Occitano-Romance languages
The Occitano-Romance or Gallo-Narbonnese (Catalan: llengües occitanoromàniques, Occitan: lengas occitanoromanicas, Aragonese: lenguas/llenguas occitanorománicas), or rarely East Iberian,[1] is a branch of the Romance language group that encompasses the Catalan/Valencian, Occitan languages and Aragonese spoken in parts of southern France and northeastern Spain.[2][3]
Occitano-Romance | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Narbonensis dialect | ||||
Geographic distribution | France, Spain, Andorra, Monaco, parts of Italy | |||
Linguistic classification | Indo-European
| |||
Subdivisions | ||||
Glottolog | None | |||
Occitano-Romance languages and dialects
|
Extent
The group covers the languages of the southern part of France (Occitania including Northern Catalonia), eastern Spain (Catalonia, Valencian Community, Balearic Islands, La Franja, Carche, Northern Aragon), together with Andorra, Monaco, parts of Italy (Occitan Valleys, Alghero, Guardia Piemontese), and historically in the County of Tripoli and the possessions of the Crown of Aragon. The existence of this group of languages is discussed on both linguistic and political bases.
Classification
According to some linguists both Occitan and Catalan/Valencian should be considered Gallo-Romance languages. Other linguists concur as regarding Occitan but consider Catalan and Aragonese to be part of the Ibero-Romance languages.
The issue at debate is as political as it is linguistic because the division into Gallo-Romance and Ibero-Romance languages stems from the current nation states of France and Spain and so is based more on territorial criteria than historic and linguistic criteria. One of the main proponents of the unity of the languages of the Iberian Peninsula was Spanish philologist Ramón Menéndez Pidal, and for a long time, others such as Swiss linguist Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke (Das Katalanische, Heidelberg, 1925) have supported the kinship of Occitan and Catalan. Moreover, the fact that Aragonese hasn't been studied as much as both Catalan and Occitan, many people label it as a Spanish dialect.[4]
From the 8th century to the 13th century, there was no clear linguistic distinction between Occitania and Catalonia. For instance, the Provençal troubadour, 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."[5] In Marseille, a typical Provençal song is called 'Catalan song'.[6]
Internal variation
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 in supradialectal groups, such is the case of Pierre Bec[7] and, more recently, of Domergue Sumien.[8]
Both join together in an Aquitano-Pyrenean or Pre-Iberian group including Catalan, Gascon and a part of Languedocian, leaving the rest of Occitan in one (Sumien: Arverno-Mediterranean) or two groups (Bec: Arverno-Mediterranean, Central Occitan
Linguistic variation
Similarities between Catalan, Occitan and Aragonese
- Both Varieties of Catalan and Occitan have apocope on terminal latin vowels -Ĕ, -Ŭ (protoromance -e, -o):
Latin Catalan Occitan Castilian Orthography IPA Orthography IPA Orthography IPA TRŬNCŬM [ˈt̪rʊŋ.kʊ̃ˑ] tronc [tɾoŋ(k)] tronc [tɾoŋ(k)] tronco LĬGNOSŬM [ˈlʲɪŋ.n̪ɔ.sʊ̃ˑ] llenyòs [ʎəɲós] lenhós [leɲús] leñoso
- This evolution does not occur when the ellision of -e or -o results in a terminal consonant cluster.
Latin Old Occitan Catalan Occitan ÁRBORĔ ARBRE arbre arbre QUATTUOR QUÁTRO quatre quatre
- A large part of the lexicon is shared, and in general written words in Catalan and Occitan are mutually intelligible. Similar to the differences in lexicon between Portuguese and Castilian (although this is not always the case with spoken language and varies from dialect to dialect). There are also notable cognates between Catalan, Valencian, Occitan and Aragonese.
