Gascon ( , , ) is the vernacular Romance variety spoken mainly in the region of

Gascony Gascony (; ) was a province of the southwestern Kingdom of France that succeeded the Duchy of Gascony (602–1453). From the 17th century until the French Revolution (1789–1799), it was part of the combined Province of Guyenne and Gascon ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It is often considered a variety of larger Occitan macrolanguage, although some authors consider it a separate language due to hindered

mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intelli ...

criteria.Cf. Rohlfs, Gerhard. 1970. ''Le Gascon. Études de philologie pyrénéenne'', 2e éd. Tubingen, Max Niemeyer, & Pau, Marrimpouey jeune. Gascon is mostly spoken in Gascony and Béarn ( Béarnese dialect) in southwestern France (in parts of the following French ''départements'':

Pyrénées-Atlantiques Pyrénées-Atlantiques (; Gascon language, Gascon Occitan language, Occitan: ''Pirenèus Atlantics''; ) is a Departments of France, department located in the Regions of France, region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine in the southwest corner of metropolitan ...

Hautes-Pyrénées Hautes-Pyrénées (; Gascon/ Occitan: ''Nauts Pirenèus / Hauts Pirenèus'' awts piɾeˈnɛʊs ; alts piɾiˈneʊs ) is a department in the region of Occitania, southwestern France. The department is bordered by Pyrénées-Atlantiques to t ...

, Landes, Gers,

Gironde Gironde ( , US usually , ; , ) is the largest department in the southwestern French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1,623,749.

Lot-et-Garonne Lot-et-Garonne (, ) is a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. Named after the rivers Lot and Garonne, it had a population of 331,271 in 2019.Haute-Garonne, and Ariège) and in the Val d'Aran of Catalonia. Aranese, a southern Gascon variety, is spoken in Catalonia alongside Catalan and Spanish. 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 of

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

, Aranese is co-official with Catalan and Spanish in all of Catalonia (before, this status was valid for the Aran Valley only). It was also one of the mother tongues of the English kings Richard the Lionheart and his younger brother John Lackland.

Linguistic classification

While many scholars accept that Occitan may constitute a single language, some authors reject this opinion and even the name ''Occitan'': instead, they argue that the latter is a cover term for a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of distinct ''lengas 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.

Basque substrate

The language spoken in Gascony before Roman rule was part of the

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

dialectal continuum (see

Aquitanian language The Aquitanian language was the language of the ancient Aquitani, a people living in Roman times between the Pyrenees, the Garonne river and the Atlantic Ocean. Epigraphic evidence for this language has also been found south of the Pyrenees, in ...

); 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 identified themselves at some point as Basque. There is a proven Basque substrate in the development of Gascon. 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 in Latin, such as ''festa'' 'party/feast', this sound was weakened to aspirated and then, in some areas, lost altogether; according to the substrate theory, this is due to the Basque dialects' lack of an equivalent

phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...

, causing Gascon ''hèsta'' or . A similar change took place in Spanish. Thus, Latin ''facere'' gives Spanish ''hacer'' () (or, in some parts of southwestern

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

, ). Another phonological effect resulting from the Basque substrate may have been Gascon's reluctance to pronounce a at the beginning of words, resolved by means of a prothetical vowel. 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 by Koldo 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 by Joan Coromines as the name of each nymph taking care of the Roman spa ''Arles de Tech'' in Roussillon, etc.). 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. However, modern Basque has had lexical influence from Gascon in words like ''beira'' ("glass"), which is also seen in Galician-Portuguese. One way for the introduction of Gascon influence into

came about through language contact in bordering areas of the

Northern Basque Country The French Basque Country (; ; ), or Northern Basque Country (, or , ), is a region lying on the west of the French department of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. Since 1 January 2017, it constitutes the Basque Municipal Community (; ) presided o ...

