Bla bla bla

[nooj]

I watched this video about Bastida, a Gascon speaking town in Baxe Nafarroa (Iparralde). Well, a Gascon speaking town must be qualified by saying that today it's no longer the case that everyone or even most people living there speak Gascon.

But a hundred years ago it would have been a Romance speaking island jutting into Basque speaking territory. Of course Basque always had a presence in Bastida but only because Basque speakers from neighbouring towns would move to live there.

Apart from the history lesson, I find the woman's way of pronouncing the rhotic interesting. A kind of uvular trill, perhaps [ʀ̊]. It's not something I've heard lately in French public television.

[nooj]

Here's the happy news: any learner can learn Aranese almost as if it were a separate language, and not a dialect in a greater language whole. You can ignore, if you wish, everything about Occitan and save yourself a lot of head and heartache!

I still think you could treat Aranese 'as if' it were an independent language. And I think that's the best way for a beginner wanting to find their feet, to pick an Occitan dialect and stick to it.

I read somewhere a criticisms made by an Occitanist linguist that most Occitanist linguistics of the 20th century have focused exclusively on dialectology and not enough on other aspects like sociolinguistics. If there's gristle for the dialectologist's mill, it's because Occitan is indeed rich and diverse. Why limit yourself to just one?

From a purely practical perspective, the more dialects you are familiar with at least passively, the more stuff you can access, and the more dialects you're exposed to, the bigger your potential speaker base becomes as well. For a language that is minoritised to the extent that Occitan is, the desire to speak to as many speakers as possible, or more likely, to write with/read/listen to as many speakers as possible is a powerful motivator. Of course there's also good old curiosity. Occitan covers three nation states, several civilisations and many ways of life. Why wouldn't you be interested in the full spectrum of human life and the people who speak them?

And even if you were only interested in the Val d'Aran, it doesn't make sense to treat Aranese as if it were an isolated variety when almost all of what makes Aranese Aranese is shared with the dialects across the border in the Coserans and Comenge, or can be found in other Occitan varieties further afield.



For example Aranese for many of its words has the typical Catalan/Spanish accentuation where the accent falls on the antepenultimate syllable (this is due to Catalan/Spanish interference).

So in Aranese, you say:

Música and not musica [my'zika]
Atlàntica and not atlantica [allan'tika]
Física and not fisica [fi'zika]
Política and not politica [puli'tika]

But interestingly enough, this accentuation system was independently developed and is much more extensive in Nissart on the other side of the Occitan speaking world. And they're justly very proud of their distinctive accentuation.

In the following map you can see the different kinds of third person masculine direct object clitics in different Aranese dialects. In the towns of Bausen and Canejan, they use the exact same forms -u as just across the border.



But do you have to know that to learn Aranese? Not at all. But knowing what's happening in other Occitan dialects, using them as a point of comparisons can reduce the Spanish/Catalan influence as much as possible. So I consciously use the second set of accentuation, common to most Occitan dialects, although I know that many young Aranese native speakers don't pronounce it like that.

Not it's not necessary. But it's damn interesting to know. Why deprive yourself of that when you could get one Occitan dialect and with a bit of effort (understatement!), all of the other Occitan dialects too?

So what I say now may seem contradictory to what I said before in my original quote, where I said that Occitan was too big to learn as a whole (implying that this complexity was a disadvantage) and you should stick to one dialect.

Eventually, I hope the hypothetical Occitan learner comes to appreciate the extraordinary opportunity that the language gives them. I honestly believe that the more dialectical variety a language has, the luckier the language learner is.

Well, many people think the dialectical situation is not lucky for the language per se, but I think the miserable situation of Occitan cannot be really blamed on its dialectical variety. It mostly has to do with the linguicidal policies of three states.

