part i

. page 8.

[9] An old prejudice attributes the forcible aspiration which the Spanish shares in common with the German and Arabic, solely to the mixture of the latter with the Castilian. This prejudice is pardonable in the Spaniards, who are not aware of the influence which the German guttural must have had over their language; but the Germans, who know the nature of their mother tongue, ought to recollect that the same Arabic words which are strongly aspirated by the Spaniards, are pronounced by the Portuguese, though equally naturalized among them, with a hissing sound. Besides, how does it happen that the G before E and I, which is a guttural with the Germans, has nearly the same sound with the Castilians, though it is never so pronounced by any other people whose language appears to have risen on the ruins of that of ancient Rome? The Germanic pronunciation of the Visigoths, which was doubtless preserved in the mountains of Castile, would afterwards be easily confounded with the Arabic. The Castilian conversion of O into UE, also resembles the change which takes place in German of O into OE. Let, for instance, the Spanish CUERPO and PUEBLO be compared with the German KÖRPER and PÖBEL.

[10] The Portuguese language would perhaps be less depreciated by the Spaniards, if it did not remind them of the vulgar idiom spoken by the Galician water-carriers in Madrid. On the contrary, the Portuguese think the Castilian language inflated, and at the same time rough and also affected. Both nations are as little disposed to come to an agreement on the merits of their respective languages as the Danes and Swedes are regarding theirs; for the Castilian and Portuguese are, like the Danish and Swedish, only two conflicting dialects of the same tongue. The Swedes admit that the Danish language exceeds their own in softness, though they consider that softness disagreeable, and the harsher Swedish more sonorous on account of the greater abundance and fulness of its vowel sounds; thus, precisely in the same manner, do the Spaniards condemn the softness of the Portuguese tongue. The elision of the letter L in a great number of Portuguese words, as in COR, PAÇO, for _color_, _palacio_, and the remarkable change of L into R, as in _branco_, _brando_, for _blanco_, _blando_, are peculiarities of that language to which foreigners do not easily reconcile themselves.

[11] The first essay towards a history of the Portuguese language, and an introduction to Portuguese orthography, were published in Lisbon at the time when Portugal was a Spanish province.--Duarte Nunez de Liaõ, the author of both works, was a statesman and magistrate. (_Desembargador da Camara da Supplicaçaõ._) The former is entitled _Origem da Lingoa Portugueza_, _Lisb._ 1606, in 8vo. It is dedicated to Philip III. king of Spain, who is, however, on this occasion merely addressed as _Dom Phelipe II. de Portugal_. In the preface the author states his other, but older work, (_Orthographia da Lingoa Portugueza_, Lisb. 1576, in 8vo.) to be the first of the kind. The Portuguese have, however, for two centuries laboured with as little success as the Germans, to introduce uniformity of orthography into their language. The convertible M and AÕ appear to have been so early selected to denote the French nasal tone which occurs in numerous final syllables, that Nunez de Liaõ found it necessary to acquiesce in the custom, according to which the same word might be very differently written, as _naçaõ_ or _naçam_, _naõ_ or _nam_, pronounced nearly as _nassaong_ and _naong_, with the French sound of _on_, _bon_. But it surely could not have been very difficult to dispossess the totally unnecessary and barbarous H in _hum_ and _huma_ (from the latin _unus_ and _una_) of the place it had assumed, as it is now banished from elegant Portuguese orthography. Trifles of this kind present more materials for reflection than a first view gives reason to expect. When the orthography of a country continues to be an object of reform, that nation is deficient in a certain degree of refinement, the attainment of which has either been missed, or the right pursuit of which is but just commenced. Indeed what necessity is there for the French, Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese, writing the same sound, occurring in the same word, in four different ways, as for example, _bataille_, _battaglia_, _batalla_, _batalha_?

[12] Nothing could be more improper than to follow Du Cange, (Glossar. praef. § 34, sq.) in dividing the _vulgare idioma_ of the present inhabitants of the Pyrenean Peninsula into the _Castellanum_, _Limosinum_, and _Vasconicum_.

[13] A particular account of the Limosin poetry, even in its last period, which is late enough to come into the division of time called the latter ages, does not belong to the history of modern poetry. It ought to be treated as the last part of the chivalrous poetry of the middle ages.--See the notices in Velasquez and Dieze, p. 45, and the still more instructive sketch of the history of Limosin poetry, in Eichhorn’s _Gesch. der Cult. u. Litt._ vol. i. p. 123.

[14] That the Portuguese and the Galician were originally not to be distinguished from each other, is expressly stated by that attentive observer of the forms of his native language, Nunez de Liaõ, who says, _As quaes ambas_, (namely, the Portuguese and the Galician tongues) _eraõ antigamente quasi huma mesma nas palavras, e diphthongos, e pronunciação, que as outras partes de Hespanha naõ tem_. ORIGEM DA LINGOA PORTUGUEZA, cap. VI.

[15] Velasquez, who felt this, thought fit when he read the _Lusiade de Camões_, to pay a particular compliment to the author, at the expense of the Portuguese language; for, after delivering the same opinion on that language, which is entertained by most Spaniards, he very elegantly adds: “the muses thought otherwise when they spoke through the mouth of Camoens.”

[16] _Cada fuente de Portugal y cada monte son Hippocrenes y Parnassos_, says Manuel de Faria y Sousa, in his _Epitome de las Historias Portugueses_. Father Sarmiento, a Spanish author, whom national prejudice does not prevent from doing justice to the Portuguese, mentions this observation in his instructive _Memorias para la Poesia Española_.

[17] The word is used in this extensive sense by Sarmiento in his _Memorias_, or as the book is sometimes called, _Obras posthumas_,