AHC: Spanish Romance without Muslim Invasion

The invasion of the Muslim in 711 and the conquest of the Peninsula meant that OTL the development of the Spanish romance languages took place not in the most populated regions of the south or in the traditional Visigothic capital of Toledo, but in the more mountainous, less densely populated regions of Northern Spain and in particular in the case of OTL Spanish this meant it was heavily influenced by Basque, a language spoken by a people that had been an outlier in the Visigothic kingdom.

So now, and while I know there have been a couple of threads that have touched upon this, I was wondering how that Spanish might look/sound like. I suspect that some obvious things would disappear like f- > h- and perhaps the development of a seven vowel system similar to that of Italian or Catalan as opposed to the modern five vowel system of Spanish and hence less diphthongs in the language? Obviously there'd be a lot less Arabic influence in words, although I suppose this will mostly affect the realm of agricultural terms. What might be a good reference for how the phonetic system would evolve further south? Perhaps Mozarabic?
 
While you make a good point re the maintenance of Roman influences being centered in the north, it should be noted that Basque and Castillian Spanish has very little in common with Basque having been totally resistant to Carthaginian, Greek or Roman verbage or structure. One might find some crossovers with Navarrese Spanish but that language is somewhat scraping by these days.
 
While you make a good point re the maintenance of Roman influences being centered in the north, it should be noted that Basque and Castillian Spanish has very little in common with Basque having been totally resistant to Carthaginian, Greek or Roman verbage or structure. One might find some crossovers with Navarrese Spanish but that language is somewhat scraping by these days.

Of course it doesn't have much in term of syntaxis or the influence in terms of words, however it was an important influence in the some key aspects of Spanish phonetic, like the mentioned shift from f- to h-, which is also seen (iirc) in Gascon, a langue d'oc also quite influenced by Basque in its beginnings.
 
While you make a good point re the maintenance of Roman influences being centered in the north, it should be noted that Basque and Castillian Spanish has very little in common with Basque having been totally resistant to Carthaginian, Greek or Roman verbage or structure. One might find some crossovers with Navarrese Spanish but that language is somewhat scraping by these days.

True, but it's been postulated that the influence of Basque explains why Spanish has only five vowels, and no nasal sounds, in contrast to French and Portuguese. In addition, it may also explain why the Spanish "j" is so different from that of French, Catalan and Portuguese - all of which use it to represent the /ʒ/ sound.
 
For that, you have to look into the reajuste de las sibilantes process of the XIV-XVII centuries.

Anyway,a s to the question in the OP? Anyone?
 
Top