Annals of Language and Literature Volume 3, Issue 2, 2019, PP 9-18 ISSN 2637-5869 The Origins of Catalan, the Valencian: Dialect of Catalan or Autonomous Language? Ana Montaner Bueno, Andrés Montaner Bueno* Department of Language and Literature Didactics, University of Murcia, Spain *Corresponding Author: Andrés Montaner Bueno, Department of Language and Literature Didactics, University of Murcia, Spain, Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT When we talk about the spread of western Catalan beyond the Principality, we consider Valencian as a dialect of Catalan. This question has been one of the most discussed and controversial has aroused. That is why, we will treat the issue individually. To solve this dilemma, the first thing that we will consider is to define the concepts of language and dialect, to later consider the origins of the Valencian and from them to see if they really coincide with the characteristics that we have defined for the terms language and dialect. Keywords: Catalan; Valencian; language; dialect; autonomy; (in) dependence. THE CATALAN AND ITS DIALECTS Tarragona is divided between the eastern and western dialects. We understand by Catalan the language that for centuries has been spoken as vernacular in the Following its expansion to the south, beyond the Principality of Catalonia (Lérida, Barcelona, Principality, the western Catalan extends to the Tarragona and Gerona), in the valleys of non-Castilian part of the provinces of Castellón, Andorra, in the French department of the Valencia and Alicante, while the eastern branch Eastern Pyrenees, in the eastern part of Aragon, in the Balearic Islands. Following this criterion, in most of Valencia, in the Balearic Islands and we can reach a first dialectal division, which in the city of Alguer located on the northwest includes the following regions coast of the island of Sardinia. ▪ Valles de Andorra In the pre-literary Catalan period the speech of ▪ Zona oriental de Aragón all these territories is of a relative uniformity CATALÁN OCCIDENTAL ▪ Parte occidental de Tarragona ▪ Valencia compared to the variety that other romances ▪ Lérida present. Only differences were expressed in the spoken language but not in the written one. The criterion commonly used to differentiate the dialectal varieties from Catalan is the geographical one, which distinguishes between Eastern Catalan and Western Catalan. The dividing line starts from the Pyrenees The fundamental criterion for this division, leaving the valleys of Andorra to the left and the taking into account the phonetic and French Cerdanya and the Roussillon to the right morphological differences, is the treatment of and descending towards the south in a trajectory the a and e atonic, which in the western area is clearly determined by the course of the clearly distinguished, while in the eastern one it Llobregat River and its tributaries. is pronounced with a single neutral sound. This dialectal division coincides in part with the Another criterion that confirms and qualifies administrative limits of the provinces, with this dialectal division is the treatment of the Eastern Catalan being the language of Gerona long unstressed Latin, which the Oriental and Barcelona and the western one of almost the modifies its timbre (generally E), while in the whole province of Lleida. Only the province of western it maintains it. Annals of Language and Literature V3 ● I2 ● 2019 9 The Origins of Catalan, the Valencian: Dialect of Catalan or Autonomous Language? This linguistic uniformity throughout the Middle Alguerés Dialect Ages and in an increasingly extended area is due It is characterized by having no ending in I, by to the imposition of the chancellery and literary the exchange of R / L, the step D> R in intervoic language. When the chancellery or position and the step E> A in proton and final administrative unity broke in the sixteenth and position. seventeenth centuries, modern Catalan dialects began to emerge, which are the following: West Catalan ▪ Barcelonés Leridano Dialect ▪ Salat Central ▪ Campo de Tarrgona The ending ME is "or", sometimes reinforced in ▪ Xipella OK; its articulatory tension is superior to other CATALÁN ▪ Mallorquín ORIENTAL Balear ▪ Menorquín dialects. ▪Ibicenco Rosellonés Capcirés Pallarés: It offers E as a result of A + YOD; Alguerés offers the fricative Y as a solution for Latin groups whose solution is usually different. ▪ Andorrano Ribagorzano: Palatalizes the L in the groups ▪ Pallarés PL / FL / CL and deadens some sounds, Z, Z, Leridano ▪ Ribagorzano ▪ Tortosino and Z becomes S, S, S, like Apitxat. CATALÁN ▪ Castellonense OCCIDENTAL Valenciano ▪ Apitxat Tortesino: Of transition, and therefore, of ▪ Alicantino difficult classification ▪ Alicantino- Mallorquín Language or Dialect In order to differentiate these modern Catalan Possibly having the ability to define these dialects, we can adopt, as a differentiating basis, concepts and be able to distinguish and clearly a very extended feature: the ending of the ME of establish the differences between language