View source for Gascon dialect

{{Short description|Occitano-Romance variety spoken in France and Spain}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{More citations needed|date=April 2021}}
{{original research|date=April 2023}}
}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Gascon
| nativename       = {{lang|oc|gascon}}
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|oc|ɡasˈku(ŋ)|}}
| states           = [[France]]<br/>[[Spain]]
| region           = [[Gascony]]
| ref              = {{citation needed|date=July 2013}}
| familycolor      = Indo-European
| fam2             = [[Italic languages|Italic]]
| fam3             = [[Latino-Faliscan languages|Latino-Faliscan]]
| fam4             = [[Latin]]
| fam5             = [[Romance languages|Romance]]
| fam6             = [[Italo-Western languages|Italo-Western]]
| fam7             = [[Western Romance languages|Western Romance]]
| fam8             = [[Gallo-Romance languages|Gallo-Romance]]
| fam9             = [[Occitano-Romance languages|Occitano-Romance]]
| fam10            = [[Occitan language|Occitan]]
| nation           = [[Spain]]
*[[Catalonia]] (as [[Aranese dialect|Aranese]])
| minority         = [[France]]
*[[Nouvelle-Aquitaine]]
*[[Occitania (administrative region)|Occitania]]
| map              = Zone extension gascon.png
| mapcaption       = Gascon speaking area
| dialects         = ''[[Gascon_dialect#Gascon_varieties|see below]]''
| isoexception     = dialect
| iso1             = 
| iso2             = 
| iso3             = gsc
| iso3comment      = retired and subsumed into [[iso639-3:oci|{{code|oci}}]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/gsc|title=639 Identifier Documentation: gsc|publisher=[[SIL International]]}}</ref>
| ietf             = {{Wikidata|property|references|P305}}
| glotto           = gasc1240
| glottorefname    = Gascon
| notice           = IPA
| map2             = Lang Status 60-DE.svg
| mapcaption2      = {{center|Gascon is classified as Definitely Endangered by the [[UNESCO]] ''[[Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger]]'' (2010).}}
}}

'''Gascon''' ({{IPAc-en|lang|ˈ|ɡ|æ|s|k|ən}} {{respell|GASK|ən}}, {{IPA|oc|ɡasˈku(ŋ)|label=Gascon:}}, {{IPA|fr|ɡaskɔ̃|lang|LL-Q150 (fra)-Roptat-gascon.wav}}) is the vernacular [[Romance languages|Romance]] variety spoken mainly in the region of [[Gascony]], [[France]]. It is often considered a [[variety (linguistics)|variety]] of larger [[Occitan language|Occitan]] [[macrolanguage]], although other authors consider it a separate language due to hindered [[mutual intelligibility]] criteria<ref name="Rohlfs">Cf. [[Gerhard Rohlfs|Rohlfs, Gerhard]]. 1970. ''Le Gascon. Études de philologie pyrénéenne'', 2e éd. Tubingen, Max Niemeyer, & Pau, Marrimpouey jeune.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Chambon |first1=Jean-Pierre |last2=Greub |first2=Yan |year=2002 |title=Note sur l'âge du (proto)gascon |journal=Revue de Linguistique Romane |language=fr |volume=66 |pages=473–495}}</ref><ref>Stephan Koppelberg, El lèxic hereditari caracteristic de l'occità i del gascó i la seva relació amb el del català (conclusions d'un analisi estadística), Actes del vuitè Col·loqui Internacional de Llengua i Literatura Catalana, Volume 1 (1988). Antoni M. Badia Margarit & Michel Camprubi ed. (in Catalan)</ref> and earlier separation from the other [[Occitano-Romance languages|Occitano-Romance]] varieties.

Gascon is mostly spoken in Gascony and [[Béarn]] ([[Béarnese dialect]]) in southwestern France (in parts of the following French ''départements'': [[Pyrénées-Atlantiques]], [[Hautes-Pyrénées]], [[Landes (department)|Landes]], [[Gers]], [[Gironde]], [[Lot-et-Garonne]], [[Haute-Garonne]], and [[Ariège (department)|Ariège]]) and in the [[Val d'Aran]] of Catalonia.

[[Aranese dialect|Aranese]], a southern Gascon variety, is spoken in Catalonia alongside [[Catalan language|Catalan]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]]. Most people in the region are trilingual in all three languages, causing some influence from Spanish and Catalan. Both these influences tend to differentiate it more and more from the dialects of Gascon spoken in France. Most linguists now consider Aranese a distinct dialect of Occitan and Gascon. Since the 2006 adoption of the new statute of [[Catalonia]], Aranese is co-official with [[Catalan language|Catalan]] and Spanish in all of Catalonia (before, this status was valid for the [[Aran Valley]] only).

It was also one of the mother tongues of the [[Kingdom of England|English]] kings [[Richard I of England|Richard the Lionheart]] and his younger brother [[John, King of England|John Lackland]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}

[[File:Gascon spoken.webm|thumb|A Gascon speaker recorded in France]]

==Linguistic classification==
{{Further|Debates concerning Occitan linguistic classification}}
While many scholars accept that Occitan may constitute a single language,{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}} some authors reject this opinion and even the name ''Occitan'': instead, they argue that the latter is a cover term for a [[Genetic relationship (linguistics)|family]] of distinct ''lengas d'òc'' rather than dialects of a single language. Gascon, in particular, is distinct enough linguistically to have been described as a language in its own right.<ref name="Rohlfs" />

==Basque substrate==
The language spoken in Gascony before Roman rule was part of the [[Basque language|Basque]] dialectal continuum (see [[Aquitanian language]]); the fact that the word 'Gascon' comes from the Latin root ''vasco''/''vasconem'', which is the same root that gives us 'Basque', implies that the speakers identified themselves at some point as Basque. There is a proven Basque [[Substrata (linguistics)|substrate]] in the development of Gascon.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Allières|first=Jacques|title=The Basques|publisher=Center for Basque Studies|year=2016|isbn=9781935709435|location=Reno|pages=xi}}</ref> This explains some of the major differences that exist between Gascon and other Occitan dialects. 

A typically Gascon feature that may arise from this substrate is the change from "f" to "h". Where a word originally began with {{IPA|[f]}} in Latin, such as ''festa'' 'party/feast', this sound was weakened to aspirated {{IPA|[h]}} and then, in some areas, lost altogether; according to the substrate theory, this is due to the Basque dialects' lack of an equivalent {{IPA|/f/}} [[phoneme]], causing Gascon ''hèsta'' {{IPA|[ˈhɛsto]}} or {{IPA|[ˈɛsto]}}. A similar change took place [[Phonetic change "f → h" in Spanish|in Spanish]]. Thus, Latin ''facere'' gives Spanish ''hacer'' ({{IPA|[aˈθer]}}) (or, in some parts of southwestern [[Andalusia]], {{IPA|[haˈsɛɾ]}}).<ref>A. R. Almodóvar: [http://descargas.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/01472730970147595209079/030019.pdf?incr=1 ''Abecedario andaluz''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213143218/http://descargas.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/01472730970147595209079/030019.pdf?incr=1 |date=13 February 2012 }}, Ediciones Mágina. Barcelona, 2002</ref> Another phonological effect resulting from the Basque substrate may have been Gascon's reluctance to pronounce a {{IPA|/r/}} at the beginning of words, resolved by means of a [[Prothesis (linguistics)|prothetical]] vowel.{{r|Ebro|p=312}}   

Although some linguists deny the plausibility of the Basque substrate theory, it is widely assumed that Basque, the "Circumpyrenean" language (as put by Basque linguist Alfonso Irigoyen and defended by [[Koldo Mitxelena]], 1982), is the underlying language spreading around the Pyrenees onto the banks of the Garonne River, maybe as far east as the Mediterranean in Roman times (''[[:eu:Neska|niska]]'' cited by [[Joan Coromines]] as the name of each nymph taking care of the Roman spa ''Arles de Tech'' in [[Roussillon]], etc.).<ref name="Ebro">{{cite book | author=Jimeno Aranguren, Roldan | editor=Lopez-Mugartza Iriarte, J.C. | year = 2004 | title = ''Vascuence y Romance: Ebro-Garona, Un Espacio de Comunicación'' | publisher=Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua | location = Pamplona | isbn = 84-235-2506-6 }}</ref>{{rp|250–251}} Basque gradually eroded across Gascony in the High Middle Ages (Basques from the Val d'Aran cited still circa 1000), with vulgar Latin and Basque interacting and mingling, but eventually with the former replacing the latter north of the east and middle Pyrenees and developing into Gascon.{{r|Ebro|p=250, 255}}

