Andalusi Romance ("Mozarabic") bird names in Arabic script

What is it about?

This article deals with Arabic-Romance language contact and the transfer of medico-botanical knowledge by Arabophone scholars on the Iberian Peninsula, especially from the 9th/10th to the 16th centuries. It gives an insight into the transmission and evolution of animal names —especially bird names — between Andalusi Romance (“Mozarabic”), an extinct language used by the autochthonous peoples in the part of the Iberian Peninsula then ruled by the Moors, and Arabic. When Arabophone scholars arrived on the Iberian Peninsula they encountered new species of animals, for which they needed a name. Frequently, they chose already existing (Hispano-)Latin or Andalusi Romance names and passed them on via their medico-botanical literature, preserving and fossilizing them in Arabic script.

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Photo by Hoover Tung on Unsplash

Photo by Hoover Tung on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This paper identifies what are probably the earliest testimonies to date of Arabophone (i.e. Andalusi) scholars of medico-botanical literature dealing with (Hispano-)Latin literature on the Iberian Peninsula, and their first encounters with vernacular terms of the autochthonous peoples in the part of the Iberian Peninsula ruled by the Moors. It gives an insight into the reasons for the rare occurrence of Andalusi Romance animal names and their incorporation into the Arabic medico-botanical literature, and how Arabic zoonyms were incorporated into and became part of the “Spanish” dictionaries. In spotlighting a crucial manuscript, I add a new puzzle piece to a) the extinct Andalusi Romance language, b) to animal names in Arabic script, and c) to the Arabic-Romance language contact and knowledge-transfer across the Middle Ages.

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