Andalusi Arabic
Encyclopedia
Andalusian Arabic was a variety
of the Arabic language
spoken in Al-Andalus
, the regions of the Iberian Peninsula
(modern Spain
and Portugal
) under Muslim rule. It became an extinct language
in Iberia after the expulsion of the Moriscos
, which took place over a century after the Reconquista
by Christian Spain. Andalusi Arabic is still used in Andalusi music and has significantly influenced the dialects of such towns as Fez, Rabat
, Nedroma
, Tlemcen
, Blida
, Cherchell
, Tangiers, Tetouan
, etc., to which many Andalusian
s and Morisco
s fled. It also exerted some influence on Mozarabic
, Spanish
(particularly Andalusian
), Catalan
, Portuguese
, and the Moroccan Arabic
dialect.
Andalusian Arabic appears to have spread rapidly and been in general oral use in most parts of Al-Andalus between the ninth and fifteenth centuries. The number of speakers is estimated to have peaked at around 5-7 million speakers around the eleventh and twelfth centuries before dwindling as a consequence of the gradual but relentless takeover by the Christians. In 1502, the Muslims of Granada were forced to choose between conversion and exile; those who converted became known as the Moriscos. In 1526, this requirement was extended to the Muslims elsewhere in Spain (Mudéjar
s). In 1567, Philip II of Spain
issued a royal decree in Spain which forced Moriscos to abandon using Arabic on all occasions, formal and informal, speaking and writing. Using Arabic in any sense of the word would be regarded as a crime. They were given three years to learn the language of the Christian Spanish, after which they would have to get rid of all Arabic written material. This triggered one of the largest Morisco Revolt
s. Still, Andalusian Arabic remained in use in certain areas until the final expulsion of the Moriscos
at the beginning of the 17th century.
As in every other Arabic-speaking land, the Andalusian people were diglossic, that is, they spoke their local dialect in all low-register situations, but only Classical Arabic was resorted to when a high register was required and for written purposes as well.
Andalusian Arabic belongs to Early Western Neo-Arabic, which does not allow for any separation between Bedouin, urban, or rural dialects, nor does it show any detectable difference between communal dialects, such as Muslim
, Christian
and Jewish.
The oldest evidence of Andalusian Arabic utterances can be dated from the 10th and 11th century, in isolated quotes, both in prose and stanzaic Classical Andalusi poems (muwashahat), and then, from the 11th century on, in stanzaic dialectal poems (zajal) and dialectal proverb collections, while its last documents are a few business records and one letter written at the beginning of the 17th century in Valencia.
, Shushtari and others) composed in Arabic with varying degrees of deviation from classical norms, augmented by further information from the manner in which the Arabic script was used to transliterate Romance words. Such features include the following.
The vowel system was subject to a heavy amount of fronting and raising, a phenomenon known as imāla, causing /a/ to become [æ] and, particularly with short vowels, [ɪ] in certain circumstances, particularly when i-mutation was possible.
Contact with native Romance speakers led to the introduction of the phonemes /p/, /ɡ/ and, possibly, the affricate /tʃ/ from borrowed words.
Monophthongization led to the disappearance of certain diphthongs such as /aw/ and /aj/ which were leveled to /oː/ and /eː/, respectively, though Colin hypothesizes that these diphthongs remained in the more mediolectic registers influenced by the Classical language.
There was a fair amount of compensatory lengthening involved where a loss of consonantal gemination lengthened the preceding vowel, whence the transformation of عشّ ʕʊʃː ('nest') into عوش ʕuːʃ.
There was no difference between pronunciation of consonants after the definite article ال [ʔal]. In Andalusian they were likely to be pronounced without assimilation. E.g.: الْدَرْس — the lesson — [aldars], not [addars] like in standard Arabic.
), became an indeclinable conjunctive particle, as in Ibn Quzmân's expression rajulan 'ashîq.
The unconjugated prepositive negative particle lis developed out of the classical verb laisa.
The derivational morphology of the verbal system was substantially altered. Whence the initial n- on verbs in the first person singular, a feature shared by many Maghrebi dialects. Likewise the form V pattern of tafa``ala ( تَفَعَّلَ) was altered by epenthesis to atfa``al (أتْفَعَّل).
Andalusian Arabic developed a contingent tense (after a protasis with the conditional particle lau) consisting of the imperfect (prefix) form of a verb, preceded by either kân or kîn (depending on the register of the speech in question), of which the final -n was normally assimilated by preformatives y- and t-. An example drawn from Ibn Quzmân will illustrate this:
لِس كِن تّراني
لَو لا ما نانّ بعد
lis ki-ttarânî (underlying form: kîn tarânî)
law lâ mâ nânnu ba`ad
Translation: You would not see me if I were not still moaning
Varieties of Arabic
The Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
of the Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
spoken in Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...