Only a couple of traits of Aranese are truly unique to Aranese. Young speakers tends to privilege some things that are extraordinary. The current collapse in Aranese of the èster/auer auxiliary distinction for some kinds of verbs in the construction of the perfect tense, would surprise any speaker of Occitan. In Aranese auer comes to take most of the auxiliary role of èster:

Es gojates son anades -> es gojates an anat.
Se son visti -> s'an vist
Es dus aranesi se son maridadi - es dus aranesi s'an maridat

It's probable that this change was originally an interference from Catalan however and not a genuine evolution of Aranese, as this distinction is still maintained in some Aranese dialects (for the oldest speakers).

A lot of what makes Aranese different is due to the pressure of Spanish/Catalan (but mostly Spanish) on the minoritised language. And conversely, the influence of French on the Gascon dialects in the French state is just as notable to Aranese speakers, and the same can be said for the Occitan spoken in Italy. In other words, Occitan is being torn apart three way like so much putty at the hands of the dominating three languages.

The last week I've been studying Aranese, through reading and listening to the radio as well as writing comments in Aranese on social media. I'm also reading stories from a variety of non-Aranese Gascon dialects. Here's something I'm learning from that...there's a crazy amount of diversity within Gascon alone! If that's the case for Gascon, then imagine Auvernhat, Vivaro-Alpine, Provençal, Limosin...

[nooj]

Here's something I'm learning from that...there's a crazy amount of diversity within Gascon alone! If that's the case for Gascon, then imagine Auvernhat, Vivaro-Alpine, Provençal, Limosin...

Indicative example. I was talking about Aitor Carrera, the Catalan linguist whose work I use to learn Aranese. A native speaker from the high Pyrénées region of Lavedan in Bigòrra wrote to correct me:

Carrera que dé aranés

In Aranese it would be:

Carrera qu'ei Aranés

Which means 'Carrera is (actually) Aranese'. Now that's not true, he is in fact Catalan but has worked extensively on the Val d'Aran so you could call him an adopted son.

Being poorly versed in the Gascon dialects beyond the political border I asked where this -d- could come from and I was given this helpful note from the book Proverbes, dictons et devinettes en pays de Barèges by Jean-Pierre Rondou.



It turns out there's a series of such epenthetic helping consonants. Elsewhere I've read that the gue/ga/g on comes from Latin hic and the d comes from quid est. Take all this with a bit of salt, I'm no linguist.

Here's a few more examples that I've since found by looking around on the internet, and I provide their Aranese translation:

Aranese - que i cau anar
Lavedan/Barètge - que gue cau anar
English - you (generic) need to go there

Aranese - que i a fòrça/plan de crabes per aciu
Lavedan/Barètge - que g'a hòrt de crabas per aci
English - there's a lot of goats around here

Aranese - portar-i
Lavedan/Barètge - portar-gue
English - bring (it) to there

Aranese - non i a hum que non i a huec
Lavedan/Barètge - non g'a hum que non g'a huec
English - there's no fire without smoke

The native speaker himself gives a rundown in French of the surrounding varieties:

L'indicatif présent de la seconde personne du sing. - qui conditionne la 3e pers. sing. - est [ès] avec qques vocalismes -é- dans les zones périphériques : Saurat (09), Tarnos et St-Martin de Hinx (40), Hostens (33). Dans les hautes vallées pyrénéennes centrales, apparaît svt. une f. à initiale consonantique : [des] à Ferrières et Arrens, [jès] à Cauterets, [des] en vallée de Barège. La rive droite du fleuve en Gironde a [ses] ainsi que, rive gauche, la frange lot-et-garonnaise et le Tarn-et-Garonne. On peut penser que la consonne initiale (d-, s-) a d'abord été une consonne antihiatique, LEXICALISEE par la suite, puisqu'elle apparaît dans des constructions sans hiatus : an dés ? "où es-tu ?".

Aranese - a on ès? [awnɛs]
Lavedan/Barètge - an dés? [andes]
English - where are you?

Which is super cool.

[nooj]

I found a blog by an Occitan speaker. He writes in Lengadocian. The second to last entry dates from 2018. He says that he has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos. He says that the survival rate is 2% for 5 years, and that his disease was diagnosed 3 years ago. He says that he has to accept his death. I assume he has since passed away.

