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The Blaverists' Wrong Informations

1 - "AFTER THE CONQUEST OF JAUME I THERE WERE ONLY 5% OF CATALAN SETTLERS, AND SO IT IS IMPOSSIBLE THAT THE CATALAN LANGUAGE WAS IMPOSSED IN THE VALENCIAN COUNTRY"

First of all it is nacessary to state that this axiom (i.e. that a minimal population could not impose its language to the majority) is false, since the cases as those of the French in Haiti or the Turkish in Turkey can be checked in this respect. In any case, there are other studies made by professional scholars that come to the conclusion that at the first period of the Reconquista the Catalan settlers were near the 60% of the settlers. Another thing that is hidden by the Blaverists, is that the immigration from Catalonia took place not only in the second part of the XIII Century, but that the immigrational waves from Catalonia continued along the XIV Century, till the Black Peast stopped the demographic surplus in Catalonia. Moreover, women had more sons during the Middle Ages than today, and the conditions offered by the Valencian Country were much more attractive than the feudal system of Catalonia.

2 - "THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE VALENCIAN AND THE CATALAN STANDARD ARE MANY SINCE THEY ARE DIFFERENT LANGUAGES"

James I entering into València. Alcanyís Castle (XIIIth century)

One of the most flagrant attempts is to try to separate as much as possible the standard Catalan from the "apitxat" Valencian speech (the "apitxat" is the subdialect of Valencia city and surroundings), creating new orthographical normatives such as the "Normes del Puig" (1979), or making from dialectal differences a wall that separate the Valencian from the rest of Catalan dialects. As all Blaverists' misinformations, that can not be defended since the majority of such differences that "could separate" the Valencian are evolutions from the ancient Catalan of the Medieval settlers in the Valencian kingdom. Thus, for instance, if they are compared with the main features of the Lleida dialect of the Catalan language, we can find:

1. Maintenance of final -r as in "cantar" (but with exceptions in the north part of the Valencian country and the area of Novelda); while the other Catalan speeches have lost it. But even at the XIIth Century it was kept mainly, even in Barcelona: "contar".
2. The first person of the present is made with final -e: "jo cante", while the other Catalan speeches have added an -o ("jo canto"), or -u ("jo cantu"), or -i ("jo canti"), or nothing ("jo cant"). This is owing to simple fact that before the Christian conquest of the Valencian Country (VC) and the Balearic Islands, the ancient Catalan did not use an ending vocal; and this late vocal appeared to reinforce and to specify the verbal person. The same happens with other verbal endings.
3. The -th- sound that comes from the Latin -ATA, -ATORE became voiceless at the XVIIIth Century (teulada > teulà, cremada > cremà, llaurador > llauraor); the Meridional dialect has advanced much more such supression: "roda" > "roa", "cadira" > "caira", "mos-altros" > "mosaltros" > "mothaltros" > "moatros". And truly it is a fact that in the ancient Catalan such -th- phoneme started to disappear since the XIIth Century and reached all dialects: VICINO > vethí > veí; RATIONE > rathó > raó (while other Romanic languages have kept the consonant: vecino, voisin, vetzín, vecino; razón, raçao, ratzón, racione).
4. The /v/ sound as in "vi" is kept (excepting the area of Valencia city); it is a Catalan archaism that also survives nowadays in villages around Tarragona.
5. There are Spanish words that are not used in other Catalan dialects: monyo, agüelo, cepillo, cuernos, entonces, otony, etc.
6. The "apitxat" subdialect does not make sonore the phonemes of "rosa", "dotze", "quinze", "viatge" or "germà" [z and dj] since the XVIth Century, which are transformed in "rossa", "dotse", "quinse", "viache" and "chermà" [s and ch], maybe as a clear evidence of the Spanish pressure over the language (there are also "apitxat" dialects in the Catalan of Aragon, which suffer a multisecular influence of Spanish speakers by being frontier dialects).
7. The consonant endings -ng, -nd, -ld are reinforced (sanc, profunt, molt), where the other dialects have lost the last consonant or have been kept it sonorized allways.
8. It has not been used epenthetic -b- in words such as "hui" (a hui > a vui > avui) or "uit" (vuit).
9. The Latin and Catalan sound -LT- losses the -l-: altres > atres, but molts > molts. This sound suffered in ancient Catalan a vocalization (autres, mouts), but that was prevented by a cultist correction (XIIIth-XIVth C.). In any case in the VC it was not possible to prevent and was mainly eliminated.
10. The most ridiculous defense on the genuine "Valencian" forms is to defend a clear Spanish mood such as the -cul endings (articul, fascicul, etc.). First of all, in the Middle Ages the people did not read "articuls" in newspapers, neither bought "fasciculs" in the bookstores by the simple fact that such things did not exist, and so such words also did not exist either in Valencian, nor in the Catalan of Barcelona with -cle, nor in Spanish with -culo. Secondly, in Vulgar Latin the group CUL was pronounced as "cl" (APICULA > APICLA), which was transformed to "j" in Spanish (as in "high") and "ll" in Catalan (as in "you"): "abeja" and "abella". Simply the endings in -cul are taken from neologisms that are usually in Madrid, while the standard Catalan from the latinism ARTICULO has created "article", sometimes trying to be the most similar to the source, sometimes trying to imitate the ancient Catalan cultist evolutions (as in SAECULO > segle), while the other ones have a simple vocalic reduction, such as in "ridículo" > "ridícul" which were introduced lately by Spanish way but that have been adopted by all Catalan dialects.
11. Also the Blaverists state that the educational system tries to keep out native words and moods (as mosatros, moatros, nosatres) by "stranger" moods from Catalonia; but the reality is that as any standarized language, the Catalan has searched for a dialectal consensus (along the North Catalans naltros, nantrus, nusatrus) and almost always it takes the most conserved mood (nosaltres), or the nearest mood to the ethymological source (NOS ALT(E)ROS).

