Aljamiado

thumb|[[Al-Fatiha with Castillian translations in Aljamiado script above each line of Arabic Quranic text.]]

thumb|Aljamiado text by [[Mancebo de Arévalo. c. 16th century.]]

thumb|Poema de Yuçuf

Aljamiado (; ) or Aljamía texts are manuscripts that use the Arabic script for transcribing European languages, especially Romance languages such as Old Spanish or Aragonese. This alphabet is also called the Morisco alphabet.

According to Anwar G. Chejne, Aljamiado or Aljamía is "a corruption of the Arabic word (in this case it means foreign language) and, generally, the Arabic expression and its derivative are applicable to peoples whose ancestry is not of Arabian origin". During the Arab conquest of Persia, the term became a pejorative.

History

thumb|Aljamiado letters

The systematic writing of Romance-language texts in Arabic scripts appears to have begun in the fifteenth century, and the overwhelming majority of such texts that can be dated belong to the sixteenth century. A key aljamiado text is the compilation Suma de los principales mandamientos y devediamentos de nuestra santa ley y sunna by the muftī of Segovia, of 1462.

In later times, Moriscos were banned from using Arabic as a religious language, and wrote in Spanish on Islamic subjects. Examples are the Coplas del alhichante de Puey Monzón, narrating a Ḥaǧǧ, or the Poema de Yuçuf on the Biblical Joseph (written in Aragonese).

Aljamiado played a very important role in preserving Islam and the Arabic language in the life of the Moriscos of Castile and Aragon; Valencian and Granadan Moriscos spoke and wrote in Andalusi Arabic. After the fall of the last Muslim kingdom on the Iberian peninsula, the Moriscos (Muslims in parts of what was once Al-ʾAndalus) were forced to convert to Christianity or leave the peninsula. They were forced to adopt Christian customs and traditions and to attend church services on Sundays. Nevertheless, some of the Moriscos kept their Islamic belief and traditions secretly, and this included the usage of Aljamiado.

In 1567, Philip II of Spain issued a royal decree in Spain, which forced Moriscos to abandon using Arabic on all occasions, formal and informal, speaking and writing. Using Arabic in any sense of the word would be regarded as a crime. They were given three years to learn the language of the Christian Spanish, after which they would have to get rid of all Arabic written material. Moriscos of Castile and Aragon translated all prayers and the (ʾAḥādīṯ of the Prophet Muhammad) into Aljamiado transcriptions of the Spanish language, while keeping all Qurʾānic verses in the original Arabic. Aljamiado scrolls were circulated amongst the Moriscos. Historians came to know about Aljamiado literature only in the early nineteenth century. Some of the Aljamiado scrolls are kept in the Spanish National Library in Madrid.

Alphabet

Letters

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Aljamiado

! Latin Equivalent

! Ladino Equivalent

! IPA

|-

| dir="rtl"| ا ¹

| -

|

| [-]

|-

| dir="rtl"| ب

| B b

| <br>

| [b]

|-bgcolor="#ABEBC6"

| dir="rtl"| بّ ²

| P p

|

| [p]

|-

| dir="rtl"| ت

| T t

|

| [t]

|-bgcolor="#FFEFD5"

| dir="rtl"| ث ³

| T t

|

| [θ]

|-

| dir="rtl"| ج

| J j<br>Ge ge ⁴<br>Gi gi

| <br>

| [ʒ]⁵

|-bgcolor="#ABEBC6"

| dir="rtl"| جّ ²

| Ch ch

|

| [t͡ʃ]

|-bgcolor="#FFEFD5"

| dir="rtl"| ح ³

| H h

|

| [h]~[ħ]

|-bgcolor="#FFEFD5"

| dir="rtl"| خ ³

| J j<br>H h

|

| [x]

|-

| dir="rtl"| د ⁶

| D d

|

| [d]

|-

| dir="rtl"| ذ ⁶

| D d

|

| [ð]

|-

| dir="rtl"| ر

| R r

|

| [ɾ]

|-bgcolor="#ABEBC6"

| dir="rtl"| رّ ²

| Rr rr<br>R r

|

| [r]

|-

| dir="rtl"| ز

| Z z

|

| [dz]

|-

| dir="rtl"| س

| Ç ç ⁴<br>Ce ce<br> Ci ci<br>S s<br>Ss ss<br>X x⁷

|

| [ts] ([s]/[z])

|-

| dir="rtl"| ش

| X x⁷<br>S s

|

| [ʃ]~[s]

