Aranese language

Aranese ( _oc. aranés) is a standardized form of the Pyrenean Gascon variety of the Occitan language spoken in the Aran Valley, in northwestern Catalonia on the border between Spain and France, where it is one of the three official languages besides Catalan and Spanish. Once considered to be an endangered language Fact|date=February 2007, spoken mainly by older people, it is now experiencing a renaissance; it enjoys co-official status with Catalan and Spanish within the Aran Valley, and since 1984 has been taught in schools.

About 90% of the inhabitants of the Aran Valley can understand it, and about 65% can speak it.

The official spellings of towns in the Aran Valley 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.

Written publications in Aranese

Grammar

A reference on usage and conjugation of Aranese verbs was written by Veronica Bares 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.

Dictionaries

A simple four-language Spanish-Aranese-Catalan-French dictionary exists, written by Frederic Vergés Bartau.

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 the Aran Valley [ [http://www.noticies.cat/pnoticies/notItem.jsp?item=noticia&idint=26187 Un jove de Minnesota prepara el primer diccionari aranès-anglès] ] .

A detailed one-volume Catalan-Occitan and Occitan-Catalan dictionary was published under the auspices of the governments of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya) and the Aran Valley (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.

Periodicals and commercial publications

A local monthly magazine "Toti" and other local newspapers are published partly in the language.

See also

* Occitan language
* Languages of Spain
* Aranese alphabet

References

Bibliography

* "Le Gascon de poche", Jean-Marc Leclercq & Sèrgi Javaloyès, Assimil 2004, ISBN 2-7005-0345-7
* "Gramatica Aranesa", Aitor Carrera
* "Es verbs conjugadi", Veronica Bares
* "Petit diccionari: castelhan - aranés (occitan) - catalan - francés", Frederic Vergés Bartau
* "Diccionari Occitan-Catalan"

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/h2o_graphic/Cors Aranese course]
* [http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/aran/ Generalitat of Catalonia page about Aranese]
* [http://xixona.dlsi.ua.es/prototype/ Aranese <-> Catalan machine translation]