So which differences were there among the Valencian and Lleidatan dialects seven centuries ago? Almost none, there were not by then such dialects as both composed a unique and undifferenciated speech: the Occidental dialect, from where the Lleidatan, the Tortosin and the Valencian will develop.

3 - "THE ANCIENT VALENCIAN WRITERS ALREADY MENTIONED A VALENCIAN LANGUAGE"

James I surrounded by Catalan and Aragonese knights. Alcanyís castle.

The aim of that is to try to justify that in past times the Valencian writers thought that they were writing a unique language, so that Blaverism could be justified with such ancient witnesses:

• Already in 1408 a notarial document mentions a Valencian language when speaking about certain rights that had the town of Onda:

"El sia la veritat del feyt que les paraules que foren entre vos, dit honrat senyer en Lois Sendavena e lo dit comandador d'Onda, fossen en vulgar lengua valenciana, e foren aquestes e semblants en efecte".

• Joan Esteve, who wrote the book Liber Elegantiarum, printed in València in 1489 wrote: "Acaba el llibre de les elegàncies de Joan Esteve home eruditíssim ciutatà valencià per real autoritat notari públic, en llatina i valenciana llengua [latina et valentiana lingua] ab exactíssima diligència esmenat".
• In 1491 the Valencian Fra Bonifaci Ferrer, in a translation of the Bible into Catalan wrote:

“...fou arromençada de llengua llatina en la nostra [llengua] valenciana”.

• Now, the best evidence to check how when it was said "llengua valenciana" it was meant "speech" or "dialect" is to be found in "Orígenes de la lengua española" (1737), written by the Valencian Gregori Mayans (source):

Translation: "The dialects of the Limousin language are the Catalan, Valencian and Mallorquin. The Catalan [language] has received many words from the French [language]; the Valencian [language], from the Spanish; the Mallorquin [language] is more close to the Catalan [language], as son of him. From all three [languages] the finest and richest is Valencian, and I do not state it by passion."

Mayans recognized the linguistic unity in a certain way (under the traditional denomination of Limousin language. This term is not accepted nowadays by philology because of its inaccuracy as in the Catalan Countries it is not spoken the Occitan dialect of Limoges, neither there are a city with such name in the PP.CC.); but at the same time he identified the speech of the Valencians as a "language", and the reason of it is because before the modern linguistics, writers held as sinonimous the terms "dialect" and "language", in the same way that today it could be appliable the term "speech" to the Hungarian idiom (the Hungarian speech, he speaks Hungarian, etc.) or to the English American dialect (the American speech).

