El peso de la tradición en el estudio diacrónico del español
The Weight of Tradition in the Diachronic Study of Spanish

Summary/Abstract: In this paper we intend to review the role of traditional ideas, approaches and methods of research that are widely applied in the area of historical grammar and phonetics of Spanish. These can turn sometimes into an oppressive factor, which is likely to new and original views and solutions being accepted. We are going to demonstrate this argument by presenting a few widely known cases of historical phonetic and phonological changes in Old Spanish. We investigate, among other things, the changes related to the so-called Consonant Revolution of the Spanish Golden Century, or to the constitution of the diphthongs /ie/, /ue/. In a conclusion we can assert that some views adopted by classic scholars do not match up with a strict and critical analysis of the research problems carried out on the basis of available documentation.

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