Weird word-initial stress: ási

I’m well aware of the whole ansí, ansina, asina, assí, etc etc business that preceded the standard así in contemporary mainstream peninsular usage, but I’m struggling to get my head round this particular version of the adverb: 1 do los moros habitar en los pueblos conquistados, ási como estos lo havian permitido á los christianos;…

Call me Trebots

A rather nice example of apocopation and suffixation in Catalan Spanish.

Trebonanius Gallus: completely unrelated. (Photo of the emperor at the Met <a href='http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trebonianus_Gallus_bronze_medium_view.jpg'>CC</a> by Pharos.)

Spanish/French shibboleth commemorates the brief reign of Joseph Bonaparte

Fill in the gaps in this pasquinade on the voiceless velar fricative, which I found last night in Mesonero Romanos’ El antiguo Madrid: En la plaza hay un cartel Que nos dice en castellano Que José, rey italiano, Roba a España su dosel; Y al leer este cartel, Dijo una maja a su majo: —Manolo,…