El sufijo adverbial -mente y sus variantes

he adverbilizing suffix -mente offered a number of morphological variants in Old Spanish. Its main variants (-mente, -miente, -mientre) crucially allow a chronological periodization of the history of the Spanish language. In order to explain its diachrony, it is necessary to attend to geographical and stylistic factors. The combination of these factors accounts for the generalization of -mente through the second half of 14th century, its expansion from the eastern varieties of Navarra and Aragon, as well as its diffusion from the most prestigious registers.