Normes Del Puig

The Norms of El Puig (Valencian: ''Normes d'El Puig''), also known as Norms of the RACV (Valencian: ''Normes de la RACV''), are the linguistic rules developed by the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture (RACV) (Valencian: ''Real Acadèmia de Cultura Valenciana'') proposed for Valencian treated as an independent language, as opposed to a variety of Catalan. The Norms were presented in 1981 at the Monastery of Santa Maria in El Puig and were drafted with the intention of regulating the Valencian language in accordance with and encompassing both the linguistic reality of present-day Valencian as well as longstanding Valencian literary and orthographic tradition. The Norms of El Puig were the official Valencian standard in the early 80s, and have been promoted by the Valencian Governments at various times.Law 6/2015
2 April, ''de Reconocimiento, Protección y Promoción de las Señas de Identidad del Pueblo Valenciano'' or the Recognition, Protection and Promotion of the Identity features of the Valencian People Article 21. Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE) no. 101, 28 April 2015, pg. 36852-36866. (Reference: BOE-A-2015-4616) (in Spanish).Law 1/2016
26 January. Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE) no. 35, 10 February 2016, pg. 10393. (Reference: BOE-A-2016-1273) (in Spanish). Nowadays, they are used by some publishers, associations and taught by the cultural society Lo Rat Penat that issues its own qualifications in Valencian.

Use

The Norms of El Puig were developed by the Section of Language and Literature of the RACV in 1979 and presented in a formal act in El Puig in 1982. The Norms were made the official standard of Valencian in 1980 by the Valencian President Enrique Monsonís ( UCD), and they were particularly promoted by the Councilor of Education of the Valencian Community Amparo Cabanes. That was the time when the Valencian Statue of Autonomy of 1982 was published using these norms for its version in Valencian. The Valencian government enacted that language teachers of Valencian in the educational system had to had a linguistic qualification in these Norms, issued mainly by Lo Rat Penat. Nevertheless, just with the arrival of the Socialist Party in December 1982, the Norms of Castelló, that use the Catalan unitarian linguistic forms, were reintroduced, the Valencian teachers with the qualifications in the normative of the RACV were fired, and its qualifications invalidated.

In 2015, the Valencian government of the PPCV passed a law to protect Valencian identity features that protected and promoted the Valencian traditions and language. In this law the Norms of El Puig and the RACV were given public protection, promotion and teaching recognition. The opposition accused the Valencian government of being biased and electioneering, and a new Valencian coalition government abrogated the law in 2016.

The Norms of El Puig have had a minority use. Some cultural organisations have used the Norms, like the Junta Central Fallera from 1992 to 1998. Nonetheless, the use of these rules has declined particularly since its substitution by the ''Normes de Castelló'', and the subsequent creation of the ''Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua'' (AVL) in 1998 which regulates them. In 2004, the production in the Norms of El Puig was two times the production of other minority languages like Aranese and Aragonese, although it was doubled by the production in Asturian.

The Norms of El Puig are still used in different publications related to the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture, association with the patronage of the Spanish Monarchy, and several Valencian cultural and political personalities. The cultural association Lo Rat Penat, and some publishing houses use these norms in its publications. Besides, the rules are defended by a sector of the Valencian regionalism in favour of language secessionism. The Internet has also given new opportunities of diffusion to the Norms of El Puig. There is also an encyclopedia on the Internet created by volunteers using the MediaWiki software, called L'Enciclopèdia in Valencian, which was created in December 2007 and is written using these Norms.

In 2020, Walter de Gruyter published the ''Manual of Standardization in the Romance Languages'', in which devoted a subsection inside the Valencian normative grammars called ''Other attempts at standardization'', where they analysed these rules as "an independent standard based on the secessionist orthography of ''Normes d'El Puig'' (1981)". In their conclusion they showed the different codification attempts of Catalan and Valencian linguistics including the New Valencian Grammar (NGLV) (2015) of the RACV.

Orthography

There is significant overlap between the ''Normes d'El Puig'' and the AVL's orthographic standards. This section calls out various key differences.

In respect to the alphabet and units of writing (such as digraphs), the main differences come about in terms of:
* the names of the letters
* how the consonants and the glide are written
* representation of word-final originating from voiced consonants
* treatment of various older digraphs and consonant groups

Alphabet

The table below summarizes the main differences between the two norms as far as the letter names go. Where multiple forms are given in a single cell, the value listed first is the form deemed most preferable in the pertinent standard. The forms given in the "Non-preferred" column are deemed by the RACV as "admissible" but also Castilianisms.