Amianta .

La fin es aqui que se sarra,

Me dison que tot va plan .

I a maites biaisses de mascanhar

la cara roja de la vida .

Pòdi pas dire lo mot de mòrt,

sens deslargar de rires gròs.

Doncas me cal morir per de rire

Per far pas de pena a degun ,

m'engolar mon amarun.

E racar mon vomit.

Per far lo brave , lo fièr.

Consensus o coardisa,

Sens pet de lèbre e sens paur;

tal l'ase vièlh, al merlin.

Lo cap baissat prèst per l'oblit.

Asbestos

The end is approaching
They tell me everything's going well
There are many ways to botch
The red face of life
I can't say the word death
Without laughing a lot
So I have to die from laughing
So as to not cause pain to anyone
Swallow my bitterness
And throw up my vomit.
To play the brave man, the proud man
Consensus or cowardice
Without making a squeak and without fear
Like the old donkey at the slaughterhouse, when they point the bolt gun
Head down, ready for oblivion.

[nooj]

In this article, a young university student of Occitan at University of Montpelhièr (Montpellier) writes about her Erasmus exchange to Mallorca, where she continued her Occitan studies via Catalan linguistics. She is from Avairon (Avayron) and therefore writes in Lengadocian.

As Catalan philology classes are given in Catalan, I assume she learned Catalan in situ. But wait, studying Catalan as part of Occitan studies? Isn't that a distraction? Quite the opposite, she says, one cannot study Occitan without studying Catalan (and vice versa).

She puts the title of her university degree 'Lenga Regionala Occitana' in between apostrophes, likely because she disagrees with the characterisation of her language as a regional language.

I myself use the term regional language sometimes, but less and less. Doing a bit of mental hygiene, I try to discipline myself to use terms that I think are more linguistically and politically appropriate. When I first came to Spain, it was a momentous mental shift for me to conceive the Spanish languages as national languages.

Because what language isn't regional, located in a specific time and place? English is a regional language! Spanish is a regional language, one of Spain's many regional languages.

The entry for today isn't very linguistically innovative as you can see, no scintillating new information. I just like that among those countless millions who visit Mallorca for more prosaic reasons, there are some who come for the language too.

Rintrada per fòrça de mon escambi Erasmus Palma-Montpelhièr en causa de la pandemia, me susprenguèt e m’agradèt lo ligam que Malhòrca ten amb l’occitan. Ja, poder contunhar sa licéncia de "Lenga Regionala Occitana" a Malhòrca en Filologia Catalana, es una granda escasença e es possible mercé als ligams qu’entrenenon las doas universitats, Pau Valèri de Montpelhièr e l’Universitat de las Illas Balearas. Non se pòt pas estudiar lo catalan sens parlar d’occitan e invèrsament.

Manon Mengual
Estudianta a l’Universitat Montpelhièr 3

What is new? Still doggedly continuing on with Aranese and other Gascon varieties.

I listened to a conference with the author of a new grammar of the Gascon from the Gran Lana and Bòrn regions. In his talk, he speaks in the very variety he's describing (he's a neolocutor).

To other Gascon speakers, the western Gascon varieties sounds exotic, partly as a consequence of the neutralisation of /e/ to the schwa [ə] which happens even in stressed position. The western dialectical block is often called parlar negue ['nəgə], which means 'black/dark speech'. However as I'm used to Balearic varieties of Catalan it sounds kind of familiar!



All of the maritime varieties in the above map belong to the parlar negue, notably that of Baiona...it seems to be extinct however (?), which makes me wonder what Gascon they're using in their signage?

Here is a story in parlar negue , so you can hear what it sounds like. One thing I found is that I have no difficulty understanding the neolocutor in his talk, whereas I have some difficulty understanding the native speaker:



The YT channel actually belongs to a singer, Sarralhèr who sings in this dialect. His songs are rock. I like folk, but the Occitan music scene badly needs rock, electro, rap...

