Meanings
comparative more zajalesque · superlative most zajalesque · alternative zejelesque
- Characteristic of or similar to a zajal.
The zajalesque rhyme-scheme (aa bbba [aa] ccca etc.) is further typical of the Portuguese and Italian songs with initial refrain and vuelta.
2005, Manuel Pedro Ferreira, Cantus Coronatus D'El-Rei Dom Dinis, →ISBN3 more examples
Long ago Julian Ribera pointed out that the majority of the cantigas (up to 90 percent) are zajalesque in form, and that in them the matla', which is repeated in writing after every stanza, functions as a refrain, as the musical notation proves.
1989, Benjamin M. Liu, James T. Monroe, Ten Hispano-Arabic Strophic Songs in the Modern Oral Tradition, →ISBNAlthough the notion of a pivotal position of the culture of Toledo is difficult to resist, and may explain the way zajalesque rhymes are to be found in the Cantigas, it does not directly explain the earlier interchanges: but it does provide a model whereby the conditions of receptivity, mentioned earlier, might well have prevailed at various stages in the history of the zajal, muwashshah and Occidental lyric.
1996, Dionisius A. Agius, Richard Hitchcock, The Arab Influence in Medieval EuropeThe first four strophes of the poem exhibit a remarkably zajalesque structure, including an initial refrain, mudanzas/ghuṣns with rhymes that differ from the refrain, and vueltas/ simṭs with rhymes that coincide with the latter, the only exception being that of the fourth strophe, which, due to a lacuna, lacks a vuelta/simṭ.
2012, Karl Reichl, Medieval Oral Literature, →ISBN, page 607
Origin
Cite this entry
zajalesque. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/zajalesque
“zajalesque.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/zajalesque. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “zajalesque,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/zajalesque.
Source: zajalesque on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.