Gascon language

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The Gascon language (Gascon, [gasˈku]; French, [gaskɔ̃]) is an Occitan dialect mostly spoken in Gascony (in the French départements of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Hautes-Pyrénées, Landes, Gers, Gironde, a part of Lot-et-Garonne, a part of Haute-Garonne, and a part of Ariège), and in the small Spanish valley Val d'Aran, in the Northwest of Catalonia. Around the world it is spoken by 253,814 people. Some consider it a separate language from Occitan, due to the significant differences it presents from the other Occitan varieties; however, since Gascon is spoken within France along with the other Occitan dialects, it is consigned to the Occitan sphere.

Gascon comprises four subdialects:

Landese (Landés, Landais)
Bearnese (Bearnés, Béarnais)
Ariegese (Ariejés, Ariégeois)
Aranese (Aranés, Aranais)

Of these, only Aranese is spoken in Spain. Aranese has been greatly influenced by Catalan and Aragonese. This influence differentiates it from the dialects of Gascon spoken in France. Aranese is co-official with Spanish and Catalan in the Val d'Aran.

1 Possible Basque substrate
2 Usage of the language
3 Examples
4 External links
5 Ref:

[edit] Possible Basque substrate

The language spoken in Gascony before Roman rule was part of the Basque 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 themselves may have identified themselves as Basque. There may therefore be a Basque substrate in the development of Gascon (that is, though the speakers were forced to adopt the Latin language after the Roman invasion during the 50s BC, their variety of Latin was affected by their original Basque language). This may explain some of the major differences that exist between Gascon and other Occitan varieties.

A typically Gascon feature that may arise from this substrate is the so-called '"f" to "h" change.' 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 Spanish; Spanish originated in Cantabria, where there were also Basque speakers, and so may have developed upon a Basque substrate. Thus Latin facere gives Spanish hacer [aˈθɛɾ] (or, in some remote areas, particularly in south-western Andalusia, [haˈθɛɾ]).

However, some linguists deny the plausibility of the Basque substrate theory; many have sought a language-internal explanation for this and other changes. The fact that this particular change occurs in both Gascon and Spanish, both of which developed in originally Basque-speaking areas, may be coincidental.

[edit] Usage of the language

A poll in 1982 in Béarn indicated that 51% of the population spoke Gascon, 70% understood it, and 85% expressed a favourable opinion regarding the protection of the language.