Moreover the great majority of the ancient Valencian intellectuals kept clear the linguistic unity in speaking about the Valencian speech, some even naming such unity sometimes as "Limousin", sometimes even as "Valencian":

• 1306: Arnaldus de Villa Nova made once in his writtings a perfect division between the two Romanic nations and languages of the Crown of Aragon, when he afirmed: "regnum vero Aragoniae (sub se habet) Cathalanos et Aragones".
• It was in 1521 when the Catalan Joan Bonllavi mentions for the first time the Limousin language as a synonymous to the ancient Catalan, using the expression "first Limousin language" or "medieval language" as the language used by the Catalans of Catalonia, the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands, and this denomination of "Limousin" will be used by scholars till the XIXth Century with normality.
• Pere Anton Beuter (Primera parte de la Crònica general…, 1546):

"la lengua nuestra valenciana que, naciendo de la catalana, parece diversa de ella, y mucho más de la mallorquina, que también de ella nació, y aun la mesma catalana, que de la [lengua] franca [de França: llengua llemosina o occitana] nació"

Translation: "our own Valencian language, born from the Catalan, seems different from it [the Catalan "language"], and even more from the Mallorquin [language], which also was born from it, and even the Catalan itself, which from the Frank [language] was born [from France: the Limousin or Occitan language]".

• The Valencian chronicler Gaspar Escolano (1610) states:

"Como fue poblado desde su conquista casi todo de la nación catalana, y tomó della la lengua, y están tan paredañas y juntas las dos provincias, por más de trescientos años han pasado los deste reino (de València) debajo del nombre de catalanes, sin que las naciones extranjeras hiciesen diferencia ninguna de catalanes y valencianos."

Translation: "As it was populated from its conquest almost all by Catalans, and it take from them the language, and both regions are so close, by three hundred years the people of this kingdom of Valencia has been known as Catalans with no distinction among the stranger nations between Catalans and Valencians."

• Andreu Bosch (Summari, índex o epítome…, 1628):

"Per discurs [el discòrrer] de temps ha anat tant perdent la llengua llemosina […] que ha vingut a tenir quiscuna llengua diferent títol, ço és, de catalana, valenciana, mallorquina, i així de les demés".

Translation: "By the course of the time the Limousin language has lost so much [...] that nowadays each language [for dialect] has a different name, that is, Catalan, Valencian, Mallorquin, and so the others."

• In the Ramellet del Bateig, Joan Batista Ballester (1667), wrote:

"Parlava's lo valencià lenguage en Proença, tota la Guiana [Guyenne] y França gòtica [Llenguadoc], y ara en Catalunya, Regne de València , Mallorca y Ivisa. Pero als més els queda al pronunciar-la cert margall que no·l tenim los desta Ciutat."

Translation: "Valencian language was spoken in Provence, all Guyenne and Lenguadoc, and now in Catalonia, the Kingdnom of Valencia, Mallorca and Ibiza. But to the others it has been left a certain trace in pronouncing it that the people of this city don't have". Ballester not only applied the adjective "Valencian" at all the Catalan linguistic area, but even aplied it in a similar way to the ancient unity formed by the Occitan and the primitive Catalan.

• Carles Ros (Epítome del origen y grandezas del idioma valenciano, 1734):

"se debe nombrar al tercer ramo principal de las lenguas de España con el de [lengua] 'valenciana', y no con el de catalana, porque una y otra salieron de la limosina. […] Pero las dos, como he dicho, dimanan de la limosina [occitana], comprehendiéndose en la de Cataluña, la de Mallorca, Menorca e Ivisa"

Translation: "it must be mentioned the third principal branch of the languages in Spain as 'Valencian', not as 'Catalan', as one and the other sprout from the Limousin. [...] But both, as I have said, come from the Limousin [Occitan], including in the one of Catalonia, Mallorca, Menorca and Ibisa."

• Even bishop Joseph Climent stated in 1776 just after being appointed as bishop of Barcelona:

«Si bien se mira, Valencia puede llamarse con propiedad una colonia de Cataluña, casi todos los valencianos somos catalanes en el origen, y con corta diferencia son unas mismas las costumbres y una misma la lengua de los naturales de ambas provincias». La llàstima és que per aquella època el català era prohibit com per a escriure-ho en valencià.

Translation: "Truly, the Valencian Country could be named perfectly a colony of Catalonia, almost all of us Valencians are Catalans in origin, and the traditions of these territories are quite similar, and the language of the natives of both regions is the same."

• "Bajo el nombre de catalanes se entendían éstos y los valencianos, por ser todos de una misma lengua...". (Notas al Canto del Turia, F. Cerdà, 1778).

Translation: "Under the name of Catalans were known these and the Valencians, by being all of a unique language".

• El 1875, Constantí Llombart, writer and one of the fathers of the Valencian Renaixença, wrote:

"Per a no donar motiu a rivalitats entre los pobles que parlen la nostra llengua, sempre hem cregut lo més convinent l'aplicació de lo calificatiu llemosina a les diferents rames que, despreses de l'antic arbre naixcut a la provençal Limoges, varen arraïlar en Catalunya, València i les Illes Balears".

