A Hebrew-Letter Fragment in Mixed Castilian-Catalan from around the Time of the Expulsion and its Implications for the Emergence of Judeo-Spanish

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Abstract

Many political changes affected the House of Barcelona during the fifteenth century. From 1412 the Kingdom of Aragon, and later, in 1416, the Crown of Aragon, were ruled by a non-Catalan ruler, Ferdinand I, the son of the King of Castile. The fact that the kings of the House of Trastámara spoke Castilian had a crucial influence on the status of the Catalan language. The marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon with Isabella of Castile (1469), and its influence on the Royal Court, also brought a language shift from Catalan to Castilian in Valencia and Catalonia by the sixteenth century. Castilian was preferred as the language of high culture and literature (Ferrando & Nicolás, 2011: 146-158). The Catalan aristocracy had began to Castilianize already in the fifteenth century, adopting a diglossic mentality: 1 Castilian for the Court and military realms, for reading and for literary creation; and Catalan in the familiar sphere and daily relationships (Woolard, 1989: 20; Ferrando & Nicolás, 2011: 147). Paradoxically, Catalan entered a status of inferiority at the Court just at the prime moment of Catalan literature, with chivalric masterpieces, such as Curial i Güelfa (1432–1468) and
Original languageAmerican English
Title of host publicationCaminos de leche y miel
Subtitle of host publicationJubilee Volume in Honor of Michael Studemund-Halévy, vol. 2: Language and Literature
PublisherTirocinio
Pages46-63
ISBN (Print)9788494292583
StatePublished - 2018

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