In respect to the letters F, L, M, N, R and S: The forms , , , , , are preferred by the RACV, as they are deemed the traditional Valencian forms in addition to being the Classical Latin names for the letters. The forms , , , , , , being present in the spoken language, are also admissible in the RACV's standard but are deemed Castilianisms, originating from Castilian as adaptations of the Latin names to Castilian phonology. The forms , , , , , , are inadmissible in the RACV's standard, being deemed influence from Catalan and themselves deemed Eastern Catalan adaptations of the Castilian forms.

Palatals

One prominent aspect of the ''Normes d'El Puig'' as compared to the ''Normes de Castelló'' is the differences in writing the glide and the palato-alveolar consonants and .

= Palatal glide

=

The glide is generally written in the Norms of El Puig with the letter ''Y'', as opposed to ''I''. Word-final instances of are generally written with ''I'' in both the ''Normes d'El Puig'' and the ''Normes de Castelló'', except in certain toponyms and surnames to keep tradition.

The ''Normes d'El Puig'' also use ''y'' to write the of those certain words that instead start with or in Catalan (such as 'I' and 'yet, already'), rather than with ''j'' as in the ''Normes de Castelló''. In a similar vein, the initial consonant in and appearing in intervocalic contexts (such as in 'trajection' and 'project', but not 'object' or 'abjection') is written with ''y'' rather than ''j'', reflecting the RACV's norm of this being pronounced with rather than with as in the AVL's norm.

The table below compares the two norms in this regard.

Digraphs

* Most notably, the digraph ''ch'' is regularly employed in the RACV's norm to represent (in addition to its occasional use to represent in fossilizations, such as in the traditional spellings of certain last names): ('belly'), ('chocolate'), ('child'). Unlike in the AVL's standard where is normally represented by ''x'' and ''tx''.

* Simplification of the digraphs ''l·l, tl, tll, tm'', ''tn'', ''tg'', ''tj'', ''tz'', and the group ''-mpt-'' using only the simple letter that already represents its sound, like being .

* Keeping the use of ''s'' in the suffix like: ''organisar, normalisat''; instead of the digraph ''tz''.

Apostrophe

In general (within both the AVL's standard as well as the RACV's), the singular definite articles , and , the personal articles and , and the preposition ('of') elide to and respectively when used before nominals that begin with a vowel sound or a silent ''h'' preceding a vowel sound. This elision does not occur before instances of vowels pronounced as a glide, such as in the phrase ('the ', a certain Valencian religious celebration) or ('today, the day of today').

Unlike in the AVL's standard, however, the feminine definite article exhibits the aforementioned elision before nominals that begin with unstressed ''i'' or ''u''.

Accent marks

In the function of using accent marks to distinguish homophones or senses, the Norms of El Puig can differ from the AVL's standard in terms of which words are to be accentuated or what senses call for accentuation. Consider the following examples:

Examples of other differences are as follows:
* Words ending in stressed bear no accent mark, unlike in the AVL's standard.

* The word ('what') is spelled with an acute accent instead of a grave accent mark, reflecting the Valencian pronunciation with instead of

* The interrogatives , , and are accentuated when used to form questions or exclamations (whether direct or indirect) whereas the AVL's standard leaves , and unaccented

Grammar

Articles

Some key differences present in the RACV's norms compared to the AVL's norms around the articles are as follows:

* Acceptance of the masculine article , a classic form that is widely used only the northernmost parts of the Valencian Community. In general, the Valencian article ''lo'' is recommended occasionally after the prepositions ''en'', ''per'' and some adverbs: ''en lo coche'', ''tot lo món'' ('in the car', 'everybody').

* Acceptance of the neuter article in all registers of the language and as systematically distinct from the masculine article. This form which was already used in the classical language is considered as necessary to avoid confusion: ''lo bo'' (meaning something good), ''el bo'' (meaning someone good).

Demonstratives

Some differences present in the RACV's norms compared to the AVL's norms around the demonstratives are:

* Rejection of the reinforced demonstratives 'this' and 'that' from the modern language, deeming them archaic and permitting only their simple counterparts and .

* Permitting that the simple demonstratives 'this' and 'that' be written without the final ''-e'' ( and ) before a vowel sound, reflecting the tendency to pronounce them without the final vowel in this context: ('this summer'), ('that man').

Possessives

The main divergence between the normms regarding the possessives is that:

* The RACV standard only accepts the feminine form with ''u'' like and does not admit any possessive formed with ''v''.

* The RACV emphasises much more the use and conservation of the atonic possessives used before kinship, the words casa ('house'), vida ('life'), idioms, and tittles: ('my mother'), ('my grandfather'), ''sos tios'' ('his/her aunt and uncle'), ('your life'), ('His Majesty').

* The possessive for the third person is an archaic form which is no part of its standard.

