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| Occitano-Romance | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | France,Spain,Andorra,Monaco,Italy |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European |
Early forms | |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | None |
 Occitan in shades of Purple, Catalan in shades of Red and Aragonese in shades of Yellow | |
Occitano-Romance (Catalan:llengües occitanoromàniques;Occitan:lengas occitanoromanicas;Aragonese:luengas occitanoromanicas) is a branch of theRomance language group that encompasses theCatalan/Valencian,Occitan languages and sometimesAragonese, spoken in parts of southernFrance and northeasternSpain.[1][2]
The classification of Occitano-Romance languages within the wider Romance language family has been a subject of a long-standing debate due to its transitional nature in the Western Romancedialect continuum.
TheGardiol language has been classified byGlottolog as a independent language in the Occitanic language family,[3] but has also been classified as a dialect of Occitan.[4]
The group covers the languages of the southern part ofFrance (Occitania includingNorthern Catalonia), easternSpain (Catalonia,Valencian Community,Balearic Islands,La Franja,Carche, NorthernAragon), together withAndorra,Monaco, parts ofItaly (Occitan Valleys,Alghero,Guardia Piemontese), and historically in theCounty of Tripoli and the possessions of theCrown of Aragon. The existence of this group of languages is discussed on both linguistic and political bases.
The classification of Occitano-Romance languages has been debated since the middle of the 19th century. According to some linguists, bothOccitan andCatalan/Valencian should be considered genealogicallyGallo-Romance languages. Other linguists concur in regards to Occitan but consider Catalan and Aragonese to be part of theIbero-Romance languages. The matter is complicated by the group's transitional nature and qualities within theWestern Romancedialect continuum; Occitano-Romance languages maintain a level of mutual intelligibility as well as shared characteristics with both neighboringGallo-Romance andIbero-Romance. They have also historically been heavily influenced by and borrowed from both of those language groups which further obscures clear classification.
The issue is as political as it is linguistic as the division into Gallo-Romance languages and Ibero-Romance languages was contemporaneous withnation-building of the currentnation states ofFrance andSpain and so is based more on territorial criteria than historic and linguistic criteria. In the early 21st century, Occitan and Catalan, the group's two major representatives, are generally spoken regionally alongside the dominant state languages, namely French and Spanish. One of the main proponents of the unity of the languages of theIberian Peninsula was SpanishphilologistRamón Menéndez Pidal, and for a long time, others such as Swiss linguistWilhelm Meyer-Lübke (Das Katalanische, Heidelberg, 1925) have supported the kinship ofOccitan andCatalan. Also, due toAragonese not having been studied as much as both Catalan and Occitan, many people still label it as a Spanish dialect.[5]
From the 8th century to the 13th century, there was no clear sociolinguistic distinction between Occitania and Catalonia. For instance, theProvençaltroubadour,Albertet de Sestaró, says: "Monks, tell me which according to your knowledge are better: the French or the Catalans? And here I shall put Gascony, Provence, Limousin, Auvergne and Viennois while there shall be the land of the two kings."[6] InMarseille, a typical Provençal song is called 'Catalan song'.[7]
Aragonese is a language which has not been studied as much as Catalan and Occitan. On many occasions throughout history, people have disregarded it and label it as a Spanish dialect, mainly because of extralinguistic reasons such as its small extension and the fact that it's spoken in rural areas.
The language has been minoritized for centuries and labelled as either a broken dialect or as a second class language. Spanish became the language of prestige right away after the union ofAragon withCastile and the use of Aragonese started to decline. Even though it had been used by the government and administration for many years, it rapidly became a language that was used informally and looked down upon.
