over and under
Languages are influenced by everything: whether it’s war or peace, contact between different groups of people change language significantly.
This influence is known as stratum, and it usually describes the cases in which a migrating group influences or is influenced by the language already there.
The superstratum case occurs when the external language disappears, but the native language maintains its hold. On the other hand, the substratum case occurs when the external language overtakes the native language in dominance. Both cases show large influence on the languages involved, with substrate words showing up in native fauna, flora, and place names, while superstrate words tended to show up in more “dignified” vocabulary.
Let’s break down various examples of this in the langauges of today:
Superstratum Cases
Middle English
In 1066, the Norman French invaded England, a land where Old English was the primarily spoken language. This conquest was one of the most influential events for the English language and initiated the change from Old to Middle English (for more, see my linked article here).
French was the superstrate language, with Old English being the substrate. Obviously, French isn’t spoken in England still, so this is a clear example of where the substrate persisted through time, while the superstrate died out. However, French didn’t leave without a struggle: estimates between 30% to 60% of English vocabulary is expected to be French, and this alongside a simplification of grammar caused Middle English to rise.
Early Modern Spanish
Similar to the invasion by the French in England, the Arab invasion of the Iberian Peninsula by Umayyad Dynasty caused Arabic to rise to a higher level of prestige than the native Old Spanish. Spanish is still spoken in Spain today, but its influence from Arabic is undeniably large.
A number of Arabic words entered Old Spanish during its transformation into Early Modern Spanish. For example, much of the words that began with al- (or a-) is most likely to be of Arabic origin. Take Spanish algodón (cotton), which was borrowed from Arabic alqutn, or Spanish azúcar (sugar) coming from Arabic assukar.
Substratum Cases
Modern Spanish
Spanish also played a large role as a superstrate on the world stage as well, not just as a substrate on the Iberian Peninsula. During its time colonizing Latin America, the indigenous substrate languages influenced the Spanish vocabulary and grammar spoken there.
In Mexico, the biggest substrate language was Nahautl, with an incredibly large lexicon of Nahuatl words entering Spanish. For example, the Spanish words chocolate, coyote, ajolote, cacao, chile, and many more are all of Nahuatl origin, with even a common rule of most flora, fauna, or home appliance words ending with “-te” in Spanish is most likely a Nahuatl word.
Substrate to Mainstream Pipeline
Substrates in pre-history play a large role in even modern words today. For example, reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root *káput doesn’t match any regular rules about the language, so it’s been theorized to have been from a substrate language.
This soon transformed into Proto-Germanic *haubudą, which eventually turned into English head. Such an essential word coming from a substrate language is not unheard of: in fact, the Latin word, caput, comes from this root as well (turning into Spanish cabeza, Romanian cap, Portuguese, cabo, etc).
Overall, substrate and superstrate influence on each other is immeasurable. From retroflex consonants in the Indian subcontinent to nasal vowels in French (hypothesized), these stratum cases are incredibly interesting to see in words we don’t think are loaned. What’s your favorite example of a substratum or superstratum case?