, the regions of the Iberian Peninsula
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
(modern Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
) under Muslim rule. It became an extinct language
Extinct language
An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...
in Iberia after the expulsion of the Moriscos
Expulsion of the Moriscos
On April 9, 1609, King Philip III of Spain decreed the Expulsion of the Moriscos . The Moriscos were the descendants of the Muslim population that converted to Christianity under threat of exile from Ferdinand and Isabella in 1502...
, which took place over a century after the Reconquista
Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...
by Christian Spain. Andalusi Arabic is still used in Andalusi music and has significantly influenced the dialects of such towns as Fez, Rabat
Rabat
Rabat , is the capital and third largest city of the Kingdom of Morocco with a population of approximately 650,000...
, Nedroma
Nedroma
Nedroma is a city in Tlemcen Province, Algeria. Once the capital of Trara, it was built on the ruins of a Berber city by Abd al-Mu'min The Almohad caliph, who himself was a native of the neighboring mountains.- World Heritage Status :...
, Tlemcen
Tlemcen
Tlemcen is a town in Northwestern Algeria, and the capital of the province of the same name. It is located inland in the center of a region known for its olive plantations and vineyards...
, Blida
Blida
Blida is a city in Algeria. It is the capital of Blida Province, and it is located about 45 km south-west of Algiers, the national capital. The name Blida, i.e...
, Cherchell
Cherchell
Cherchell is a seaport town in the Province of Tipaza, Algeria, 55 miles west of Algiers. It is the district seat of Cherchell District. As of 1998, it had a population of 24,400.-Ancient history:...
, Tangiers, Tetouan
Tétouan
Tetouan is a city in northern Morocco. The Berber name means literally "the eyes" and figuratively "the water springs". Tetouan is one of the two major ports of Morocco on the Mediterranean Sea. It lies a few miles south of the Strait of Gibraltar, and about 40 mi E.S.E. of Tangier...
, etc., to which many Andalusian
Andalusian people
The Andalusians are the people of the southern region in Spain approximated by what is now called Andalusia. They are generally not considered an ethnically distinct people because they lack two of the most important markers of distinctiveness: their own language and an awareness of a presumed...
s and Morisco
Morisco
Moriscos or Mouriscos , meaning "Moorish", were the converted Christian inhabitants of Spain and Portugal of Muslim heritage. Over time the term was used in a pejorative sense applied to those nominal Catholics who were suspected of secretly practicing Islam.-Demographics:By the beginning of the...
s fled. It also exerted some influence on Mozarabic
Mozarabic language
Mozarabic was a continuum of closely related Romance dialects spoken in Muslim-dominated areas of the Iberian Peninsula during the early stages of the Romance languages' development in Iberia. Mozarabic descends from Late Latin and early Romance dialects spoken in the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
(particularly Andalusian
Andalusian Spanish
The Andalusian varieties of Spanish are spoken in Andalusia, Ceuta, Melilla and Gibraltar. They include perhaps the most distinct of the southern variants of peninsular Spanish, differing in many respects from northern varieties, and also from Standard Spanish...
), Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, and the Moroccan Arabic
Moroccan Arabic
Moroccan Arabic is the variety of Arabic spoken in the Arabic-speaking areas of Morocco. For official communications, the government and other public bodies use Modern Standard Arabic, as is the case in most Arabic-speaking countries. A mixture of French and Moroccan Arabic is used in business...
dialect.
Andalusian Arabic appears to have spread rapidly and been in general oral use in most parts of Al-Andalus between the ninth and fifteenth centuries. The number of speakers is estimated to have peaked at around 5-7 million speakers around the eleventh and twelfth centuries before dwindling as a consequence of the gradual but relentless takeover by the Christians. In 1502, the Muslims of Granada were forced to choose between conversion and exile; those who converted became known as the Moriscos. In 1526, this requirement was extended to the Muslims elsewhere in Spain (Mudéjar
Mudéjar
Mudéjar is the name given to individual Moors or Muslims of Al-Andalus who remained in Iberia after the Christian Reconquista but were not converted to Christianity...
