Aragonese language

Aragonese dialect map

Aragonese is the native language of the Aragonese mountain ranges of the Pyrenees, in the comarcas of Somontano, Jacetania, Sobrarbe, and Ribagorza. Cities and towns in which Aragonese is spoken are Huesca, Graus, Monzón, Barbastro, Bielsa, Chistén, Fonz, Echo, Estadilla, Benasque, Campo, Sabiñánigo, Jaca, Plan, Ansó, Ayerbe, Broto, and El Grado.

It is spoken as a second language by inhabitants of Zaragoza, Huesca, Ejea de los Caballeros, or Teruel. According to recent polls, there are about 25,500 speakers (2011)[2] including speakers living outside the native area. In 2017, the Dirección General de Política Lingüística de Aragón estimated there were 10,000 to 12,000 active speakers of Aragonese.[1]

In 2009, the Languages Act of Aragon (Law 10/2009) recognized the "native language, original and historic" of Aragon. The language received several linguistic rights, including its use in public administration.[3][4] Some of the legislation was repealed by a new law in 2013 (Law 3/2013).[5] [See Languages Acts of Aragon for more information on the subject]

Aragonese expanded into the territories of the Kingdom of Aragon from the 12th to the 16th centuries.

Aragonese has many historical traits in common with Catalan. Some are conservative features that are also shared with the Astur-Leonese languages and Galician-Portuguese, where Spanish innovated in ways that did not spread to nearby languages.

• Romance initial f- is preserved, e.g. filium > fillo ('son', Sp. hijo, Cat. fill, Pt. filho).
• Romance groups cl-, fl- and pl- are preserved and in most dialects do not undergo any change, e.g. clavis > clau ('key', Sp. llave, Cat. clau, Pt. chave). However, in some transitional dialects from both sides (Ribagorzano in Aragonese and Ribagorçà and Pallarès in Catalan) it becomes cll-, fll- and pll-, e.g. clavis > cllau.
• Romance palatal approximant (ge-, gi-, i-) consistently became medieval [dʒ], as in medieval Catalan and Portuguese. This becomes modern ch [tʃ], as a result of the devoicing of sibilants (see below). In Spanish, the medieval result was either [dʒ]/[ʒ], (modern [x]), [ʝ], or nothing, depending on the context. e.g. iuvenem > choven ('young man', Sp. joven /ˈxoβen/, Cat. jove /ˈʒoβə/), gelare > chelar ('to freeze', Sp. helar /eˈlaɾ/, Cat. gelar /ʒəˈla/).
• Romance groups -lt-, -ct- result in [jt], e.g. factum > feito ('done', Sp. hecho, Cat. fet, Gal./Port. feito), multum > muito ('many, much', Sp. mucho, Cat. molt, Gal. moito, Port. muito).
• Romance groups -x-, -ps-, scj- result in voiceless palatal fricative ix [ʃ], e.g. coxu > coixo ('crippled', Sp. cojo, Cat. coix).
• Romance groups -lj-, -c'l-, -t'l- result in palatal lateral ll [ʎ], e.g. muliere > muller ('woman', Sp. mujer, Cat. muller), acuc'la > agulla ('needle', Sp. aguja, Cat. agulla).

• Open o, e from Romance result systematically in diphthongs [we], [je], e.g. vet'la > viella ('old woman', Sp. vieja, Cat. vella, Pt. velha). This includes before a palatal approximant, e.g. octō > ueito ('eight', Sp. ocho, Cat. vuit, Pt. oito). Spanish diphthongizes except before yod, whereas Catalan only diphthongizes before yod.
• Voiced stops /b, d, ɡ/ may be lenited to approximants [β, ð, ɣ].

• Loss of final unstressed -e but not -o, e.g. grande > gran ('big'), factum > feito ('done'). Catalan loses both -e and -o (Cat. gran, fet); Spanish preserves -o and sometimes -e (Sp. hecho, gran ~ grande).
• Former voiced sibilants become voiceless ([z] > [s], [dʒ] > [tʃ]).
• The palatal /j/ is most often realized as a fricative [ʝ].[7]

• Latin -b- is maintained in past imperfect endings of verbs of the second and third conjugations: teneba, teniba ('he had', Sp. tenía, Cat. tenia), dormiba ('he was sleeping', Sp. dormía, Cat. dormia).
• High Aragonese dialects (alto aragonés) and some dialects of Gascon have preserved the voicelessness of many intervocalic stop consonants, e.g. cletam > cleta ('sheep hurdle', Cat. cleda, Fr. claie), cuculliatam > cocullata ('crested lark', Sp. cogujada, Cat. cogullada).
• Several Aragonese dialects maintain Latin -ll- as geminate /ll/.
• The mid vowels /e, o/ can be as open as [ɛ, ɔ], mainly in the Benasque dialect.[8]
• No native word can begin with an /r/, a trait shared with Gascon and Basque.[9]

The definite article in Aragonese has undergone dialect-related changes, with definite articles in Old Aragonese similar to their present Spanish equivalents. There are two main forms:

These forms are used in the eastern and some central dialects.

These forms are used in the western and some central dialects.[16]

Neighboring Romance languages have influenced Aragonese. Catalan and Occitan influenced Aragonese for many years. Since the 15th century, Spanish has most influenced Aragonese; it was adopted throughout Aragon as the first language, limiting Aragonese to the northern region surrounding the Pyrenees. French has also influenced Aragonese; Italian loanwords have entered through other languages (such as Catalan), and Portuguese words have entered through Spanish. Germanic words came with the conquest of the region by Germanic peoples during the fifth century, and English has introduced a number of new words into the language.

