A study of the language of selected 15th and 16th century aljamiado manuscripts.

Abstract

This thesis consists of a survey of the linguistic features of datable aljamiado manuscripts, taken as nearly as possible at twenty year intervals from 1429 to 1597, with the purpose of ascertaining to what extent Morisco writings in Arabic character shed any light on contemporary Spanish pronunciation and whether any chronology of sound-change in Castilian can be recorded from the collated evidence. The chief features examined are initial F-, the sibilants, the plosive and fricative value of d and the possibility of early instances of yeïsmo. On the whole it has been found that the Moriscos were not innovators and the language of even late sixteenth-century manuscripts still shows forms current at the beginning of the century. The thesis includes transcriptions of extracts from MSS. B.N.5319, J.1, B.N.5073/6/7/12, B.N. 4908/1, B.N. 5364, T.13, T.16, B.N.5223 and J.30. There is also a Glossary