However, modern Basque has had lexical influence from Gascon in words like ''beira'' ("glass"), which is also seen in [[Galician-Portuguese]]. One way for the introduction of Gascon influence into [[Basque language|Basque]] came about through language contact in bordering areas of the [[Northern Basque Country]], acting as adstrate. The other one has taken place since the 11th century over the coastal fringe of [[Gipuzkoa]] extending from [[Hondarribia]] to [[San Sebastián|San Sebastian]], where Gascon was spoken up to the early 18th century and often used in formal documents until the 16th century, with evidence of its continued occurrence in [[Pasaia]] in the 1870s.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://atzoatzokoa.gipuzkoakultura.net/c78f6/ | title = LOS GASCONES EN GUIPÚZCOA | publisher=IMPRENTA DE LA DIPUTACION DE GUIPUZCOA | author = Múgica Zufiría|year = 1923|access-date = 12 April 2009}} Site in Spanish</ref>{{better source needed|date=March 2021}} A minor focus of influence was the [[Way of St James]] and the establishment of ethnic boroughs in several towns based on the privileges bestowed on the ''[[Occitania|Franc]]s'' by the [[Kingdom of Navarre]] from the 12th to the early 14th centuries, but the variant spoken and used in written records is mainly the [[Occitan language|Occitan]] of Toulouse.{{cn|date=March 2021}}

The ''énonciatif'' (Occitan: ''enunciatiu'') system of Gascon, a system that is more colloquial than characteristic of normative written Gascon and governs the use of certain preverbal particles (including the sometimes emphatic affirmative ''que'', the occasionally mitigating or [[dubitative]] ''e'', the exclamatory ''be'', and the even more emphatic ''ja''/''ye'', and the "polite" ''se'') has also been attributed to the Basque substrate.<ref name="Marcus" />

== Gascon varieties ==
Gascon is divided into three varieties or sub-groups:<ref name = sumien> Classification of X. Ravier according to the "Linguistic Atlas of Gascony". Covered in particular by D. Sumien, “Classificacion dei dialèctes occitans”, “Linguistica occitana”, 7, September 2009, [http://www.revistadoc.org/file/Linguistica-occitana-7-Sumien online].</ref>
* Western Gascon, which includes [[Landese dialect]] and North-Gascon (bazadais, high-landese and bordelese)
* Eastern or interior Gascon, known as ''parlar clar'' ([[Béarnese dialect|Béarnese]])
* Pyrenean or southern Gascon, which includes [[Aranese dialect]]

The Jews of Gascony, who resided in [[Bordeaux]], [[Bayonne]] and other cities, spoke until the beginning of the 20th century a [[sociolect]] of Gascon with special phonetic and lexical features, which linguistics named ''[[Judeo-Gascon]]''.<ref>Peter Nahon (2017). [https://www.academia.edu/34715462/Peter_Nahon_Diglossia_among_French_Sephardim_as_a_motivation_for_the_genesis_of_Judeo_Gascon_Journal_of_Jewish_Languages_5_1_2017_p_104_119 Diglossia among French Sephardim as a motivation for the genesis of ‘Judeo-Gascon’], ''Journal of Jewish Languages'' 5/1, 2017, p. 104-119.</ref> It has been superseded by a sociolect of French that retains most of the lexical features of this former variety.<ref> Nahon, Peter (2018). ''Gascon et français chez les Israélites d’Aquitaine. Documents et inventaire lexical''. Paris: Classiques Garnier</ref>

[[Béarnese dialect|Béarnais]], the official language when Béarn was an independent state, does not correspond to a unified language: the three forms of Gascon are spoken in Béarn (in the south, Pyrenean Gascon, in the center and in the east, Eastern Gascon; to the north-west, Western Gascon).

