The Catalan language as seen by foreign travellers in the second third of the 19th century
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The Catalan language as seen by foreign travellers in the second third of the 19th century Adrià Martí-Badia (Universitat de València / IIFV) ABSTRACT This paper analyses the descriptions of the Catalan language provided by foreign travellers who journeyed through the Catalan-speaking territories in the second third of the 19th century. It examines their observations and linguistic perceptions of the Catalan language and the language spoken by the inhabitants of these regions. Additionally, the study delves into the names used by travellers to refer to the Catalan language, its origins, its relationship with other Romance languages, and its status among them. While some travellers may not have provided detailed descriptions of the language due to the diverse purposes of their journeys, their various accounts and statements allow us to deduce their positions and opinions in addressing these questions. This analysis takes place during the 19th century, aperiod in which Romance philology was still an emerging area of research. KEYWORDS 19th century, Catalan language, language uses, status and name of the Catalan language, travel literature DOI https://doi.org/10.14712/18059635.2023.2.5 1 INTRODUCTION Travel literature is an important source of information for understanding exogenous visions of societies. The external views of those who have visited the Catalan-speaking territories, although often subjective, provide valuable information on the different aspects of our community and the language used by those who lived here. It is also interesting to know whether the visitors appreciated similarities and differences with respect to neighbouring territories and populations, especially among the Catalan-speaking territories. In other words, how did non-Catalan-speaking travellers see us, how did foreign travellers describe our society and the Catalan language? In this sense, the aims of this paper are, firstly, to examine the descriptions of the Catalan language made by foreign travellers who travelled through the Catalanspeaking territories during the second third of the 19th century, and, secondly, to analyse the observations and linguistic perceptions of these travellers on the Catalan language and on the use made by the inhabitants of these territories. With regard to the second purpose, we are particularly interested in the travellers’ answers to these questions, which we will infer from the different linguistic statements they made. Specifically, did they believe that the language spoken by the Valencians was the same as the language spoken by the Catalans, Majorcans and other neighbours of the Catalan-speaking world? And the language of the Majorcans and Catalans with respect OPEN ACCESS
180 LINGUISTICA PRAGENSIA 2/2023 to that of the Valencians? What position did the Catalan language occupy among the rest of the Romance languages? For these subjects of study, did Catalan have the same status as Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian, or was it adialect? If it was adialect, of which language was it adialect, Occitan or Spanish? In many cases they do not discuss the language in such detail because the purpose of their travels was different, but often from their various descriptions and statements —set out in greater or lesser detail— we can deduce their positions and opinions to answer these questions. The works we have analysed are not only travel books or travel literature, but also those informative texts that served travellers to orientate and contextualise their itineraries: travel guides and works on topography and geography, among others. The authors examined here are always from outside the Catalan-speaking territories: Spaniards, French, Portuguese, Poles, Irish, English, Germans and Russians who, for different reasons, travelled to some (or almost all) of the Catalan-speaking territories, described them and explained —with greater or lesser attention and rigour— what language their inhabitants spoke and its characteristics. We have also consulted the works of travellers who travelled through the Catalanspeaking territories in this period of the 19th century without making any reference to the language. This is the case of the books Jaime Alfonso, genannt: el Barbudo. Skizzen aus Valencia und Murcia, by Victor Aimé Huber (1833); Pensées et maximes de M. de Talleyrand, précédées de ses premiers amours et suivies de l’opinion de Napoléon sur ce grand diplomate, by Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1835); Souvenirs d’une ambassade et d’un séjour en Espagne et en Portugal, de 1808 à1811, by Laure Junot (1837); and The Yankee boy from home, by Joseph Battell (1863), among others. It was therefore necessary to discard them. Travel books in the Catalan-speaking territories of the 19th century are asubject that has been studied by some scholars from different perspectives: the landscape, monuments and customs observed by visitors, or the specific journeys of some visitors to certain cities or territories. Even so, there is no study that analyses the descriptions and linguistic perceptions of