|-

| dir="rtl"| كس

| X x⁷

|

| [ks]~[gz]

|-bgcolor="#FFEFD5"

| dir="rtl"| ص ³

| S s

|

| [s]

|-bgcolor="#FFEFD5"

| dir="rtl"| ض ³

| Ld ld

| <br>()

| [d]

|-bgcolor="#FFEFD5"

| dir="rtl"| ط ³

| T t

|

| [t]

|-bgcolor="#FFEFD5"

| dir="rtl"| ظ ³

| D d

|

| [ð]

|-bgcolor="#FFEFD5"

| dir="rtl"| ع ³

| '

|

| [ʕ]

|-

| dir="rtl"| غ

| G g<br>Gu gu ⁴<br>(except<Br>Ge ge<br>Gi gi)

|

| [g]

|-

| dir="rtl"| ڢ ⁸<br>(ف)

| F f

|

| [ɸ]~[f]

|-bgcolor="#FFEFD5"

| dir="rtl"| ڧ ^{3, 8}<br>(ق)

| K k <br>Qu qu

|

| [q]~[k]

|-

| dir="rtl"| ك

| K k <br>Qu qu<br>C c ⁴<br>(except<br>Ç ç<br>Ce ce<br>Ci ci)

|

| [k]

|-

| dir="rtl"| ل

| L l

|

| [l]

|-bgcolor="#ABEBC6"

| dir="rtl"| لّ ²

| Ll ll

|

| [ʎ]

|-

| dir="rtl"| م

| M m

|

| [m]

|-

| dir="rtl"| ن

| N n

|

| [n]

|-bgcolor="#ABEBC6"

| dir="rtl"| نّ ²

| Ñ ñ

|

| [ɲ]

|-

| dir="rtl"| و ⁹

| W w<br>V v

|

| [w] ([v]~[β])

|-

| dir="rtl"| هـ ه

| H h

|

| [-]

|-

| dir="rtl"| ي ¹⁰

| Y y

|

| [j]

|}

Notes:

1. The letter alif (ا) plays three roles. First as a carrier of vowel at the beginning of a word. Second is for writing the sound in combination with diacritic, and third is for writing vowel hiatus.
2. It is not an independent letter, but a special "dongara" consisting of a letter and a consonant (in other words, the repetition of a letter) to indicate a specific sound.
3. These letters are only used in writing Arabic loanwords. The Ladino equivalents for these letters are in accordance with the Judeo-Arabic orthographic traditions.
4. This letter has a dual pronunciation, depending on the letter after it. For this reason, both in Aljamiado and in Ladino, two different letters are used to represent it.
5. In Ladino, the pronunciation of this letter differs from its equivalent in modern Spanish.
6. Whenever the letter "D" is at the beginning of the word, or after a nasal consonant ("m" or "n"), or after a lateral consonant ("l"), pronounced as [d] and written with the letter "d". In all other cases, it is pronounced as [ð] and written with the letter "d".
7. In old Spanish, the letter "X" was for representing the sound [ʃ]. But in some words, especially those that start with "ex-", the pronunciation of this letter is [s], [ks] or [gz].
8. In the writing of Aljamiado, the Maghrebi script has been common, in which the placement and number of dot of on letters "fāʾ" and "qāf" are different from the conventional Arabic script, or the so-called " script" ().
9. The letter "wāw" does not correspond to any exact letter in the Spanish Latin alphabet. This letter and its sound are pronounced in certain digraphs and trigraphs. Worded differently, there are diphthongs and triphthongs as result of certain vowel sequences, where the sound is pronounced and the letter "wāw" is used to write it.
10. The letter "y" in the Spanish Latin alphabet is equivalent to "yāʾ" (ي). But this letter is also used to write some consonant sequences, especially consonant sequences that have a sound similar to in their pronunciation.

Vowels

Spanish has 5 vowels, which include [a], [e], [i], [o], [u].

In the Arabic language and alphabet, however, there are only 3 vowels, [a], [i], [u]. In Arabic, these 3 vowels have both a short form, which is represented by diacritics fatʾha, kasra, and ḍamma, and long forms, which are represented by the letters alif (ا), yaʾ (ي), and waw (و).

In Spanish, however, there is no difference between short and long vowels. In Aljamiado alphabet, 4 vowels are written as follows:

The vowel [a] is represented by the diacritic "◌َ".

The vowel [i] is represented by the diacritic "◌ِ".

