Aragonese (; ''aragonés'' in Aragonese) is a Romance language
The Romance languages, less commonly Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin is a range of informal sociolects of Latin
Latin (, or , ) ...
spoken in several dialects by about 12,000 people as of 2011, in the Pyrenees
french: Pyrénées ca, Pirineus an, Pirineus oc, Pirenèus eu, Pirinioak, Auñamendiak
, etymology=Named for Pyrene
Pyrene is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) consisting of four fused benzene rings, resulting in a flat aromatic system. ...
valleys of Aragon
Aragon ( or , Spanish and an, Aragón , ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community
eu, autonomia erkidegoa
ca, comunitat autònoma
gl, comunidade autónoma
oc, comunautat autonòma
an, comunidat autonoma
ast, comunidá autónoma
, alt_n ...
, Spain, primarily in the of 
Somontano de Barbastro
Somontano de Barbastro (Aragonese language, Aragonese: ''Semontano de Balbastro)'' is a Comarcas of Aragon, comarca in Province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain.
Somontano borders the counties of Sobrarbe and Alto Gállego to the north, Ribagorza (comar ...
, Jacetania
La Jacetania ( an, A Chacetania; french: Jacétanie) is a Comarcas of Aragon, comarca in northern Aragon, Spain. It is located in the northwestern corner of the Huesca (province), Huesca and Zaragoza (province), Zaragoza provinces.
The administr ...
, , 
Sobrarbe
Sobrarbe is one of the comarcas of Aragon, Spain
,
* gl, Reino de España,
* oc, Reiaume d'Espanha,
,
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto =
, national_anthe ...
, and Ribagorza/Ribagorça. It is the only modern language which survived from medieval Navarro-Aragonese
Navarro-Aragonese is a Romance language
The Romance languages (less commonly Latin languages, or Neo-Latin languages) are the modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin between the third and eighth centuries. They are a subgroup of the ...
in a form distinctly different from Spanish
Spanish may refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards, a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Canada
* Spanish River (disambiguation), the name of several ...
.
Historically, people referred to the language as ''fabla'' ("talk" or "speech"). Native Aragonese people usually refer to it by the names of its local dialects such as ''cheso'' (from Valle de Hecho
Valle de Hecho (''Val d'Echo'' in Aragonese language
Aragonese (; ''aragonés'' in Aragonese) is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken in several dialects by about 12,000 people as of 2011, in the Pyrenees valleys of Aragon, Spain, primar ...
) or ''patués'' (from the Benasque Valley).
History
Aragonese, which developed in portions of the Ebro basin, can be traced back to the High Middle Ages. It spread throughout the Pyrenees
french: Pyrénées ca, Pirineus an, Pirineus oc, Pirenèus eu, Pirinioak, Auñamendiak
, etymology=Named for Pyrene
Pyrene is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) consisting of four fused benzene rings, resulting in a flat aromatic system. ...
to areas where languages similar to Basque language, Basque were previously spoken. The Kingdom of Aragon (formed by the counties of County of Aragon, Aragon, Sobrarbe
Sobrarbe is one of the comarcas of Aragon, Spain
,
* gl, Reino de España,
* oc, Reiaume d'Espanha,
,
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto =
, national_anthe ...
and County of Ribagorza, Ribagorza) expanded southward from the mountains, pushing the Moors farther south in the ''Reconquista'' and spreading the Aragonese language.
The union of the Catalonia, Catalan counties and the Kingdom of Aragon which formed the 12th-century Crown of Aragon did not merge the languages of the two territories; Catalan language, Catalan continued to be spoken in the east and Navarro-Aragonese
Navarro-Aragonese is a Romance language
The Romance languages (less commonly Latin languages, or Neo-Latin languages) are the modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin between the third and eighth centuries. They are a subgroup of the ...
in the west, with the boundaries blurred by Dialect continuum, dialectal continuity. The Aragonese ''Reconquista'' in the south ended with the cession of Murcia by James I of Aragon to the Kingdom of Castile as dowry for an Aragonese princess.
The best-known proponent of the Aragonese language was Juan Fernández de Heredia, Johan Ferrandez d'Heredia, the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller in Rhodes at the end of the 14th century. He wrote an extensive catalog of works in Aragonese and translated several works from Greek into Aragonese (the first in medieval Europe).
The spread of Castilian (Spanish
Spanish may refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards, a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Canada
* Spanish River (disambiguation), the name of several ...
), the Crown of Castile, Castilian origin of the House of Trastámara, Trastámara dynasty, and the similarity between Castilian (Spanish) and Aragonese facilitated the recession of the latter. A turning point was the 15th-century coronation of the Castilian Ferdinand I of Aragon, also known as Ferdinand of Antequera.
In the early 18th century, after the defeat of the Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg), allies of Aragon in the War of the Spanish Succession, Philip V of Spain, Philip V ordered the prohibition of the Aragonese language in the schools and the establishment of Castilian (Spanish
Spanish may refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards, a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Canada
* Spanish River (disambiguation), the name of several ...
