What was the original language of Don Quixote?

The original language of Don Quixote is Early Modern Spanish. Miguel de Cervantes wrote the novel in the Spanish of his period, while also borrowing heavily from Old Spanish and using deliberately archaic language for comic and literary effect.

The novel was published in two parts: Part One appeared in 1605 and Part Two in 1615. Its full Spanish title is El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha. Although the work is more than four centuries old, its language is considerably more accessible to modern Spanish readers than genuinely medieval texts such as the Poema de mio Cid.

Readers sometimes call the language simply “Spanish,” which is broadly understandable, but Early Modern Spanish is the more precise historical classification. Cervantes also contrasts different registers within the novel. Don Quixote imitates the elevated, old-fashioned style of chivalric romances, while other characters generally speak a more contemporary late-sixteenth-century form.

The spelling and pronunciation can also mislead modern readers. In Cervantes's period, the x in Quixote represented a “sh”-like sound; later Spanish sound changes produced the modern pronunciation associated with Quijote.