This study explores the dating of Romance lenition using the information provided by Gothic loanwords introduced in Ibero-Romance between the 5th and 8th centuries. It is based on the notion that...Show moreThis study explores the dating of Romance lenition using the information provided by Gothic loanwords introduced in Ibero-Romance between the 5th and 8th centuries. It is based on the notion that Romance lenition is a natural internally motivated process (rafforzamento sintattico as the catalyst of restructuring) that came from an early allophonic stage (since the 1st c. A.D.) into a phonological fact (Cravens 1991; 2000) much time later. The linguistic testimony of the Visigothic period in the Iberian Peninsula demonstrates that Romance lenition, at least for the sonorization of the voiceless velar stop, was active by that period and endured until the 9th and 11th centuries. This is corroborated with brief reviews on the Latin evidence and the Hispano-Arabic loanwords.Show less