Navarrese Romance, simplified as Navarrese is one of the extinct

Iberian Romance The Iberian Romance, Ibero-Romance or sometimes Iberian languages Iberian languages is also used as a more inclusive term for all languages spoken on the Iberian Peninsula, which in antiquity included the non-Indo-European Iberian language. are ...

, which was used during the 10th to 17th centuries in 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 ...

. In addition to the use of

Medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. It was also the administrative language in the former Western Roman Empire, Roman Provinces of Mauretania, Numidi ...

, present as a general phenomenon throughout

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

, and

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...

, more sporadically, practically all medieval Navarrese documentation, both public and private, is written in Navarrese Romance. According to linguists, this

Romance Romance may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings ** Romantic orientation, the classification of the sex or gender with which a pers ...

dialect, both because of its birth in a geographical environment that supported 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 ...

and because of its secular coexistence with it, the origin and development of Navarrese offers problems and peculiar characteristics in the history of

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

linguistics. Despite the volume of legal and chronicle texts of the Navarrese Romance until the beginning of the 20th century it was considered that they were composed in Castilian or

Provençal Provençal may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Provence, a region of France ** Provençal dialect, a dialect of the Occitan language, spoken in the southeast of France ** ''Provençal'', meaning the whole Occitan language * Provenca ...

or in a mixture of both.

Philological context

In 1980, Ricardo Cierbide summarized the fact that throughout the centuries, especially since the end of the 15th century, Navarrese and non-Navarrese showed ignorance of the linguistic fact of the existence of Navarrese Romance and considered it purely and simply as Castilian. These positions have lasted until 1970, with specific exceptions. In his work on Navarrese literature, Carlos Mata Induráin , professor of literature at the

University of Navarra The University of Navarra is a private Catholic research university located on the southeast border of Pamplona, Navarre, Spain. It was founded in 1952 by Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, the founder of '' Opus Dei'', as a corporat ...

, said that Navarrese Romance is the Romance dialect derived from

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

in Navarrese territory, traditionally studied together with

Navarro-Aragonese Navarro-Aragonese was a Romance language once spoken in a large part of the Ebro River basin, south of the middle Pyrenees; the dialects of the modern Aragonese language, spoken in a small portion of that territory, can be seen as its last remain ...

, although with its own linguistic features that allow it to be differentiated, as demonstrated by the studies of Fernando González Ollé and Carmen Saralegui, as well as Ricardo Cierbide, among others. This author also emphasizes that Navarrese Romance was the official language of the Navarrese Court, since it facilitated contacts with the other Christian kingdoms.

The birth and emergence of Romance: Romanization as a basis

According to González Ollé, the birth of Navarrese Romance, with the exception of the Ribera de Navarra, occurs in a Basque-speaking environment where it develops and, through it and at its expense, it spreads socially and territorially. This original situation is common with Castilian, at least in part, depending on the scope that each person grants, with respect to the latter, to the Basque substratum, which is indubitable in the case of Navarre, where ordinary personal coexistence - not just the strict

adstratum In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for 'layer') or strate is a historical layer of language that influences or is influenced by another language through contact. The notion of "strata" was first developed by the Italian linguist Graziadio Isaia A ...

- has been maintained until the present (to a very variable degree, depending on the times and areas). This genesis requires the conjunction of several factors: * The

Romanization In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Latin script, Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and tra ...

of a large part of the current territory known as Navarre with an increasingly horizontal extension and vertical public intensity according to the contributions regularly made by

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and

onomastics Onomastics (or onomatology in older texts) is the study of proper names, including their etymology, history, and use. An ''alethonym'' ('true name') or an ''orthonym'' ('real name') is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onom ...

. * Due to the role played, the

Vascones The Vascones were a pre- Roman tribe who, on the arrival of the Romans in the 1st century, inhabited a territory that spanned between the upper course of the Ebro river and the southern basin of the western Pyrenees, a region that coincides w ...

, according to written sources, constitute an element of support for the Roman conquest favoring this cooperative work as a motivating factor for the growing foundations on the territory converted into the place of passage of the Roman troops that participated in the fights against the

Cantabri The Cantabri (, ''Kantabroi'') or Ancient Cantabrians were a pre-Roman people and large tribal federation that lived in the northern coastal region of ancient Iberia in the second half of the first millennium BC. These peoples and their territor ...

and

Astures The Astures or Asturs, also named Astyrs, were the Hispano-Celtic inhabitants of the northwest area of Hispania that now comprises almost the entire modern autonomous community of the Principality of Asturias, the modern province of León, and t ...