[nooj]

A video of 1976 from the Aspe Valley (Vath d'Aspa) in Bearn. These kids all speak in the Bearnese dialect of Gascon, but at that time 'regional' languages were not (allowed to be) heard on French television, leading them to all be dubbed over in French. It's possible that there's the original tape without dubbing but if there is, Ina hasn't released it.

Annoying is an understatement because today it's impossible to hear young native speakers of Gascon, like these children who grew up speaking the language at home. I'm used to listening to people in their 80s speaking Gascon, which makes it easy to forget that Gascon was and deserves to be a normal language.

[nooj]

I have a patriotic poem for youse today, by the Gascon writer Pèir de Garròs, published in 1576.

He worked for the Navarran court as a jurist. In fact he writes a dedication in his poetic collection to the Navarran sovereign Jeanne d'Albret. He wants to restore the prestige of Gascon, so that it can be considered a language equal to that of French, and he marries that with the political project of a Gascon nation. In this poem he addresses a fellow Gascon poet first who writes in Gascon, then addresses those Gascons who deny their own language.

Keep in mind that by this point in the 16th century French has become the administrative language in France, and the diglossia among the elite, intellectual class has settled in.





For full document see here.
In classical (that is, modern) orthography:

Puish doncas que plasut vos a
Ritmes en Gascon compausar,
De mi vos n'èratz pas estat
En vaganau solicitat
A préner la causa damnada
De nòsta lenga mespresada :
Damnada la podetz enténer,
Si degun non la vòu dehéner :
Cadun la lèisha e desempara,
Tot lo món l'apèra barbara,
E qu'es causa mes planhedera,
Nosauts medish nos trufam d'era.
O praube lïatge abusat,
Digne d'èster despaïsat,
Qui lèishas per ingratitud
La lenga de la noiritut
Per, quan tot seré plan condat,
Apréner un lengatge hardat ;
E non hès conde de l'ajuda
Au païs naturau deguda,
Aquò b'es, a plan tot pensar,
Son païs mau recompensar.
Mès de ma part, jo vs'asseguri,
E religiosament vos juri,
Que jo scriurèi dam veheméncia,
No'm cararèi, n'aurèi paciéncia,
Dequia que siam tots acordats
E d'ua conspiracion bandats,
Per l'onor deu païs sosténguer
E per sa dignitat manténguer :
Non pas d'espasas agusadas,
Ni lanças de sang ahamadas,
Òm sap pro que l'arnès lusent
Nos es de natura plasent,
E que'u sabem plan maejar
Qui nos ven tarabustejar :
Mès au lòc de lanças ponchudas
Armem-nos de plumas agudas
Per ornar lo Gascon lengatge,
Per que òm presique d'atge en atge
La gent, tan bèra parladora,
Com en armas es vencedora

As you enjoy composing
Verses in Gascon
I will not have asked you in vain
To take up the lost cause
Of our demeaned language.
Because it can be taken for damned
If no one will defend it.
All abandon it and withdraw support for it
All call it a barbaric language
And the worst thing is that
We Gascons ourselves don't care about our language
Oh miserable, abused progeny
That merits exile
You who abandon out of ingratitude
The language of the wetnurse
To learn instead, all things considered
A dolled up language
You don't take into account the aid
That is owed your natural country
That is come to think of it,
Poor recompensation indeed towards one's father
I at least, I assure you,
Religiously I swear to you
That I shall write with vehemence
I won't be silenced, I will bear sufferance
Until we all are agreed
And joined in common cause
To support, for the honour of our country
And to hold firm, for its dignity
Not with keen swords
Nor with spears hungry for blood
It's well known that
Shiny war-material is to our liking
We know how to deal with
Anyone who comes to raise words against us:
But instead of pointed lances
Let's gird ourselves in sharp plumes
To decorate our Gascon language
So that the good word is preached
From age unto age
The people, so well spoken (in its language)
Like in arms too, are victors.

[nooj]

Found on FB. The Aussau valley is a part of Bearn.