Translation: "In order not to origin rivalries between two nations that speak our language, ever we had believed that the most suitable qualificative to apply was that of Limousin to the different branches that, after growing from the ancient tree born in the Provenzal Limoges, rooted in Catalonia, the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands."

• Constantí Llombart, adds.

"Res té de particular que, aixina com la llengua que es parla en tota Espanya se nomena castellana, perquè en Castella va nàixer, la que parlem hui en la pàtria llemosina [PP.CC.], com lo senyor Balaguer l´anomena, o siga Catalunya, València i Mallorca, prenent lo nom d'on tingué lo bressol, se denomine llemosina, a imitació de lo que els espanyols han fet en la Castellana".

Translation: "Nothing is anomalous that, as the language spoken in all Spain is known as Castillian as in Castilla was born, that language which we speak nowadays in the Limousin fatherland [Catalan Countries] as Mister Balaguer mentions it (that is Catalonia, Valencian Country and Mallorca), taking the name from where it had the cradle, it is called by us 'Limousin', in imitation of what the Spaniards have done with the Castillian."

It is clear then, that till the invention of the Blaverism in the XX Century, in the Valencian Country it was widely accepted that the Valencian speech belonged to the same linguistic community that exists nowadays with Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.

4 - THE CORE OF THE BONE: THE VALENCIAN MOZARABIC OR HOW "IT IS PROVEN THAT THE VALENCIAN WAS SPOKEN IN THE VALENCIAN AREA BEFORE THE CATALANO-ARAGONESE CONQUEST"

València after the Christian conquest in 1238. Alcanyís castle (XIIIth century)

If the Blaverist theses rely on the fact that the Valencian and the standard Catalan do not belong to the same linguistic system because of the fact that the Valencian was spoken before the Christian conquest of the XIIIth century under the intellectual name of Mozarabic... it is clear now with literary and toponimical data that the ancient Mozarabic had no relation with the present Valencian:

(Ibn al-Labbana from Dénia, d. 1113)

(Abu Isa ibn Labbun, master of Morvedre in the XIth C.)

(Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ruhaim was born in Bocairent and lived during the Almoravid period: XIIth Century).

Ibn Ruhaim named in a poem the language of the Christians as the "latiniya". It would go against the assumption that the muladi population or islamized local Valencian population spoke any Romance among them.

Mozarabic toponimy registered nowadays or in ancient books (such as the Llibre del Repartiment, XIIIth Century): Racó de la Comba (Valencian "coma", in Benicàssim); Onda ("ona"); Castellnovo ("nou" in Catalan and "nuevo" in Aragonese); Alponti ("el pont"); Castelo ("castiello" in Aragonese); Xúquer (from Latin Sucro/er); Xàtiba (from Latin Saetabis); Petres ("pedres" in Catalan and "piedras" in Aragonese); Petracós ("pedregós" in Catalan); Gorbayra ("corvera" in Catalan - Valencian and Aragonese); Caprala ("cabrera" in Catalan); Vallibona ("vall bona" in Catalan, "val buena" in Aragonese); Foios ("fueyos" in Aragonese or "hoyos" in Spanish); Montichelvo ("munt" in Catalan); Benimaurell ("morell" in catalan), Campello, etc., etc.

Also there are botanical listings written by Arab authors (for instance Ibn Biclarix) where some names of herbs are yet Mozarabic among the Muslims of the ancient VC; the following ones can be mentioned: "merenda", "pandair", "capón", "canin" ("canino" in Spanish), "fulliyín" ("hollín" in Spanish or "follí" in Valencian), "plantayn" ("llantén" in Spanish or "plantén" in Aragonese), etc.

But even so we could find a Blaverist that would say that in any case Mozarabic evolved to the actual Valencian, but that would be very difficult to demonstrate as the Actes de Consagració de la Seu d'Urgell already prove that the Catalan language was already formed in the IXth Century, and the ''Chanson de Sainte Foi proves that the French language was formed already in the IXth Century also, etc. Also it would be very difficult to understand what has happened with a third of the ancient Mozarabic vocabulary that is not used more, as "canín" instead of "ullal" [canine], "habibi" instead of "amic" [friend], "sidi" instead of "senyor" [master], "plantain" and so on. Or how in the Valencian Country it is conserved Xúquer from SUCER/RO but it is not conservated from SOCER/RE "xoquer" or "xocro" when it is spelled "sogre" [father-in-law] nowadays...

