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From: mcv@inter.NL.net (Miguel Carrasquer)
Subject: Re: Kharjas
Message-ID: <D0I6Gr.M72@inter.NL.net>
Organization: NLnet
References: <3c5ppa$snd@netnews.upenn.edu>
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 1994 17:41:15 GMT
Lines: 50

In article <3c5ppa$snd@netnews.upenn.edu>,
Maelstrom <ccardona@mail2.sas.upenn.edu> wrote:
>Hi I heard this medieval song and i wanted to know in what language it 
>is.  It seems romance with a clear influence of arabic.  Is it Ladino or 
>a dialect of spanish or protuguese?
>
>Garid vos ay yermanellas,        Tell me, my sisters,
>com contenir a meu male!	 how will i contain my pain?
>Sin al-habib non vivireyu,	 I cannot live without my love,
> advolarey demandare.		 I must fly away to seek him.
>
>Aman ya habibi,			 Pity, pity, my love,
>al wahsa me no feras!		 don't quarrel with me.
>Bon beja ma boquella,	         O good man, kiss my small mouth,
>eu se que tu n'iras.		 I know you won't leave me.
>			
>Tan t'amaray, tan t'amaray, I will love you so well, I will love you so well, 
>habib tan t'amaray!    		my love, I will love you so well.
>Enfermeron weylos cuidas,	These cares have so sickened my eyes-
>ya dolen tan male.		they pain me so!
>

Your "subject:" line says this is a kharja (usually writen "jarcha"
in Spanish).  I'm no expert on kharjas, but this seems to be an
unusual one in that most of the text is in Romance.  Normally,
kharjas are poems in Arabic, with only the "refrain" in Romance.

The Romance language used in the kharjas is usually called
"Moza'rabe", the name given to the Romance dialects of those regions that
were occupied by the Arabs, i.e. the larger part of the Iberian
peninsula.  Obviously, there were several dialects.  None of the
current languages/dialects spoken in Spain/Portugal derive from 
Moza'rabe.  Instead, the languages of the North (Galician/Portuguese,
[Asturian/Leonese], Castilian, [Aragonese] and Catalan) became dominant 
throughout the territories as they were "reconquered".

The dialect in this kharja has some characteristics in common with
Galician/Portuguese ("the" = o, "I" = eu, "kiss" = bejare).  The form 
"welyos" (Port. olhos, Cast. ojos), however, proves that this is really a
different dialect.  To be technical, it has o > ue before yod, unlike
Portuguese (which doesn't diphtonguize at all) and Castilian
(which doesn't before a palatal consonant).  Strangely, "dolen", in 
the same sentence, shows no diphtong.  In this respect, then, the
language in this kharja seems closer to Catalan (which has "ulls" < "uells" 
and "dolen"), even if for the rest it is quite unlike Catalan.  
 
-- 
Miguel Carrasquer         ____________________  ~~~
Amsterdam                [                  ||]~  
mcv@inter.NL.net         ce .sig n'est pas une .cig 