Words that were part of the Latin second declension—as well as words that joined it later on—are usually masculine:

• filiu(m) > fillo ('son')
• sciuru + olu(m) > esquiruelo, esquirol ('squirrel')

Words that were part of the Latin first declension are usually feminine:

• filia(m) > filla ('daughter').

Some Latin neuter plural nouns joined the first declension as singular feminine nouns:

• folia > fuella ('leaf').

Words ending in -or are feminine:

• a honor, a calor, a color, and (in Medieval Aragonese) la amor

The names of fruit trees usually end in -era (a suffix derived from Latin -aria) and are usually feminine:

• a perera, a manzanera, a nuquera, a castanyera, a tellera / o tilero, a olivera, a ciresera, l'almendrera

The genders of river names vary:

• Many ending in -a are feminine: a Cinca/a Cinga, a Cinqueta, a Garona, L'Arba, a Noguera, a Isuela, La Uecha, La Uerva, etc. The last was known as río de la Uerba during the 16th century.
• Many from the second and the third declension are masculine: L'Ebro, O Galligo, O Flumen, L'Alcanadre.

Just like most other Occitano-Romance languages, Aragonese has partitive and locative clitic pronouns derived from the Latin inde and ibi: en/ne and bi/i/ie; unlike Ibero-Romance.

Such pronouns are present in most major Romance languages (Catalan en and hi, Occitan ne and i, French en and y, and Italian ne and ci/vi).

En/ne is used for:

• Partitive objects: No n'he visto como aquello ("I haven't seen anything like that", literally 'Not (of it) I have seen like that').
• Partitive subjects: En fa tanto de mal ("It hurts so much", literally '(of it) it causes so much of pain')
• Ablatives, places from which movements originate: Se'n va ra memoria ("Memory goes away", literally '(away from [the mind]) memory goes')

Bi/hi/ie is used for:

• Locatives, where something takes place: N'hi heba uno ("There was one of them"), literally '(Of them) there was one')
• Allatives, places that movements go towards or end: Vés-be ('Go there (imperative)')

Since 1500, Spanish has been the cultural language of Aragon; many Aragonese wrote in Spanish, and during the 17th century the Argensola brothers went to Castile to teach Spanish.[19] Aragonese became a popular village language.[12] During the 17th century, popular literature in the language began to appear. In a 1650 Huesca literary contest, Aragonese poems were submitted by Matías Pradas, Isabel de Rodas and "Fileno, montañés".

The 19th and 20th centuries have seen a renaissance of Aragonese literature in several dialects. In 1844, Braulio Foz's novel Vida de Pedro Saputo was published in the Almudévar (southern) dialect. The 20th century featured Domingo Miral's costumbrist comedies and Veremundo Méndez Coarasa's poetry, both in Hecho (western) Aragonese; Cleto Torrodellas' poetry and Tonón de Baldomera's popular writings in the Graus (eastern) dialect and Arnal Cavero's costumbrist stories and Juana Coscujuela's novel A Lueca, historia d'una moceta d'o Semontano, also in the southern dialect.

In pre-school education, students whose parents wish them to be taught Aragonese receive between thirty minutes to one hour of Aragonese lessons a week.[21] In the 2014–2015 academic year there were 262 students recorded in pre-school Aragonese lessons.[21]

The subject of Aragonese now has a fully developed curriculum in primary education in Aragon.[21] Despite this, in the 2014–2015 academic year there were only seven Aragonese teachers in the region across both pre-primary and primary education and none hold permanent positions, whilst the number of primary education students receiving Aragonese lessons was 320.[21]

As of 2017 there were 1068 reported Aragonese language students and 12 Aragonese language instructors in Aragon.[22]

There is no officially approved program or teaching materials for the Aragonese language at the secondary level, and though two non-official textbooks are available (Pos ixo... Materials ta aprender aragonés (Benítez, 2007) and Aragonés ta Secundaria (Campos, 2014)) many instructors create their own learning materials. Further, most schools with Aragonese programs that have the possibility of being offered as an examinative subject have elected not to do so.

As of 2007 it is possible to use Aragonese as a language of instruction for multiple courses; however, no program is yet to instruct any curricular or examinative courses in Aragonese. As of the 2014–2015 academic year there were 14 Aragonese language students at the secondary level.[23]

Aragonese is not currently a possible field of study for a bachelor's or postgraduate degree in any official capacity, nor is Aragonese used as a medium of instruction. A bachelor's or master's degree may be obtained in Magisterio (teaching) at the University of Zaragoza; however, no specialization in Aragonese language is currently available. As such those who wish to teach Aragonese at the pre-school, primary, or secondary level must already be competent in the language by being a native speaker or by other means. Further, prospective instructors must pass an ad hoc exam curated by the individual schools at which they wish to teach in order to prove their competence, as there are no recognized standard competency exams for the Aragonese language.

Since the 1994–1995 academic year, Aragonese has been an elective subject within the bachelor's degree for primary school education at the University of Zaragoza's Huesca campus.[23]

The University of Zaragoza's Huesca campus also offers a Diploma de Especialización (These are studies that require a previous university degree and have a duration of between 30 and 59 ECTS credits.) in Aragonese Philology with 37 ECTS credits.[24]

• Academia de l'Aragonés
• Arredol – Electronic Aragonese newspaper
• Rosario Ustáriz Borra