And if it is realy impossible to prove that the Mozarabic language was the actual Valencian speech, it would be even more difficoult to prove the survival of any Mozarabic community in the VC in the XIIIth Century, just before the Catalano-Aragonese conquest, as in the XIIth Century Al-Andalus and the Maghrib were under the dominion of the Almoravids (1090-1143), and afterwards by that of the Almohades (1172-1212). Both of them were islamized and fanatic tribes of Berber origin that had very restrictive laws taken from the Koran and that showed no mercy towards the Christians, so that the remaining Christians were forced to convert to Islam, flee or die. And because of such intolerance from Almoravids and Almohades nowadays, unlike other Muslim countries, there are no autochtone Christian communities in the Maghrib, and therefore around the XIIth Century the Mozarabic communities disappeared in the Al-Andalus.

5 - "PURE AND SIMPLE" BLAVERIST WRONG INFORMATION

In the eighties a great discovey was done by an inhabitant of the town of Xàtiva named Josep Gironès, from an stone with inscriptions of the VIIIth Century. It was possible to read "Eskola ab valentsya", impressive and irrefutable proof that the Valencian was spoken much before the Catalano-Aragonese conquest. This result made the president of the Valencian government, Francesc Camps, to ask the head of the service for the archaeologic patrimony to study the stone. And, after an examination of the finding, the Universitat Politècnica sent a conclusive rapport: the inscriptions in the stone were not older than fifthy years.

6 - AND ALSO CATALANIST WRONG INFORMATION

Again in the eighties the First Congress of the Valencian Language was held in the city of Elx. Logically, the big problem was that there were no philologists disposed to defend the Blaverists' theses. But one appeared suddenly: Bernard Weish, philologist from the University of Munich, who wrote some letters to the newspaper "Levante" giving so a scientific background to the Blaverists' main theories, such as the existence in the IXth Century of Valencian poets: "Bertran Desdelueg" (likewise as "Bertrand Ofqours"), "Luís Llach" (likewise as "Miqel Jaqson"), or "Salvatore Coniglia" (likewise as "Johny Rabbity"). Condiering his authority and importance, the organizers of the event took his conclusions as dogmes, and therefore they invited Bernard Weish to expose his theories. But he never came to the congress, only a short telegram was sent to them: "Impossible to come by lack of existence". The truth was that Weish was a fake person created by a Valencian philologist that used such pseudonyme to write authentic linguistical aberrations in order to mock the organizers of the Congress of Elx on how they were able to believe all the absurdities that he wrote.

7 - AND THE BLAVERISTS' PARADOXS

1. While in Castelló Mozarabic is spoken, in Sogorb is "xurro" Spanish (ex-aragonese) or Mozarabic after the Christian conquest spoken? In the Algarve is Portuguese or Mozarabic after the Christian conquest spoken? In Andalusia is Spanish or Mozarabic after the Christian conquest spoken?
2. If the primitive Aragon was the Jacetania, if the primitive Castile was in Burgos, and if the primitive Portugal was the region of O Porto (Portus Cale), what has happened in Sogorb ? and in the Algarve ? and in Andalusia ?
3. If the Mozarabic language separates Valencians from Catalans... would it not separate even more Spanish speakers of Sogorb and "Mozarabic" speakers of Castelló?
4. But if in Sogorb Mozarabic is really spoken, then then the Blaverists might speak this Mozarabic! (but if so then the actual Valencian speech is a clear exterior imposition).
5. If the Valencians speak Mozarabic, then are the Tortosins Valencians ?
6. Where does the Valencian "language" start and end inside Castelló ? or in the south of Tarragona ? (truly at the frontier Catalonia - Valencian Country there is not the isogloss...).
7. And why have they never adduced any proof about the Valencian Mozarabic spoken from the IXth to XIth Centuries written in Valencian?
8. Why in the defense of the Valencian "language" against the Catalan language unity they use the Spanish in their demonstrations?

8 - SOURCES

• Dialectología Catalana, Montserrat Alegre (Ed. Teide, 1991).
• Orígenes del Español, de R. Menéndez Pidal (Ed. Espasa-Calpe 1926/1976).
• Historia de la Lengua Española, de Rafael Cano (Ed. Ariel, 2004)
• http://maga.tripod.com/jarcha16.htm
• http://maga.tripod.com/jarcha46.htm
• http://maga.tripod.com/jarcha54.htm