to another. It can still be called Popular or Vulgar Latin.

From this point on, the Romance languages on the Iberian Peninsula followed a distinct path:

Separation of East Iberian (Catalan) on one side of the peninsula from West Iberian Romance on the other. Catalan is sometimes regarded as a transition language between Iberian Romance and Gallo-Romance languages.
West Iberian Romance split into Castilian - Astur-Leonese - Extremaduran, in central Iberia, and Galician-Portuguese in western Iberia.

During this stage a group of Romance dialects collectively known as Mozarabic were spoken in Moorish Iberia. With the Christian Reconquest of the peninsula, they were replaced with the Iberian Romance languages of the north, becoming extinct. Another language close to Mozarabic, Aragonese, still has some speakers today. Mozarabic and Aragonese are classified by linguists as Pyrenean-Mozarabic, a separate group from Iberian Romance and Gallo-Romance.

It is important to note that power structures enormously influenced the formation of the Iberian languages. If kingdoms and states had formed in a different fashion, there could now be a single Galician-Portuguese language, or a multiplicity of languages. This political aspect was important in the development of every language.

Portuguese and Galician: Because Portugal became independent in the 12th century and Galicia remained a province of Spain, political and sociolinguistic factors have made them be considered separate languages.
Spanish: The Castilian Crown pushed for Castilian to be considered the Spanish language, which it is today. However, it did not abolish other languages within Spain.
Catalan: The political structure and strength of the Crown of Aragon made Catalán a language of culture, science, literature, etc. Its importance diminished for some centuries, but the desire for more autonomy for Catalonia gave it renewed importance (it never ceased to be the language of a majority of the Catalan population up to the 20th century). It is now the official language of three of the four main regions of the Crown of Aragon and of the country of (Andorra). It is also still spoken in other enclaves.
The fact that Galicia and Catalonia are in Spain makes their languages prone to Castilian influences, especially in large urban centers such as Barcelona in Catalonia and Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.
Minor languages like Astur-Leonese, Extremaduran and Aragonese became regarded as mere dialects of Spanish by most people, but they are Romance variants with enough distinct features to rank them as separate languages.
On the other hand, in modern times some authors have argued that varieties of Catalan, Galician and Astur-Leonese such as Valencian, Eonavian, and Mirandese, should be classified as separate languages.

Thus, there are four major Romance languages in Iberia today:

Catalan originated from East Iberian Romance, which separated from West Iberian at an early stage in the development of the Iberian Romance languages. Closely related to Occitan, it has many dialects and is spoken by about 7 million people, mostly in four variants: catalán, valencian, balearic catalán and andorran.

Spanish (also called Castilian) originated from the common West Iberian Romance along with Galician-Portuguese, with some influence from Mozarabic and Basque. It is now spoken by an estimated 392 million people throughout the world.

Galician originated from the medieval Galician-Portuguese language, which itself originated from West Iberian Romance, along with Castilian (but not with Catalan). It has had a strong influence of Castilian.

Portuguese originated from a common Galician-Portuguese language, which itself originated from West Iberian Romance, along with Castilian (but not with Catalan), with influences from Mozarabic. It is currently the sixth most widely spoken language in the world, with more than two hundred million speakers.

And three main groups of minor Romance languages, Astur-Leonese/Extremaduran, Aragonese, and Occitan (in its Aranese dialect).

Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan and Occitan have the status of international languages, being officially spoken in more than one state:

Catalan: Andorra and Spain (it is also spoken by about 100,000 people in France and members of the older generations of one town in Sardinia, Alghero);
Occitan: official in small regions of Spain (under the name of Aranese) and Italy;
Portuguese: official in eight independent countries (see Geographic distribution of Portuguese);
Spanish: many countries throughout the world.