Origins
Standard Spanish has come to be based on, and originated in, the Medieval Castilian dialect, more than any other variety. This prominence of Castilian is based not only on the political dominance of Castile and the military prestige of its leading role in the Reconquista, but also on the propagation of that dialect outside its original area through folk balads and recitations about Castilian heroes of the Reconquista, such as the Poem of the Cid. Early steps toward standardization of Castilian were taken in the 13th century by King Alfonso X of Castile ("Alfonso el Sabio"), who assembled scribes and translators at his court in Toledo and exerted some oversight to insure that they wrote in castellano derecho (correct Castilian). The first grammar of Castilian (or of any modern European language) was published in 1492 by Antonio de Nebrija. Further commentary on the language was offered by Juan de Valdés with his Diálogo de la lengua in 1535.
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Famous quotes containing the word origins:
“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
smiling carves dreams, bright cells
Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
“Grown onto every inch of plate, except
Where the hinges let it move, were living things,
Barnacles, mussels, water weeds—and one
Blue bit of polished glass, glued there by time:
The origins of art.”
—Howard Moss (b. 1922)