travellers who travelled through the Catalan countries in the second third of the 19th century. There is only one study (Martí-Badia 2022) that deals with these objectives, focused especially on the Valencian Country, and limited to the first third of the 19th century. As is well known, Catalan is aRomance language, as are Spanish, French and Portuguese —among others—, with the difference that at the time it did not have the same prestige as these languages, mainly for two reasons. Firstly, it suffered prohibition and minorisation in the three countries where it was and is spoken by the largest number of people: Spain (in Catalonia, the Valencian Country, the Balearic Islands, La Franja, and Carche), France (in Northern Catalonia) and Italy (in Alghero); secondly, and partly as aconsequence of the previous reason, it had not been able to initiate the process of standardisation (selection, codification, acceptance and elaboration) to become afully-functional language. Centuries earlier, however, Catalan had been alanguage of prestige, with full powers and internal and external recognition, under the Catalan-Aragonese Crown (cf. Ferrando and Nicolás 2011). In the 19th century, the German philologist Friedrich Christian Diez inaugurated Romance philology with the publication of the first volume of the Grammatik der roOPEN ACCESS
ADRIà MARTí-BADIA 181 manischen Sprachen (1836). Catalan was mentioned, although the information was scarce and uncertain. The “problem” of the recognition of Catalan as an independent language is evident when the nascent linguistic science begins to draw up alist of languages derived from Latin (Calaforra 1998: 27). Primitive Romance linguistics did not, however, have asatisfactory definition of concepts such as “language”, “dialect” and “speech”,1 and to distinguish between them, it used extra-linguistic arguments such as the antiquity of written documents, literary uses, geographical extension, number of speakers, prestige and political situation, among others; all of them arbitrary arguments from alinguistic point of view. Thus, without astate behind it, it was difficult for Catalan to be considered an independent language. For this reason, throughout the 19th century it was not fully accepted that Catalan was and is an independent Romance language. From the beginnings of Romance philology, scholars were divided between those in favour of recognising Catalan as alanguage and those who thought it was avariety of Occitan, although there were also mixed opinions and changes of opinion. This situation was not fully clarified until well into the 20th century.2 This context must be taken into account when analysing the travellers’ statements on these issues, which in the second third of the 19th century had not yet been studied in sufficient depth or elucidated by contemporary philologists with the necessary foresight. On the other hand, the political powers —monarchies, republics and public administrations— and ecclesiastical institutions, among others, encouraged the linguistic replacement of Catalan by Spanish (in Spain) and French (in France). And, in terms of social usage, in the second third of the 19th century, the Spanish-Catalan linguistic conflict throughout Catalan-speaking countries manifested itself in the extension of the Castilianisation process to some sectors of the urban upper bourgeoisie, who began to imitate the process that the middle and lower aristocracy had consummated throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries. At the same time, however, the great majority of the population continued to express themselves in Catalan (cf.Ferrando and Nicolás 2011: 321–322). Finally, as far as the primary sources are concerned, we have consulted —whenever possible— the first edition of the original works; and, in those cases where it was not possible, we have indicated the edition consulted with afootnote. In addition, we have transcribed the texts quoted respecting the original spelling in order to reflect the way in which the protagonists of this study wrote, afact which does not hinder the reading or understanding of the texts. 2 TRAVELLERS 2.1 FERMíN CABALLERO In 1834, the Spanish geographer Fermín Caballero published the book Nomenclatura Geográfica de España. Análisis gramatical yfilosófico de los nombres de pueblos ylugares 1 With some exceptions, such as the Italian philologist Francesco D’Ovidio (1849–1925). 2 See Martí-Badia (2019) for the postulates of international Romance philology on the origin, identity and name of the Catalan language between 1806 and 1906. OPEN ACCESS