Qu'èra per las annadas 1995, quan estudiant a l'Universitat de Pau. Un matin, en demorant un cors, que m'estavi sus ua banca, au ras de la maquina de cafè, lòc de passèris e d'encontres. Un gojat negre de pèth que sortiva de's har colar la bevenda. De suscòp qu'entrè ua gojata tipada africana autant plan com eth.

Adiu, ce'u hè lo purmèr, en un biarnés perfèit, qu'as avut drin de mau dab lo descluc aqueste matin o qué ?
Non me'n parles, ce responó era, que'm desbrombèi de'u har anar e despuish que soi a la corruda tà non pas estar tròp en retard...

Ad aquestes mots los mens uelhs que's claverèn sus eths e que manquèi estranglà'm.
Quauquas minutas mei enlà qu'avèm hèit coneishença e que saboi qu'èran dus espitalets ahilhats en Aussau e qui pr'aquò n'avèn popat lo san parlar.

Ua lenga, ua cultura non son propietats d'un grop uman, d'ua nacion o d'ua color de pèth, quins que sian. Que voi créder que i ei ua plaçòta au sorelh tà ua Gasconha ubèrta e arcuelhiva a tots, en tot demorar frèma e fièra de la soa identitat, de la soa istòria, deu son víver e deus sons parlars. Que voi créder que i ei ua plaçòta entà nosautes enter los nacionalismes estrets e xenofòbs, arrucats au-darrèr de parets e de hius d'archau, e lo renonç, lo deishèr, la perta d'identitat deus individus com deus pòples au nom d'un pretendut universalisme
qui promet d'esterrassar los purmèrs entà'ns har miélher empassar l'aveniment d'un monde uniformizat on las diferéncias enter los òmis, lengas, culturas, istòria, víver, color de pèth (qui son de hèit un riquèr) e serén embrumadas, esvalisadas a petits drins, negadas de la fin.

It was around 1995. I was still studying at the University of Pau. One morning while I was waiting for a class, I was sitting on a bench by the coffee machine, habitual place for meetings and walks. A guy with dark skin was leaving after making his drink. Suddenly a girl entered, just as African in appearance as him.

Hello, he said to her first in perfect Bearnese, did you have a spot of trouble with the sleep alarm today or what?
Don't talk to me about it, she replied, I forgot to turn it on and I'm in a rush to not be too late...

In hearing these words my eyes locked onto them and I nearly strangled myself. A few minutes later we had gotten to know each other and I learned that they were two orphans adopted in Aussau, and for that reason they had been brought up in it.

A language, a culture do not belong to one human group, one nation or one skin colour, whatever they may be. I want to believe that there's a place in the sun for a Gascony open and welcoming to all, all the while remaining firm and proud of its identity, of its history, of its life and of its ways of speaking. I want to believe that there's a place for us on one hand between the narrow and xenophobic nationalisms, huddled behind walls and barbed wire, and on the other hand the renouncing, the abandon, the loss of identity of both individuals and peoples in the name of a pretend universalism that promises to reduce to clumps all those things in order to make us swallow better the coming of a uniformised world where the differences between men, their languages, cultures, histories, lives and skin colour (which are actually a richness) will be clouded over, annihilated bit by bit, finally drowned.

Compare this with the reaction of another Gascon, this time a writer who has written some books in Gascon, in Catalonia:

La Catalonha qu'ei aqueth lòc estranh on la servidora africana d'un bar, o ua gojata musulmana crotzada a la gara, personas qui n'as pas jamei vist e qui, probable, ne tornaràs pas véder, e't parlan d'aviada "en lenga regionau".

Catalonia is that strange place where the African waitress at the bar or a Muslim girl who one meets at the train station, people you've never met and who probably you'll never see again, speak to you out of the blue in "the regional language".

1) Gascon at this stage tends to be the language you hear within an intimate setting with people you already know speak Gascon. You're not likely to speak Gascon to someone you'll never see again. Unlike Catalan which you can use with people outside your social group.

2) The majority of Gascons don't even speak the language, so even less immigrants. Catalan is not in that position.