. The deployment of the Roman road network through this territory, both main roads (between

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 ...

and Astorga or between

Tarragona Tarragona (, ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in Catalonia (Spain). It is the capital and largest town of Tarragonès county, the Camp de Tarragona region and the province of Tarragona. Geographically, it is located on the Costa Daurada ar ...

and Astorga) and more secondary ones (between

Pamplona Pamplona (; ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Navarre, Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. Lying at near above sea level, the city (and the wider Cuenca de Pamplona) is located on the flood pl ...

and

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

via

Santacara Santacara is a town and municipality in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring ...

, or between

Gallipienzo Gallipienzo (Basque language, Basque: ''Galipentzu'') is a town and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain. The village was used as a location in the Terry Gilliam movie 'Th ...

and Eslava up to

Olite Erriberri (''Olite'' in spanish) is a town and municipality located in the Tafalla comarca, Erriberri merindad, in Navarre, Basque Country. History According to Isidore of Seville's ''Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum'', th ...

and

Cascante Cascante is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain. During the Roman period, Cascante was known as Cascantum. Notable people * Kike Sola, footballer * Álex Remiro Alejandro "Á ...

) favours the proliferation of

Mansio In the Roman Empire, a ''mansio'' (from the Latin word ''mansus,'' the perfect passive participle of ''manere'' "to remain" or "to stay") was an official stopping place on a Roman road, or ''via'', maintained by the central government for the use ...

at their foot. * It is quite plausible and possible that, after the disappearance of Roman authority, there was a recovery of the Vascones' territory during the final stage of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

. However, this process would be slowed down, and even gradually reversed, with the formation of the Iberian Romance languages, which possibly had various initial foci in their genesis. One such focus could be located in the space bathed by the middle course of the

Aragon River Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to south): Huesca, Zaragoza, a ...

, between

Tiermas Tiermas is an uninhabited settlement in the province of Zaragoza, in Aragon (Spain), belonging to the municipality of Sigüés in the comarca de Jacetania. It is on the banks of the Aragón river next to the Yesa Reservoir that partly floods it. ...

and Gallipienzo, as well as by the Onsella River (Valdonsella), a region later disputed by the

County of Aragon The County of Aragon () or County of Jaca () was a small Franks, Frankish Marches, marcher county in the central Pyrenees, Pyrenean valley of the Aragon river, comprising Ansó, Echo, Aragón, Spain, Echo, and Canfranc and centered on the small to ...

and the Kingdom of Pamplona where the birth is verified, first, of the Kingdom of Pamplona, as well as the County of Aragon that, later, will become a kingdom, even sharing the occupants of the throne, but with an expansion greater in land and time than the previous one until the end of the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. In those early stages there is documentary evidence of the emergence of

Sancho I of Pamplona Sancho Garcés I (Basque: ''Antso I.a Gartzez''; 860 – 10 December 925), also known as Sancho I, was king of Pamplona from 905 until 925. He was the son of García Jiménez and was the first king of Pamplona of the Jiménez dynasty. Sancho ...

in the surroundings of the

Sierra de Leyre The Sierra de Leyre or Sierra de Leire"In Spanish, the /i/ is written "y" when, being unstressed, it is in word final position preceded by a vowel with which it forms a diphthong ("rey, ay, fray, ley, hoy"). Inside a word, the phoneme /i/ is repres ...

Navarrese, Aragonese and Old Riojan: breaking old postulates

At the beginning of the 20th century it has been linked to Aragonese, calling both the Navarro-Aragonese language, although with a clear inaccuracy since serious and balanced comparative studies were lacking, there being an abundant bibliography on the ancient texts and modern dialects of Aragon that had hardly any counterpart with its congeners of Navarre. The authority of

Ramón Menéndez Pidal Ramón Menéndez Pidal (; 13 March 1869 – 14 November 1968) was a Spanish philologist and historian."Ramon Menendez Pidal", ''Almanac of Famous People'' (2011) ''Biography in Context'', Gale, Detroit He worked extensively on the history of t ...

in this matter established the compound Navarro-Aragonese, seconded, without further study, by other authors, assuming the lack of a substantial differentiation between Navarrese and Aragonese, even

Old Riojan Old Riojan is an extinct variety of Navarro-Aragonese which was spoken in northeastern medieval La Rioja. This variety went extinct due to a rapid mixture with Castilian following La Rioja falling into the control of Crown of Castile. Latin had be ...

and reaching the rank of generally accepted doctrine that they were simple names of the same language, but without being able to affirm how it has proceeded to affirm this identity given the lack of a regular process of previous studies that would contribute to such an affirmation. On the contrary, during the last third of the 20th century, initial efforts were perceived to alleviate this perspective, so bleak, of the state of knowledge of the Navarrese Romance with the doctoral thesis of Ricardo Cierbide, ''Romance navarro antiguo: (siglos 10 al 15: estudio realizar sobre documentos originales)'', presented at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

in 1970, and with the extensive article by

Fernando González Ollé Fernando González Ollé (4 February 1929 – 18 May 2025) was a Spanish linguist, writer and researcher. He was a Professor of History of the Spanish Language at the University of Navarra and corresponding academician of the Royal Spanish Acade ...