182 LINGUISTICA PRAGENSIA 2/2023 de la península, con aplicación ala topografía yla historia in Madrid. Born in Barajas de Melo (Cuenca) in 1800 into awell-to-do family of farmers, he studied law at Colegio de Málaga —now Universidad de Alcalá de Henares— and in 1822 was appointed acting professor of geography and chronology at the University of Madrid. He had along political career, in which it is worth mentioning that between 1834 and 1843 he was aprocurator and member of the Cortes for the provinces of Madrid, Cuenca, Toledo and Castellón; later he was again amember of the Cortes during the Progressive Biennium (1854–1856); and he took part in state and universal exhibitions such as those of Madrid (1857), Paris (1867) and Vienna (1873). In the aforementioned book, he devotes achapter to “Limousin”, in which he states that it is una corrupcion de la lengua romana, en la Francia meridional, [que] produjo la lemosina; llamada asi de la ciudad de Limoges, capital del antiguo Limosín, yahora del departamento del Alto Vienne, sin duda porque en aquel territorio se habló primero ycon mas pureza, aunque se estendió tambien por la Auvernia, el Languedoc yla Provenza. Fue la lengua erudita yde la poesía en los siglos X yXI, por manera que en los palacios yen las diversiones hacia un gran papel la ciencia alegre (gaya sciencia) de los que se llamaban trovadores ó poetas provenzales. Del lemosín se derivaron luego el catalán, el valenciano yel baleár; dialectos que no obstante sus actuales diferencias, no pueden ocultar su orígen comun; razon por que los consideramos reunidos bajo el nombre de la matriz. Los catalanes han tomado muchas voces de la vecina lengua francesa; los valencianos han recibido en la suya palabras castellanas; pero los baleares, como gente aislada, conservan mas su dependencia del catalán, si bien por el concurrido puerto de Mahón se han introducido algunos vocablos estrangeros, especialmente ingleses yfranceses, sin los que debió Menorca en el siglo último á la dominacion británica. (Caballero 1834: 46–47) [Acorruption of the Roman language, in southern France, which produced Limousin; so called from the city of Limoges, capital of the ancient Limousin, and now of the department of Haute-Vienne, doubtless because it was spoken first and most purely in that territory, although it spread also through the Auvergne, Languedoc and Provence. It was the language of scholarship and poetry in the tenth and eleventh centuries, so that in the palaces and in the entertainments the joyful science (gay science) of those who were called troubadours or Provençal poets played agreat role. From Limousin, Catalan, Valencian and Balearic were later derived; dialects which, despite their present differences, cannot hide their common origin, which is why we consider them to be united under the name of the matrix. The Catalans have borrowed many words from the neighbouring French language; the Valencians have received Castilian words into their own; but the Balearics, as an isolated people, retain more their dependence on Catalan, although through the busy port of Mahon some foreign words have been introduced, especially English and French. These foreign influences are a legacy of Menorca’s British rule in the last century.]3 3 English translations enclosed within square brackets are our own (unless otherwise stated). OPEN ACCESS
ADRIà MARTí-BADIA 183 That is to say, on the one hand, Caballero calls the Catalan language “Limousin”, recognises its Romance origin and places it in the Occitan city of Limoges. As for the identity and status of this language, Caballero considers that it is the same as the Occitan language and that it is made up of different dialects: Catalan, Valencian and Balearic [sic], which correspond to the different Spanish administrative divisions and, therefore, have no correlation with linguistic aspects. On the other hand, in the following pages Caballero (1834: 47–55) makes comments on orthography, phonetics and onomastics compared between Catalan and Spanish, of little linguistic value. Ten years later, in 1844, Caballero published in Madrid the Manual geográfico-administrativo de la Monarquia Española. In the section devoted to the Balearic Islands, he states that Los habitantes tienen un dialecto propio derivado del antiguo lemosin, aunque por la concurrencia á sus puertos de muchos estrangeros se conocen varios idiomas, ó por mejor decir la lengua franca de los puertos mediterráneos. (Caballero 1844: 62) [The inhabitants of the Balearic Islands have their own dialect derived from the old Limousin, although, due to the presence of many foreigners in their ports, several languages are known, or rather, the lingua franca of the Mediterranean ports.] And in the part dedicated to Catalonia, he states that “the natives have their own peculiar dialect, derived from the old Limousin” (Caballero 1844: 128). He also devotes achapter to commenting on the different languages of Spain, entitled “Lengua” (Language), in which he states that “the Catalan, Majorcan and Valencian dialects, which are quite similar to each other, have been born from the ancient Limousin” (Caballero 1844: 311). Finally, in the section devoted to the Valencian Country, he states that its inhabitants “maintain their own dialect, the offspring of the Limousin language, although adulterated with many Spanish words” (Caballero 1844: 584). In short, Caballero does not modify the approaches he put forward in 1834: he calls the Catalan language “Limousin”, recognises its Romance origin and locates it in the Occitan city of Limoges. As for the identity and status of this language, Caballero considers that it is the same as the Occitan language —although we have noted that he does not call it that— and that it is made up of different dialects: Catalan, Valencian and Majorcan. 2.2 PROSPER MÉRIMÉE In 1835, Notes d’un voyage dans le Midi de la France, abook by the French writer Prosper Mérimée, was published in Paris. Born in 1803 in Paris into abourgeois family, he studied law and graduated in 1823. In 1834 he became inspector general of historical monuments, of which his father was the secretary, and it was from this position that he began to travel around France to inspect historical buildings and monuments. OPEN ACCESS