The two vowels [o] and [u] are merged and are represented by the diacritic "◌ُ".

The vowel [e] is represented by the combination of fatʾha and alif "ـَـا".

The Hebrew alphabet, like Arabic, has both diacritics, known as niqqud, and the use of three letters alef (א), vav (ו), and yod (י). In the Judaeo-Spanish alphabet, niqqud is not used, and only three aforementioned letters are used. Also, in addition to the merger of [o] and [u], two vowels [i] and [e] are also merged, and thus only three vowels are shown; as follows:

The vowel [a] is represented by alif "א".

The two vowels [e] and [i] are merged and represented by yod "י".

The two vowels [o] and [u] are merged and are represented by vav "ו".

In Aljamiado, similar to Arabic and Persian, when the vowel is at the beginning of the word, alif (ا) is used as the vowel carrier, except for the [e] sound. For the [e] sound, a hamza is used as a vowel carrier, followed by alif (ا). In Judaeo-Spanish (Ladino) as in Arabic, alif "א" plays the same role.

No distinction between unstressed or stressed vowels exist in Aljamiado manuscripts.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|+Vowel at the beginning of the word

Below table outlines the general guidelines and some examples

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|+Orthographic guideline of vowel sequences

|}

Notes

1. This sound, for the most part, has evolved out of existence in Modern Spanish. The "x" (شّ) now sounds like "j" ([x]) in most cases in modern Spanish.

Some letters simply adopted another value.

{| class="wikitable"

!Letter

!Transcription

|-

|ج

|j [ʒ]~[x]

|-

|غ

|g

|-

|س

|ç

|-

|ش

|x

|}

The phoneme /β/ was typically represented by the letter ب (b), though in some instances it was represented by the letter ف (f). The plosive consonants were required to be aspirated; however, this aspect was lost in weaker positions such as the initial position of a word or an intervocalic position. In Aljamiado texts, the letter ط was utilized to represent the phoneme /t/ in initial and intervocalic positions where it was unaspirated, while the letter ت was utilized in postconsonantal positions to indicate the aspirated form of the phoneme. Similarly, the letter ﻕ was used to represent the phoneme /k/ in initial and intervocalic positions where it was unaspirated, and the letter ﻙ was used in postconsonantal positions to indicate the aspirated form. However, according to the glossary of Abuljair, the aspiration of plosive consonants never ceased to occur in any position.

B, V (ب) and P (بّ)

In Spanish language, the letter "B" has two allophones. If the letter is at the beginning of the word, or after a nasal consonant ("m" or "n"), it is pronounced as [b]. Otherwise, it is pronounced as [v~β]. The letter "v" also is pronounced as [v~β] regardless of position in the word.

In Aljamiado, no distinction is made between any one of these. The letter "baʾ" (ب) is used for all cases. US Government Guide on Romanization of Ladino

As Arabic alphabet lacks a letter for the equivalent to the letter "P", the sound [p], in Aljamiado, a digraph has been created. This digraph consists of the letter "baʾ" and a shadda, "بّ".

The word aljamiado is sometimes used for other non-Semitic language written in Arabic letters:

• Bosnian and Albanian texts written in Arabic script during the Ottoman period have been referred to as aljamiado. However, many linguists prefer to limit the term to Romance languages, instead using Arebica to refer to the use of Arabic script for Slavic languages like Bosnian.
• The word Aljamiado is also used to refer to Greek written in the Arabic/Ottoman alphabet.

Text sample

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! English Translation

|All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

|-

! Spanish (Latin)

| dir="ltr"| Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales en dignidad y derechos y, dotados como están de razón y conciencia, deben comportarse fraternalmente los unos con los otros.

|-

! Aljamiado

| dir="rtl"|

|-

! Ladino

| dir="rtl"| טודﬞוס לוס סיריס אומאנוס נאסין ליבﬞריס אי איגואליס אין דיניידﬞאדﬞ אי דיריגﬞוס אי, דוטאדﬞוס קומו איסטאן די ראזון אי קונסיינסיה, דיבﬞין קומפורטארסין פﬞראטירנאלמינטי לוס אונוס קון לוס אוטרוס.

|}

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

• Los Siete Alhaicales y otras plegarias de mudéjares y moriscos by Xavier Casassas Canals published by Almuzara, Sevilla (Spain), 2007.

External links

• A bilingual Arabic-aljamiado Qur'an from the fifteenth century
• Aljamiado (Texts and Studies)