Gascon language
Encyclopedia
Gascon is usually considered as a dialect of Occitan, even though some specialists regularly consider it a separate language. Gascon is mostly spoken in Gascony
and Béarn
in southwestern France (in parts of the following French départements:Pyrénées-Atlantiques
, Hautes-Pyrénées
, Landes, Gers
, Gironde
, Lot-et-Garonne
, Haute-Garonne
, and Ariège
) and in the Aran Valley of Spain. It has about 250,000 speakers worldwide.
Only Aranese
, a southern Gascon variety, is spoken in Spain. Aranese has been greatly influenced recently by Catalan
and Spanish. Both these influences tend to differentiate it more and more from the dialects of Gascon spoken in France. Since the 2006 adoption of the new statute of Catalonia
, Aranese is co-official with Catalan
and Spanish in Catalonia (before, this status was valid for the Aran Valley only).
dialectal continuum (see Aquitanian language
); the fact that the word 'Gascon' comes from the Latin root vasco/vasconem, which is the same root that gives us 'Basque', implies that the speakers identified themselves at some moment as Basque. There is a proven Basque substrate
in the development of Gascon. This explains some of the major differences that exist between Gascon and other Occitan dialects.
A typically Gascon feature that may arise from this substrate is the change from "f" to "h". Where a word originally began with [f] in Latin, such as festa 'party/feast', this sound was weakened to aspirated [h] and then, in some areas, lost altogether; according to the substrate theory, this is due to the Basque dialects' lack of an equivalent /f/ phoneme
. Thus we have Gascon hèsta [ˈhɛsto] or [ˈɛsto]. A similar change took place in continental Spanish. Thus Latin facere gives Spanish hacer ([aˈθer]) (or, in some parts of southwestern Andalusia
, [haˈθɛɾ]).
While some linguists deny the plausibility of the Basque substrate theory, it is widely assumed that Basque, the "Circumpyrenean" language (as put by Basque linguist Alfonso Irigoyen and defended by Koldo Mitxelena
, 1982), is the underlying language spreading around the Pyrenees onto the banks of the Garonne River, maybe as far east as the Mediterranean in Roman times (niska cited by Joan Coromines
as the name of each nymph taking care of the Roman spa Arles de Tech in Rousillon, etc.). Basque gradually eroded across Gascony in the High Middle Ages (Basques from the Val d'Aran cited still circa 1000), with vulgar Latin and Basque interacting and mingling, but eventually with the former replacing the latter north of the east and middle Pyrenees and developing into Gascon.
Note that modern Basque has had lexical influence from Gascon in words like beira ("glass"), polit ("pretty", Gascon polit/polida) to mention but a few. One way for the introduction of Gascon influence into Basque
came about through language contact in bordering areas of the Northern Basque Country
, acting as adstrate. The other one takes place since the 11th century over the coastal fringe of Gipuzkoa extending from Hondarribia
to San Sebastian
, where Gascon was spoken up to the early 18th century and often used in formal documents until the 16th, with evidence of its occurrence in Pasaia
still in the 1870s. A minor focus of influence was the Way of St James and the establishment of ethnic boroughs in several towns based on the privileges bestowed on the Franc
s by the Navarrese kings
from the 12th until the early 14th century, while the variant spoken and used in written records is mainly Occitan of Toulouse.
that the population uses concurrently the term "Béarnais" to designate its Gascon forms. This is because of the political past of Béarn, which was independent and then part of a sovereign state (the shrinking Kingdom of Navarre
) from 1347 to 1620. In fact, there is no unified Béarnais dialect; the language differs considerably throughout the province. Many of the differences in pronunciation can be divided into east, west, and south (the mountainous regions). For example, an 'a' at the end of words is pronounced "ah" in the west, "o" in the east, and "œ" in the south. Because of Béarn's specific political past, Béarnais has been distinguished from Gascon since the 16th century, though not for linguistic reasons.
cadet
: from cabdèt [kad'dɛt] ("captain, chief").
cep
: from cep [sep] 'trunk', this is an alternative cookery name for the penny bun mushroom, now more commonly known by the Italian name of porcini.
izard
: from French isard or Gascon isard [i'zar].
beret
: from Bearnese French béret and Gascon berret [ber'ret] "cap".
