Old Spanish
Old Spanish (roman, romançe, romaz; Spanish: español antiguo), also known as Old Castilian or Medieval Spanish, refers to the varieties of Ibero-Romance spoken predominantly in Castile and environs during the Middle Ages. The earliest and most famous literary composition in Old Spanish is the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140–1207).
Translate in Old Spanish ↗Old Spanish (roman, romançe, romaz; Spanish: español antiguo), also known as Old Castilian or Medieval Spanish, refers to the varieties of Ibero-Romance spoken predominantly in Castile and environs during the Middle Ages. The earliest and most famous literary composition in Old Spanish is the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140–1207).
Europe
Present-day use
/t͡s d͡z/ deaffricated to /s̻ z̻/. /z̻ z ʒ/ devoiced and merged into /s̻ s ʃ/. /ʃ/ was retracted to /x/. /s̻/ (depending on dialect) merged into /s/ or fronted to /θ/.
Origins
The captured article does not contain a separate origins section. See the historical account and linked source.
Development
/t͡s d͡z/ deaffricated to /s̻ z̻/. /z̻ z ʒ/ devoiced and merged into /s̻ s ʃ/. /ʃ/ was retracted to /x/. /s̻/ (depending on dialect) merged into /s/ or fronted to /θ/.
Writing
Old Spanish was generally written in some variation of the Latin script. It was also sometimes written in Arabic script in a practice called Aljamía.
Beyond the typeface.
Signs, manuscripts, published pages and contextual photographs, with their place, period, source and reuse terms. Captions identify historical spellings, regional examples, community references and character imagery.
Photograph of a printed facsimile of the Cantar de mio Cid codex, taken in Valencia in August 2004. Commons explicitly describes the work as an Old Spanish heroic epic. This depicts a facsimile print, not the original manuscript.
Saved in Babelbook · resized display copy. Select the image to open it independently of its source.
Chameleon (Chamaeleon) · Source ↗Public domain (author release) ↗View the local visual field note
Representative reference points from Glottolog. Historical entries show reference locations, not current speakers. 1 point.
Reference & context ↗Babelbook · original editorial illustration · CC BY 4.0 · Glottolog locations; public-domain Natural Earth land
Source excerpts, selected, shortened and where noted editorially corrected from Old Spanish by Wikipedia contributors. Retrieved 2026-10-05. CC BY-SA 4.0. These excerpts are not an independently verified scholarly history; missing accounts are identified above.