3) The appellation of 'regional language' is meant to be sarcastic. In Catalonia, Catalan is not considered a regional language. A French immigrant to Catalonia might find that the only comparison they have at hand is 'regional language', but it's not the same thing.

I'm a part of some FB groups for French immigrants (they call themselves expats) to Catalonia or the Balearic Islands. There are some who are puzzled or even angry as to why a 'regional language' is so prevalent and important.

In complaining about Spanish languages however, I think they've already made a great step towards integration and fitting into Spain, like a 'true Spaniard'. Because their attitudes are not exceptional in Spain.

[nooj]

This just happened to me at the store:

Nik dendan: zerbaiten bila nago, eeee, zera...ezkatzako harraskan zulo bat dago, badakizu? Zikina atrapatzen dau baina ura joateari uzten dio...eeee
Dendariak: ah bai, hauxe
Nik: eskerrik asko! Zelan da euskaraz?
Berak: ba ez dakit. Rejilla.

Me at the store: I'm looking for that thing you know, it's used in the kitchen sink where there's a hole, it lets water through but not the gunk.
Owner: oh yeah, you mean this?
Me: yay thanks! How do you say it in Basque?
Owner: I donno. Rejilla.

Rejilla is the Spanish word for like drain covers etc. I overcomplicate things too much sometimes.

[nooj]

Reading a book called Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg. In the book Jess is the eponymous stone butch. After some time surviving the persecution of society, she decides to take hormonal treatment and surgery to pass as a man.

Here she's been working in a factory and her colleagues don't know her history, but in the process of organising a union movement, another colleague she knew from before the treatment unwittingly uses the gender pronoun before the group which will have serious impact on her employment:

Bold shook Duffy’s hand. “Do you think we’re gonna win?”
Duffy smiled and nodded. “Yeah. But it’ll take a fight. We got strong people in each department. If we had more like Jess, we’d win it hands down. I trust Jess. She’s proved she’s for the union 100 percent.”
Everything happened in slow motion. When I heard Duffy say she I turned in horror, my jaw dropped. Frankie slapped her forehead with her palm and shook her head. The guys looked from Duffy to me and back again. I stormed out of the VFW post and headed for my motorcycle.

—Zuk uste duzu irabaziko dugula? Duffyk, irribarrez, baiezko keinua egin zuen.—Bai. Baina borrokatu egin beharko dugu. Jende indartsua dugu departamentu bakoitzean. Jess bezalako gehiago baditugu, irabaziko dugu inolako dudarik gabe. Konfiantza dut Jessengan. Emakume honek erakutsi du sindikatuaren alde dagoela ehune-ko ehunean.Dena kamera mantsoan gertatu zen. Duffyri aditu nionean emakume hau esaten, izutu egin nintzen, ahoa zabal-zabala. Frankiek bere kopeta jo zuen esku ahurrez, eta ezezko keinua egin zuen. Jendeak Duffyri eta niri begiratu zigun txandaka. Atzerriko Gerretako Beteranoen lokaletik atera nintzen haserre bizian, nire motorantz

In the Basque, the translator chose to say literally 'this woman showed that she's 100% for the union'. That's grammatically correct but a bit pragmatically weird as normally you wouldn't emphasis the gender of who you're speaking about. It would have been perfectly valid for Duffy to say 'this person', but then you wouldn't create the conflict.

As Basque doesn't have third person gendered pronouns, the translator had several options. One way is to use the allocutive forms, but I don't think it's used for work colleagues and in any case, the translator hadn't used it in the entire book.

The other way is to use a word that although is not grammatically gendered, is semantically so, like they did here, emakume 'woman' or potxoa 'chick' or neska 'girl' etc. Given the situation what the translator chose is probably the best choice but again, in a natural Basque conversation this particular problem would not have come up.

That's not to say that gender fluid people have it more easy in Basque or Turkish society anymore than in American society, but in some instances the language allows you to hide: for example in writing a letter or email you can effectively not give any indications to your gender. Which is more cumbersome to do in Spanish or Italian.

I'd like to have a look around and see how other translators render this passage in their languages.