Yasmine Beale-Rivaya

The Arabic-language notarial documents of Toledo, also known as the Mozarabic (Arabized-Christian) documents of Toledo, from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, are considered emblematic in the history of that city. These documents have been analyzed to argue for and trace the demographic and linguistic changes in the Mozarabic community as well as the steady increase in power and wealth of the authority of the Church after the so-called Reconquest of 1085. They reveal the permanence of community and its linguistic and cultural practices in a rapidly changing city and society. Scholars have referred and discussed the events depicted within this collection either to highlight the distance, separateness and isolation of the Mozarabic community from the rest of Toledan society in the twelfth through thirteenth centuries, or to argue precisely the opposite; the integral nature of this community for the development of historical events in Toledo during this transition period. More recently, some scholars have begun to question this dichotomous paradigm, Mozarabs-or those within the documents- as centers of Toledan history or Mozarabs living on the outskirts or margins of Toledan society, through a reexamination of the nature of these documents. In this paper, we build on the trend to move away from underlining those aspects that make the Mozarabs different from their neighbors through the examination of some of the legal language included in the documents in the collection of notarized documents in the Arabic language of Toledo and show how even the language related to matters of law points towards a sharing of legal contexts.

The language used by a community is often determined by the geographical and socio-political history in which it resides. Languages and dialects are frequently bound by natural geographical borders, such as rivers, mountains, or by artificial political boundaries. A central linguistic concept is that fully developed languages can be learned as a second language.  Although a language may be tightly associated with a particular group, no group owns or has exclusivity on a particular language. When it comes to the Mozarabs (Arabized Christians in medieval Iberia) or the Mudéjares (Muslims living in Christian territories in medieval Iberia), the language they used is closely associated with their identity.
Scholars such as Federico Corriente, and Francisco Marcos Marín have argued that the language of the Mozarabs should be categorized, analyzed, and treated in terms of its structure and not be classified primarily by its presumed cultural significance, as has been the tendency in the past.  A more linguistically precise way to refer to the language of the Mozarabs could be to call it Andalusí-Romance, which would highlight the fact that the Mozarabs and other communities in Al-Andalus spoke a Romance particular to that geographical area. However, the preferred term continues to be Mozarabic.
By favoring the term Mozarabic over Romanceandalusí, scholars are implicitly linking a language with an identity and implying that no other community or person of other identity can also learn that language. While it has been shown that the notarial documents of Toledo and Huesca have the same linguistic structure, those of Toledo are considered Mozarabic while those of Huesca are considered Mudéjar (of Muslims living in Christian lands). Likewise, the language in the documents of Toledo is considered Mozarabic, while that of Huesca is called Arabic. The argument is that the names in the documents of Huesca are those of Mudéjar families, while those of Toledo are of Mozarabic ones.  This division of the documents as two different languages is an artificial one that climaxes the supposed cultural aspects of the languages rather than their structure. Scholars such as Francisco Hernández have highlighted the uniqueness of the Mozarabic identity and their documents.  The Mozarabs hold a sort of ‘special status’ in medieval Iberia, in great part constructed through early modern academic constructs. These constructs make it difficult and, at times, impossible, to compare the Mozarab experience to that of any other community.  This also implies that the Mozarabs allowed anyone into their community and that no one could learn their language. This approach favors a monolingual model, which tacitly dismisses the complex multi-faceted society in medieval Iberia. Further, it implies a passive attitude toward language.
This paper explores why and how Mozarabs and Mudéjares, alike, living in newly reconquered Christian territories, selected a language and suggests that language performance was an active choice reflecting an objective assessment of the relationship between language and power.

In their introduction to Medieval Textual Cultures: Agents of Transmission, Translation and Transformation (2016), Wallis and Wisnovsky argue that medieval textual cultures " can best be understood as products of dynamic processes of transmission, translation and transformation, " specifically of " the legacy of the civilizations that emerged around the Mediterranean in the last two millennia BCE, particularly in Greece, Rome and the Near East " (1). The appropriation of the ancient and not-so ancient legacies of the Mediterranean preserved these legacies while creating new ones as societies dynamically responded to change. The heterogeneous communities of the medieval Mediterranean influenced and informed each other as they competed against one another and defined themselves in opposition. Though these communities have largely been understood in terms of religion, they transcended monolithic divisions such as Jewish, Christian, and Muslim. As Catlos has observed, linguistic, cultural, and political legacies integrated with confession to create and define self and other (" Ethno-Religious Minorities "). Following the work of scholars including Brian Catlos, Michelle Hamilton, Ryan Szpiech, and Robert Wisnovsky, the present volume explores the cultural-religions identities of medieval and early modern Iberia through places of encounter, textual or otherwise, that reflected, negotiated, and/or transcended such identities. The researchers in this volume approach the material from the wider lens of Mediterranean Studies rather than limiting their approach to Iberia as an " enigma " of coexistencia in medieval Europe. It asks how the communities of medieval and early modern Iberia preserved, transformed, negotiated, and crossed boundaries in light of the heterogeneous societies to which they were heir and in which they lived. The coordinators invite proposals investigating these issues from a broad range of disciplines and approaches and through diverse cultural artifacts. The volume seeks contributions covering the period from Islamic conquest and its consolidation under the Umayyad in the eighth century to the expulsion of the Moriscos in the early seventeenth century, centuries of particularly intense contact with Mediterranean legacies.

Con motivo del 300 aniversario de la ciudad de San Antonio, Texas, la Revista Iberoamericana de Lingüística (R.I.L.), editada por Universitas Castellae, invita a participar en su número 13 (2018) a aquellos investigadores interesados en estudios lingüísticos o historiográficos en el tema que se propone:
El español en la frontera EE UU- México.

Se aceptarán trabajos que traten aspectos de la evolución lingüística del español en ambos lados de la frontera, bilingüismo, lenguas en contacto, dialectología, usos del español, así como trabajos que versen sobre políticas educativas relacionadas con la lengua, a lo largo de los trescientos años de historia de la ciudad de San Antonio.

a. Linguistics and Social Media. This guaranteed session seeks papers that examine different modes, applications, and venues of social media (textual, visual, audiovisual, interactive) from a linguistic perspective. Email 250-word abstract by March 15, 2017 to angela.helmer@usd.edu b) Invented Languages (Auxiliary and Constructed). This session explores recent linguistic approaches to invented languages, both auxiliary and constructed, and their parallels and contrasts to natural languages. Email 250-word abstract by March 15, 2017 to angela.helmer@usd.edu