) as the only official language in Aragon. This was ordered in the Aragonese Nueva Planta decrees of 1707.
In recent times, Aragonese was mostly regarded as a group of rural dialects of Spanish. Compulsory education undermined its already weak position; for example, pupils were punished for using it. However, the 1978 Spanish transition to democracy heralded literary works and studies of the language.
Modern Aragonese
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, Gistaín, Chistén, Fonz, Huesca, Fonz, Echo, Aragón, Spain, Echo, Estadilla, Benasque, Campo, Aragon, Campo, Sabiñánigo, Jaca, Plan, Aragon, 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) 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.
In 2009, the Languages Act of Aragon (Law 10/2009) recognized the "native language, original and historic" of Aragon
Aragon ( or , Spanish and an, Aragón , ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community
eu, autonomia erkidegoa
ca, comunitat autònoma
gl, comunidade autónoma
oc, comunautat autonòma
an, comunidat autonoma
ast, comunidá autónoma
, alt_n ...
. The language received several linguistic rights, including its use in public administration. Some of the legislation was repealed by a new law in 2013 (Law 3/2013). [See Languages Acts of Aragon for more information on the subject]
Dialects
*''Western dialect:'' Ansó,Valle de Hecho
Valle de Hecho (''Val d'Echo'' in Aragonese language
Aragonese (; ''aragonés'' in Aragonese) is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken in several dialects by about 12,000 people as of 2011, in the Pyrenees valleys of Aragon, Spain, primar ...
, Chasa, Berdún, Jaca, Chaca
*''Central dialect:'' Panticosa, Biescas, Torla, Broto, Bielsa, Yebra de Basa, Aínsa-Sobrarbe
*''Eastern dialect:'' Benasque, Benás, Plan, Aragon, Plan, Bisagorri, Campo, Aragon, Campo, Perarrúa, Graus, Estadilla
*''Southern dialect:'' Agüero, Huesca, Agüero, Ayerbe, Rasal, Bolea, Lierta, Huesca, Uesca, Almudévar, Nozito, Labata, Alquézar, Alguezra, Angüés, Pertusa (Spain), Pertusa, Balbastro, Nabal
Phonology
Traits
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.
Shared with Catalan
*Romance initial F- is preserved, e.g. FILIUM > ("son", Sp. , Cat. , Pt. ). *Romance palatal approximant (GE-, GI-, I-) consistently became medieval , as in medieval Catalan and Portuguese. This becomes modern ''ch'' , as a result of the Consonant voicing and devoicing, devoicing of sibilants (see below). In Spanish, the medieval result was either /, (modern ), , or nothing, depending on the context. E.g. IUVENEM > ("young man", Sp. , Cat. ), GELARE > ("to freeze", Sp. , Cat. ). *Romance groups -LT-, -CT- result in , e.g. FACTUM > ("done", Sp. , Cat. , Gal./Port. ), MULTUM > ("many"/"much", Sp. , Cat. , Gal. , Port. ). *Romance groups -X-, -PS-, SCj- result in voiceless palatal fricative ''ix'' , e.g. COXU > ("crippled", Sp. , Cat. ). *Romance groups -Lj-, -C'L-, -T'L- result in palatal lateral ''ll'' , e.g. MULIERE > ("woman", Sp. , Cat. ), ACUT'LA > ("needle", Sp. , Cat. ).Shared with Catalan and Spanish
*Open O, E from Romance result systematically in diphthongs , , e.g. VET'LA > ("old woman", Sp. , Cat. ). This includes before a palatal approximant, e.g. > ("eight", Sp. , Cat. ). Spanish diphthongizes except before yod, whereas Catalan ''only'' diphthongizes before yod. *Loss of final unstressed -E but not -O, e.g. GRANDE > ("big"), FACTUM > ("done"). Catalan loses both -O and -E; Spanish preserves -O and sometimes -E. *Voiced stops may be Lenition, lenited as Approximant consonant, approximants .Shared with Spanish
*Former voiced sibilants become voiceless (, ). *Voiced palatal sonorant can most often be heard as a voiced fricative .Shared with neither
*Latin -B- is maintained in past imperfect endings of verbs of the second and third conjugations: ("he had", Sp. , Cat. ), ("he was sleeping", Sp. , Cat. ). *High Aragonese dialects (''alto aragonés'') and some dialects of Gascon language, Gascon have preserved the voicelessness of many intervocalic stop consonants, e.g. CLETAM > ("sheep hurdle", Cat. , Fr. ), CUCULLIATAM > ("crested lark", Sp. , Cat. ). *Several Aragonese dialects maintain Latin as Gemination, geminate . *Variants of the mid-vowels can be heard as , mainly in the Benasque dialect.Vowels
Consonants
Orthography
In 2010, the Academia de l'Aragonés (founded in 2006) established an orthographic standard to modernize medieval orthography and to make it more etymological. The new orthography is used by the :an:, Aragonese Wikipedia. Aragonese had two orthographic standards: * The ''grafía de Uesca'', codified in 1987 by the Consello d'a Fabla Aragonesa (CFA) at a convention in Huesca, is used by most Aragonese writers. It has a more uniform system of assigning letters to phonemes, with less regard for etymology; words traditionally written with and are uniformly written with in the Uesca system. Similarly, , , and before and are all written . It uses letters associated with Spanish, such as . * The ''grafia SLA'', devised in 2004 by the Sociedat de Lingüistica Aragonesa (SLA), is used by some Aragonese writers. It uses etymological forms which are closer to Catalan, Occitan, and medieval Aragonese sources; trying to come closer to the original Aragonese and the other Occitano-Romance languages. In the SLA system , ,, , and before and are distinct, and the Digraph (orthography), digraph replaces . During the 16th century, Aragonese Moriscos wrote aljamiado texts (Romance texts in Arabic writing), possibly because of their inability to write in Arabic. The language in these texts has a mixture of Aragonese and Castilian traits, and they are among the last known written examples of the Aragonese formerly spoken in central and southern Aragon.Grammar
Aragonese grammar has a lot in common with Occitan language, Occitan and Catalan language, Catalan, but alsoSpanish
Spanish may refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards, a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Canada
* Spanish River (disambiguation), the name of several ...
