Andalusi Romance, also called Mozarabic^[a] or Ajami,^[2] refers to the varieties of Ibero-Romance that developed in Al-Andalus, the parts of the medieval Iberian Peninsula under Islamic control. Romance, or vernacular Late Latin, was the common tongue for the great majority of the Iberian population at the time of the Umayyad conquest in the early eighth century, but over the following centuries, it was gradually superseded by Andalusi Arabic as the main spoken language in the Muslim-controlled south.^[3] At the same time, as the northern Christian kingdoms pushed south into Al-Andalus, their respective Romance varieties (especially Castilian) gained ground at the expense of Andalusi Romance^[4] as well as Arabic. The final extinction of the former may be estimated to 1300 CE.^[2]

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The medieval Ibero-Romance varieties were broadly similar (with Castilian standing out as an outlier). Andalusi Romance was distinguished from the others not by its linguistic features primarily, but rather by virtue of being written in the Arabic script.^[1] What is known or hypothesized about the particular linguistic features of Andalusi Romance is based on relatively sparse evidence, of which the kharjas, or closing lines of an Andalusi muwaššaḥ poem, are the most important.

The traditional term for the Romance varieties used in al-Andalus is "Mozarabic", derived from Mozarab, (from the Arabic: مُسْتَعْرَب, romanized: musta‘rab, lit. 'Arabized') a term used to refer to Arabized Christians in al-Andalus.^[1] In the context of medieval Iberia, the term is first documented in Christian sources from the 11th century; it was not used by Muslims to describe Christians.^[5]: 16

Some scholars dislike the term for its ambiguity. According to Consuelo Lopez-Morillas:

It has been objected that the term straddles ambiguously the realms of religion and language, and further implies, erroneously, that the dialect was spoken only by Christians. The very form of the word suggests (again a false perception) that it denotes a language somehow related to Arabic.^[1]: 47

To describe the varieties of Romance in al-Andalus, Spanish scholars are increasingly using romance andalusí (from the Arabic: أَنْدَلُسِيّ, romanized: andalusī, lit. 'of al-Andalus'), or Andalusi Romance in English.^[1]

Speakers of Andalusi Romance, like speakers of Romance anywhere else on the peninsula, would have described their spoken language simply as "ladino", i.e. Latin.^[1] The term Ladino has since come to have the specialized sense of Judeo-Spanish.^[b][6] Arab writers used the terms al-Lathinī^[7] or al-'ajamīya (العَجَمِيَّة, from ʿajam, 'non-Arab').

What is known or hypothesized of the particular linguistic features of Andalusi Romance is based on relatively sparse evidence, including Romance topographical and personal names, legal documents from the Mozarabs of Toledo, names in botanical texts, occasional isolated romance words in the zajal poetry of Ibn Quzman, and Pedro de Alcalá's Vocabulista.^[9]

Other than the obvious Arabic influence, and remnants of a pre-Roman substratum, early Mozarabic may also have been affected by African Romance, which would have been carried over to the Iberian Peninsula by the Berbers who made up most of the Islamic army that conquered it and remained prominent in the Andalusi administration and army for centuries to come. The possible interaction between these two Romance varieties has yet to be investigated.^{[10][page needed]}

Mozarabic was spoken by Mozarabs (Christians living as dhimmis), Muladis (natives converted to Islam), Jews, and possibly some of the ruling Arabs and Berbers. The cultural and literary language of the Mozarabs was at first Latin, but as time passed, it came to rather be Arabic, even among Christians.^{[citation needed]}

Due to the continual emigration of Mozarabs to the Christian kingdoms of the north, Arabic toponyms are found even in places where Arab rule was ephemeral.^{[citation needed]}

Mozarabic had a significant impact on the formation of Spanish, especially Andalusian Spanish, and served as a vehicle for the transmission of numerous Andalusi Arabic terms into both.^{[citation needed]}

Because Mozarabic was not a language of higher culture, such as Latin or Arabic, it had no standard writing system.^{[citation needed]} Numerous Latin documents written by early Mozarabs are, however, extant.^[11]

The bulk of surviving material in Mozarabic is found in the choruses (or kharjas) of Andalusi lyrical compositions known as muwashshahs, which were otherwise written in Arabic.^[12] The script used to write the Mozarabic kharjas was invariably Arabic or Hebrew, less often the latter. This poses numerous problems for modern scholars attempting to interpret the underlying Mozarabic. Namely:^[13]

• Arabic script:
  • did not reliably indicate vowels
  • relied on diacritical points, quite often lost or distorted when copying manuscripts, to distinguish the following series of consonants: b-t-ṯ-n-y;^[c] ğ-ḥ-ḫ; d-ḏ; r-z; s-s̆; ṣ-ḍ; ṭ-ẓ; '-ġ; f-q; and h-a (word-finally)
  • rendered the following consonants in similar ways: r-w-d, ḏ; '-l-k (word-initially); ', ġ-f, q-m (word-initially and medially); n-y (word-finally)
  • had no specific means to indicate the following Romance sounds: /p, v (β), ts, dz, s̺, z̺, tʃ, ʎ, ɲ, e, o/
• Hebrew script:
  • also did not reliably indicate vowels
  • rendered the following consonants in similar ways: r-d; g-n; y-w; k-f; s-m (word-finally)

The overall effect of this, combined with the rampant textual corruption, is that modern scholars can freely substitute consonants and insert vowels to make sense of the kharjas, leading to considerable leeway, and hence inaccuracy, in interpretation.^[14]

It is widely agreed that Mozarabic had the following features:^[15]

• The diphthongs /au̯, ai̯/, the latter possibly changed to /ei̯/
• Diphthongization of stressed Latin /ŏ, ĕ/^[16]
• Palatalization and affrication of Latin /k/ before front vowels to /tʃ/
• Retention of Latin /j/ before front vowels
• Shift of the feminine plural /-as/ to /-es/^[16]

The following two features remain a matter of debate, largely due to the ambiguity of the Arabic script:^[15][17][18]

• Palatalization of Latin /nn, ll/ to /ɲ, ʎ/
• Lenition of intervocalic Latin /p t k s/ to /b d ɡ z/
  • Much of the controversy over the voicing of Latin /p t k/ has centered on the Arabic letters Qāf and Ṭāʾ, which in fact had both voiced and voiceless pronunciations in different varieties of Arabic. It is likely that both pronunciations were found in the Iberian Peninsula.^[18]
  • Ramón Menéndez Pidal has shown (sporadic) evidence of voicing in Latin inscriptions from the south of the Iberian Peninsula in the second century AD.^[18]
  • There are a few cases of original Latin /t k/ being represented with indisputably voiced consonants in Arabic, like [ɣ], [d], and [ð].^[17][19]

Presented below is one of the few kharjas whose interpretation is secure from beginning to end. It has been transcribed from a late thirteen-century copy in Hebrew script, but it is also attested (in rather poor condition) in an Arabic manuscript from the early twelfth century.^[20]

Another kharja is presented below, transcribed from Arabic script by García Gómez:^[21]

However the above kharja, like most others, presents numerous textual difficulties. Below is Jones's transcription of it, with vowels inserted and uncertain readings italicized.^[22] Note the discrepancies.

• Aljamiado
• Mozarabs
• Mozarabic Rite
• Mozarabic art and architecture
• Andalusian Arabic
• History of Spain