| Old Riojan | |
|---|---|
| romanz | |
| Native to | Spain |
| Region | Northeastern medieval La Rioja |
| Era | 10th–13th centuries |
| Language family | Indo-European |
| Early forms | Old Latin
|
| Writing system | Latin |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
 | |
Old Riojan is an extinct dialect of Navarro-Aragonese which was spoken in northeastern medieval La Rioja. The dialect went extinct due to a rapid mixture with Castilian following La Rioja falling into the control of Crown of Castile.
Latin had been spoken in La Rioja after 218 BC, following the Second Punic War. These varieties eventually evolved into Old Riojan, and were first documented in the Glosas Emilianenses. In the modern day, the modern Riojan varieties of Castilian contain several characteristics which belonged to Old Riojan.
Classification and terminology
The term "Old Riojan" refers to varieties of Navarro-Aragonese spoken in La Rioja.
Varieties of Ibero-Romance were referred as "romanz" before the reign of Alfonso X of Castile in the 13th century. Terms such as castellano, leonés, and riojano only existed as adjectives relating as to the region it referred to, but not as names of languages or dialects.
History
Pre-Riojan era
Before Roman times, the Vascones inhabited northeastern La Rioja. They presumably spoke a precursor to modern Basque. It is believed by experts that the Hand of Irulegi is written in this Vasconic language, referred as "proto-Basque". Upon the arrival of Romans in 218 BC following the Second Punic War, Latin was brought the Iberian Peninsula, initially to the southern and eastern coasts. These Latin varieties eventually evolved into multiple Vulgar Latin dialects, La Riojan being one of them.
In 711 AD, the Iberian Peninsula fell into Muslim control, and La Rioja became a part of the Muslim domains of Al-Andalus. This resulted in an influx of Arabic vocabulary being added to everyday Ibero-Romance speech, most words starting with "al-" or "a".
10th-12th centuries
The first features in Ibero-Romance arise in the 10th century as fragments appear from that time in Vulgar Latin varieties, identifable as Old Leonese and Navarro-Aragonese.
Decline and extinction
Starting from the 12th century, La Rioja started to be more Castilianized following the region's annexation by the Crown of Castile. By the 13th century, all characteristics which marked the Riojan dialect disappeared in the west, while in the east, these characteristics mingled with Burgalese Castilian. Currently, several characteristics are conserved in the modern Riojan dialect.
References
- Aseguinolaza, Fernando Cabo; González, Anxo Abuín; Domínguez, César (2010). A Comparative History of Literatures in the Iberian Peninsula. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 345. ISBN 978-90-272-3457-5.
- Jones, Sam (2022-11-15). "Hand of Irulegi: ancient bronze artefact could help trace origins of Basque language". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-01-12.
- Dworkin, Steven N. (2012-06-07). A History of the Spanish Lexicon: A Linguistic Perspective. OUP Oxford. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-19-954114-0.
- Hall, Martin; Silliman, Stephen W. (2009-02-09). Historical Archaeology. John Wiley & Sons. p. 213. ISBN 978-1-4051-5234-1.
- Marwān ibn Janāḥ, On the nomenclature of medicinal drugs (Kitāb al-Talkhīṣ) (2 vols): Edition, Translation and Commentary, with Special Reference to the Ibero-Romance Terminology. BRILL. 2020-07-13. p. 21. ISBN 978-90-04-41334-4.
- Maiden, Martin; Smith, John Charles; Ledgeway, Adam (2013-10-24). The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages: Volume 2, Contexts. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-02555-0.
- Cahiers de Linguistique Hispanique Médiévale (in Spanish). ENS Editions. 1995. p. 91.