.
Articles
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.Lexicology
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 thePyrenees
french: Pyrénées ca, Pirineus an, Pirineus oc, Pirenèus eu, Pirinioak, Auñamendiak
, etymology=Named for Pyrene
Pyrene is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) consisting of four fused benzene rings, resulting in a flat aromatic system. ...
. French language, 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 language, English has introduced a number of new words into the language.
Gender
Words that were part of the Latin declension#Second declension .28o stems.29, Latin second declension—as well as words that joined it later on—are usually masculine: * FILIU(M) > ''fillo'' (son) * SCIURU + OLU(M) > ''esquiruelo'' (squirrel) Words that were part of the Latin declension#First declension .28a stems.29, Latin first declension are usually feminine: * FILIA(M) > ''filla'' (daughter). Some Latin neuter plural nouns joined the Latin declension#First declension .28a stems.29, 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 Pear, perera'', ''a Malus, manzanera'', ''a Juglans regia, nuquera'', ''a castanyera'', ''a tellera / o tilero'', ''a olivera'', ''a Prunus avium, ciresera'', ''l'Almond, 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 Gállego (river), Galligo'', ''O Flumen'', ''L'Alcanadre''.Pronouns
Just like most other Occitano-Romance languages, Aragonese has partitive and locative case, 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 language, Catalan ''en'' and ''hi'', Occitan language, 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') * Ablative case, 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') * Allative case, Allatives, places that movements go towards or end: ''Vés-be'' ('Go there (imperative)')Literature
Aragonese was not written until the 12th and 13th centuries; the history ''Liber Regum'', ''Razón feita d'amor'', ''Libre dels tres reys d'orient'', and ''Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca'' date from this period, there is also an Aragonese version of the Chronicle of the Morea#Aragonese text, Chronicle of Morea, differing also in its content and written in the late 14th century called ''Libro de los fechos et conquistas del principado de la Morea''.Early modern period
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. Aragonese became a popular village language. 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".Contemporary literature
The 19th and 20th centuries have seen a renaissance of Aragonese literature in several dialects. In 1844, Braulio Foz' novel ''Vida de Pedro Saputo'' was published in the Almudévar (southern) dialect. The 20th century featured Domingo Miral's costumbrismo, 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' novel ''A Lueca, historia d'una moceta d'o Semontano'', also in the Somontano de Barbastro, southern dialect.Aragonese in modern education
The 1997 Aragonese law of languages stipulated that Aragonese (and Catalan) speakers had a right to the teaching of and in their own language. Following this, Aragonese lessons started in schools in the academic year 1997/98. It was originally taught as an extra-curricular, non-evaluable voluntary subject in four schools. However, whilst legally schools can choose to use Aragonese as the language of instruction, as of the academic year 2013/14, there are no recorded instances of this option being taken in primary or secondary education. In fact, the only current scenario in which Aragonese is used as the language of instruction is in the university course of Aragonese Philology, which is optional, taught over the summer and still only given in Aragonese in some of the lectures.Pre-school education
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. In the 2014/15 academic year there were 262 students recorded in pre-school Aragonese lessons.Primary school education
The subject of Aragonese now has a fully developed curriculum in primary education in Aragon. Despite this, in academic year 2014/2015 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.See also
*Academia de l'Aragonés *''Arredol'' – Electronic Aragonese newspaper *Rosario Ustáriz BorraReferences
Further reading
*External links
Catalogue of Aragonese publications
Academia de l'Aragonés
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aragonese Language Aragonese language, Aragonese culture Pyrenean-Mozarabic languages Subject–verb–object languages