Numerals

Some key differences present in the RACV's norms compared to the AVL's norms around the numerals are as follows:

* Writing the cardinal numeral for '1' only as rather than as .

* Deeming of the feminine cardinal form 'two' as obsolete, thereby treating the masculine form as wholly invariant.

* Only accepting and and rejecting the forms and never used in Valencian.

* Writing the cardinal numeral for '19' as rather than as , reflecting the modern Valencian pronunciation thereof.

* Writing the cardinal '60' as and the cardinal one million as instead of and .

* Rejection of the ordinals formed with or deeming them obsolete and alien and preferring the Latinate ordinals in their stead:

Pronouns

Some key differences present in the RACV's norms compared to the AVL's norms are as follows:

* Regular use of the pronoun forms ('us') and ('you, plural') in contexts where the AVL's norm permits / and . In particular, the RACV deems / and archaic and "foreign" to present-day Valencian. However, with the motivation of keeping tradition, the RACV permits and in poetry to faciiltate metrical composition.

* Acceptance of additional forms of the first-person and second-person plural pronouns over and , the latter two of which are deemed archaic:

* General use of ('you, formal sg.') and ('you, formal pl.') in place of , which the RACV deems to be archaic and only to be used in religious contexts, in reference to persons of very high standing and dignity, and for archaic effect or to otherwise reproduce formalities of the archaic language.

* Use of an invariant ('self, same'), which is otherwise feminine singular, as the sole form for reinforcing reflexive object complements, even when the object is masculine or plural.
** ('He bought it for himself')
** ('They thought about themselves.')

* The weak personal pronouns have the main form beginning by consonant as , , or before the verb, also possible to invert them and start them by the vocal: ('I wash my hands'). The AVL only recognises the invers form.

* The adverbial pronoun is an obsolete form which is not included in the RACV's standard. It can only be an impersonal pronoun with the verb .

* Use of the pronoun and adjective ('other') which is a classical and present Valencian form, and exclusion of considered a parallel archaic form, which is the one preferred by the AVL's standard.

Verbs

The AVL has included many Valencian verbal particularities in its standard. However, the RACV's standard goes beyond and around verbs include (but are not limited to):

* The forms of the subjunctive and the imperative for the first person-plural and second-person plural in the second conjugation are frequently formed with ''a'' as instead of ''e''. In the third conjugation it is also usual as .

* The present, past, subjunctive, participle, and imperative forms use the ''x'' instead of ''s'' like , , , or .

* Acceptance only of in the verbal tenses of the third conjugation like , and rejection of the form .

* The Valencian verbs do not aggregate an additional ''a'' before their (Latin) root like in ('get, reach', 'release', 'lower'). Unlike the preferred forms of the AVL like .

* Recommendation of the past forms without ''y'' (nor ''i'') as ('I did').

* Preference of the forms , , , in forming the periphrastic past tenses over their simpler counterparts , , , , which are deemed as "having less tradition". In addition, the preterit perfect is recommended over the periphastic.

Adverbs

Among characteristics of the RACV's standards around adverbs include (but are not limited to):
* Use of ('so, thus, like this/that') as the standard form over , the latter of which is considered archaic, literary and poetic.

* There is divergence in adverbs that indicate temporary nature: ('before'), ('after'), ('soon'), ('late'), ('while'), ('then') etc. Its AVL counterparts ('before'), ('after'), ('soon'), ('late'), ('while'), ('then') are not admitted or not recommended.

* Other adverbs like: ('forwards'), ('backwards'), ('far') or ('enough'), ('almost'), ('too much') are the standard forms of the RACV. On the contrary, la AVL also admits or prefers: ('forwards'), ('backwards'), ('far'), ('enough'), ('almost'), ('too much').

Prepositions and conjunctions

Among characteristics of the RACV's standards around prepositions and conjunctions include (but are not limited to):
* Acceptance of as a standard variation of ('to') before pronouns and adverbs starting by a vowel, as well as before ('someone') or forms of ('some'): .

* Full acceptance of the merger of ('in, on') and ('with'; along with its variants and ) as , better conforming to the normal Valencian pronunciation of this preposition as well as to Valencian literary tradition. The spelling of the preposition meaning 'with' as , with ''b'', is deemed as having no classical tradition within Valencian and being alien to the present-day language.

* Use of ('for, to') also followed by a verb, expressing purpose: ('To win you have to reach the finish line'). In the AVL standard it is prefered only .

* Some conjunctions are written only in its Valencian form like ('but'), ('well'), ('although'). The AVL forms , , are deemed as alien in Valencian.

Text compared

References

{{reflist

External links

Section of Valencian language and Literature and dictionaries
of the Royal Academy of Valencian Culture.

Valencian
Linguistic controversies