Old Riojan is an extinct variety of

Navarro-Aragonese Navarro-Aragonese is a Romance language once spoken in a large part of the Ebro River basin, south of the middle Pyrenees, although it is only currently spoken in a small portion of its original territory. The areas where it was spoken might have ...

which was spoken in northeastern medieval

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous community and province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, a ...

. This variety went extinct due to a rapid mixture with Castilian following La Rioja falling into the control of Crown of Castile. Latin had been spoken in La Rioja after 218 BC, following the

Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Ital ...

. These varieties eventually evolved into Old Riojan, and were first documented in the

Glosas Emilianenses The Glosas Emilianenses (Spanish for "glosses of he monastery of SaintMillán/Emilianus") are glosses written in the 10th or 11th century to a 9th-century Latin codex. These marginalia are important as early examples of writing in a form of Rom ...

. In the modern day, the modern Riojan varieties of Castilian contain several characteristics which belonged to Old Riojan.

Classification and terminology

The term "Old Riojan" refers to varieties of Navarro-Aragonese spoken in La Rioja. Varieties of

Ibero-Romance The Iberian Romance, Ibero-Romance or sometimes Iberian languages Iberian languages is also used as a more inclusive term for all languages spoken on the Iberian Peninsula, which in antiquity included the non-Indo-European Iberian language. are ...

were referred as "" before the reign of

Alfonso X of Castile Alfonso X (also known as the Wise, es, el Sabio; 23 November 1221 – 4 April 1284) was King of Castile, León and Kingdom of Galicia, Galicia from 30 May 1252 until his death in 1284. During the April 1257 Imperial election, election of 1257, ...

in the 13th century. Terms such as , , and only existed as adjectives relating as to the region it referred to, but not as names of languages or dialects. As a

Romance language The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fa ...

, it formed part of a linguistic continuum, where it and Navarrese were both in-between Aragonese and

Castilian Castilian or Castillian may refer to: * Castile (historical region), Castile, a historic region of Spain ** Castilian people, an ethnic group from Castile ** Castilian languages, a branch of the West Iberian languages consisting of all linguistic ...

History

Pre-Riojan era

Before Roman times, the

Vascones The Vascones were a pre- Roman tribe who, on the arrival of the Romans in the 1st century, inhabited a territory that spanned between the upper course of the Ebro river and the southern basin of the western Pyrenees, a region that coincides ...

inhabited northeastern La Rioja. They presumably spoke a precursor to modern

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous c ...

. It is believed by experts that the

Hand of Irulegi The Hand of Irulegi is a late Iron Age archaeological artifact unearthed in 2021 during excavations in the archaeological site of , next to the medieval castle of Irulegi, located in the municipality of Aranguren, to the south of Pamplona in Nava ...

is written in this Vasconic language, referred as "

proto-Basque Proto-Basque ( eu, aitzineuskara; es, protoeuskera, protovasco; french: proto-basque), or Pre-Basque, is the reconstructed predecessor of the Basque language before the Roman conquests in the Western Pyrenees. Background The first linguist wh ...

". Upon the arrival of

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

in 218 BC following the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

was brought the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

, initially to the southern and eastern coasts. These Latin varieties eventually evolved into multiple

Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...

dialects, La Riojan being one of them. In 711 AD, the Iberian Peninsula fell into Muslim control, and La Rioja became a part of the Muslim domains of

Al-Andalus Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the Mus ...

. This resulted in an influx of

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...

vocabulary being added to everyday Ibero-Romance speech, most words starting with "al-" or "a".

10th-12th centuries

The first features in Ibero-Romance arise in the 10th century as fragments appear from that time in Vulgar Latin varieties, identifable as Old Leonese and Navarro-Aragonese. In the 10th or 11th century, glosses known as the "

" were written, presumably by a monk at the monastery of San Millán de Suso (in La Rioja). These glosses were originally believed to be written in Castilian, though it several authors now believe they are the first written texts in Navarro-Aragonese.

Decline and extinction

Starting from the 12th century, La Rioja started to be more Castilianized following the region's annexation by the Crown of Castile. By the 13th century, all characteristics which marked the Riojan dialect disappeared in the west, while in the east, these characteristics mingled with Burgalese Castilian. Currently, several characteristics are conserved in the modern Riojan dialect.

References

{{Reflist Pyrenean-Mozarabic languages Languages attested from the 10th century Medieval languages Extinct Romance languages