This situation of diglossia meant the beginning of a period (that still lasts) of a strong Spanish influence. Many Spanish loanwords entered Aragonese and its evolution from that moment on was tied to Spanish. Some grammatical features documented in medieval Aragonese were lost, such as the usage of the Latin ending-ŪTUM for the creation of the participle verb forms such as inperduto (lost) instead of-ĪTUM that ended up beingperdito, which later becameperdiu in many dialects due to Spanish influence as well. Many of the loanwords that entered Aragonese were names of new concepts, but many others were basic words of the everyday life such as numbers or the days of the week. Aragonese morphology could have been affected as well. One example of the morphological influence of Spanish is the treatment of the terminal Latin vowels-Ĕ,-Ŭ (later-e,-o). Aragonese tends to lose the final unstressed -e that Spanish preserves (compare the word for milk in Aragoneseleit and in Spanishleche), while the final -o is maintained more depending on the dialect and the degree of Spanish influence. Some dialects, such as Belsetan, a central dialect, tend to have the apocope of -o when the word ends with -n, -r and -l, such as incamín (path),rar (rare) andpel (hair). However, this apocope of-o but also the apocope of-e have been receding in territory and usage, and the final vowels have been reintroduced in many dialects.[8][9]
On the other hand, the recent studies have allowed us to get a better insight into the core of the Aragonese language. Despite the previously mentioned influence, there are still many features that bring Aragonese closer to both Occitan and Catalan. The lexicon of everyday life is harder to change after being influenced by other languages. The lexicon of plants, animals and the rural life poses a great example of this:[10]
| English | Occitan | Catalan | Aragonese | Spanish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| oat | civada | civada | cibada ~cebada | avena |
| barley | òrdi | ordi | hordio | cebada |
| acorn | aglan | glà | glan | bellota |
| rosehip | gratacuol | gavarrera ~gavarró | garrabera ~gabardera | escaramujo |
| pomegranate | milgrana | magrana ~mangrana | minglana ~mengrana | granada |
| fern | falguièra ~feuse | falguera | feleguera ~felce | helecho |
| squirrel | esquiròl | esquirol | esquirol ~esquiruelo | ardilla |
Another example would be the use of the verb "to be". Aragonese and Occitan use one verb for what Catalan and the Ibero-Romance languages use two:
The conjugation of the Aragonese and Occitan forms comes close to the conjugation ofser in Catalan, and this sets the three languages apart from the Ibero-Romance languages with the kind of uses that the verb "to be" has. For example with the sentence "We are here" we can see the difference in use of the verb "to be" when used to talk about a location:
Romance languages form what is called adialect continuum. Each language within this continuum tends to be linked to another via a dialect that shares many traits with the other language. Usually these dialects are far enough from the standard forms of the two languages they link, and sometimes they can be difficult to classify as a dialect of language X or language Y. Between Aragonese and Catalan there is a linguistic variety calledRibagorçan. This constitutive dialect makes a clean transition between Aragonese and Catalan. Some linguists consider that it belongs to the Aragonese language, some others that it belongs to the Catalan language and some others that it constitutes a micro-language on its own.[11] Nowadays, most of the dialect is considered to be Aragonese and it is recognized as such by the regional governments. The matter is that the Ribagorçan variety has more characteristics that take it closer to Catalan than other Aragonese dialects. Therefore some of the people that argue that Ribagorçan is Catalan, could argue that it should be classified alongside Catalan.
It's important to note that, unlike between Aragonese and Catalan, there isn't a constitutive dialect between Aragonese and Spanish. During the Middle Ages, there were two linguistic varieties (Riojan andNavarrese respectively) betweenOld Spanish andMedieval High Aragonese. However these two varieties were replaced by Spanish and the dialect continuum was broken between the Ibero-Romance languages and Aragonese plus the other Romance languages.
Most linguists separate Catalan and Occitan, but both languages have been treated as one in studies by Occitan linguists attempting to classify the dialects of Occitan insupradialectal groups, as is the case ofPierre Bec[12] and, more recently, ofDomergue Sumien.[13]
Both join together in an Aquitano-Pyrenean or Pre-Iberian group including Catalan, Gascon and a part ofLanguedocien, leaving the rest of Occitan in one (Sumien: Arverno-Mediterranean) or two groups (Bec: Arverno-Mediterranean, Central Occitan).
The answer to the question of whetherGascon orCatalan should be considered dialects of Occitan or separate languages has long been a matter of opinion or convention, rather than based on scientific grounds. However, two recent studies support Gascon's being considered a distinct language. For the very first time, a quantifiable, statistics-based approach was applied by Stephan Koppelberg in an attempt to solve this issue.[14] Based on the results he obtained, he concludes that Catalan, Occitan, and Gascon should all be considered three distinct languages. More recently, Y. Greub and J.P. Chambon (Sorbonne University, Paris) demonstrated that the formation of Proto-Gascon was already complete on the eve of the 7th century, whereas Proto-Occitan was not yet formed at that time.[15] These results induced linguists to do away with the conventional classification of Gascon, favoring the "distinct language" alternative.[citation needed] Both studies supported the early intuition of lateKurt Baldinger, a specialist of both medieval Occitan and medieval Gascon, who recommended that Occitan and Gascon be classified as separate languages.[16][17]
| Latin | Catalan | Occitan | Aragonese | Spanish | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orthography | IPA | Orthography | IPA | Orthography | IPA | Orthography | IPA | |
| TRÚNCU(M) | [ˈtrʊŋkũː] | tronc | [tɾoŋ(k)] | tronc | [tɾuŋ(k)] | tronco | [ˈtɾoŋko] | tronco |
| MANUS | [ˈmanʊs] | mà | [ma] | man | [ma] | man | [man] | mano |
This evolution does not occur when the ellision of-e or-o results in a terminal consonant cluster.
| Latin | Old Occitan | Catalan | Occitan | Aragonese |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ÁRBORE(M) | ARBRE | arbre | arbre | árbol* |
| QUÁTTOR | QUÁTRO | quatre | quatre | cuatre |
Due to the evolution of the word ÁRBORE(M) in Aragonese, this example doesn't show the conservation of-e or-o that prevents a terminal consonant cluster.