Jingo
: OED finds an etymology from Basque Jainko ("God") through Gascon possible but not proven.
over the Hispanic Mark on the medieval times, shared similar and singular features are noticeable between Gascon and other Latin languages on the other side of the frontier: Aragonese and ultraoccidental Catalan (Catalan of La Franja)
Gascony
Gascony is an area of southwest France that was part of the "Province of Guyenne and Gascony" prior to the French Revolution. The region is vaguely defined and the distinction between Guyenne and Gascony is unclear; sometimes they are considered to overlap, and sometimes Gascony is considered a...
and Béarn
Béarn
Béarn is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three Basque provinces of Soule, Lower Navarre, and Labourd, the principality of Bidache, as well as small parts of Gascony, it forms in the...
in southwestern France (in parts of the following French départements:Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Pyrénées-Atlantiques
Pyrénées-Atlantiques is a department in the southwest of France which takes its name from the Pyrenees mountains and the Atlantic Ocean.- History :...
, Hautes-Pyrénées
Hautes-Pyrénées
Hautes-Pyrénées is a department in southwestern France. It is part of the Midi-Pyrénées region.-History:...
, Landes, Gers
Gers
The Gers is a department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in the southwest of France named after the Gers River.Inhabitants are called les Gersois or Gersoises.-History:...
, Gironde
Gironde
For the Revolutionary party, see Girondists.Gironde is a common name for the Gironde estuary, where the mouths of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers merge, and for a department in the Aquitaine region situated in southwest France.-History:...
, Lot-et-Garonne
Lot-et-Garonne
Lot-et-Garonne is a department in the southwest of France named after the Lot and Garonne rivers.-History:Lot-et-Garonne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
, Haute-Garonne
Haute-Garonne
Haute-Garonne is a department in the southwest of France named after the Garonne river. Its main city is Toulouse.-History:Haute-Garonne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Languedoc.The...
, and Ariège
Ariège
Ariège is a department in southwestern France named after the Ariège River.- History :Ariège is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from the counties of Foix and Couserans....
) and in the Aran Valley of Spain. It has about 250,000 speakers worldwide.
Only Aranese
Aranese language
Aranese is a standardized form of the Pyrenean Gascon variety of the Occitan language spoken in the Val d'Aran, in north western Catalonia on the border between Spain and France, where it is one of the three official languages besides Catalan and Spanish...
, a southern Gascon variety, is spoken in Spain. Aranese has been greatly influenced recently by Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
and Spanish. Both these influences tend to differentiate it more and more from the dialects of Gascon spoken in France. Since the 2006 adoption of the new statute of Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, Aranese is co-official with Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
and Spanish in Catalonia (before, this status was valid for the Aran Valley only).
Linguistic classification
See Occitan: Debates concerning linguistic classification.Basque substrate
The language spoken in Gascony before Roman rule was part of the BasqueBasque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
dialectal continuum (see Aquitanian language
Aquitanian language
The Aquitanian language was spoken in ancient Aquitaine before the Roman conquest and, probably much later, until the Early Middle Ages....
); the fact that the word 'Gascon' comes from the Latin root vasco/vasconem, which is the same root that gives us 'Basque', implies that the speakers identified themselves at some moment as Basque. There is a proven Basque substrate
Substratum
In linguistics, a stratum or strate is a language that influences, or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum is a language which has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum is the language that has higher power or prestige. Both substratum and superstratum...
in the development of Gascon. This explains some of the major differences that exist between Gascon and other Occitan dialects.
A typically Gascon feature that may arise from this substrate is the change from "f" to "h". Where a word originally began with [f] in Latin, such as festa 'party/feast', this sound was weakened to aspirated [h] and then, in some areas, lost altogether; according to the substrate theory, this is due to the Basque dialects' lack of an equivalent /f/ phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
. Thus we have Gascon hèsta [ˈhɛsto] or [ˈɛsto]. A similar change took place in continental Spanish. Thus Latin facere gives Spanish hacer ([aˈθer]) (or, in some parts of southwestern Andalusia
Andalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
, [haˈθɛɾ]).
While some linguists deny the plausibility of the Basque substrate theory, it is widely assumed that Basque, the "Circumpyrenean" language (as put by Basque linguist Alfonso Irigoyen and defended by Koldo Mitxelena
Koldo Mitxelena
Koldo Mitxelena Elissalt was an eminent Basque linguist...
, 1982), is the underlying language spreading around the Pyrenees onto the banks of the Garonne River, maybe as far east as the Mediterranean in Roman times (niska cited by Joan Coromines
Joan Coromines
Joan Coromines i Vigneaux was a linguist who made important contributions to the study of Catalan, Spanish and other Romance languages....
as the name of each nymph taking care of the Roman spa Arles de Tech in Rousillon, etc.). Basque gradually eroded across Gascony in the High Middle Ages (Basques from the Val d'Aran cited still circa 1000), with vulgar Latin and Basque interacting and mingling, but eventually with the former replacing the latter north of the east and middle Pyrenees and developing into Gascon.
Note that modern Basque has had lexical influence from Gascon in words like beira ("glass"), polit ("pretty", Gascon polit/polida) to mention but a few. One way for the introduction of Gascon influence into Basque
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
came about through language contact in bordering areas of the Northern Basque Country
Northern Basque Country
The French Basque Country or Northern Basque Country situated within the western part of the French department of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques constitutes the north-eastern part of the Basque Country....
, acting as adstrate. The other one takes place since the 11th century over the coastal fringe of Gipuzkoa extending from Hondarribia
Hondarribia
Hondarribia is a town situated on the west shore of Bidasoa river's mouth, in Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, Spain. The border town is sited on a little promontory facing Hendaye over the Txingudi bay. The town holds an ancient old quarter with walls and a castle...
to San Sebastian
San Sebastián
Donostia-San Sebastián is a city and municipality located in the north of Spain, in the coast of the Bay of Biscay and 20 km away from the French border. The city is the capital of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. The municipality’s population is 186,122 , and its...
, where Gascon was spoken up to the early 18th century and often used in formal documents until the 16th, with evidence of its occurrence in Pasaia
Pasaia
Pasaia is a town and municipality located in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Autonomous Community of northern Spain. It is a fishing community, commercial port and the birth place of the fighting admiral Blas de Lezo. Pasaia lies approximately 5 km east of Donostia's centre, lying at the...
still in the 1870s. A minor focus of influence was the Way of St James and the establishment of ethnic boroughs in several towns based on the privileges bestowed on the Franc
Occitania
Occitania , also sometimes lo País d'Òc, "the Oc Country"), is the region in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language...
s by the Navarrese kings
Kingdom of Navarre
The Kingdom of Navarre , originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a European kingdom which occupied lands on either side of the Pyrenees alongside the Atlantic Ocean....
from the 12th until the early 14th century, while the variant spoken and used in written records is mainly Occitan of Toulouse.
Usage of the language
A poll conducted in Béarn in 1982 indicated that 51% of the population spoke Gascon, 70% understood it, and 85% expressed a favourable opinion regarding the protection of the language. However, use of the language has declined dramatically over recent years as Gascon is rarely transmitted to young generations any longer. The usual term for Gascon is "patois", a word designating in France a non-official and devaluated dialect whatever the concerned region. It is mainly in BéarnBéarn
Béarn is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three Basque provinces of Soule, Lower Navarre, and Labourd, the principality of Bidache, as well as small parts of Gascony, it forms in the...
that the population uses concurrently the term "Béarnais" to designate its Gascon forms. This is because of the political past of Béarn, which was independent and then part of a sovereign state (the shrinking Kingdom of Navarre
Kingdom of Navarre
The Kingdom of Navarre , originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a European kingdom which occupied lands on either side of the Pyrenees alongside the Atlantic Ocean....
