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Valencian

Encyclopedia : V : VA : VAL : Valencian

This page deals with language. For other uses of Valencian, see Valencia (disambiguation).

The factual accuracy of this article is [Accuracy disputedisputed].
Please see the relevant discussion on the [

Valencian (valencià) is the historical, traditional, and official name used in the Land of Valencia (Spain) to refer to the language also known as Catalan (català) in the Spanish Autonomous Communities of Catalonia, Aragon and the Balearic Islands; in the country of Andorra; in the southern French region of the Roussillon; and in the Italian city of Alghero on the island of Sardinia. Valencian is also the name used by linguists to identify one of the most important dialectal varieties within the Catalan language spoken in central and southern Valencia.

According to the "[Law of Use and Education of Valencian]" approved in 1982, Valencian is the Land of Valencia's own language, and its citizens have the right to know it and to use it, both orally and in written form, in private or public instances. According to the last survey made by the Generalitat Valenciana in June 2005, approximately 94% of the Valencian population could understand it, 78% could speak and read it, and around 50% could write it.

Contents

Linguistic issues

There is consensus amongst linguists that Valencian is the name for the Catalan language which is spoken in the Land of Valencia. The word is also used to refer to the dialect of this territory to differentiate it from the Catalan language as a whole, or from the "Catalan of Barcelona" (Central Catalan group of varieties). In this sense it can be considered a dialect of the Western Catalan variety (Bloc occidental -see for more details Catalan language-), which also includes the varieties of La Franja, Andorra, Lleida province and the southern half of Tarragona province.

About the name

An important subgroup of those linguists, mostly from the local official language academy (Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua), has recently proposed to also use this name to refer to the language as a whole, including the entire Catalan-speaking area, stating a concept of two names for one language (synonym). This linguistic and political concept isn't unique. As stated in the Statute of Autonomy of the Land of Valencia, there is another official language, Spanish, which is also used under another name, Castilian (see names given to the Spanish language, for further information).

Features of Valencian

Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for a pronunciation key.
Note that this is a list of features of the main forms of Valencian as a group of dialectal varieties that differ from those of other Catalan dialects, particularly from the Central or literary varieties of the language. For more general information on the features of the Valencian language, see Catalan language. Note also that there is a great deal of variety within the Land of Valencia, and by no means do the features below apply to every speaker.

Some other features, such as the use of molt de or the lack of hom or geminate L, are often given as examples of differences between Valencian variety and other forms of the language. However, these are actually differences between colloquial and literary language, and, again, are not true of certain sub-dialects. In fact, northern and southern variants of Valencian share more features with Eastern Catalan than with central Valencian; for this reason most of the features listed previously do not apply to them. As we have seen, the central and capital city area of Valencian suffers the most from Castilian influence, one of the causes of these differences.

Sub-varieties of Valencian

English words of Valencian origin

Political issues surrounding Valencian

The main theory of the origin of Valencian is that Catalan was brought to the territories that became the Kingdom of Valencia during the Reconquista. While Castile moved south conquering New Castile and Andalusia, the Aragonese and Catalan settlers from the Crown of Aragon came and conquered Valencia. Most of these settlers came from South-West Catalonia, and to this day Valencian is almost indistinguishable from the dialect of these people. Valencian was the home language of the Borgia family.

Maria Josep Cuenca, lecturer at the Department of Catalan Language Studies (note the name) of the University of Valencia, in her book El valencià és una llengua diferent? (ISBN 84-8131-452-8), notes that the number of people identifying with their Autonomous Community rather than with Spain is actually greater in Castile-La Mancha than in the Land of Valencia. This is perhaps surprising in a region that is supposed to be one of the països catalans or Catalan countries. There is obviously a complicated mixture of feelings of belonging due to various historical events. The result is that Catalan in Valencia is normally called "Valencian", and is often held to be a separate language, whereas in the Balearic Islands, La Franja, Andorra, Alghero and Roussillon the local dialects are at least as different from the speech of Barcelona as Valencian is, and yet these speakers officially call their language Catalan. It should be noted as well that inside Catalonia itself there's a vast dialectal variety, ranging from Valencian-like dialects (North-Western Catalan) to Roussillon-like ones (Transitional Septentrional Catalan). Officially, the rules for Valencian are decided by the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, which follows the same rules as for the rest of the Catalan language, set by the Institut d'Estudis Catalans.