184 LINGUISTICA PRAGENSIA 2/2023 It is in this context that we should understand the work Notes d’un voyage dans le Midi de la France, in which Mérimee devotes anumber of pages to some of the municipalities of northern Catalonia. Specifically, on 13November 1834, he visited Perpignan and Elna, and at the beginning of this chapter he states that Le Roussillon aété réuni àla France depui plus de cent cinquante ans, et cette longue période n’apu encore effacer complètement de cette province le caractère d’étrangeté qui se conserve dans les physionomies, dans le langage et dans les habitudes des classes inférieures de la société. (1835: 399–400) [Roussillon has been part of France for over one hundred and fifty years, and this long period has not yet been able to completely erase from this province the character of strangeness that remains in the physiognomies, language and customs of the lower classes of society.] In Mérimée’s words, Roussillon has been linked to France for more than one hundred and fifty years —that is, since the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659— and this long period has not yet been able to completely erase from this province the character of strangeness that is preserved in the physiognomies, language and customs of the lower classes of society. He then adds the following footnote: Les Roussillonnais appellent gavaches leurs voisins du nord. Ceux-ci, àleur tour, donnent le mème nom aux habitans des pays situés au nord du leur. Cela s’étend fort loin, sans qu’il se trouve jamais personne qui veuille accepter cette dénomination de gavache; et il faut remarquer que les Roussillonnais, par rapport aux Catalans, sont gavaches. Gavache pent se traduire par Français, mais celui qui emploie ce terme n’apas bonne opinion de la nation. (1835: 400) [The people of Roussillon call their neighbours to the north Gavaches. The latter, in turn, give the same name to the inhabitants of the countries to the north of their own. This extends very far, without anyone ever wanting to accept the name of gavache; and it should be noted that the Roussillonnais, compared to the Catalans, are gavaches. Gavache can be translated as French, but whoever uses this term does not have agood opinion of the nation.] In other words, the inhabitants of Roussillon called their northern neighbours gavaches. The latter, the Occitans, in turn gave the same name to the inhabitants of the territories to their north. This spread throughout France, and no one wanted to accept the name gavache. Moreover, the people of Roussillon, in relation to the Catalans, are gavaches. Gavache can be translated as French, but those who use this term do not have agood opinion of the nation. Mérimée continues his explanation and focuses on public buildings: Quant aux édifices publics, presque tous datent du temps où le Roussillon appartenait aux rois de Majorque ou àceux d’Espagne. On conçoit que leur style OPEN ACCESS
ADRIà MARTí-BADIA 185 est absolument même que celui des monumens de la Catalogne, c’est-à-dire un, mélange de gothique et de mauresque, modifié de bonne heure par les relations que les Catalans eurent avec l’Italie. Aussi la Renaissance s’est-elle manifestée plus tôt dans le Roussillon que dans aucune autre de nos provinces méridionales. (1835: 400) [As for the public buildings, almost all date from the time when Roussillon belonged to the kings of Majorca or Spain [sic]. It is conceivable to see that their style is absolutely the same as that of the monuments in Catalonia, that is, amixture of Gothic and Moorish, modified early on by the relations the Catalans had with Italy. The Renaissance also appeared earlier in Roussillon than in any other of our southern provinces.] After Perpignan, Mérimée visits Arles-sur-Tech, in the Vallespir region, and more specifically the Abbey of Santa Maria. He describes the monument and recounts the legend according to which Abbot Arnulf brought the bodies of Saints Abdó and Senén from Rome, thus erasing the plague that was ravaging Arles-sur-Tech and the surrounding area and scaring off the ferocious animals in the vicinity. Moreover, from the tombs of both saints, miraculous water flowed uninterruptedly. It is at this point that Mérimée recounts that Avertis de sa propriété, les moines du lieu la renfermèrent avec soin et n’en donnèrent plus que pour de l’argent. Elle coûte encore vingt sous la fiole; mais on n’en donne pas àtout le monde. Il faut en demander en catalan, pour en obtenir, et pour avoir parlé gavache j’ai eu le chagrin d’ètre refusé. (1835: 422) [The local monks, aware of the supernatural properties of the water, carefully sealed it off and only gave it out in exchange for money. It still costs twenty cents avial, but they don’t give it to everyone. You have to ask for it in Catalan in order they give it to you, and because Ispeak French, Iwas sadly