) from 1347 to 1620. In fact, there is no unified Béarnais dialect; the language differs considerably throughout the province. Many of the differences in pronunciation can be divided into east, west, and south (the mountainous regions). For example, an 'a' at the end of words is pronounced "ah" in the west, "o" in the east, and "œ" in the south. Because of Béarn's specific political past, Béarnais has been distinguished from Gascon since the 16th century, though not for linguistic reasons.
Subdialects
Gascon comprises three main linguistic areas:- The 'Garonnais Gascon' used on and next to the river Garonne valley. These regions know the least specific Gascon forms.
- The 'Southern Gascon' used in the south and in the south-west of the linguistic Gascon zone. The Gascon of these regions is the one with the most distinctive characteristics of Gascon, coming mainly from a supposed Basque substratum.
- The 'Intermediary Gascon' in an intermediary zone between the two just mentioned.
English words of Gascon origin
Cadet
A cadet is a trainee to become an officer in the military, often a person who is a junior trainee. The term comes from the term "cadet" for younger sons of a noble family.- Military context :...
: from cabdèt [kad'dɛt] ("captain, chief").
cep
Boletus edulis
Boletus edulis, commonly known as penny bun, porcino or cep, is a basidiomycete fungus, and the type species of the genus Boletus. Widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere across Europe, Asia, and North America, it does not occur naturally in the Southern Hemisphere, although it has been...
: from cep [sep] 'trunk', this is an alternative cookery name for the penny bun mushroom, now more commonly known by the Italian name of porcini.
izard
Pyrenean Chamois
The Pyrenean Chamois , Rupicapra pyrenaica, is a goat antelope that lives in the Pyrenees, Cantabrian Mountains and Apennine Mountains...
: from French isard or Gascon isard [i'zar].
beret
Beret
A beret is a soft, round, flat-crowned hat, designated a "cap", usually of woven, hand-knitted wool, crocheted cotton, or wool felt, or acrylic fiber....
: from Bearnese French béret and Gascon berret [ber'ret] "cap".
Jingo
By Jingo
The expression "by Jingo" is apparently a minced oath that appeared rarely in print, but which may be traced as far back as to at least the 17th century in a transparent euphemism for "by Jesus"...
: OED finds an etymology from Basque Jainko ("God") through Gascon possible but not proven.
Influences on other languages
Probably as a consequence of the linguistic continuum of occidental Romania and the French influenceover the Hispanic Mark on the medieval times, shared similar and singular features are noticeable between Gascon and other Latin languages on the other side of the frontier: Aragonese and ultraoccidental Catalan (Catalan of La Franja)
Examples
| Word | Translation | IPA International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic... |
|---|---|---|
| Earth | tèrra | ['tɛrrɔ] |
| heaven | cèu | [sɛw] |
| water | aiga | ['ajɣɔ] |
| fire | huec | [hwɛk]/[wɛk] |
| man | òmi/òme | ['ɔmi]/['ɔme] |
| woman | hemna | ['hennɔ]/['ennɔ] |
| eat | minjar/manjar | [min'ʒa]/[man'dʒa]/[man'ʒa] |
| drink | béver | ['bewe]/['beβe] |
| big | gran | [gran] |
| little | petit/pichon/pichòt | [pe'tit]/[pi'tʃu]/[pi'tʃɔt] |
| night | nueit | [nɥejt] |
| day | dia/jorn | ['dia]/[dʒur]/[ʒur] |
External links
- Museum of local culture
- Teaching of Occitan and Basque in Aquitania
- Cap'òc : Unitat d'Animacion Pedagogica en Occitan
- Gascon Lanas (Institut d'Estudis Occitans)
- Per NostePer NostePer Noste is a French association founded in 1960 under the name Per Nouste with the aim of supporting and promoting the Occitan language and civilization in Gascony. Its founding chairman is Roger Lapassade. Among the 26 founder members are Robert Darrigrand, Pierre Tucoo-Chala, and Xavier Ravier....
http://www.pernoste.com - Ethnologue 15th Edition report for Gascon
- Ethnologue 16th Edition report for Occitan, including Gascon as a dialect
- IBG site opposing Gascon and Béarnais to Occitan