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Ribagorçan (
autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...
: or ) is a number of Romance
dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...
s spoken in the modern territories of the medieval
County of Ribagorza The County of Ribagorza or Ribagorça (; ; ) was a medieval county on the southern side of the Pyrenees, including the northeast of modern Aragón and part of the northwest of modern Catalonia, both in Spain. It was originally the independent ...
, in northern
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
. The area corresponds to the modern administrative units of Ribagorza/Ribagorça and La Litera/La Llitera, in the
province of Huesca Huesca (; ), officially Huesca/Uesca, is a province of northeastern Spain, in northern Aragon. The capital is Huesca. Positioned just south of the central Pyrenees, Huesca borders France and the French departments of Haute-Garonne, Pyrénées- ...
,
Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...
, and
Alta Ribagorça Alta Ribagorça () is a comarca in the Alt Pirineu region, in Catalonia, Spain. Its capital is El Pont de Suert. The highest peak is the Comaloformo (3030 metres above sea level) in the massif of Bessiberri. Northeast of the region is the west ...
in the
province of Lleida The Province of Lleida (; ; ) is one of the four provinces of Catalonia. It lies in northeastern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Catalonia, and is bordered by the provinces of Girona, Barcelona, Tarragona, Zarag ...
,
Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...
. Today, depending on provincial and regional perspectives, Ribagorçan may be described in
Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...
as transitional to Catalan, or in
Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...
as transitional to Aragonese. Eastern dialects in the area tend to be classified as Catalan, and western dialects as Aragonese, with a small central area of more difficult classification. Historically, the county and its dialect was influenced by its political alliances, conquerors and rulers—ranging from the Romans to the
Goths The Goths were a Germanic people who played a major role in the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the emergence of medieval Europe. They were first reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 3rd century AD, living north of the Danube in what is ...
, Navarrese, the
Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...
,
Moors The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...
,
Castilians Castilians () are the inhabitants of the historical region of Castile in central Spain. However, the boundaries of the region are disputed. Not all people in the regions of the medieval Kingdom of Castile or Crown of Castile think of themsel ...
and
Catalans Catalans ( Catalan, French and Occitan: ''catalans''; ; ; or ) are a Romance ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citizens of Catalonia, a nationality and autono ...
. As such, the spoken language evolved from a variant of
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...
and was influenced along the way by its geo-linguistic neighbors—
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 ...
, Gascon (
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 ...
), Castilian, French, Aragonese and Catalan.


Written language

Being predominantly a spoken language, written documents are scarce, but they do exist—most notably, the ''Pastoradas of Benabarre'' compiled by Ricardo del Arco as well the writings of Tonón de Baldomera and poetry of Cleto Torrodellas; and more recently works by Ana Tena Puy, Carmen Castán and Bienvenido Mascaray Sin. With the recognition of Aragonese as a language in 2003, intra-regional identities, among them Ribagorçan, have gained strength, and there is renewed interest in preserving, teaching and developing the local dialects commonly referred to as .


Linguistic characteristics

In Aragon, the dialect in Ribagorza can be clustered into two main groups: Upper and Lower Ribagorçan defined by an
isogloss An isogloss, also called a heterogloss, is the geographic boundary of a certain linguistics, linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or the use of some morphological or syntactic feature. Isoglosses are a ...
line running east–west from the Turbón mountain. However locals prefer to demarcate three subdialects: * Upper, or (also called
Benasquese {{Infobox language , name = Benasquese , nativename = ''benasqués, patués'' , pronunciation = , states = Aragon, Spain , region = Ribagorza, Campo, Estadilla, Graus , speakers = 1,000–2,000 , date=no date , r ...
in
Benasque Benasque (; in Benasquese dialect: ''Benás''; ) () is a town in the comarca of Ribagorza, province of Huesca, (Spain). It is the main town in the Benasque Valley, located in the heart of the Pyrenees and surrounded by the highest peaks in tha ...
; transitional Catalan, Aragonese and Gascon dialect) * Middle, or (transitional to Upper and Lower), as exemplified by the language spoken in Campo; * Lower, or , spoken in and south of
Graus Graus () is a village in the Spanish province of Huesca, located in the Pyrenees at the confluence of rivers Esera and Isabena. It is the administrative capital of the region. It is one of the areas of Aragon in which is still preserved the Ara ...
, and more influenced by
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 ...
. In
Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...
the Ribagorçan dialect spoken in the county of
Alta Ribagorça Alta Ribagorça () is a comarca in the Alt Pirineu region, in Catalonia, Spain. Its capital is El Pont de Suert. The highest peak is the Comaloformo (3030 metres above sea level) in the massif of Bessiberri. Northeast of the region is the west ...
, is also clustered. A dialectal variant exemplified by the Ribagorçan speakers of Pont de Suert, is Catalan dominant transitional to Aragonese with some traits of Aranese Gascon.


Phonology

Some features include: * Palatalization of in consonant clusters (i.e. ); e.g., ('it rains'), ('key') * General loss of Latin final unstressed vowels except for , as in Catalan, and rarely . Moving westward preserved final is more frequent. * Occasional
diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...
ization of Romance short vowels, as in Aragonese: → ; → , becoming more generalized moving westward; e.g., Latin → ; Latin → * Occasional interdental fricative as reflex of Latin before front vowels; e.g., ('five'). This feature gets more general moving westward (cf. Eastern Ribagorçan and Catalan ). * Different results for second-person plural endings of verbs (Latin -), from west to east: -''z'' (as in some western variants of Aragonese), -''tz'' (as in
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 ...
) or -''u'' (as in modern Catalan). * Different results from the Romance voiced prepalatal affricate ( from ''i''-, ''dj''- and ''gj''-), from west to east: (as in some occidental variants of Aragonese and
Valencian Valencian can refer to: * Something related to the Valencian Community ( Valencian Country) in Spain * Something related to the city of Valencia * Something related to the province of Valencia in Spain * Something related to the old Kingdom of ...
), (as in medieval Catalan and most of contemporary Valencian and Occitan), (as in most of contemporary Catalan). E.g., (Western Ribagorza), (Eastern Ribagorçan) ('young ones'). * Loss of final of infinitives and polysyllabic words, a feature shared with most of contemporary Catalan (except Valencian variants). E.g., Latin → ('woman'), Vulgar Latin → ('to work')


Morphology and syntax

* Preterite formed with auxiliary forms derived from Latin + infinitive, e.g., ('he/she did'), a feature shared with Catalan that is characteristic of Western Aragonese dialects westward from Gistaín valley.


Notes


References


Bibliography

* Arnal Purroy, María Luisa & Naval López, Maria Ángeles. ''Lengua y literatura de unos poemas en ribagorzano'' (1861–1888). Archivo de Filología Aragonesa XLII-XLIII. 1989.


External links


Diccionari
https://web.archive.org/web/20101008230040/

*
Ribagorzano
'' en la ''Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa online'' * Óscar Latas Alegre
''Os bocables recullitos por Jean J. Saroïhandy en Zanui''
, Revista ROLDE 114, (December 2005), pp. 44–49. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ribagorcan Aragonese dialects Catalan dialects an:Aragonés ribagorzano ca:Català ribagorçà