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center;"
|-
!
!French
!Landese
!Béarnese and Bigourdan
!Aranese
!Commingeois and Couseranais 
!Interior Gascon
!Bazadais and High-Landese
!Bordelese
|-
|-
| Affirmation: He is going
| Il y va
| Qu' i va.
| Que i va.
| I va.
| Que i va.
| Que i va.
| (Qu’) i va/vai.
| I vai.
|-
|-
| Negation: He wasn't listening to him
| Il ne l’écoutait pas
| Ne l’escotèva pas 
| Non / ne l’escotava pas
| Non la escotaua
| Non l’escotava cap
| Ne l’escotava pas
| (Ne) l’escotèva pas 
| Ne l'escotava pas/briga
|-
|-
| Plural formation: the young men – the young women<br />
| Les jeunes hommes – les jeunes filles
| Los gojats – las gojatas
| Eths / los gojats – eras / las gojatas
| Es gojats – es gojates
| Eths gojats – eras gojatas
| Los gojats – las gojatas
| Los gojats – las gojatas
| Los gojats – las dònas/gojas
|}

==Usage of the language==

[[File:Bayonne sign in French Basque Gascon-Occitan.JPG|thumb|Trilingual sign in [[Bayonne]]: French, Basque, and Gascon Occitan ("Mayretat", "Sindicat d'initiatibe")]]

A poll conducted in Béarn in 1982 indicated that 51% of the population could speak Gascon, 70% understood it, and 85% expressed a favourable opinion regarding the protection of the language.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/15/show_language.asp|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20120904151329/http://www.ethnologue.com/15/show_language.asp?code=gsc|url-status=dead|title=No Ethnologue report for language code: gsc| archive-date=4 September 2012 }}</ref> However, use of the language has declined dramatically over recent years as a result of the [[Francization#Within France|Francization]] taking place during the last centuries, as Gascon is [[Language shift|rarely transmitted to young generations]] any longer (outside of schools, such as the [[Calandreta]]s).

By April 2011, the Endangered Languages Project estimated that there were only 250,000 native speakers of the language.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/8631 |title=Gascon |access-date=5 July 2021 |quote=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/apr/15/language-extinct-endangered |title=Endangered languages: the full list |website=[[TheGuardian.com]] |date=15 April 2011 |access-date=5 July 2021 |quote=Definitely endangered}}</ref> 

The usual term for Gascon is "patois," a word designating in France a non-official and usually devaluated dialect (such as [[Gallo language|Gallo]]) or language (such as [[Occitan language|Occitan]]), regardless of the concerned region.{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}}<ref name="Marcus">Marcus, Nicole Elise (2010). ''[https://escholarship.org/content/qt12v9d1gx/qt12v9d1gx_noSplash_5d475992ae6ca4e08f26bb8b9b798c21.pdf?t=mtfcqd The Gascon énonciatif system: Past, present, and future. A study of language contact, change, endangerment, and maintenance].''  [Doctoral dissertation, University of California.] eScholarship Publishing.</ref> It is mainly in [[Béarn]] that the population uses concurrently the term "Béarnais" to designate its Gascon forms. This is because of the political past of Béarn, which was independent and then part of a sovereign state (the shrinking [[Kingdom of Navarre]]) from 1347 to 1620.

In fact, there is no unified Béarnais dialect, as the language differs considerably throughout the province. Many of the differences in pronunciation can be divided into east, west, and south (the mountainous regions). For example, an 'a' at the end of words is pronounced "ah" in the west, "o" in the east, and "œ" in the south. Because of Béarn's specific political past, Béarnais has been distinguished from Gascon since the 16th century, not for linguistic reasons.

== Influences on other languages ==
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2021}}
Probably as a consequence of the linguistic continuum of [[Western Romance languages|''western Romania'']] and the French influence over the [[Marca Hispanica|Hispanic Mark]] on medieval times, shared similar and singular features are noticeable between Gascon and other Latin languages on the other side of the border: [[Aragonese language|Aragonese]] and far-western Catalan (Catalan of [[La Franja]]).

Gascon is also (with Spanish, [[Navarro-Aragonese]] and French) one of the Romance influences on the [[Basque language]].

