Drăgan, Ruxandra

SZTE OJS Journals (University of Szeged / Szegedi Tudományegyetem)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14232/actahisp.2020.25.209-213 Acta Hispanica 25: 209-213, 2020, ISSN 1416-7263, e-ISSN 2676-9719 | 209 PÉRDIDA Y SUSTITUCIÓN DE ARABISMOS EN ESPAÑOL RUXANDRA DRĂGAN University of Bucharest Enăchescu, Mihai (2020). Pérdida y sustitución de arabismos en español.  Szeged: SZTE JATEPress, 244 pages. ISBN: 978 963 315 431 1   Next to Latin, Arabic is the language that had the most impact on the evolution of  Spanish until the sixteenth century and, consequently, the Arabic component of  the Spanish lexicon has received much scholarly attention in Hispanic linguistics. However, the great majority of  studies tend to compile alphabetically-arranged lists of  loanwords and examine Arabisms from a cultural perspective, viewing them as cultural artifacts that reveal the impact of  one culture upon the other rather than as linguistic signs pertaining to a language system. Nevertheless, this is not the approach taken by Mihai Enăchescu in his book, Pérdida y sustitución de arabismos en español (Loss and Replacement of  Arabisms in Spanish), recently published by SZTE JATEPress.  Mihai Enăchescu's book, which is the result of  several years of  focused research, consists of  a careful selection of  Arabic loanwords that the author analyzes in minute detail, both diachronically and synchronically, in an attempt to distinguish chronological strata, social background, routes of  transmission and the vitality and degree of  integration of  these items into the Spanish lexicon or, as is the case, their loss and replacement with lexical items of  different origins, mostly Latinisms. The author's monographic treatment of  individual word histories aims to determine the fate and the status of  Arabisms in the Spanish lexical stock. In particular, the author shows that, while some Arabic loanwords have been fully preserved in contemporary Spanish and others have been lost, many have been replaced with lexical items borrowed from other sources or derived by means of  word formation processes characteristic of  Spanish, typically suffixation. What is more, in exceptional cases, some Arabisms have been replaced with other lexical items of  Arabic origin.  Following this line of  investigation, the author has structured his book into eight chapters, the first of  which provides a historical background for the borrowing of  Arabisms into Spanish, and the rest are illustrations of  the three possible situations outlined above. With the exception of  the introductory chapter and the conclusions, the rest of  the sections focus on a particular semantic field and are structured along the same lines: some general remarks regarding the semantic field under investigation are followed by the analysis proper, and some concluding remarks; in addition, each 'lexical entry' for the selected items includes information concerning the meaning of  the item, its etymology, relevant attestations in various kinds of  corpora and the author's Pérdida y sustitución de arabismos en español 210 | Acta Hispanica 25: 209-213, 2020, ISSN 1416-7263, e-ISSN 2676-9719 commentaries regarding the uncovered linguistic data, which are included in a classification of  the analyzed items from the perspective of  their status in contemporary Spanish. The first chapter provides a historical background for the borrowing of  Arabisms into Spanish by focusing on the socio-political and cultural realities of  Al-Andalus, the Muslim-ruled territory covering almost the entire Iberian Peninsula. The author skillfully organizes a significant amount of  historical data into a concise presentation that brings to the fore a number of  observations pertinent to the analysis provided in the subsequent chapters. The reader learns that, from a sociolinguistic perspective, Al-Andalus was a diglossic society in which Hispano-Arabic, the language of  the Muslim conquerors, was the high variety, and Mozarabic, the language of  the conquered Christian population and the direct continuation of  the Latin brought to the peninsula by the Romans, represented the low variety. At the same time, the Arabic-speaking population was also diglossic in so far as Hispano-Arabic, the vernacular variety, coexisted with Classical Arabic, the scholarly written language. Access to the latter allowed for the translation of  Arabic treaties on mathematics, astronomy, medicine and alchemy and the dissemination of  Arabic scientific knowledge and Islamic culture. Toledo was the centre of  Hispano-Arabic culture, where Jewish scholars translating Arabic texts into Romance worked alongside Latin-speaking scholars, who then translated those texts into Latin. As the author points out, from a linguistic perspective, this persistent language-contact situation clearly facilitated the assimilation of  lexical items from Arabic into the Romance varieties spoken at the time. However, he goes on to show that, as the Reconquest progressed, (Hispano-)Arabic lost prestige in Christian Spain, the linguistic balance turning in favour of  the northern varieties of  Hispano-Romance. This situation led to an attitude of  rejection of  the Arabic element in Hispano-Romance, which peaked in the sixteenth century, when Renaissance scholars advocated the renewal of  the lexicon in favor of  the more Latin element.  