A 'Crónica do Xarife Mulei Mahamet' como fonte para os estudos linguísticos sobre o pt-Cl: um estudo exploratório

This article analyses linguistic variation in three witnesses (M, L1, and E) of the Crónica do Xarife Mulei Mahamet e d’el-Rey D. Sebastião (CXMM), a historiographical text from the late 16th century. The study is part of the Projeto Sebástica Manuscrita (PSM), which aims, among other objectives, to create a corpus for the study of Classical Portuguese (Pt-Cl). The analysis revealed both phenomena already documented in historical linguistics literature and potential new directions for studying linguistic change in Pt-Cl. The results suggest that CXMM, due to the breadth of linguistic variation observed, is a suitable source for diachronic studies. Regarding the characterization of the witnesses, the study confirmed that the older witnesses (M and L1) preserve more archaic linguistic features, while the most recent witness (E) innovates in most of the aspects analysed. Furthermore, the systematic presence of Castilianisms in M supports hypotheses about its copying context, as proposed in Lombardo (2025). This study thus reinforces the relevance of the corpus envisioned by PSM in deepening our understanding of linguistic change in Pt-Cl, highlighting the need for analyses that integrate both variant and non-variant readings.