lengua

Forms

lengua f (plural lenguas)^[1] The metathesised luenga is found in the Libro de Alexandre (manuscript P), in the Corbacho (1438) and in popular speech today, as in lluenga of Colunga in Asturias; the Fuero Juzgo has the Portuguese-like lingua.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish lengua, inherited from Latin lingua (“tongue; speech, language”).^[2][3][4][1] The word is common to all periods of Spanish and to all the Romance languages.^[2] Latin had a short ⟨ĭ⟩ in this word; the ⟨i⟩ of Portuguese língua is due to metaphony, a treatment that reaches Asturian llingua in western and central Asturias.^[2][5]

The same Latin word is Galician lingua, Catalan llengua, Occitan lenga, French langue, Italian lingua and Romanian limbă;^[6][7][1] the Aragonese form is luenga.^[6][7][1]

Old Latin had dingua, from Proto-Italic *dn̥ɣwā and Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s, the source also of Old High German zunga and of the English word tongue.^[1][8] De Vaan explains the Latin ⟨l-⟩ by the influence of lingō (“to lick”), not by a loan from a Sabellic language, where the word began with ⟨f-⟩.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy), where Asur González is largo de lengua “long of tongue”, a great talker.^[2][9] The first record without a later copy is the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), which orders that whoever alters a judgment given in the king's court have his tongue cut out.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The sense “language” was there from the beginning: Latin lingua already meant both, and the 13th-century Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca speaks of the Holy Spirit teaching the apostles todas las lenguas.^[2][9] Alfonso X used the word for the organ, for a language, for the faculty of speech and for the needle of a balance.^[10] The Libro de Alexandre and the Guzmán de Alfarache have it for “news, information” (tomar lengua), and la lengua del agua “the water's edge” is recorded from 1495.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 recorded the interpreter between two languages and plant names such as lengua de buey.^[11]

In the conquest of the Americas lengua was the native interpreter: les predicaba por una lengua intérprete (Tierra Firme, 1515).^[12] Hablar lengua or hablar en lengua referred to the speech of foreigners in Colombia, of the indigenous people in El Salvador and of Africans in Cuba.^[2] Today the DLE labels the senses “interpreter”, “faculty of speech” and “spy” as obsolete.^[4] In much of Latin America lengua is the tongue of a shoe, and in Guatemala each of the country's languages other than Spanish.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has largo de lengua.^[2][9]
• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca has lenguas “languages”.^[9]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes, the first record without a later copy.^[9]
• 1256 – an Alfonsine text speaks of the Chaldean language.^[10]
• 1438 – the Corbacho has the popular form luenga.^[2]
• 1495 – la lengua del agua “the water's edge”.^[2]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, for an interpreter in Tierra Firme.^[12]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the senses “interpreter” and “needle of a balance”.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “Del lat. lingua”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. The tongue: the muscular organ in the mouth of vertebrates, used for tasting, swallowing and shaping sounds.^[4][1]
2. A language: the system of verbal communication of a human community: Habla tres lenguas.^[4][1]
3. A linguistic system considered in its structure.^[4]
4. The vocabulary and grammar of a period, a writer or a social group: la lengua de Quevedo.^[4]
5. The clapper of a bell.^[4][11]
6. The needle of a balance.^[4][10]
7. (historical) Each of the provinces into which the Order of Saint John divided its jurisdiction.^[4]
8. (obsolete) An interpreter; the faculty of speech; a spy.^[4][12]
9. (Latin America) The tongue of a shoe.^[13]
10. Spanish as a school subject.^[1]

Word family

• lenguado
• lenguaraz
• lengüeta
• deslenguado
• deslenguar
• lengüicorto
• trabalenguas

Related words

• lenguaje
• lenguaz
• lingual
• lingüística
• Latin lingua
• Portuguese língua
• English tongue

Usage notes

Set phrases include irse de la lengua “to let something slip”, tener en la punta de la lengua “to have on the tip of one's tongue” and malas lenguas “gossips”.^[1][15] Many plant names are formed with lengua de, such as lengua de buey “bugloss”, already in Nebrija.^[2][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 629
3. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lengua
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. lengua
5. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2044
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. lingua
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 3901
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. lingua
9. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. lengua
10. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. lengua
11. ^ a b c d Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1077
12. ^ a b c Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. lengua
13. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. lengua
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 636
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lengua