and the indicative present. dialect is one of the great challenges that any linguist can pose, since this way you could Eastern Catalan know if we are facing a language or a dialect. Central Dialect The first difficulty that arises, according to The word I do KNTU, sometimes reinforced in Romaine, is that "these issues are not strictly UT / UK linguistic but social". In this same sense Smith Barcelonés: Deafness of some sounds, lack of and Wilson say "the distinction between yeismo, etc. language and dialect is a matter of degree, and is Salat: coastal strip from the Ter to Blanes: use usually determined by non-linguistic factors; for of the derivative article of IPSE example, political or cultural." Tarraconense: Maintains the labiodental From a strictly linguistic perspective, there have pronunciation of the V been different definitions of language, among them we highlight the one made by André Xipella: From Seu de Urgel to Conca do Martinet in 1960 "A language is an instrument Barberá: confused or, u stoned in u; of communication through which the human distinguishes A / E final unstressed, experience is analyzed differently in each pronouncing E as I; the plurals "is" are community, in units equipped with semantic pronounced "is". content and a phonic expression, the phonemes. Balear Dialect This phonic expression is articulated in different units, the phonemes, in a given number in each The ending of ME does not exist language, taking into account that their nature Rosellonés Dialect and mutual internal relations differ from one language to another ". As a definition of The person I do "I sang", sometimes reinforced language in terms of system or code of in IK. The extreme opening has disappeared and communication, it serves perfectly, since it only knows the middle opening; convert the O refers to the double articulation of language and to U the arbitrary nature of languages. Capcirés: the U tonic passes to OE. It is an Another definition of language was the one archaic state of Roussillon. made by Hammel and Gardy in 1994 when 10 Annals of Language and Literature V3 ● I2 ● 2019 The Origins of Catalan, the Valencian: Dialect of Catalan or Autonomous Language? affirming "A language is a complex thing, during the time of Arab domination, in the which is not limited to a definition or even a Valencian lands, all traces of the Latin language series of simple definitions. If we also take into disappeared, so that the inhabitants of this land account that no language is truly separate from ended up speaking the Arabic of the new the others, except special cases very strange at conquerors. Later, the repobladores came from present: all languages, in time and space, Catalonia taking place the substitution of the therefore in society, never end to meet, expand Arab by the Catalan (Theory known as the and, sometimes, face. The relationships superestrato). established between them are never definitively However, in the words of Gómez Bayarri "in established, despite the fact that this mobility general, the small number of new settlers, their obeys rules that can be transformed ". ethnic, cultural and linguistic variety, the Proposals of this type can be found in a large capitulations, their relative tolerance, number of linguists, some more complete than miscegenation, etc. they make impossible a total others, possibly some more accurate than others, absorption and assimilation of Arabic cultural but all of them agreeing that, from a purely linguistic, unique and generalized that linguistic perspective, it is impossible to completely annihilates the autochthonous one ". determine a priori if we do not find in front of a These same statements can be applied to the language. subsequent invasion of Christians in the As regards the concept of dialect, we can quote thirteenth century "Mozarabic was still spoken what Roca Pons (1978) cites in this regard "the around 1230 in the conquest of Valencia, concept of dialect in a pejorative sense is very despite persecution and emigration." popular, since dialect is understood as a Other authors also revoke this theory of the language without literary or scientific culture." , superstrate. In this way Francisco Moreno also affirms "In fact, the languages can be Fernandez says "in the case of migrant groups it considered like old dialects that, due to diverse is very frequent that if they arrive at places circumstances, have been imposed like official where their language is not useful or if there are or of culture on other primitive dialects that large groups of speakers of another language, have been disappearing or they have been substitute their language for the place of who integrated in the dominant language or dialect". come, "he also says" Migrants can impose their Another definition of dialect, much more own language on that of the place of origin expressive for its shocking shortness according when they exercise political control of the to which "a dialect is a language without an community." Because of the knowledge we army" (Chomsky in Joan i Marí, B).