refused.] On this trip, the French writer also visited the northern Catalan municipalities of Céret and Coustouges —both in the Vallespir region— and Serrabonne —in Roussillon— in November 1834, but he made no further reference to the language of their inhabitants. Mérimée remained in the post of inspector general of historical monuments until 1860, when he continued to write novels, plays and essays. In fact, in his literary production we can also find references to the Catalan language, such as the following one, from the short novel Les sorcières espagnoles, published in La Revue de Paris in 1833. While in Valencia in 1830, the protagonist —whom we can identify with Mérimée himself— was suggested to go to Sagunto to visit the archaeological remains of the capital of the Camp de Morvedre, with ahorse rented from aValencian farmer called Vicente, anative of Peniscola, who accompanied him on foot. And Mérimée reproduces this dialogue between the protagonist and the Valencian farmer: OPEN ACCESS
186 LINGUISTICA PRAGENSIA 2/2023 — Vicente, dites-moi: ne croyez-vous pas que Notre-Dame de Peniscola parle valencien au bon Dieu quand elle prie Sa Majesté de ne pas vous damner pour méfaits? — Valencien! Non, monsieur, répliqua vivement Vicente. Votre seigneurie sait bien quelle langue parle la Vierge. — Non, en vérité. — Mais latin apparemment. (1833: 290) [— Vicente, tell me: don’t you think Our Lady of Peniscola speaks Valencian to the good Lord when she begs His Majesty not to damn you for your misdeeds? — Valencian! No, sir, Vicente replied sharply. Your Lordship knows very well what language the Virgin speaks. — No, in truth. — Why, Latin, apparently.] In other words, the protagonist asks the farmer if he believes that Our Lady of Peniscola speaks Valencian to God when she asks him not to punish the sins of her subjects. And the farmer replies vividly that he does not, that, apparently, the Virgin Mary speaks Latin. Thus, Mérimée states that the Catalan language is spoken both in the Valencian Country and in Northern Catalonia, that south of the Cenia River it is called Valencian and north of the Albera Massif4 Catalan, but without denying the unity of the latter. 2.3 OPANORAMA In 1839, the magazine OPanorama published the anonymous article “Barcelona”, which described the city in detail and referred the reader to the French traveller Alexandre Laborde to learn more about the city. This publication, devoted to the dissemination of arts, literature and culture, was published by the Sociedade Propagadora dos Conhecimentos Úteis —Society for the Propagation of Useful Knowledge— and sponsored by Queen Maria II of Portugal. At the time, OPanorama (1837–1868) was edited by the writer and journalist Alexandre Herculano and was one of the main disseminators of Portuguese Romanticism. The best publicists and historians of the time collaborated in its writing and the articles appear unsigned, i.e. they were written by the editors of the magazine and had to use different sources for their preparation, whether travel books or historical and geographical treatises. In the article devoted to Barcelona we find the following fragment of linguistic interest: São os catalães activos, industriosos, amantes do seu paiz, epor genio independentes: fallam uma linguagem mui distincta da hespanhola, mas que é sujeita are4 The Albera Massif has been the easternmost border between Spain —then the Hispanic Crown— and France since 1659. OPEN ACCESS
ADRIà MARTí-BADIA 187 gras constantes, eforma ha muito um verdadeiro idioma que tem sua grammatica ediccionario. Asua fonte é alingua romana. (Anonymous 1839: 290a) [The Catalans are active, industrious, lovers of their country, and independent by nature: they speak alanguage that is very different from Spanish, but which is subject to constant rules, and has long been areal language with its own grammar and dictionary. Its origin is Latin.] And then, in afootnote, he adds: “this language, the origin of the modern languages of southern Europe, is what we usually call Provençal”. This way of speaking has the same origin as the modern languages of southern Europe, which we commonly call Provençal. On the other hand, between 1840 and 1843, articles were also published describing other Catalan-speaking towns and territories, but unfortunately no mention was made of any linguistic aspect. This is the case of Morella (article published on 1February 1840), Sagunto (article published on 21May 1842), the Balearic Islands (articles published on 19August and 18November 1843) and Tarragona (article published on 2September 1843). Overall, the anonymous Portuguese traveller notes the difference between Spanish and Catalan, that the Catalans speak the language proper to this territory, as well as its Latin origin. He also states that this way of speaking has the same origin as the modern languages of southern Europe and is commonly called Provençal. In other words, he relates the Catalan language to Occitan, but without explaining the exact relationship between the two —whether they are the same language or not— or their linguistic status. 2.4 KAROL DEMBOWSKI In 1841, the Polish writer and traveller Karol Dembowski published in Paris the book Deux ans en Espagne et en Portugal pendant la guerre civile. 