English Latin Occitan Catalan Aragonese old VÉC(U)LA vielha vella viella middle / half MEDIU(M) mièg mig meyo I EGŌ ieu ~ jo jo yo to follow SEQUĔRE seguir ~ siegere seguir seguir(e) leaf FŌLIA(M) fuòlha ~ fuèlha fulla fuella ~ folla
Differences between Catalan and Occitan
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 of the differ markedly. In Occitan the form of neutralization depends on whether a vowel is pretonic (before the stressed syllable) or postonic (after the stressed syllable). For example /ɔ/ articulates as [u] in pretonic position and as [o] in postonic 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 |
---|---|---|
vielha | vella | Old |
mièg | mig | Middle/Half |
ieu/jo | jo | I |
seguir | seguir | To follow |
fuèlha | fulla | Leaf |
Lexical comparison
Variations in the spellings and pronunciations of numbers in several Occitano-Romance dialects:[9][10]
Numeral Occitan Catalan Aragonese[11] PROTO-
OcRmNorthern Occitan Western Occitan Eastern Occitan Eastern Catalan Northwestern Catalan Auvergnat Limousin Gascon Languedocien Provençal 1 vyn / vynɐ
vun / vunåỹ / ynɔ
un / unay / yo
un / uaỹ / yno
un / unayŋ / yno
un / unaun / unə
un / unaun / una un / una
un~uno / una
un~uno / una*un / *una 2 du / dua
dou / duasdu / dua
dos / doasdys / dyos
dus / duasdus / duos
dos / doasdus / duas
dous / douasdos / duəs
dos / duesdos dos / dues
dos / duas
dos / duas*dos~dus /
*duas3 tʀei
treitrei
trestres
trestres
trestʀes
trestrɛs
trestrɛs
trestɾes
tres*tres 4 katʀə
catrekatre
quatrekwatə
quatrekatre
quatrekatʀə
quatrekwatrə
quatrekwatre quatre
kwatro~kwatre
quatro / quatre*kwatre 5 ʃin
sinʃin
cincsiŋk
cinqsiŋk
cinqsiŋ
cinqsiŋ / siŋk
cincsiŋ / siŋk
cincθiŋko~θiŋk
cinco / cinc*siŋk 6 ʃei
sieiʃiei
sieisʃeis
sheissiɛis
sièissiei
sieissis
sissis sis
seis~sieis
seis / sieis*sieis 7 se
séʃe
sètsɛt
sètsɛt
sètsɛ
sètsɛt
setsɛt
setsiet~sɛt
siet / set*sɛt 8 vø
veujɥe
uèchweit
ueitɥeʧ
uèchvɥe
vuebuit / vuit
vuitvuit / wit vuit / huit
weito~weit
ueito / ueit*weit 9 niø~nou
nieu~nounɔu
nòunau
naunɔu
nòunu
nòunɔu
nounɔu
nounweu~nɔu
nueu / nou*nɔu 10 die~de
dié~dédiɛ~de
detzdɛʦ
dètzdɛʦ
dètsdɛs
dèsdɛu
deudɛu
deudieθ~deu
diez / deu*dɛʦ
The numbers 1 and 2 have both feminine and masculine forms agreeing with the object they modify.
References
- "Ibero-Romance". Retrieved 4 October 2017.
- "Mas se confrontam los parlars naturals de Catalonha e d'Occitania, i a pas cap de dobte, em en preséncia de parlars d'una meteissa familha linguistica, la qu'ai qualificada d'occitano-romana, plaçada a egala distància entre lo francés e l'espanhòl." Loís Alibèrt, Òc, n°7 (01/1950), p. 26
- Lozano Sierra J, Saludas Bernad A.. Aspectos morfosintácticos del Belsetán. Saragossa: Gara d'Edizions, 2007, p. 180. ISBN 84-8094-056-5.
- Tomás Arias, Javier. Elementos de lingüística contrastiva en aragonés: estudio de algunas afinidades con gascón, catalán y otros romances (Thesis). Universitat de Barcelona, 2016-07-08
- Monges, causetz, segons vostre siensa qual valon mais, catalan ho francés?/ E met de sai Guascuenha e Proensa/ E lemozí, alvernh’ e vianés/ E de lai met la terra dels dos reis.
- Manuel Milá y Fontanals (1861). De los trovadores en España: Estudio de lengua y poesía provenzal. J. Verdaguer. p. 14.
- Pierre BEC (1973), Manuel pratique d’occitan moderne, coll. Connaissance des langues, Paris: Picard
- Domergue SUMIEN (2006), La standardisation pluricentrique de l'occitan: nouvel enjeu sociolinguistique, développement du lexique et de la morphologie, coll. Publications de l'Association Internationale d'Études Occitanes, Turnhout: Brepols
- "Indo-European numerals (Eugene Chan)". Archived from the original on 2012-02-12. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
- Cardinals en l'argonés
- "Los números en aragonés: Cardinales". Archived from the original on 2019-04-21. Retrieved 2019-05-15.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)