, acting as adstrate. The other one has taken place since the 11th century over the coastal fringe of

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiqu ...

extending from Hondarribia to San Sebastian, where Gascon was spoken up to the early 18th century and often used in formal documents until the 16th century, with evidence of its continued occurrence in

Pasaia Pasaia () is a town and municipality located in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Autonomous Community of northern Spain. It is a fishing community, commercial port and the birthplace of the famous admiral Blas de Lezo and of the fashion de ...

in the 1870s. A minor focus of influence was the Way of St James and the establishment of ethnic boroughs in several towns based on the privileges bestowed on the '' Francs'' by the

Kingdom of Navarre The Kingdom of Navarre ( ), originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, occupied lands on both sides of the western Pyrenees, with its northernmost areas originally reaching the Atlantic Ocean (Bay of Biscay), between present-day Spain and France. The me ...

from the 12th to the early 14th centuries, but the variant spoken and used in written records is mainly the Occitan of Toulouse. The ''énonciatif'' (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 affirmative ''que'', the occasionally mitigating or dubitative ''e'', the exclamatory ''be'', and the even more emphatic ''ja''/''ye'', and the "polite" ''se'') has also been attributed to the Basque substrate.

Gascon varieties

Gascon is divided into three varieties or dialect sub-groups: Classification of X. Ravier according to the "Linguistic Atlas of Gascony". Covered in particular by D. Sumien, “Classificacion dei dialèctes occitans”, “Linguistica occitana”, 7, September 2009
online
* Western Gascon, which includes Landese dialect and North-Gascon (bazadais, high-landese and bordelese) * Eastern or interior Gascon, known as ''parlar clar'' ( Béarnese) * Pyrenean or southern Gascon, which includes Aranese dialect The Jews of Gascony, who resided in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

Bayonne Bayonne () is a city in southwestern France near the France–Spain border, Spanish border. It is a communes of France, commune and one of two subprefectures in France, subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments of France, departm ...

and other cities, spoke until the beginning of the 20th century a

sociolect In sociolinguistics, a sociolect is a form of language ( non-standard dialect, restricted register) or a set of lexical items used by a socioeconomic class, profession, age group, or other social group. Sociolects involve both passive acquisit ...

of Gascon with special phonetic and lexical features, which linguistics named '' Judeo-Gascon''. It has been superseded by a sociolect of French that retains most of the lexical features of this former variety. 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).

Usage of the language

Bayonne sign in French Basque Gascon-Occitan

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. However, use of the language has declined dramatically over recent years as a result of the

Francization Francization (in American English, Canadian English, and Oxford English) or Francisation (in other British English), also known as Frenchification, is the expansion of French language use—either through willful adoption or coercion—by more an ...

taking place during the last centuries, as Gascon is rarely transmitted to young generations any longer (outside of schools, such as the Calandretas). By April 2011, the Endangered Languages Project estimated that there were only 250,000 native speakers of the language. The usual term for Gascon is "patois", a word designating in France a non-official and usually devaluated dialect (such as Gallo) or language (such as Occitan), regardless of the concerned region.Marcus, Nicole Elise (2010).
The Gascon énonciatif system: Past, present, and future. A study of language contact, change, endangerment, and maintenance
'' octoral dissertation, University of California.eScholarship Publishing. It is mainly in Béarn that the population uses concurrently the term "Béarnais" to designate its Gascon forms. This is because of the political past of Béarn, which was independent and then part of a sovereign state (the shrinking

) from 1347 to 1620. 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.

Influences on other languages

Probably as a consequence of the linguistic continuum of ''western Romania'' and the French influence over the Hispanic 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 of La Franja). Gascon is also (with Spanish, Navarro-Aragonese and French) one of the Romance influences on the

Basque language Basque ( ; ) is a language spoken by Basques and other residents of the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country, a region that straddles the westernmost Pyrenees in adjacent parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. Basque ...

Examples

Notes and references

Notes

References

* * *

External links

Museum of local culture

Teaching of Occitan and Basque in Aquitania

Cap'òc : Unitat d'Animacion Pedagogica en Occitan

Gascon Lanas (Institut d'Estudis Occitans)
* Per Nostebr>Per Noste edicions

IBG site opposing Gascon and Béarnais to Occitan

IRC chat room devoted to the Gascon language

''A Vòste'', Gascon language journal

Lo gascon lèu e plan ("Gascon quick and well"), an instruction set for learning the language (in French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gascon Language Gascony