, El romance navarro, whose objective was to demonstrate the existence of a

Romance language The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

of its own in this territory. Both facts were decisive in the change of direction in this matter in the following decades. Early on (1975) we have the doctoral thesis, promoted by the Chair of Historical Grammar at the University of Zaragoza, on The Navarrese Romance in the manuscripts of the ancient charter of the Fuero General of Navarre where the author, María Ángeles Líbano Zumalacárregui, (later professor of Spanish Language at the University of the Basque Country) collaborated with this contribution to the critical edition of the so-called Fuero Antiguo that ended up integrated into the Fuero General de Navarra initiated in the Department of Medieval History of that university. With her research, numerous spellings and phonetic, morphological and syntactical elements that characterize the Navarrese Romance used in its writing are provided. In 1993 she presented her doctoral thesis Carmela Pérez-Salazar Resano published her thesis in 1995 on ''The Navarrese Romance in royal documents of the 14th century (1322-1349)'', a linguistic study of a diplomatic documentary collection, with about 300 royal documents written in Latin, in Navarrese Romance and

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

and Occitan. Finally, a year later (1996), Manuel Alvar published his ''Manual de dialectología hispánica: El español de España'' where for the first time in a dialectology manual Navarrese has an entry. It was written by Fernando González Ollé, who proceeds to justify the precarious attention deserved that is usually placed under Navarro-Aragonese, although without deserving any attention of its own while, on the contrary, there are other cases of dialectological individualization derived from the existence of medieval political divisions or by their continuation as traditional or administrative regions. Also in the same book, separately, also precedes the chapter on Aragonese signed by Manuel Alvar himself.

Historical context

The oldest known text in Navarrese Romance seems to be the granting of the ''Fuero de Jaca'' in 1171 to the inhabitants of

Sangüesa Sangüesa (Basque: ''Zangoza'') is a city in Navarre, Spain, 44.5 kilometers from Pamplona. It lies close to the River Aragon and in 2007 had a population of 5,128. It is located on the Way of Saint James. It has been an important stopping poi ...

Sancho VI of Navarre Sancho Garcés VI (; 21 April 1132 – 27 June 1194), called the Wise (, ) was King of Navarre from 1150 until his death in 1194. He was the first monarch to officially drop the title of ''King of Pamplona'' in favour of King of Navarre, thus cha ...

: Historical linguistic demography considers that, apart from the use in the cities of medieval Navarre of languages such as Gascon, Castilian or Provençal. During the Late Middle Ages Navarrese Romance was spoken more intensely south of the valleys of the Ega, Arga and Aragon rivers. With the arrival on the throne of Navarre of the first French dynasties, the language seems to become a national issue (compared to the foreign ones who began to be constant in the Navarrese court), promoting its progressive use, to the detriment of Latin, in official documentation. It would be the Navarrese Romance language that, from the 13th century and especially the 14th century, would be predominant in the court and in the Chancery of Navarre, and in which a large part of the documentation of the Navarrese royalty would be written. In 1255, during the homage of loyalty paid to

Theobald II of Navarre Theobald II (6/7 December 1239 – 4/5 December 1270) was King of Navarre and also, as Theobald V, Count of Champagne and Brie (region), Brie, from 1253 until his death. He was the son and successor of Theobald I of Navarre, Theobald I and the s ...

, several Navarrese lords promised to respect "your people of the French language and any other language that may be in your service". Language, or lack of it, was a determining requirement explicitly communicated to the occupant of the throne during the ceremony of the elevation of the king to determine the natives of the country and the "man of another land, or of foreign place or of foreign language" at the time of appointments to positions. Furthermore, it was expressly identified as the official language of the kingdom in 1329, in the Cortes of Olite, and was designated in the documentation as the language of Navarre, and was expressly reinstated in 1350, during the royal coronation of

Charles II of Navarre Charles II (, , , 10 October 1332 – 1 January 1387), known as the Bad, was King of Navarre beginning in 1349, as well as Count of Évreux beginning in 1343, holding both titles until his death in 1387. Besides the Kingdom of Navarre nestled in ...

