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 classificationIndo-European
Subdivisions
GlottologNone
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

Supradialectal classification of Occitano-Romance according to P. Bec
Supradialectal classification of Occitano-Romance according to D. Sumien

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 , (protoromance -e, -o):
LatinCatalanOccitanCastilian
OrthographyIPAOrthographyIPAOrthographyIPA
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.
LatinOld OccitanCatalanOccitan
ÁRBORĔARBREarbrearbre
QUATTUORQUÁTROquatrequatre
  • 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.
EnglishLatinOccitanCatalanAragonese
oldVÉC(U)LAvielhavellaviella
middle / halfMEDIU(M)miègmigmeyo
IEGŌieu ~ jojoyo
to followSEQUĔREseguir ~ siegereseguirseguir(e)
leafFŌLIA(M)fuòlha ~ fuèlhafullafuella ~ 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:

OccitanCatalanEnglish
vielhavellaOld
miègmigMiddle/Half
ieu/jojoI
seguirseguirTo follow
fuèlhafullaLeaf

Lexical comparison

Variations in the spellings and pronunciations of numbers in several Occitano-Romance dialects:[9][10]

Numeral Occitan Catalan Aragonese[11] PROTO-
OcRm
Northern Occitan Western Occitan Eastern Occitan Eastern Catalan Northwestern Catalan
AuvergnatLimousin Gascon LanguedocienProvençal
1vyn / vynɐ
vun / vunå
ỹ / ynɔ
un / una
y / yo
un / ua
ỹ / yno
un / una
yŋ / yno
un / una
un / unə
un / una
un / una

un / una

un~uno / una
un~uno / una
*un / *una
2du / dua
dou / duas
du / dua
dos / doas
dys / dyos
dus / duas
dus / duos
dos / doas
dus / duas
dous / douas
dos / duəs
dos / dues
dos

dos / dues

dos / duas
dos / duas
*dos~dus /
*duas
3tʀei
trei
trei
tres
tres
tres
tres
tres
tʀes
tres
trɛs
tres
trɛs
tres
tɾes
tres
*tres
4katʀə
catre
katre
quatre
kwatə
quatre
katre
quatre
katʀə
quatre
kwatrə
quatre
kwatre

quatre

kwatro~kwatre
quatro / quatre
*kwatre
5ʃin
sin
ʃin
cinc
siŋk
cinq
siŋk
cinq
siŋ
cinq
siŋ / siŋk
cinc
siŋ / siŋk
cinc
θiŋko~θiŋk
cinco / cinc
*siŋk
6ʃei
siei
ʃiei
sieis
ʃeis
sheis
siɛis
sièis
siei
sieis
sis
sis
sis

sis

seis~sieis
seis / sieis
*sieis
7se
ʃe
sèt
sɛt
sèt
sɛt
sèt

sèt
sɛt
set
sɛt
set
siet~sɛt
siet / set
*sɛt
8
veu
jɥe
uèch
weit
ueit
ɥeʧ
uèch
vɥe
vue
buit / vuit
vuit
vuit / wit

vuit / huit

weito~weit
ueito / ueit
*weit
9niø~nou
nieu~nou
nɔu
nòu
nau
nau
nɔu
nòu
nu
nòu
nɔu
nou
nɔu
nou
nweu~nɔu
nueu / nou
*nɔu
10die~de
dié~
diɛ~de
detz
dɛʦ
dètz
dɛʦ
dèts
dɛs
dès
dɛu
deu
dɛu
deu
dieθ~deu
diez / deu
*dɛʦ

The numbers 1 and 2 have both feminine and masculine forms agreeing with the object they modify.

References

  1. "Ibero-Romance". Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  2. "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
  3. Lozano Sierra J, Saludas Bernad A.. Aspectos morfosintácticos del Belsetán. Saragossa: Gara d'Edizions, 2007, p. 180. ISBN 84-8094-056-5.
  4. 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
  5. 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.
  6. Manuel Milá y Fontanals (1861). De los trovadores en España: Estudio de lengua y poesía provenzal. J. Verdaguer. p. 14.
  7. Pierre BEC (1973), Manuel pratique d’occitan moderne, coll. Connaissance des langues, Paris: Picard
  8. 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
  9. "Indo-European numerals (Eugene Chan)". Archived from the original on 2012-02-12. Retrieved 2019-05-15.
  10. Cardinals en l'argonés
  11. "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)
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