1838–1840. Born in Milan in 1808 to Napoleon’s Polish general Jan Dembowski and the Italian bourgeois Matilde Viscontini Dembowski, he was the younger brother of the renowned astronomer Ercole Dembowski. The writer Dembowski travelled through Spain between 1838 and 1840 —in the midst of the First Carlist War— with the aim of analysing asociety idealised by Romanticism, and the aforementioned book is the fruit of this expedition. In the first volume of the book Deux ans en Espagne et en Portugal pendant la guerre civile. 1838–1840, he states of Majorcan women that Elles sont plutôt jolies que belles, mais charmantes et d’une verve très-piquante sous le masque, et parlent habituellement le mallorquin, disgracieux patois, qui diffère de l’espagnol autant que le portugais. (Dembowski 1841: 298) [They are rather pretty than beautiful, but charming and with avery piquant verve under the mask, and usually speak Majorquin, an ungainly patois that differs from Spanish as much as it does from Portuguese.] OPEN ACCESS
194 LINGUISTICA PRAGENSIA 2/2023 understood the Catalans and Valencians with whom he met does not mean that Catalan and Occitan are the same language. Hoskins then goes on to provide some historical data on Catalan —albeit decontextualised— to end by stating that this language has become aneglected dialect —acompletely subjective argument— and alanguage as dead as Greek or Latin, an incorrect statement that can only be understood from the English traveller’s lack of knowledge. On the other hand, in the last chapter devoted to Valencia, Hoskins observes about this city that [g]ood books may be got, for Iobserved many excellent booksellers’ shops full of standard works, which one would certainly expect to find in acity which has produced so many scientific and literary men, and where, in 1474, the first press was erected in Spain, though Barcelona also lays claim to this honour. The earliest work was acollection of songs, composed for apoetical contest in honour of the Virgin, for the most part in the Limousin or Valencian dialect. (1851: 115) We now know that the first book printed in the Iberian Peninsula is Sinodal de Aguilafuente (Segovia, 1472) and not Les obres otrobes en lahors de la sacratísima Verge Maria (Valencia, 1474) to which Hoskins refers, but it is also true that the latter is the first literary work printed in the Iberian Peninsula, that it is written almost entirely in Catalan and that it was published in Valencia. But, beyond this, we are interested in the fact that Hoskins refers to the language of the work as aLimousin or Valencian dialect, that is to say, he considers that “Limousin” and “Valencian” are the same language; as well as the fact that he notes the use of this language in Catalonia and the Valencian Country. 2.10 JOSEPH NAPOLÉON FERVEL The first volume of the work Campagnes de la révolution française dans les Pyrénées orientales 1793–1794–1795 was published in Paris in 1851. We know that the author, Joseph Napoléon Fervel, was born in 1811 in the French commune of Nomeny and that at the time of the book’s publication he was acaptain of engineers and inspector of studies at the École polytechnique, aprestigious public teaching and research centre under the aegis of the French Ministry of Defence. Fervel travelled to the Eastern Pyrenees between 1838 and 1841 to investigate on the ground the vestiges of the campaigns of the French Revolution in these territories in 1793, 1794 and 1795 because he felt that French historians had hitherto focused on events in the north of France and had neglected the events in the Pyrenees and the Alps. This is what the author explains in the prologue of the book. In the first volume he mentions the Mas Déu, located in the municipality of Trouillas (Roussillon), known as la comanda del Masdéu, an ancient Catalan comanda of the Order of the Temple first documented in 1136, adate that places it as the oldest comanda of the Temple in all of Catalonia. Fervel goes on to state in afootnote: L’ortographe des noms de lieux est une difficulté particulière aux contrées dont nous nous occupons, contrées où le français et le catalan se confondent. Nous OPEN ACCESS
ADRIà MARTí-BADIA 195 avons suivi l’orthographe que l’usage afait prévaloir, sorte de moyenne entre les deux langues, mais qui, pour cette raison, n’est guère, que dans la moitié des cas, en harmonie avec notre manière de prononcer. Il est donc nécessaire d’indiquer sommairement les règles générales de la prononciation catalane. (1851: 48) [The spelling of place names is aparticular difficulty in the regions we are dealing with, regions where French and Catalan are mixed. We have followed the spelling that usage has made prevail, asort of middle ground between the two languages, but which —for this reason— is hardly —in half the cases— in harmony with our way of pronouncing. It is therefore necessary to briefly indicate the general rules of Catalan pronunciation.] Fervel then goes on to explain, using examples of mainly North Catalan place names, the pronunciation of the vowels a, e, o; the consonants b, j, r, sand x; and the digraphs gu, ll, ny and qu. On the other hand, it is important to understand the French establishment’s perception