The second chapter focuses on the lexical field of  fruits and vegetables. The author has chosen it as an illustration of  one of  the possible directions of  evolution of  Arabisms in Spanish, which he accounts for relying on extralinguistic elements. Specifically, this semantic field illustrates the tendency towards conservation, as the lexicon of  Arabic origin denoting fruits and vegetables has been preserved almost in its entirety. As the author explains, this is due to the fact that these terms denote staple food items in our everyday diet, so, naturally, they would not undergo significant semantic changes. Nevertheless, his analysis reveals that not all items have retained the same vitality. Of  the 25 terms investigated, three are seldom used, given the rarity of  the referents they stand for, like, for instance, azamboa ('citron') – a yellow fruit like a large lemon, while four others have fallen into disuse, as is the case of  alcanería and alcaucil, which have both been, understandably, replaced with alcachofa ('artichoke'), since they are subspecies of  this vegetable. The other two, alfóncigo ('pistachio') and alficoz ('cucumber') have been replaced with pistacho (a loanword from Greek) and cohombro (an Ruxandra Drăgan Acta Hispanica 25: 209-213, 2020, ISSN 1416-7263, e-ISSN 2676-9719 | 211 inherited word), respectively. Last but not least, the author discusses two curious cases of  replacement of  a word of  Romance origin with an Arabism (oliva ('olive') with aceituna and pastinaca ('carrot') with zanahoria), a development that runs counter to the expected switch to Romance-related terms.  The tendency towards conservation of  Arabisms in Spanish contrasts with the opposite phenomenon, i.e., the loss of  lexical items of  Arabic origin. To study this direction of  development, the author selected the semantic field of  money and measurement units. His assumption was that all the lexical items pertaining to this field would have fallen into complete disuse due to historical reasons, in particular, the introduction of  the metric system of  measurement in 1849 and of  the single currency (the peseta) in 1868, which would have turned the Arabisms archaic/obsolete as they lost their referents. However, his analysis demonstrates that, again, the situation is not as cut and dried as expected. Of  the 16 terms he investigated, ten did become archaic, or, at most, still part of  regional dialects, but six have remained in general use, three of  them with the original meaning (quilate ('carat'), quintal ('quintal') and tara ('tare weight')), and the other three with new signifiers (adarme (< 'dirham') in ni un adarme ('not a whit'), arroba (formerly a weight unit, now a polysemous word, standing for, among other things, the @ symbol) and maquila (< 'measurement unit') with the restricted meaning of  'textile manufacturing' or 'factory'). While the semantic fields of  fruits and vegetables, on the one hand, and of  money and measurement units, on the other hand, represent the two poles in the evolution of  Arabisms within the Spanish lexical stock, with the former displaying a definite overall tendency towards preservation and the latter a predisposition towards decline/loss, the rest of  the lexical fields investigated in Chapters 4 to 8 are all illustrative of  the same type of  linguistic change – replacement/substitution. To study the replacement of  Arabisms, the author investigates semantic fields as diverse as those of  general professions, military ranks and public offices, medieval alchemy (minerals, metals and chemical products), medieval medicine (diseases and cures, potions, mineral substances, plants and distillates), as well as that of  medieval cosmetic products. Far from being randomly selected, the semantic fields analyzed in this book mirror the significant impact the Islamic scientific knowledge and culture had on the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages; another aspect reflected in these chapters is that most Arabisms were nouns designating material and cultural innovations of  the Middle East for which the Hispano-Romance of  the time did not have suitable terms. What is more, it is worth noticing the considerable number of  items per field that the author analyzes, which reinforces the idea of  a pervasive Arabic influence in this part of  the world.  