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". Published originally as: During the Arab conquest of Persia, the term became a pejorative.
History
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.L.P. Harvey. "The Moriscos and the Hajj" Bulletin of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, 14.1 (1987:11-24) p. 15. 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."Summa of the principal commandments and prohibitions of our holy law and sunna". (Harvey 1987.)
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,Gerard Albert Wiegers, Islamic Literature in Spanish and Aljamiado 1994, p. 226. or the Poema de Yuçuf on the Biblical Joseph (written in Aragonese).MENÉNDEZ PIDAL, Ramón, Poema de Yuçuf: Materiales para su estudio, Granada, Universidad de Granada, (1952) p. 62-63
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 Characters highlighted in green are not independent letters, but a shaddah is added to indicate a specific sound, for example baa' with a shaddah would indicate the p sound. Characters highlighted in yellow are only used for Arabic loanwords, and their Ladino equivalents are in accordance with the Judeo-Arabic orthographic traditions. Aljamiado Latin Equivalent Ladino Equivalent IPANotes ا - [-]This letter is used for three roles. As a carrier of vowel at the beginning of a word, for writing the sound in combination with a diacritic, and for writing vowel hiatus. ب B b [b] بّ P p [p] ت T t [t] ث T t [θ] ج J jGe ge 4Gi gi [ʒ]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. The Ladino pronunciation differs from modern Spanish pronunciation. جّ Ch ch [t͡ʃ] ح H h [h]~[ħ] خ J jH h [x] د D d [d]Unlike the latin alphabet, aljamiado distinguishes between [d] and [ð] phonemes. The [d] phoneme is pronounced at the beginning of the word, after a nasal consonant ("m" or "n"), or after a lateral consonant ("l"). In all other cases it is pronounced [ð].Lawless Spanish » Pronunciation Guides "D" https://www.lawlessspanish.com/pronunciation/d/ ذ D d [ð] ر R r [ɾ] رّ Rr rrR r [r] ز Z z [dz] س Ç ç Ce ce Ci ciS sSs ssX x [ts] ([s]/[z])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. 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]. ش X xS s [ʃ]~[s]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]. كس X x7 [ks]~[gz] ص 3 S s [s] ض 3 Ld ld () [d] ط 3 T t [t] ظ 3 D d [ð] ع 3 ' [ʕ] غ G gGu gu (exceptGe geGi gi) [g]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. ڢ (ف) F f [ɸ]~[f]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" (). ڧ(ق) K k Qu qu [q]~[k] ك K k Qu quC c(exceptÇ çCe ceCi ci) [k]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. ل L l [l] لّ Ll ll [ʎ] م M m [m] ن N n [n] نّ Ñ ñ [ɲ] و W wV v [w] ([v]~[β])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. هـ ه H h [-] ي Y y [j]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:Galmés de Fuentes, A. (2004). Estudios sobre la literatura española Aljamiado-morisca. Fundación Ramón Menéndez Pidal.
The vowel [a] is represented by the standard diacritic "◌َ". The vowel [i] is represented by the standard diacritic "◌ِ". The two vowels [o] and [u] are merged and are represented by the standard diacritic for [u] "◌ُ". The vowel [e] is represented by the combination of fatʾha and alif "ـَـا".
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.
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:Bunis, D. M. (2017). Chapter 12, Judezmo (Ladino). In L. Kahn & A. D. Rubin (Eds.), Handbook of Jewish languages (pp. 366–451). essay, Brill.
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".
+Vowel at the beginning of the word Latin equivalent A/Á E/É I/Í O/Ó U/Ú Aljamiado equivalent Ladino equivalent
In the middle of the word in Aljamiado, only diacritics are used (and for the case of [e] a diacritic along with alif). In Ladino, the same three previously mentioned vowels are used.
+Vowel in the middle or at the end of a word Latin equivalent a/á e/é i/í/y o/ó u/ú/w Aljamiado equivalent Ladino equivalent
The letter hei (ה) is used when the vowel [a] is at the end of the word. This letter is the equivalent to the letter «ه، ـه» or «ة، ـة» in Persian and Arabic. Vowel Sequences
In Spanish, vowels sequences fall into two general types, diphthongs and vowel hiatus. "Diphthong" means that in practice, a pair of sequential vowels are read as a single vowel under one syllable. "Vowel hiatus" means that two vowels are read as two consecutive separate syllables.
The pronunciation of vowels and their writing are subject to certain rules in the Spanish Latin Alphabet, as well as in Aljamiado. In Spanish, vowels are divided into two general groups: "strong" and "weak":
Vowels [a], [e], [o] are classified as strong; Vowels [i], [u] are classified as weak.
As previously mentioned, in Aljamiado, there is no difference in writing between [o] and [u]. In Judaeo-Spanish, there's no difference between [o] and [u], nor between [e] and [i].
"Vowel hiatus" occurs when two strong vowels are sequential. In such a case, each vowel is read as part of a separate syllable. "Diphthong" occurs when one vowel is weak and the other is strong. In this case, Stress in pronunciation is on the strong vowel. Of course, there are exceptions to these rules.Lawless Spanish, "Mistakes and Difficulties", Diphthongs + Hiatus
The rules roughly are:
When it is a dipthong starting with [i], the first vowel is a diacritic as standard and the second vowel is placed as a diacritic of yā’ (ي), with an extra alif when "ie" When it is a dipthong starting with [u], the first vowel is a diacritic as standard and the second vowel is placed as a diacritic of wāw (و), with an extra alif when "ue" When it is a vowel hiatus, both vowels are followed by alif regardless of if they are [e] or not, except "au" which uses an alif to carry [u].
Below table outlines the general guidelines and some examples
+Orthographic guideline of vowel sequences Latin Aljamiado Ladino Exampleia Criaturaكرِيَتُرَie Xavierشَّبِيَارْio Diosدِيُشْua Cualesكُوَلَاشْue Puederبُّوَاذَارْui Ruidoرُاِذُoé Poeziyaبَُاَازِيَéo judeoespañoláe Traerتْرَاَارْau Aunqueاَاُنْكَاéa Realidadرَااَلِذَذْ
Original Consonant Letters
While the base Arabic script was suited for the Arabic language and used throughout the Muslim world, it lacked letters to represent many phonemes that were otherwise extremely common outside of semitic languages. Like other alphabets that adapted Arabic script, Aljamiado writing conventions invented letters to express consonants that they couldn't with the base set of characters.
Other Arabic-derived alphabets added dots to letters that closely matched the existing sound in the Arabic alphabet, but in Aljamiado they used a gemination mark on letters with the closest existing sound.
The Ladino alphabet also does the same thing with niqqud such as "Rafe" (רָפֶה) "◌ﬞ" or "Geresh" (גֶּרֶשׁ) "◌׳", for example "ב" produces the sound [b], and "בﬞ" or "ב׳" produce the sound [v].