Old Spanish
Lists: Natural languages | Language families | Conlangs | Other Lists
Fact corner
- Language: Old Spanish
- Alternate names: -
- SIL-code: Ethnologue:xspa
- Language family: Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Western, Gallo-Iberian, Ibero-Romance, West Iberian, Castilian
- Number of speakers: Extinct
- Script: Latin script
On this page... (hide)
Introduction
Old Spanish is the predecessor of Modern Spanish. The "first written Spanish" is traditionally considered to have appeared in the Glosas Emilianenses (~ A.D. 978). Old Spanish period continued until approximately the fifteenth century.
The verb
Conjugation groups
Old Spanish verbs are divided in regular and irregular verbs. The vast majority of the verbs are regular. All the verbs are also divided in conjugation groups according to the ending in the infinitive.
- 1st conjugation (I), verbs ending in -ar (from Latin -āre verbs)
- 2nd conjugation (II), verbs ending in -er (from Latin -ēre and -ĕre verbs)
- 3rd conjugation (III), verbs ending in -ir (from Latin -īre verbs)
Sample verb (1st conjugation): cantar
| Indicative | Subjunctive | Condicional | Imperative | |||||||
| Present | Imperfect | Preterite | Future | Pluperfect | Present | Imperfect | Future | |||
| Sg.1 | canto | cantava | canté | cantar (h)e / cantaré | cantara | cante | cantas(se) | cantaro / cantar(e) | cantar (h)ía / cantaría | - |
| Sg.2 | cantas | cantavas | cantast(e) / cantest(e) | cantar (h)as / cantarás | cantaras | cantes | cantasses | cantares | cantar (h)ías / cantarías / cantaríes | canta! |
| Sg.3 | canta | cantava | cantó | cantar (h)a / cantará | cantara | cante | cantas(se) | cantar(e) | cantar (h)ía / cantaría / cantarie | - |
| Pl.1 | cantamos | cantávamos | cantamos / cantemos | cantar (h)emos / cantaremos | cantáramos | cantemos | cantássemos | cantáremos | cantar (h)íamos / cantaríamos / cantariemos | - |
| Pl.2 | cantades | cantábades | cantastes / cantestes | cantar (h)edes / cantaredes | cantárades | cantedes | cantássedes | cantár(e)des | cantar (h)íades / cantaríades / cantariedes | cantad! |
| Pl.3 | cantan | cantavan | cantaron | cantar (h)an / cantarán | cantaran | canten | cantassen | cantaren | cantar (h)ían / cantarían / cantarien | - |
Click verbs to conjugate them in the table above!
References
- Penny, Ralph. A History of the Spanish Language.
Cambridge University Press. 2 edition. Cambridge, UK . 2006.