Souletin or Zuberoan () is the
Basque dialect spoken in
Soule
Soule (; Basque language, Basque: Zuberoa; Zuberoan/ Soule Basque: Xiberoa or Xiberua; ) is a former viscounty and France, French Provinces of France, province and part of the present-day Pyrénées-Atlantiques ''département in France, départ ...
, France. Souletin is marked by influences from
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 ...
(in particular the
Béarnese dialect
Béarnese (Endonym and exonym, endonym or ; ) is the variety of Gascon dialect, Gascon spoken in Béarn.
The usage of a specific name for Béarnese lies in the history of Béarn, Viscounty of Béarn, a viscounty that became a sovereign principa ...
), especially in the lexicon. Another distinct characteristic is the use of verb forms, a form of address including in third person verbs the interlocutor marker embedded in the auxiliary verb: → (s/he came → s/he came to you).
Name
In
English sources, the Basque-based term ''Zuberoan'' is sometimes encountered. In
Standard Basque
Standard Basque () is a standardised version of the Basque language, developed by the Basque Language Academy in the late 1960s, which nowadays is the most widely and commonly spoken Basque-language version throughout the Basque Country. Heavil ...
, the dialect is known as (the province name and the language-forming
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
). Various local forms are , and .
In French, it is known as .
In
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
...
, the dialect is called or .
Distribution
The southern dialect
Roncalese
Roncalese (in Basque: ''erronkariera'', in Roncalese dialect: ''Erronkariko uskara'') is an extinct Basque dialect once spoken in the Roncal Valley in Navarre, Spanish Basque Country. It is a subdialect of Eastern Navarrese in the classificat ...
was sometimes included within Zuberoan. A Basque language variety close to Zuberoan may have extended more to the east, into the Central
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...
, as attested by placenames and historical records about the Basque peoples ( in the
Royal Frankish Annals
The ''Royal Frankish Annals'' (Latin: ''Annales regni Francorum''), also called the ''Annales Laurissenses maiores'' ('Greater Lorsch Annals'), are a series of annals composed in Latin in Carolingian Francia, recording year-by-year the state of ...
).
Phonology
In addition to the five vowels present in all other Basque dialects, Zuberoan also has a
close front rounded vowel
The close front rounded vowel, or high front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is y. Ac ...
(written ), which is markedly noticeable to speakers of other varieties. All six vowels can be nasalized ( is absent in some Souletin varieties), with nasalization being phonemic.
It is likely that the sixth vowel arose influenced by the Béarnese vowel shift some centuries ago instead of being an ancient vowel lost in other dialects of Basque.
Souletin features the voiceless aspirated stops , which contrast with their unaspirated counterparts. The
alveolar tap
The voiced alveolar tap or flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents a dental consonant, dental, alveolar consonant, alveolar, or postalveolar consonant, p ...
present in other dialects has been lost in Souletin. The voiced fricatives are found almost exclusively in loanwords, they are present in other varieties only as allophones of their unvoiced counterparts. The phoneme (written as ) corresponds to in other varieties. The
voiceless nasal glottal approximant is found exclusively in intervocalic position, and triggers the nasalization of the adjoining vowels.
Example
This example of the "Orreaga"
[Campion, A (1971)]
''Orreaga. Balada escrita en el dialecto guipuzcoano, acompañada de versiones a los dialectos bizcaino, labortano y suletino y de diez y ocho variedades dialectales de la region bascongada de Nabarra desde Olazagutia hasta Roncal''
Separated edition of the La Gran Enciclopedia Vasca, pg 33. ballad composed by
Arturo Campion shows some differences between this dialect and the
standard Basque
Standard Basque () is a standardised version of the Basque language, developed by the Basque Language Academy in the late 1960s, which nowadays is the most widely and commonly spoken Basque-language version throughout the Basque Country. Heavil ...
(Euskara batua).
See also
*
Basque dialects
Basque dialects are linguistic varieties of the Basque language which differ in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar from each other and from Standard Basque. Between six and nine Basque dialects have been historically distinguished:
* Biscaya ...
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
*
{{Authority control
Basque dialects
Soule