However, even though it is considered a Gallo-Romance trait, it's not present inFranco-Provençal, one of the main two languages of the Gallo-Romance, generally preserves the original final vowel after a syllable-final cluster, such as quattuor "four" > quatro (compare French quatre).| English | Latin | Catalan | Occitan | Aragonese |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| key | CLAVIS | clau | clau | clau |
| flame | FLAMMA | flama | flama | flama |
| full | PLĒNUS | ple | plen | plen ~pleno |
| English | Latin | Catalan | Occitan | Aragonese |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| old | VÉCLA(M) | vella | vièlha | viella |
| night | NOCTEM | nit | nuèit ~nuèch | nueit ~nit |
| to rise | PODIŌ | pujar | pujar | puyar |
| to eat | MANDŪCĀRE | menjar | manjar | minchar |
| to take | PRĒNDŌ | prendre | préner ~prendre | prener ~prenre |
| middle / half | MÉDIU(M) | mig | mièg | meyo |
| enough | PRŌDE | prou | pro ~pron | prou ~pro |
| I | ÉGO | jo | ieu | yo |
| to follow | SÉQUERE | seguir | seguir | seguir(e) |
| leaf | FÓLIA(M) | fulla | fuèlha | fuella ~ fulla |
| morning | MĀTŪTĪNUS | matí | matin | maitín |
Most of the differences of the vowel system stem from neutralizations that take place on unstressed syllables.In both languages a stressed syllable has a great number of possible different vowels,while phonologically different vowels end up being articulated in the same way in an unstressed syllable.Although this neutralization is common to both languages, the details differ markedly. In Occitan the form of neutralization depends on whether a vowel is pretonic (before the stressed syllable) or posttonic (after the stressed syllable). For example/ɔ/ articulates as[u] in pretonic position and as[o] in posttonic position, and only as[ɔ] in stressed position.In contrast, neutralization in Catalan is the same regardless of the position of the unstressed syllable (although it differs from dialect to dialect). Many of these changes happened in the 14th or late 13th century.
Slightly older are the palatalizations present in Occitan before a palatal or velar consonant:
| Occitan | Catalan | English |
|---|---|---|
| vièlha | vella | Old |
| mièg | mig | Middle/Half |
| ieu | jo | I |
| seguir | seguir | To follow |
| fuèlha | fulla | Leaf |
The diphthongs and also set all these three languages apart, having each language different patterns and systems. Most of these come from the diphthongisation of Latin words with monophthongs, such as the descendants of the words likeFĒSTA (party) orOCULUS (eye), or the monophthongization of Latin words that already had a diphthong, likeCAUSA (thing). Some examples:
| English | Catalan | Occitan | Aragonese |
|---|---|---|---|
| eye | ull | uèlh | uello |
| leaf | fulla | fuèlha | fuella |
| bridge | pont | pont | puent |
| party | festa | fèsta | fiesta |
| thing | cosa | causa | cosa |
| few, little | poc | pauc | poco |
A noticeable difference heard by speakers of Catalan and Aragonese is the use of rounded vowels in Occitan. Both Catalan and Aragonese lack rounded vowels. However, Occitan has /y/ and /œ/ in words likeluna andfuèlha respectively.
The treatment of the Latin geminate -nn- also differs in Occitan. While Catalan and Aragonese tend to reduce the -nn- into a [ɲ], in Occitan it turned into a [n]:
| English | Catalan | Aragonese | Occitan |
|---|---|---|---|
| year | any | anyo | an |
On another page, while Occitan uses exclusively the simple past tense, Catalan (most dialects) and Aragonese (Eastern dialects) use another past tense called the periphrastic past. This tense is made of the sum of the conjugation of the verbto go plus the verb performing the action in infinitive form:
| English | Catalan | Aragonese | Occitan |
|---|---|---|---|
| I bought | vaig comprar | va crompar ~voi crompar | crompèri |
| you bought | vas comprar | vas crompar | crompères |
| he/she bought | va comprar | va crompar | crompèt |
| we bought | vam comprar | vam crompar ~vom crompar | crompèrem |
| you bought | vau comprar | vaz crompar ~voz crompar | crompèretz |
| they bought | van comprar | van crompar | crompèron |
Something that sets apart Aragonese and some Catalan dialects (such as central Valencian or Ribagorçan Catalan) from Occitan and most of the Catalan dialects is thedevoicing or desonorization that happened in the former group. Phonemes such as /dʒ/ and /z/, which were replaced by /tʃ/ and /θ/.