As for their fate in the Spanish lexical stock, the author demonstrates that, while some of  the terms in these lexical fields continue to survive in contemporary Spanish with their old meanings (albañil ('stonemason, bricklayer'), alcanfor ('camphor'), jarabe ('syrup'), momia ('mummy')) or with new meanings (alcalde (from 'judge' to 'mayor'), azafata (from 'lady-in-waiting' to 'stewardess'), álcali (from 'saltwort' to 'alkali'), alcohol Pérdida y sustitución de arabismos en español 212 | Acta Hispanica 25: 209-213, 2020, ISSN 1416-7263, e-ISSN 2676-9719 (from 'antimony' to 'alcohol'), jebe (from 'vitriol, alum' to 'rubber')), and others have completely disappeared (almotalafe/almotalefe ('silk goods inspector'), tíbar (adj. 'golden, made of  pure gold'), bezoar ('bezoar')), most of  the lexical items under investigation in these chapters have undergone replacement.  Replacement or substitution is a two-layered kind of  lexical change as it encompasses both the addition to and the elimination of  elements from the lexicon of  a given language. Thus, in the present book, the author investigates not only the fate of  Arabisms, but also the effects of  their disappearance or decline. He shows that their falling into disuse for extralinguistic reasons (the disappearance of  the referents they stood for from the real world, the rejection of  the Arabic element for being perceived as the Other in Christian Spain, the advent of  the Renaissance and its focus on everything Latin and Greek, etc.) has been paralleled by the introduction of  new lexical items with the same referents either by means of  language-internal derivational process (affixation and compounding) or via lexical borrowings and other creative processes. The new items that have replaced the Arabisms are of  many different kinds: Latinisms (adalid > capitán ('captain'), alfaquín > médico, doctor ('doctor'), acíbar > áloe ('aloe')), inherited words (alcarceña > yero (hiero) ('ervil'), orozuz > regaliz ('licorice'), almoraduj > mejorana (mayorana) ('marjoram')), derivatives obtained by affixation and compounding (aliacán > ictericia / morbo regio ('jaundice'), albarraz > hierba piojera / estafisagria (Latinism) ('stavesacre'), algafacán > dolor de corazón ('chest pain')), borrowings from other Romance languages like Italian (álcali > sosa ('soda'), alhucema > lavanda, lavándula ('lavander')) and Catalan (azarnefe > oropimente ('sulphide of  arsenic'), álcali > sosa ('soda')), and, exceptionally, other Arabisms (alcaller > alfarero ('potter'), cárabe > ámbar ('amber'), azófar > latón ('brass')). Despite their diversity, what these new items share is the presence of  an undeniable Latin element in their creation, whether we are considering the group of  Latinisms or that of  inherited words (still of  Latin origin), the derivatives formed with Latin affixes or the loanwords from other Romance languages. This is a natural reflection of  a historical reality – the development of  a (Europeanized) linguistic consciousness, beginning with the sixteenth century, which places Spanish in the large family of  Romance languages. In the final chapter of  his book, the author reviews his findings and reiterates the main conclusion of  his analysis, namely, that, contrary to expectations, the status of  Arabisms in the Spanish lexical stock is not as clear-cut as anticipated, either diachronically or synchronically. No semantic field investigated here has yielded cut and dried results; as he has demonstrated, some Arabisms have been lost or have fallen into disuse, surviving only in regional dialects or as archaisms, whereas others have continued as integral part of  the Spanish lexicon, although with different degrees of  vitality and some even with new meanings. Moreover, those whose vitality has declined have been replaced by a variety of  lexical items of  Latin-related origins (Latinisms, inherited words, Romance words, etc.).  Ruxandra Drăgan Acta Hispanica 25: 209-213, 2020, ISSN 1416-7263, e-ISSN 2676-9719 | 213 To conclude, Mihai Enăchescu's investigation into the loss and replacement of  Arabisms in the Spanish lexicon is a thoroughly-detailed study built on a plethora of  multilayered information of  historical, social, cultural, sociolinguistic, semantic, lexical, and etymological nature. A most welcome contribution to the fields of  Hispanic lexicology and historical linguistics, Mihai Enăchescu's book provides the reader with a novel perspective on a topic that so far has not been extensively researched. 

Pérdida y sustitución de arabismos en español

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

SZTE OJS Journals (University of Szeged / Szegedi Tudományegyetem)

University of Szeged