Grammars in Contact: A Cross-Linguistic Typology Book

Language is like a puzzle and I love it when there is an explanation that makes sense of it all. A Brief History of the Spanish Language is like that in explaining everything I ever wanted to know about Spanish, especially the odd things that the textbooks don't talk about.

The book traces Spanish from Latin to Medieval Castilian to Modern Spanish, and shows a clear continuity all the way. There is a chapter on Latin complete enough to make me dredge up the year of High School Latin I had (femina, feminae, feminae, etc.). Then there is a thorough discussion of the changes in phonology (sounds), morphology (word structure) and syntax (sentence structure) that made up the incremental evolution from Latin to Spanish.

One of my favorite parts is discovering the origins of words. Anyone with a smattering of Spanish will be interested to know that "Usted" (the formal "you") evolved from "Vuestra Merced" ("Your Mercy"), after a collapsing of the formal and familiar to the Latin "vos".

Another fun fact: The adverbial ending "-mente" ("-ly" in English) derived from the word "mente" (which means "mind"). For example, one might say that somebody did something "seriosa mente", with "serious mind", or seriously. Voila.

Yet another fun fact: Some tenses were constructed using auxiliary verbs such as "he amado" ("I have loved"). Similarly, "he amar" ("I have to love"). On this last one, the word order got switched around to "amar he" or "amaré" ("I will love"). In other words, "I will love" is a rephrasing of "I have to love." I love these puzzles.

Maybe these funny puzzles will turn some people off, but I get a kick out of them. I was also entranced by discussions of the various types of Spanish, such as Andalusian or the varieties which exist in Spanish America. There are sample passages from the various linguistic regions, with discussion of the precise differences. I always knew that my Mexican Spanish was different from Puerto Rican Spanish or Argentine Spanish, but this book explains exactly how and why.

So this is an arcane book which I find very entertaining. Makes me want to be a linguist.