Aragonese is the only of the three languages to have the -mbr- consonant cluster between vowels. Note thatRibagorçan tends to lose them as well:
| English | Catalan | Occitan | Aragonese |
|---|---|---|---|
| hunger | fam | fam/talent | fambre |
| man | home | òme | hombre |
Catalan also has some things that sets it apart from the other two is the palatalization of the initial L. From /l/ to /ʎ/.[18]
| English | Catalan | Occitan | Aragonese |
|---|---|---|---|
| tongue | llengua | lenga | luenga ~lengua |
| to read | llegir | legir | leyer |
It is important to note those dialects of Aragonese that palatalize the consonant clusters mentioned before, also palatalize the initial L:
| English | Catalan | Ribagorçan |
|---|---|---|
| Tongue | llengua | lluenga ~llengua |
| to read | llegir | llechir ~lleyer |
Another trait is the use of the descendants of the pronounEGO when used as the object of a preposition. Most Catalan dialects and theIbero-Romance languages distinguish between the pronoun used as a subjectEGO and the object of a prepositionMIHĪ̆, while both Aragonese and Occitan use the descendant ofEGO:
| English | Catalan | Occitan | Aragonese |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | jo | ieu | yo |
| (with) me | ambmi | ambieu | conyo |
Moreover, Aragonese and Occitan do not haveproparoxytones, words with stress on theantepenultimate (third last) syllable. However, Catalan has them. The word "music" can be an example of this:
Variations in the spellings and pronunciations of numbers in several Occitano-Romance dialects:[19][20]
| Numeral | Occitan | Catalan | Aragonese[21] | PROTO- OcRm | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Occitan | Western Occitan | Eastern Occitan | Eastern Catalan | Northwestern Catalan | |||||
| Auvergnat | Limousin | Gascon | Languedocien | Provençal | |||||
| 1 | vyn/vynɐ vun /vunå | ỹ/ynɔ un /una | y/yo un /ua | yᵑ/ynɒ un /una | yŋ/yno un /una | un/unə un /una | un/una un /una | un~uno/una un~uno /una | *un/*una |
| 2 | du/dua dou /duas | du/dua dos /doas | dys/dyos dus /duas | dus/duɒs dos /doas | dus/duas dous /douas | dos/duəs dos /dues | dos/dues dos /dues | dos/duas dos /duas | *dos~dus/*duas |
| 3 | tʀei trei | trei tres | tres tres | tʁɛs tres | tʀes tres | trɛs tres | trɛs tres | tɾes tres | *tres |
| 4 | katʀə catre | katre quatre | kwatə quatre | katʁe quatre | katʀə quatre | kwatrə quatre | kwatre quatre | kwatre~kwatro quatre / quatro | *kwatre |
| 5 | ʃin sin | ʃin cinc | siŋk cinq | siŋk cinc | siŋ cinq | siŋ/siŋk cinc | siŋ/siŋk cinc | θiŋko~θiŋk cinco / cinc | *siŋk |
| 6 | ʃei siei | ʃiei sieis | ʃeis sheis | si̯ɛi̯s sièis | siei sieis | sis sis | sis sis | seis~sieis seis / sieis | *sieis |
| 7 | se sé | ʃe sèt | sɛt sèt | sɛt sèt | sɛ sèt | sɛt set | sɛt set | siet~sɛt siet / set | *sɛt |
| 8 | vø veu | jɥe uèch | weit ueit | y̯ɛt͡ʃ/y̯ɛi̯t uèch /uèit | vɥe vue | buit/vuit vuit | vuit/wit vuit /huit | weito~weit ueito / ueit | *weit |
| 9 | niø~nou nieu~nou | nɔu nòu | nau nau | nɔu̯ nòu | nu nòu | nɔu nou | nɔu nou | nweu~nɔu nueu / nou | *nɔu |
| 10 | die~de dié~dé | diɛ~de detz | dɛt͡s dètz | dɛt͡s dèts | dɛs dès | dɛu deu | dɛu deu | dieθ~deu diez /deu | *dɛt͡s |
The numbers 1 and 2 have both feminine and masculine forms agreeing with the object they modify.
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