of the North-Catalans at the time. In fact, Fervel transcribes the following words of aFrench military officer in aconfidential report: “Puis s’épanchant dans un rapport confidentiel au comité: ‘Ces Catalans du Roussillon sont plus Espagnols que Français’” (1851: 131). In other words, “these Catalans of Roussillon are more Spanish than French”. Astrong statement that refers to the differences between the North Catalans and the majority of the French in historical, cultural and linguistic aspects. Further on, Fervel refers to Solana of Andorra, bordering the valley of the HauteAriège (Occitania) and adds the following information at the foot of the page: “Soulane est un nom commun qui, en Catalan, signifie revers sud d’une montagne” (1851: 288). That is to say, “Solana is acommon name which, in Catalan, means the southern face of amountain”. On the other hand, in the second volume, in achapter devoted to Catalonia, he states: Al’appel du tocsin, dont le nom caractérise ces terribles soulèvements (dans la langue du pays, Soumaten et tocsin sont synonymes), les habitants de chaque paroisse abandonnent leurs toits, enterrent leurs grains, replient leurs troupeaux, et vont, leur curé en tête, occuper quelque position menaçante. (1853: 96) [At the sound of the ringing of bells, the name of which characterises these terrible mobilisations (in the language of the country, sometent and ringing of bells are synonyms), the inhabitants of each parish abandoned their roofs, buried their grain, gathered the herd and went, with their rector at the head, to occupy some intimidating position.] Fervel, then, identifies Catalan as the language of Catalonia. It is also interesting to analyse what Fervel says about the Andorrans, because according to him they are “Catalans de mœurs et de langage, ils diffèrent de ceux-ci OPEN ACCESS
196 LINGUISTICA PRAGENSIA 2/2023 par leur finesse et leur patience” (1853: 365), that is, “the Andorrans are Catalans in manners and language, but differ from the Catalans in delicacy and patience”. 2.11 CARLOS JOSÉ CALDEIRA In 1855, the series of articles “Barcelona (Fragmento de uma viagem inèdita)” by the Portuguese Carlos José Caldeira was published in Lisbon. He was born in Lisbon in 1811, son of the marriage between Maria Henriqueta Gomas Ribeiro and José Vicente Caldeira do Casal Ribeiro, judge of the Casa da Suplicação, which at the time was the Supreme Court of Portugal. He studied at the Academia Real da Marinha and the Aula do Comércio, and began his professional career in the public administration, where he served as inspector general of customs and later became the first director of the Statistics Service, created within the Ministry of Public Works, Commerce and Industry. Between 1850 and 1852 he made along journey of two years and two months through places conquered by the Portuguese, across the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea to China and back through Singapore, Goa, Mozambique, Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), Luanda (Angola), the Azores Islands and Lisbon, as aresult of which he published awell-known travel book. He also made atrip to Spain, setting off on asteamship from Lisbon to Barcelona, where he began his journey. He wrote and published his experiences and impressions of this journey in the Revista Peninsular (1855–1856), abilingual Portuguese-Spanish periodical that he edited. In the third of the series of articles “Barcelona (Fragmento de uma viagem inèdita)” (Barcelona (Fragment of an Unpublished Journey)), he states that [o]caracter dos barcelonezes permanece quasi omesmo desde seculos. Omesmo succede ao seu idioma, aque são mui aferrados, eque differe muito mais do castelhano que do portuguez. É aantiga língua das provincias meridionaes da França, chamada limosina, que perdeu amelodia que antigamente acaracterisava, eque melhor souberam conservar os valencianos. Na bocca dos catalães adquiriu terminações duras, euma pronuncia áspera edesagradavel; mas, apesar d’isto, conserva grande similhança com alingua franceza moderna. Dizem eruditos que alingua catalã guarda ainda muitos vestigios do grego antigo, tanto em vocabulos como em modos, derivados das colonias helénicas que floresceram em varios pontos do litoral da nossa Peninsula. Tambem no dialecto popular se introduziram algumas palavras turcas, trazidas provavelmente do Oriente pelos famosos terços catalães earagonezes, que tomaram parte na aventurosa expedição á Sicilia eá Grecia no seculo xiv. (1855: 408) [The character of the people of Barcelona has remained practically the same over the centuries. The same is true of their language, to which they are very attached, and which differs much more from Spanish than from Portuguese. It is the ancient language of the southern provinces of France, known as Limousin, which lost its characteristic melody, and which the Valencians have been able to preserve better. In the mouth of the Catalans it acquires harsh endings and arough and unpleasant pronunciation; but in spite of this, it retains agreat resemblance to the modern French language. Scholars say that the Catalan language still retains OPEN ACCESS
