| Gascon | |
|---|---|
| gascon | |
| Pronunciation | [ɡasˈku(ŋ)] |
| Native to | France Spain |
| Region | Gascony |
| Dialects | see below |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Spain |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gsc retired and subsumed intooci[1] |
| Glottolog | gasc1240 |
| ELP | Gascon |
| IETF | oc-gascon[2][3] |
 Gascon speaking area | |
 Gascon is classified as Definitely Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010). | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Gascon (English:/ˈɡæskən/GASK-ən,Gascon:[ɡasˈku(ŋ)],French:[ɡaskɔ̃]ⓘ) is the vernacularRomance variety spoken mainly in the region ofGascony,France. It is often considered avariety of largerOccitanmacrolanguage, although other authors consider it a separate language due to hinderedmutual intelligibility criteria[4][5][6] and earlier separation from the otherOccitano-Romance varieties.
Gascon is mostly spoken in Gascony andBéarn (Béarnese dialect) in southwestern France (in parts of the following Frenchdépartements:Pyrénées-Atlantiques,Hautes-Pyrénées,Landes,Gers,Gironde,Lot-et-Garonne,Haute-Garonne, andAriège) and in theVal d'Aran of Catalonia.
Aranese, a southern Gascon variety, is spoken in Catalonia alongsideCatalan andSpanish. Most people in the region are trilingual in all three languages, causing some influence from Spanish and Catalan. Both these influences tend to differentiate it more and more from the dialects of Gascon spoken in France. Most linguists now consider Aranese a distinct dialect of Occitan and Gascon. Since the 2006 adoption of the new statute ofCatalonia, Aranese is co-official withCatalan and Spanish in all of Catalonia (before, this status was valid for theAran Valley only).
While it is generally accepted that Occitan constitutes a single language,[7] some authors reject this opinion and even the nameOccitan: instead, they argue that the latter is a cover term for afamily of distinctlengas d'òc rather than dialects of a single language. Gascon, in particular, is distinct enough linguistically to have been described as a language in its own right.[4]
The language spoken in Gascony before Roman rule was part of theBasque dialectal continuum (seeAquitanian language); the fact that the word 'Gascon' comes from the Latin rootvasco/vasconem, which is the same root that gives us 'Basque', implies that the speakers identified themselves at some point as Basque. There is a proven Basquesubstrate in the development of Gascon.[8] 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 asfesta '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, causing Gasconhèsta[ˈhɛsto] or[ˈɛsto]. A similar change took placein Spanish. Thus, Latinfacere gives Spanishhacer ([aˈθer]) (or, in some parts of southwesternAndalusia,[haˈsɛɾ]).[9] Another phonological effect resulting from the Basque substrate may have been Gascon's reluctance to pronounce a/r/ at the beginning of words, resolved by means of aprothetical vowel.[10]: 312
Although 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 byKoldo 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 byJoan Coromines as the name of each nymph taking care of the Roman spaArles de Tech inRoussillon, etc.).[10]: 250–251 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.[10]: 250, 255
However, modern Basque has had lexical influence from Gascon in words likebeira ("glass"), which is also seen inGalician-Portuguese. One way for the introduction of Gascon influence intoBasque came about through language contact in bordering areas of theNorthern Basque Country, acting as adstrate.[11]
Theénonciatif (Occitan:enunciatiu) system of Gascon, a system that is more colloquial than characteristic of normative written Gascon and governs the use of certain preverbal particles (including the sometimes emphatic affirmativeque, the occasionally mitigating ordubitativee, the exclamatorybe, and the even more emphaticja/ye, and the "polite"se) has also been attributed to the Basque substrate.[12]
Gascon is divided into three varieties or sub-groups:[13]
The Jews of Gascony, who resided inBordeaux,Bayonne and other cities, spoke until the beginning of the 20th century asociolect of Gascon with special phonetic and lexical features, which linguistics namedJudeo-Gascon.[14] It has been superseded by a sociolect of French that retains most of the lexical features of this former variety.[15]
Béarnais, the official language when Béarn was an independent state, does not correspond to a unified language: the three forms of Gascon are spoken in Béarn (in the south, Pyrenean Gascon, in the center and in the east, Eastern Gascon; to the north-west, Western Gascon).
| French | Landese | Béarnese and Bigourdan | Aranese | Commingeois and Couseranais | Interior Gascon | Bazadais and High-Landese | Bordelese | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Affirmation: He is going | Il y va | Qu' i va. | Que i va. | I va. | Que i va. | Que i va. | (Qu’) i va/vai. | I vai. |
| Negation: He wasn't listening to him | Il ne l’écoutait pas | Ne l’escotèva pas | Non / ne l’escotava pas | Non la escotaua | Non l’escotava cap | Ne l’escotava pas | (Ne) l’escotèva pas | Ne l'escotava pas/briga |
| Plural formation: the young men – the young women | Les jeunes hommes – les jeunes filles | Los gojats – las gojatas | Eths / los gojats – eras / las gojatas | Es gojats – es gojates | Eths gojats – eras gojatas | Los gojats – las gojatas | Los gojats – las gojatas | Los gojats – las dònas/gojas |
A poll conducted in Béarn in 1982 indicated that 51% of the population could speak Gascon, 70% understood it, and 85% expressed a favourable opinion regarding the protection of the language.[16] However, use of the language has declined dramatically over recent years as a result of theFrancization taking place during the last centuries, as Gascon israrely transmitted to young generations any longer (outside of schools, such as theCalandretas).
By April 2011, the Endangered Languages Project estimated that there were only 250,000 native speakers of the language.[17][18]
In fact, there is no unified Béarnais dialect, as 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, not for linguistic reasons.
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Probably as a consequence of the linguistic continuum ofwestern Romania and the French influence over theHispanic Mark on medieval times, shared similar and singular features are noticeable between Gascon and other Latin languages on the other side of the border:Aragonese and far-western Catalan (Catalan ofLa Franja).
Gascon is also (with Spanish,Navarro-Aragonese and French) one of the Romance influences on theBasque language.
| Word | Translation | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| Earth | tèrra | [ˈtɛrrɔ] |
| heaven | cèu | [ˈsɛw] |
| water | aiga | [ˈajɣɔ] |
| fire | huec | [ˈ(h)wɛk] |
| man | òmi/òme | [ˈɔmi]/[ˈɔme] |
| woman | hemna | [ˈ(h)ennɔ] |
| eat | minjar/manjar | [minˈʒa]/[manˈ(d)ʒa] |
| drink | béver | [ˈbewe]/[ˈbeβe] |
| big | gran | [ˈɡran] |
| little | petit/pichon/pichòt | [peˈtit]/[piˈtʃu]/[piˈtʃɔt] |
| night | nueit | [ˈnɥejt] |
| day | dia/jorn | [ˈdia]/[ˈ(d)ʒur] |
Definitely endangered
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