, or in 1390, during the coronation of his successor

Charles III of Navarre Charles III (, ; 22 July 1361 – 8 September 1425), called the Noble, was King of Navarre from 1387 to his death and Count of Évreux in France from 1387 to 1404, when he exchanged Évreux for the Duchy of Nemours. As a young man, Charles was ...

. In a singular way, both the General Charter of Navarre , the masterpiece of medieval Navarrese private law, and its improvements are written in Navarrese Romance. From the 15th century onwards, contact between Navarrese Romance and Castilian would produce a phenomenon of convergence between the two languages, a phenomenon that would lead to their complete replacement by Castilian in the 16th century.

Documentary context

In addition to the ''Liber Regum'', which is the first Hispanic chronicle written in the vernacular and perhaps the first romance text of Hispanic literature, the ''Crónica d'Espayña'' by García de Eugui, the ''Crónica'' by Garcí López de Roncesvalles and the ''Crónica de los Reyes de Navarra'' by the

Charles, Prince of Viana Charles, Prince of Viana () (29 May 1421 – 23 September 1461), sometimes called Charles IV of Navarre, was the eldest son of King John II of Aragon and Queen Blanche I of Navarre. He pre-deceased his father. Background His mother was the dau ...

, we must mention the genealogical news that collect, at the end, some manuscripts of the ''Fuero General de Navarra''. Under the name of ''Corónicas navarras'' they have been edited by Antonio Ubieto Arteta, for whom these brief texts had an independent life prior to their inclusion in the legal compilation. Also worth mentioning in this section is the account ''From Estella to Seville. Accounts of a Journey (1352)''. The manuscript entitled ''Book of Generations'' with a 16th century letter copies a work by Martín de Larraya that was written between 1258 and 1270. Its historical and literary value is scarce, but the linguistic one is more interesting since it contains a relatively early text, but the copy is late and in it still persist with intensity multiple features of the Navarrese dialect, since from the end of the 15th century and even before the language of the Navarrese documentation appears deeply Castilianized. The same generally happens with other contemporary Navarrese historical texts: the ''Chronicle of the Kings of Navarre'' by Diego Ramírez de Ávalos de la Piscina or in the ''Sum of the Chronicles of Navarre'' by an anonymous author.

Survivals

As with the area where Aragonese was formerly spoken and which underwent a process of Castilianization, the Castilian vocabulary and speech of central, southern, and eastern Navarre have maintained until recently or retain today identifying features of Navarrese Romance, such as the aversion to words with

proparoxytone In linguistics, a proparoxytone (, ) is a word with stress on the antepenultimate (third to last) syllable, such as the English language, English words "cinema" and "operational". Related concepts are paroxytone (stress on the penultimate syllable) ...

s. Specifically, the following are attributable to the survival of linguistic forms of Navarrese: * In the Eslava area, the oldest people used the ending -''i'' for the first person of the imperfect tense, just as in present-day

Ansó Aragonese Ansó Aragonese is a variety of Western Aragonese spoken in Ansó Valley, included Ansó, Biniés and Fago. Phonetics Final ''-r'' is not pronounced in Ansó but it's still pronounced in Fago. Morphology The most documented article syst ...

. Example: ''teníai''. * The most widespread Navarrism is the anthroponym ''Javier (Xabier, Xavier)'', adapted to many Western languages, coming from the Basque ''Etxeberri'', which means new house. * In Navarrese regional law, the term municipal domain and the regional neighbourhoods still exist. * It is possible that the ''Salacenco'' demonym for the inhabitants of the

Salazar Valley The Salazar Valley (, ) is a valley in the east of the Foral Community of Navarre in Spain. It lies within the Merindad of Zangoza-Sangüesa and within that, the Comarca of Roncal-Salazar. The Sierra de Abodi, part of the Western Pyrenees, f ...

is of Navarrese origin, as is the survival of the name Selva de Irati (

Irati Forest The Irati Forest (; ; ；), found in the western Pyrenees, covers of the Navarre region, astride on the Soule ( Larrau) and Basse-Navarre ( Mendive and Lecumberry) provinces (France) and Navarre (Spain), framed by Mount Okabe (1,466 m) and Pic d ...

), which in Spanish would be forest because the use of jungle for this type of plant formation has long since been lost.

Orthography

Much like many other Romance languages, Navarrese is written in the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

with its own variations.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * ** * * * * {{Romance languages Medieval languages Languages extinct in the 17th century Aragonese language Extinct Romance languages Pyrenean-Mozarabic languages Extinct languages of Europe