It should also be noted that the novel kept some perfect strong Latin, those that had the accent on the subject (DIXI) and not on the ending (sang): dixi, dije ; feces, hice ; habui, hube ; but in general he weakened the perfect forts on the usual model accented on the ending: tímui, temí ; worthy, worthy ; arsi, ardí, etc.
Similarly the strong participas dictu, dicho ; factu, hecho ; ruptu, roto, etc. they were preserved, but more frequently they were remade on the weak common type: defensu, defendido ; tensu, tendido ; etc.
The Spanish vocabulary, like that of other Romance languages, comes mostly from Vulgar Latin. Thus the words comer (comedere), vinagre, raise, cazar, caballo, etc. Those words which seem proper to the Latin of the Iberian Peninsula (some of which bear the testimony of Saint Isidore in the VI century) particularly attract attention; p. eg: the same word comer, found in Portuguese as in Spanish, is missing in the other Romance languages, which use a derivative of manducare ; instead of frater, preserved in the other literary Romance languages, we find the derivative of Germanus throughout the peninsula.
According to THEDRESSWIZARD.COM, the elements of vulgar Latin, after having undergone an evolution according to the rules just mentioned and according to others that it is not necessary to expose here, form, as we have said, the primitive background of the language; the other elements we are about to enumerate acted in very different times on this primitive element or were added to it, some with singular persistence throughout the history of the language, others in a more transitory way.
Influence of literary Latin. – Since the origins of the Spanish language there is a strong influence of literary Latin, which was the official language used in every manifestation of public life. It is evident that the Church and the state administration had to introduce many Latin words into vulgar speech (ánima, espíritu), which do not fit any of the indicated laws or only the most stable; furthermore, the influence of cultured speech can only be partial, preventing the complete evolution of a word that had partly adapted to the phonetic laws of popular voices: saeculu became sieglo and siglo, but did not undergo a complete evolution that would have led -cl – to j.
The introduction of words from Latin in the novel grew in some eras, favored by the intensification of the study of Latin authors. The time of Alfonso el Sabio should be mentioned in the first place, when so many scientific and literary works written in Latin were translated into the vernacular, then a current of adaptation of Latin voices began, which many times went beyond where the modern language reaches. Among the literary compositions of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the abundance of Latinisms is greater in those works that combine the religious or moral character of the subject with the literary status of their author, while the words captured in the works of authors are rarer. literati, in which the subject, as in the epic narratives, is inspired by the popular tradition, then they will be very rare in the oral productions for the multitudes in the tales of troubadours and jesters. This disproportion can be clearly seen when comparing the Cantar de mío Cid or the Poemaby Fernán González with the religious works of Berceo. The sec. XIV is not, as in the history of French Latinism, that of the formation of the learned vocabulary, although the acquisitions previously made are preserved and the language is enriched with new elements.
Much more pronounced is the tendency to the words learned in the century. XV with the early Renaissance of the time of John II. Some more illustrious representatives of this movement did not even know Latin, such as the Marquis of Santillana, who always complained of this deficiency in his culture, but read many Italian authors, and in these for centuries Latinism had dominated in terms and construction..
In the century XVI all authors are more or less influenced by the classics, but we must go up to the century. XVII to find a new resurgence of cultured speech similar to that of the century. XV. The “culteranismo” made to consist a great part of the picturesque and musical luster that it claimed to give to the language in the use of more or less Latin words and constructions, and with such prodigality as to eschew by system from the common and usual expression. The main promoter of this reform was Gongora, criticized by Quevedo, Tirso de Molina and many other authors of the century. XVII, who were amazed by rumors that were then definitively accepted by the language (joven, presentir, acción, etc.).
The introduction of “cultisms” had another upsurge in the century. XVIII, exaggerated also this time by the bad literary taste, especially of the preachers; then mainly abstract words were searched, many of which are frequent even today.
Finally, a large part of the renewal of the vocabulary proposed by the most modern literature is based on cultism.