There is no mention of Valencian or Catalan or any language other than Spanish in the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The [Autonomy Statute] refers to the vernacular language as valencià, a name used traditionally since the fifteenth century. There is a private association called [Lo Rat Penat] that campaigns for Valencian as a separate language with a different written norm and has firmly supported the motivated attempts of a minority of Valencian sectors (often related to right-wing political parties) to split Valencian and Catalan norms apart. However, their theories are not supported by universities or Romance languages experts. Indeed, the latter association assumed the unity of the language during most of its existence.

In fact, the debate between the autonomy or heteronomy of Valencian, often with a political background, was started recently during the Spanish transition to democracy in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Prior to that, the Franco government had suppressed all languages other than Castilian in Spain. More than twenty years later, there is no controversy as this issue is near to be resolved, since the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua agreed unanimously in a [report made on February 9th 2005] that Valencian is a language with its own entity and shared with Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Andorra. In spite of this, there is presently a part of Valencian public opinion, mostly from Valencia city and its metropolitan area, that believes in the idea that Valencian is a separate language, distinct from Catalan. This belief, which is not supported by linguistic research, derives from political viewpoints that see Catalonia as an overbearing or even imperialistic force, and also from right-wing parties who fear a common union between Catalonia and Valencia in order to split from the Spanish state.

The latest political controversy regarding Valencian occurred on the occasion of the approval of the European Constitution in 2004. The Spanish government supplied the EU with translations of the text into Basque, Catalan, Galician, and Valencian, but the Catalan and Valencian versions were nearly identical. While professing the unity of the Catalan language, the Spanish government claimed to be constitutionally bound to produce distinct Catalan and Valencian versions because the Statute of the Autonomous Community of Valencia calls the regional language "Valencian", while those of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands call the regional language "Catalan" (even though in the Balearic Islands, the language is also often called "mallorquí", "menorquí", "eivissenc", or "formenterer" depending on the island — Mallorca, Menorca, Eivissa or Formentera).

Theories of Valencian as separate from Catalan

Those theories that claim Valencian is an independent language from Catalan are mostly based on disputing the origin of the language in Valencia.

One of the most widespread theories maintains that Valencian primarily evolved from the Romance language spoken by local inhabitants, Mozarabic, even after the conquest of the former Al-Andalus territories. Later on, this language would have acquired words from Catalan, Provençal, Aragonese or Castilian until the present day. However, this theory is not supported by the evidence we have of Mozarabic, chiefly toponymic; place-names which originated in Mozarabic, such as Campos, do not share the linguistic features of Valencian.

An alternative theory proposes that Valencian, alongside Catalan, originated directly from Old Occitan. This would have arrived in Valencia with the court of the conqueror King James I of Aragon, since he was born in Montpellier (Occitania) and this was also the language in vogue among troubadours. However, it must be noted that at the time of the Reconquest of Valencia, Catalan and Occitan were in fact sometimes referred to as the same language (or the same family of dialects) by many, under the name of Lemosin or Provençal and sharing a single poetic tradition, although, when spoken, they were different; Catalan troubadours knew they weren't writing the same as they spoke; and there are texts previous to James I, such as the Homilies d'Organyà, which are clearly Catalan as opposed to Occitan.

Supporters of these theories criticise the current Valencian standard promulgated by the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua because such supporters regard the Valencian Standard as some kind of hybrid with a theoretically distinct Catalan.

References

External links

[ ) [Disputing theories about Valencian origin]
  • * [The origins and evolution of language secessionism in Valencia. An analysis from the transition period until today]

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