This quote refers to what era: "The right was not prepared to concede any ground at all...." ??
It goes on: "The right was not prepared to concede any ground at all, as they had demonstrated so obviously when in power...."
I am reading a book given to me by a German friend. It's about a subject I was close to, as I lived through its dying gasps first hand: the fascist victory in the very brutal Spanish Civil war of 1936-1939.
That one bit of comment was in the beginning when the author, historian Antony Beevor, was describing the turmoil in Spain that ledt up to the fascist uprising of July 1936, and their eventual victory (with the help of Hitler and Mussolini) proclaimed on April 1, 1939. The very controlled press at the time all had Franco's picture on the front pages on April 1, 1969, proclaiming "Treinta años de paz (thirty years of peace)," where one very daring commentator actually came out and said "this is not 30 years of peace, but rather 30 years of victory."
Buddha help us all if we are ever subjected to 30 years of continuous Republican rule, but that phrase, "The right was not prepared to concede any ground at all, as they had demonstrated so obviously when in power," hit home. That describes EXACTLY the situation of the last ten years in the United States.
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In the 8th century the Moors (i.e. north African Arabs) invaded Spain, and stuck around for over 7 centuries. They were eventually thrown out toward the end of the 15th century (the year 1492 ring a bell?), but their linguistic imprint on the local "vulgar Latin" remained. The eastern side of the Iberian peninsula was relatively free of Arab influence, and their language was a very close relative of the medieval French "Langue d'Oc(-citaine)." To the west of their area of influence, the "vulgar Latin" developed into what is today Portuguese, with its close dialect Galician ("Gallego"
to the north of today's border. In some remote pockets, some Celtic speakers even survived. The center of Spain north of Andalucia is called "Castilla," and what we call "Spanish" is in reality "Castellano," or the language of Castilla, which is the main area on central Spain where the Arabs dominated for so long. Spaniards still refer to "Spanish" as "Castellano," as other languages are spoken in Spain, after all. There is no one "Spanish" language just as there is no one "American" language, any more than Navajo is identical to Lakota or Wampanoag.
The language of the eastern Iberian peninsula, including as far south as Alicante ("Alacant" with the "t" silent) and as far west as Andorra, and as far east as parts of Sardinia, became known as "Català," or Catalan. Texts in Catalan predate texts in Spanish by about a century, although fascist era propaganda claimed that Catalan was a dialect of Spanish. Linguistically speaking, it's the other way around, as what we call "Spanish" is the old Catalan influenced by 700 years of Arabic diluting it.
By the way, if some snob should tell you he is being ultra-correct in pronouncing the city of Barcelona as "Barthelona," tell him or her they are full of it. That is the way it would be pronounced in Madrid, but in Barcelona, the Capital of Catalonia, after all, it is pronounced almost as in English, with the "c" pronounced as an "s." There is no "th" sound in Catalan. There is a popular saying, "Barcelona ès bona si la bolsa sona," which refers to the town's rep as an expensive city: "Barcelona is good if there is jingling in your pocket." More fun is the gruesome tongue twister, the first part of which reads "Setze jutges d'un jutjat mengen fetge d'un penjat." Or: "Sixteen judges of a tribunal eat the liver of a hanged man."
And that was very interesting reading.
I knew a bit about the Moorish/Arab influence, but never knew Spain was so mufti-lingual.
I had bought in to the 'Barthelona' thing because 'somebody told me that'.
Actually, the story was that some Spanish king or other had a lisp and that's the way he said it so the courtiers aped him.
"The King is always right."
Possibly interesting aside:
I had always thought I was partially of French descent because of my last name.
A few years ago I learned that it was (probably) actually Germanic by way of Italy.
It appears the root name was 'Langobierd' or some variation.
The long beards.
So I guess I'm Scots/Irish/English/German/Italian.
Too bad about the French.
I speak it and like the country.
There are several areas of Italy that have the same thing, from the Dolomites all the way down to Rome. The Italian "Z" which is pronounced as it is in German (like a "TS" softens to the "th" in many areas of Italy, just like in Castilian.
