Mozarabic Language - Morphology and Phonetics

Morphology and Phonetics

The phonology of Mozarabic is more archaic than the other Romance languages in Spain, fitting with the general idea that language varieties in more isolated or peripheral areas act as "islands of conservatism". Based on the written documents that are identified as Mozarabic, some examples of these more archaic features are:

• The preservation of the Latin consonant clusters cl, fl, pl.
• The lack of lenition of intervocalic p, t, c (k), as in the Mozarabic words lopa (she-wolf), toto (all) and formica (ant).
• The representation of Latin /kt/ as /ht/ (as in /nohte/ "night" < noctem), thought to have been an intermediate stage in the transition /kt/ > /jt/, but represented nowhere else (Portuguese finished the transition, as shown by noite "night").
• The preservation of palatalized /k(e)/, /k(i)/ as /tʃ/ (as in Italian), rather than /ts/ as elsewhere in Western Romance (except Picard and Norman north of the Joret line).
• The preservation (at least in some areas) of original /au/, /ai/.

The morphology of some words is closer to Latin than other Iberian Romance or Romance languages in general. This Romance variety had a significant impact in the formation of Portuguese, Spanish and especially Andalusian Spanish, which explains why these languages have numerous words of Andalusi Arabic origin (Mozarabic was, understandably, quite influenced by Arabic and vice versa).

It was spoken by Mozarabs (Christians living as dhimmis), Muladis (the native Iberian population converted to Islam) and some layers of the ruling Arabs and Berbers. The cultural language of Mozarabs continued to be Latin, but as time passed, young Mozarabs studied and even excelled in Arabic. Due to the northward migration of Mozarabs, we can find Arabic placenames in areas where Islamic rule did not last long. With the deepening of Islamization and the advance of the Reconquista, Mozarabic was substituted either by Arabic or by Northern Romance varieties, depending on the area and century.