Variantes léxicas y gramaticales del adverbio ensemble en la documentación medieval.

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the history of the Old Spanish
adverb ensemble ‘jointly’, a topic that has scarcely been touched
upon in the literature. Through an in- depth analysis of Old Spanish
documents, this paper suggests that ensemble was not a loan from Old French, as thought before, but a native development of Iberian
Latin ĬN SĬMŬL. The geographic distribution ensemble displays in
medieval documents and the morphological variation it exhibits
(ensembra, ensemble, ensembra) constitute a strong argument against
considering ensemble a French loan. Data showing that ensemble was
rooted in both Aragon and Leon but not in Castile are provided, and
while previous studies place the demise of ensemble in the 13th century,
my own data show a longer survival of ensemble until the 16th
century.