s). In 1567, Philip II of Spain
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
issued a royal decree in Spain which forced Moriscos to abandon using Arabic on all occasions, formal and informal, speaking and writing. Using Arabic in any sense of the word would be regarded as a crime. They were given three years to learn the language of the Christian Spanish, after which they would have to get rid of all Arabic written material. This triggered one of the largest Morisco Revolt
Morisco Revolt
The Morisco Revolt , also known as War of Las Alpujarras or Revolt of Las Alpujarras, in what is now Andalusia in southern Spain, was a rebellion against the Crown of Castile by the remaining Muslim converts to Christianity from the Kingdom of Granada.-The defeat of Muslim Spain:In the wake of the...
s. Still, Andalusian Arabic remained in use in certain areas until the final expulsion of the Moriscos
Expulsion of the Moriscos
On April 9, 1609, King Philip III of Spain decreed the Expulsion of the Moriscos . The Moriscos were the descendants of the Muslim population that converted to Christianity under threat of exile from Ferdinand and Isabella in 1502...
at the beginning of the 17th century.
As in every other Arabic-speaking land, the Andalusian people were diglossic, that is, they spoke their local dialect in all low-register situations, but only Classical Arabic was resorted to when a high register was required and for written purposes as well.
Andalusian Arabic belongs to Early Western Neo-Arabic, which does not allow for any separation between Bedouin, urban, or rural dialects, nor does it show any detectable difference between communal dialects, such as Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
, Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
and Jewish.
The oldest evidence of Andalusian Arabic utterances can be dated from the 10th and 11th century, in isolated quotes, both in prose and stanzaic Classical Andalusi poems (muwashahat), and then, from the 11th century on, in stanzaic dialectal poems (zajal) and dialectal proverb collections, while its last documents are a few business records and one letter written at the beginning of the 17th century in Valencia.
Features of Andalusian Arabic
Many features of Andalusian Arabic have been reconstructed by Arabists using Hispano-Arabic texts (such as the azjâl of Ibn QuzmânIbn Quzman
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Quzman was the single most famous poet in the history of al-Andalus and he is also considered to be one of its most original. He was born and died in Cordoba and has earned his fame by his zajals...
, Shushtari and others) composed in Arabic with varying degrees of deviation from classical norms, augmented by further information from the manner in which the Arabic script was used to transliterate Romance words. Such features include the following.
Phonology
The phoneme represented by the letter ق in texts is a point of contention. The letter, which in Classical Arabic represented either a voiceless pharyngealized velar stop or a voiceless uvular stop, most likely represented some kind of postalveolar affricate or velar plosive in Andalusian Arabic.The vowel system was subject to a heavy amount of fronting and raising, a phenomenon known as imāla, causing /a/ to become [æ] and, particularly with short vowels, [ɪ] in certain circumstances, particularly when i-mutation was possible.
Contact with native Romance speakers led to the introduction of the phonemes /p/, /ɡ/ and, possibly, the affricate /tʃ/ from borrowed words.
Monophthongization led to the disappearance of certain diphthongs such as /aw/ and /aj/ which were leveled to /oː/ and /eː/, respectively, though Colin hypothesizes that these diphthongs remained in the more mediolectic registers influenced by the Classical language.
There was a fair amount of compensatory lengthening involved where a loss of consonantal gemination lengthened the preceding vowel, whence the transformation of عشّ ʕʊʃː ('nest') into عوش ʕuːʃ.
There was no difference between pronunciation of consonants after the definite article ال [ʔal]. In Andalusian they were likely to be pronounced without assimilation. E.g.: الْدَرْس — the lesson — [aldars], not [addars] like in standard Arabic.
Syntax and Morphology
The -an which, in Classical Arabic, marked a noun as indefinite accusative (see nunationNunation
In some Semitic languages, notably Arabic, nunation is the addition of a final nun to a noun or adjective to indicate that it is fully declinable and syntactically unmarked for definiteness....
), became an indeclinable conjunctive particle, as in Ibn Quzmân's expression rajulan 'ashîq.
The unconjugated prepositive negative particle lis developed out of the classical verb laisa.
The derivational morphology of the verbal system was substantially altered. Whence the initial n- on verbs in the first person singular, a feature shared by many Maghrebi dialects. Likewise the form V pattern of tafa``ala ( تَفَعَّلَ) was altered by epenthesis to atfa``al (أتْفَعَّل).
Andalusian Arabic developed a contingent tense (after a protasis with the conditional particle lau) consisting of the imperfect (prefix) form of a verb, preceded by either kân or kîn (depending on the register of the speech in question), of which the final -n was normally assimilated by preformatives y- and t-. An example drawn from Ibn Quzmân will illustrate this:
لِس كِن تّراني
لَو لا ما نانّ بعد
lis ki-ttarânî (underlying form: kîn tarânî)
law lâ mâ nânnu ba`ad
Translation: You would not see me if I were not still moaning