| Aranese | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in | Spain |
| Region | Val d'Aran |
| Native speakers | 250,000 (date missing) |
| Language family | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
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Aranese area, in the Occitan language territory
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Aranese (Occitan: Aranés) is a standardized form of the Pyrenean Gascon variety of the Occitan language spoken in the Val d'Aran, in north western Catalonia on the border between Spain and France, where it is one of the three official languages besides Catalan and Spanish. Recently, it was named the third official language of the whole of Catalonia by Parliament of Catalonia.[1]
Once considered to be an endangered language , spoken mainly by older people, it is now experiencing a renaissance; it enjoys co-official status with Catalan and Spanish within Val d'Aran, and since 1984 has been taught bilingually alongside Castilian in schools.
About 90% of the inhabitants of Val d'Aran can understand it, and about 65% can speak it.[2]
The official spellings of towns in Val d'Aran are Aranese; for example, the Aranese spelling Vielha is used on maps and road signs instead of the Catalan and Spanish Viella.
Most Aranese are also fluent in Catalan, Spanish, and to a lesser extent also in French.
Contents |
General Gascon characteristics:
Specific Aranese characteristics:
A reference on usage and conjugation of Aranese verbs was written by Verònica Barés and published in 2003. A descriptive and normative reference grammar book, written in Aranese by Aitor Carrera, was published in March 2007. This grammar includes detailed breakdown of phonological and grammatical differences between varieties of Aranese in different villages in the valley.
A dictionary of Aranese was written by the Catalan linguist Joan Coromines as his doctoral thesis.
A simple four-language Spanish–Aranese–Catalan–French dictionary exists, written by Frederic Vergés Bartau (see Bibliography).
An Aranese-English and English–Aranese dictionary was published in 2006. It was written by Ryan Furness, a young man from Minnesota, after he became curious about the language when he traveled to Val d'Aran.[3]
A detailed one-volume Catalan–Occitan and Occitan–Catalan dictionary was published under the auspices of the governments of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya) and Val d'Aran (Conselh Generau d'Aran). Although it calls the language "Occitan", it uses Aranese spelling and its preface says that special attention is given to the Aranese variety.
A local monthly magazine Toti and local newspapers are published partly in the language.
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