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Concept
Andalusi Romance
Summary
Andalusi Romance, also called Mozarabic or Ajami, refers to the varieties of Ibero-Romance spoken in Al-Andalus, the parts of the medieval Iberian Peninsula under Islamic control. Romance, or vernacular Latin, was the common tongue for the majority of the population in the wake of the Umayyad conquest in the early eighth century. Over the following centuries, Andalusi Arabic gradually spread and eventually superseded Andalusi Romance as the main spoken language in the Muslim-controlled south. At the same time, as the northern Christian kingdoms gradually pushed south, their respective Romance varieties gained ground at the expense of Andalusi Romance, with the unusual Castilian enjoying particular success here and against other neighbouring Romance varieties as well. The final disappearance of Andalusi Romance dates to around the thirteenth century.
The medieval Romance varieties were broadly similar, with Castilian standing out as a divergent outlier. Andalusi Romance is not distinguished from the others primarily by its linguistic features, but rather by virtue of being written in the Arabic script. What is known or hypothesized about the particular linguistic features of Andalusi Romance is based on relatively sparse evidence, of which the Kharjas are the most important.
The traditional term for the Romance varieties used in al-Andalus is "Mozarabic," derived from Mozarab, (from the musta‘rab) a term used to refer to Christians in al-Andalus.
Some scholars dislike the term for its ambiguity. According to Consuelo Lopez-Morillas:it has been objected that the term straddles ambiguously the realms of religion and language, and further implies, erroneously, that the dialect was spoken only by Christians. The very form of the word suggests (again a false perception) that it denotes a language somehow related to Arabic.To describe the varieties of Romance in al-Andalus, Spanish scholars are increasingly using romance andalusí (from the أَنْدَلُسِيّ), or Andalusi Romance in English.
Official source
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