Valencian language
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Valencian is the language spoken in the Land of Valencia, Spain, and is one of the two co-official languages declared in the Valencian Statute of Autonomy: Valencian and Castilian (Spanish).
The question of whether Valencian is a separate language from Catalan or an alternate name for the same language is a disputed and politically charged one in the Land of Valencia. The rest of this article presents the anti-catalan point of view.
History of Valencian language
The proper language of the valencian people is the Valencian language. A neo-Latin language derived from the vulgar Latin spoken in Valencian lands before the "Reconquest", and that, in the Middle Ages, was strongly influenced by other neo-Latin languages of the Iberian peninsula and south of France that came to Kingdom of Valencia.
The "ancient Valencian language" was spoken by the roman-hispanic people and their descendants who continued living in Valencian lands after the conquest of the roman-gothic Spain by the Moors. The Moors forced to the submitted autochthonous roman-hispanic population to live in suburbs separated of the Muslims. Suburbs where they continued using their vernacular Latin language, even in the cases in which they had had to resign of the Christian religion and to accept the Moslem religion to avoid reprisals of certain fundamentalist Moslem groups. Besides, some of the Moslem men got married with roman-hispanic women which continued speaking to their sons in "ancient Valencian language", the only language that they knew. In such a way that the Valencian language also was intruded and used relatively among the Moor.
The invading Moors did not massacre the autochthonous roman-hispanic people but they submitted them and used them (with taxes and services), as one of the sources of richness of the dominant Moslem elites. The roman-hispanic people, also known as "mossaraps" (christians living in Moorish part of Spain), were living in suburbs separated from the Moors, keeping their customs and their Valencian language. In very concrete epochs of Moslem fanaticism, the Moors forced to part of the valencian roman-hispanic people to accept the Moslem religion without for it they were stopping speaking their Valencian language (actually a great part of the "converted" men would be bilingual due to the social and labour relations that they were having with the Moors, whereas their wives would continue speaking in Valencian language as consequence of being socially separated from the moorish community). Besides, many of these "converted ones" were only in appearance, ("cripto-Christians"), therefore they recovered the Christian religion after the "Reconquest" and they never lost their Valencian language.
Valencian was the home language of the Borgia family.
Features of Valencian language
This is a list of features of the main forms of Valencian. There is a great deal of variety within the Land of Valencia, and the features below do not apply to every speaker at all.
- A system of 7 stressed vowels /a, e, ɛ, i, o, ɔ, u/, reduced to 5 in unstressed position (/e, ɛ/ > [e], /o, ɔ/ > [o])
- In general, use of modern forms of the determinate article (el, els) and the 3rd person unstressed object pronouns (el, els), though some sub-dialects (for instance the one spoken in Vinaròs area) have lo, los. For the other unstressed object pronouns, etymological old forms (me, te, se, ne, mos, vos...) can be found, depending on places, in conjunction with the more modern ones (em, et, es, en)
- Valencian has preserved mediaeval prepalatal afficates [dʒ],[tʃ] in contexts where other modern dialects have developed fricatives [ʒ] or [jʒ]
- Valencian preserves the final stop in the groups [mp, nt, ŋk, lt]. The sub-dialect spoken in Benifaio and Almussafes area, some 20 Km south from the city of Valencia, remarks these final consonants.
- Valencian articulates etymological final [r] in all contexts, although this cannot be generalized since there are valencian sub-dialects which do not articulate the final [r]
- Valencian preserves the mediaeval system of demonstratives with three different levels of demonstrative precision (este or este/açò/ací, eixe or eixe/això/aquí, aquell/allò/allí or allà)
- Valencian has -i- as theme vowel for incoative verbs of the 3rd conjugation este servix (this one serves), although, again, this cannot be generalized since there are valencian sub-dialects which pronnounce an -ei- (aquest serveix)
- Subjunctive imperfect morpheme /ra/: que ell vinguera (that he might come), only used.
- Widespread use of the pronouns mosatros, vosatros with some local variations:moatros, natros, voatros, valtros.
- En for with.
- Gemination of D in some contexts
Some other features, such as the use of molt de or the lack of hom or geminate L.
Sub-varieties of Valencian
- Northern or transition Valencian: spoken only in the northern part of the province of Castellón, and the area of Matarranya in the province of Teruel, in towns like Benicarlo or Vinaròs. Northern Valencian is very similar to the Catalan of the Tortosa area, in the province of Tarragona. Final "r" isn't pronounced in infinitive ("kan'ta" instead of "kan'tar" is pronounced) and old articles "lo, los" are used instead of "el, els" (lo xic, los hòmens).
- Castellonenc: spoken in Castellón. Main feature easy to recognise is the use of "e" sound instead of standard "a" (Als matins ell "cante" en la dutxa" instead of ell canta - He sings in the shower in the morning).
- Central or apitxat, spoken in Valencia city and its area. This is not taken as standard by the Valencian TV or radio. Apitxat has two distinct features:
- All voiced sibillants get unvoiced (that is, apitxat pronounces ['tʃove] ['kasa] (young man, house), where other Valencians would pronounce ['dʒove], ['kaza]) (feature shared with Ribagorçan)
- It preserves the strong simple past, which has been substituted by an analytic past with VADERE + infinitive in the rest of modern Catalan variants (the simple past is still preserved incomplete in Ibiza). For example "ahir aní a passejar" instead of "ahir vaig anar a passejar" (I went for a walk yesterday).
- Southern: spoken in the counties between the province of Valencia and the province of Alicante. Main feature is the "harmonia vocàl·lica". Two syllable words with an open E or O ending in A are pronounced with an open E or O in the end position. Examples are "terra" /tɐrɐ/ (earth or land), "porta" /pɔɾtɔ/ (door) or "dona" /dɔnɔ/(woman).
- Alacantí: spoken in most of the province of Alicante, and the area of Carxe in the province of Murcia.
English words of Valencian origin
- Barracks, from barraca, used for several kinds of buildings.
External links
Unofficial normatives: