What are the numerals for 10-15 in Old Spanish?
Numbers 10-15 in Old Spanish
Why did they change the spelling of those words?
And they're pronounced /diedz/ /ondze/ ... /kindze/ or is it /kwindze/, right?
And they're pronounced /diedz/ /ondze/ ... /kindze/ or is it /kwindze/, right?
Yes, 'z' in Old Spanish represented the voiced alveolar affricate /dz/. The change in spelling probably reflected the change in pronunciation of 'z' from voiced alveolar affricate to voiceless interdental fricative sometime in the 16th century, where 'z' and 'c' became interchangeable until a standard was developed.
<<diez
onze
doze
treze
catorze
quinze >>
Fourteen in Old Spanish is "quatorze" too,like in contemporary Portuguese.
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZjcrhyQlFa0C&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&dq=history+of+the+spanish+language+quatorze&source=bl&ots=67Yry5u6jO&sig=UAtJZhDiNdICKAH_HTctELAKG_w&hl=en&ei=mOlvS_qWN4mqnAOT34mUCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false
onze
doze
treze
catorze
quinze >>
Fourteen in Old Spanish is "quatorze" too,like in contemporary Portuguese.
http://books.google.com/books?id=ZjcrhyQlFa0C&pg=PA95&lpg=PA95&dq=history+of+the+spanish+language+quatorze&source=bl&ots=67Yry5u6jO&sig=UAtJZhDiNdICKAH_HTctELAKG_w&hl=en&ei=mOlvS_qWN4mqnAOT34mUCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false
That old Spanish was phonologically more complex than modern Spanish leads me to think that during the Reconquista Spanish did suffer some sort of creolisation as it was assimilated by many Mozarabic and Arabic speakers who did not grasp well the finest details of Spanish phonology.
How much of its former finesse has Castillian Spanish lost this day? Is it still possible to do some Restoration without putting the unity of your language at stake?
I'm afraid that simplification of Spanish is still in charge. Not only phonologically but sintax is also becoming less sophisticated. For example loismo which was carefully avoided by educated people is nowadays accepted . It is interesting how dubbings of foreign films, cartoons, etc, older than ten years ago did not exhibit leismo, but nowadays it's ubiquitous in dubbings, mass media, books, etc. To people who don't know what leismo is, in few words : masculine object pronoun in Spanish is declined according to its syntactic role in the sentence. For example if it acts as direct complement "lo" is used and "le" if it is indirect complement. Well, this must be terribly difficult for some people so they simply use "le" in all circumstances.