==Examples==
[[Image:VirgendeLourdes.JPG|thumb|According to the testimony of [[Bernadette Soubirous]], the Virgin Mary spoke to her ([[Lourdes]], 25 March 1858) in Gascon saying: {{lang|oc-gascon|Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou}} ("I am the [[Immaculate Conception]]", the phrase being reproduced under this statue in the Lourdes grotto in Mistralian/Febusian spelling), confirming the proclamation of this Catholic dogma four years earlier.]]
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 100%; text-align: center;"
|-
! Word
! Translation
![[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]
|-
|-
| Earth
| tèrra
| {{IPA|[ˈtɛrrɔ]}}
|-
|-
| heaven
| cèu
| {{IPA|[ˈsɛw]}}
|-
|-
| water
| aiga
| {{IPA|[ˈajɣɔ]}}
|-
|-
| fire
| huec
| {{IPA|[ˈ(h)wɛk]}}
|-
|-
| man
| òmi/òme
| {{IPA|[ˈɔmi]}}/{{IPA|[ˈɔme]}}
|-
|-
| woman
| hemna
| {{IPA|[ˈ(h)ennɔ]}}
|-
|-
| eat
| minjar/manjar
| {{IPA|[minˈʒa]}}/{{IPA|[manˈ(d)ʒa]}}
|-
|-
| drink
| béver
| {{IPA|[ˈbewe]}}/{{IPA|[ˈbeβe]}}
|-
|-
| big
| gran
| {{IPA|[ˈɡran]}}
|-
|-
| little
| petit/pichon/pichòt
| {{IPA|[peˈtit]}}/{{IPA|[piˈtʃu]}}/{{IPA|[piˈtʃɔt]}}
|-
|-
| night
| nueit
| {{IPA|[ˈnɥejt]}}
|-
|-
| day
| dia/jorn
| {{IPA|[ˈdia]}}/{{IPA|[ˈ(d)ʒur]}}
|-
|}

==See also==
* [[Occitan conjugation]]
* [[Languages of France]]
* [[Béarnese dialect]]
* [[Landese dialect]]
* [[Vergonha]]
* [[Aragonese language]]

==Notes and references==
===Notes===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===References===
* {{Cite book |title=Comment écrire le gascon| first=Robert |last=Darrigrand |publisher=Imprimerie des Gaves |location=Denguin |year=1985 |isbn=2868660061 |language=fr}}
* {{Cite book |title=Le Gascon de poche| first1=Jean-Marc |last1=Leclercq |first2=Sèrgi |last2=Javaloyès |publisher=Assimil |year=2004 |isbn=2-7005-0345-7 |language=fr}}
* {{Cite book |title=Memento grammatical du gascon| first1=Jean-Pierre |last1=Birabent |first2=Jean |last2=Salles-Loustau |publisher=Reclams |year=1989 |isbn=9782909160139 |language=fr}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Gascon language}}
*[http://www.roquetaillade.eu Museum of local culture]
* [http://crdp.ac-bordeaux.fr/langues Teaching of Occitan and Basque in Aquitania] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070205001041/http://crdp.ac-bordeaux.fr/langues/ |date=5 February 2007 }}
* [http://crdp.ac-bordeaux.fr/capoc/ Cap'òc : Unitat d'Animacion Pedagogica en Occitan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070206031716/http://crdp.ac-bordeaux.fr/capoc/ |date=6 February 2007 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090622124208/http://www.gasconlanas.com/ Gascon Lanas (Institut d'Estudis Occitans)]
* [[Per Noste]] [https://www.pernoste.com/ Per Noste edicions]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070312082355/http://www.biarn-e-gascougne.org/ IBG site opposing Gascon and Béarnais to Occitan]
* [http://gasconheart.sdf.org/gascon-irc/ IRC chat room devoted to the Gascon language]
* [http://avoste.com ''A Vòste'', Gascon language journal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160109071327/http://avoste.com/ |date=9 January 2016 }}

{{Romance languages}}
{{Occitano-Romance languages and dialects}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gascon Language}}
[[Category:Gascon dialect| ]]
[[Category:Gascony]]
[[Category:Definitely endangered languages]]
[[Category:Endangered Romance languages]]
[[Category:Endangered languages of Europe]]