Murcian Spanish

Murciano, more popularly known as panocho, is a variant of the Peninsular Spanish, spoken mainly in autonomous region of Murcia and the adjacent Comarca of Vega Baja del Segura in the province of Alicante (especially in the rural areas) on the Mediterranean coast.

It is considered a southern dialect of the Spanish language, with influences from the Todmir dialect and from the Aragonese and Catalan languages.

History

Murcian is a dialect emerged from the mixture of several linguistics varieties that joined in the Kingdom of Murcia after the conquest of the Crown of Aragon and the Crown of Castile between 13th and 14th centuries: these linguistics varieties were mainly Todmir´s Romance, Arabic, Ancient Castilian, Catalan, Aragonese and Provençal.

This dialect is an Iberian Romance language with different linguistic elements from Prerroman and Latin substrates and also Todmir´s Romance substrate as well as Arabic, Aragonese, Occitan and Provençal, Catalan and Valencian and Ancient Castilian, and in the modern age French and also Caló.

It is considered an endangered language.

Study

There are a huge amount of works on Murcian Spanish:

• Alberto Sevilla. Vocabulario Murciano
• Garcia Soriano. Vocabulario del Dialecto Murciano
• García Cotorruelo-Emilia. Estudio sobre el habla de Cartagena y su comarca.
• Molina Fernandez, Patricio. Parablero Murciano.
• Muñoz Cortés-Manuel. El habla de la Huerta.
• Aguilar Gil, Pedro. Raíces, habla y costumbres de los huertanos. A.A.V.V. Torrealta. Molina. 1999.
• Álvar López, Manuel. Estudios sobre las hablas meridionales. Universidad de Granada. Granada. 2004.
• Álvar López, Manuel. Las hablas meridionales de España y su interés para la lingüística comparada. Atlas Lingüístico de Andalucía, Tomo 1, nº. 2. Universidad de Granada. Granada. 1956.
• Diez de Revenga, Francisco Javier y De Paco, Mariano. Historia de la literatura murciana. Editora Regional. Murcia. 1989.
• Ibarra Lario, Antonia. Materiales para el conocimiento del habla de Lorca y su comarca. Universidad de Murcia. Murcia. 1996.

Dialectal features

The Murcian dialectal features differ among areas, villages, social classes and individuals in accordance with the communicative situation in which they are involved, this is because of the influence of standard rule. This dialect has similarities and differences with Spanish, Aragonese, Catalan and Valencian languages.

Vowels

As Eastern Andalusian dialects, Murcian has 5 tense vowels (roughly the same as Castilian Spanish); [a], [e̞], [i], [o̞], [u] and 5 open vowels; [æ̞], [ɛ], [i̞], [ɔ], [u̞]. Vowels are lowered when in contact with an omitted /s/, /θ/ and /x/ in the coda, additionally a vowel harmony process may take place; e.g. la casa [la ˈkasa] ("the house") vs las casas [læ̞ ˈkæ̞sæ̞] ("the houses").

Consonants

In this dialect we can find linguistic phenomena that are (or were) usual in other linguistic varieties (Aragonese, Mozarabic, Catalan, Valencian, Andalusian, etc.).

• The frequent preservation of voiceless intervocalic consonants or a voiceless consonants were it has to be a voice one: cocote (cogote in Spanish), cocotazo, cancro (cangrejo in Spanish), parata, sermonata (sermonada), atoba (adobe), acachar, alcayata, engangrenar, cangrena, pescatero, pinato (pino joven), gayato (cayado), falluto (huero), capolar, Caputa (Paraje en Mula), caparra (garrapata), capítulo (cabildo), súpito (súbito), molata, La Mulata, escorrata, pescatero, Ficaria (Paraje en Blanca), poyata (Lorca), volandero, etc.
• Frequent voicing of voiceless consonants: gambusino (campesino), morga (morca), alhábega (albahaca), chiguito (chiquito), regüestar (recostar), bambulla (lat. ampulla), etc.
• The frequent preservation of Latin group kl: clamar, 'llamar' and also "pl" (plantaje, El Plan).
• The frequent preservation of Latin group fl: flama (llama, calor), flamante (llameante), flamar, suflama y soflama, inflar, infleta, botinflar, botinflao...
• The frequent maintenance of Latin /f/ in its original form (Fenazar, fenás, vafada, fito a fito, manifacero, ferrija, Ficaria, figue, etc) or aspirated (it's always aspirated before /u/ like in huerte, huerza, huente, humar, humo, conhundir, etc; it is maintained in certain cases before /o/ like in hormar, hondo, hongo, hopo, etc; and also before /a/ like in haldar, hambre, etc.
• Presence of intervocalic consonantic group -ns-: ansa, nansa, pansa, pansir, pansío, suspensar, ansín y ansina...
• Consonantal change between voiceless /k/ and /t/: La Rápita or La Rápica, tavacote (cavacote), tápena (caparis), friolenco, cantamusa, a tatas (a catas < a gatas), chito (chico, en Cieza), etc.
• Change from b to m-: mandurria, Menjú (Abenhud), meneno, comenencia, moñiga, camota (cabota), etc..

Evolution of certain consonantic groups

• /bd /> /dd/ (Abdón > Addón)
• /bj /> /jj /> /j/ (objetivo > ojjetivo > ojetivo)
• /bs /> /ss /> /s/ (absorver > assorver > asorver)
• /bt /> /tt/ (obtener > ottener)
• /cc /> /zc /> /c/ (lección> lición; producción > predución)
• /cn /> /n·n/ (tecnología > ten·nología)
• /ct /> /tt/ (exacto > esatto)
• /ct /> /tt /> /t/ (doctrina > dottrina > dotrina)
• /dc /> /cc/ (adquirir > acquirir)
• /df /> /ff/ (adfirmar > affirmar)
• /dj /> /jj/ (adjetivo > ajjetivo; adjuntar > ajuntar)
• /dm /> /m/ (admirar > amirar)
• /dv /> /vv/ (adverbio > avverbio)
• /ft /> tt/ (difteria > ditteria)
• /gd /> /dd /> /d/ (Magdalena > Maddalena > Madalena)
• /gl /> /l/ (iglesia > ilesia)
• /gm /> /m·m/ (magma > mam·ma)
• /gn /> /nn /> /n/ (indigno > indin·no > indino)
• /lr /> /rr/ (arreor)
• /mn /> /n·n/ (columna > colun·na)
• /nm /> /m·m/ (inmenso > im·menso)
• /nv /> /nf/ (enviscar > enfiscar; enblanquecío > enflanquecío)
• /pn /> /n·n/ (apnea > an·nea)
• /ps /> /pp/ (epsilón > es·silón; epilepsia > epiles·sia)
• /pt /> /tt/ (septenil > setenil; aptitud > attitú)
• /pz /> /pp/ (Leipzip > Leiz·zih)
• /sb /> /ff /> /f/ (esbordar > effordar > efordar)
• /sc /> /cc/ (escapar > eccapar)
• /sd /> /zz/ (los dientes > loz-zientes)
• /sf /> /ff /> /f/ (esbaratar > effaratar > efaratar)
• /sg /> /jj /> /j/ (esgarrar > ejjarrar > ejarrar)
• /sj /> /jj/ (esjargolar > ejjargolar)
• /sl /> /l·l/ (eslomar > el·lomar; isla > il·la)
• /sm /> /m·m/ (mesmo > mem·mo; golisma > golim·ma)
• /sn /> /n·n /> /n/ (fresno > fren·no > freno)
• /sp /> /pp/ (asperar > apperar)
• /sr /> /r·r/ (esroñar > er·roñar; Israel > Ir·rael)
• /st /> /tt/ (castaña> cattaña)
• /sv /> /ff/ (esvarar > effarar > efarar)
• /rl /> /l·l/ (Carlos > Cal·los)
• /rn /> /n·n/ (carne > can·ne)
• /rm /> /m·m/ (hermano > hem·mano)
• /rs /> /s·s/ (comerse > comes·se)
• /tl /> /l·l/ (Atlántico > Al·lántico)
• /tn /> /n·n/ (etnología > en·nología)
• /vg /> /gg/ (Novgorod > Noggorod)
• /xf /> /ff/ (Oxford > Offor)
• /zc /> /cc/ (bizcocho > biccocho)
• /zg /> /jj /> /j/ (mayorazgo > mayorajjo > mayorajo)
• /zl /> /l·l/ (hazlo > hal·lo)
• /zn /> /n·n/ (biznaga > bin·naga)