ADRIà MARTí-BADIA 197 many traces of ancient Greek, both in its vocabulary and in its idioms, derived from the Hellenic colonies that flourished at various points along the coast of our Peninsula. Some Turkish words were also introduced into the popular dialect, probably brought from the East by the famous Catalan and Aragonese tercios, who took part in the expedition to Sicily and Greece in the 14th century.] 2.12 ANATOLY DEMIDOV In 1858, the book Étapes maritimes sur les côtes d’Espagne de la Catalogne àl’Andalousie souvenirs d’un voyage exécuté en 1847 was published in two volumes in Florence. Anatoly Demidov was born in Saint Petersburg (Russian Empire) in 1812, the second son of the marriage between the Russian diplomat, industrialist and patron of the arts Nikolai Demidov and the Russian aristocrat Elisabeta Alexandrovna Stroganova. He grew up in Paris, where he began his Russian diplomatic career, serving first in the Paris embassy, then in Rome and Venice. In 1828 his father died and Anatole settled permanently in Western Europe, afact that distanced him from Tsar Nicholas I.Agreat admirer of the French prince Jérôme Bonaparte, Anatoly Demidov was introduced in 1839 into the circle of Bonaparte, who was then living in exile in Florence, and in 1840 he became the first Prince of San Donato, atitle created by Leopold II of Tuscany. In 1847 he travelled to Spain for four months touring and describing different coastal cities between Catalonia and Andalusia, and years later —specifically in 1858— he published Étapes maritimes sur les côtes d’Espagne de la Catalogne àl’Andalousie souvenirs d’un voyage exécuté en 1847, atravel book that compiles —in this order— his stays in Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Cartagena, Almería, Málaga and Granada (in the first volume); and Málaga, Granada, Ronda, Gibraltar, Tangier, Cádiz and Seville (in the second volume). In the first volume, in the chapter devoted to Barcelona, he describes the Catalans and then goes on to talk about the citizen rallies in the capital: Après chaque combat il yavait Bouillango: c’est l’expression qui désigne en patois catalan, noise, coups et tumulte, et c’était une rude tâche pour le Gouvernement que de rétablir l’ordre. Barcelone n’adonc plus ces jeux, dont nous n’osons rien dire encore, mais qui sont certainement pour l’Espagne un besoin; et c’est une circonstance qui fait ressembler encore plus cette ville Espagnole àune ville française du midi. (1858 i: 37) [After every bullfight there was bullanga: this expression in the Catalan dialect means noise, blows and tumult, and it was ahard task for the government to reestablish order after the bullfights. Barcelona no longer has bullfights, of which we dare not yet say anything, but they are undoubtedly anecessity for Spain; and this is acircumstance which makes this Spanish city even more like asouthern French city.] However, this reference to the Catalan language as adialect must be understood in the political sense of alanguage without legal recognition. In fact, later, in the chapter devoted to Valencia, he describes the Micalet and states that OPEN ACCESS
198 LINGUISTICA PRAGENSIA 2/2023 l’Archéologue trouvera l’origine de ce monument, toute tracée, dans une inscription enchâssée parmi ses assises inférieures. Je la transcris ici comme un curieux échantillon de la langue usitée au 14e siècle dans les Royaumes de Valence et d’Aragon. (1858 I: 208) [The archaeologist will find the origin of this monument in an inscription embedded in its lower foundations. Itranscribe it here as acurious example of the language used in the 14th century in the kingdoms of Valencia and Aragon.] Demidov then copies the text of the inscription, written in Catalan, which is still to be found at the base of the Micalet tower: Aquest campanar fonch comenzat en lo any de la navitat de nostre senyor Deu Jesu-Crist MCCCLXXXI, reynant en Arago el molt alt Rey en Empere [= En Pere], estant Bisbe en Valencia lo molt alt en Jaume, fill del alt infant en pere ecosingerma de dit Rey. (1858 I: 208) [This bell tower was begun in the year of the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ in 1381, when King Pere reigned in Aragon, and Jaume, son of the prince Pere and first cousin of the king, was bishop in Valencia.] He goes on to make the following linguistic assertion: Si jamais, dans vos pérégrinations en France, vous avez traversé cette grande forêt de châtaigniers qu’on nomme le Limousin, vous avez, certes, été àmême d’entendre dans la bouche des laborieux habitans de cette contrée, un patois qui reproduit en grande partie les expressions de ce style lapidaire. (1858 I: 208) [If you have ever, on apilgrimage through France, crossed that great chestnut forest known as the Limousin, you will surely have heard from the mouths of the hard-working inhabitants of this region apatois that reproduces to alarge extent the expressions of this lapidary style.] In other words, the Russian traveller relates the Occitan language with the Catalan language, the one spoken in Occitania and the one spoken in the extinct CatalanAragonese crown, in cities that he himself visits on this trip, such as Barcelona and Valencia. 2.13 ALFRED GERMOND DE LAVIGNE In 1859 the work Itinéraire descriptif, historique et artistique de l’Espagne et du Portugal by the Frenchman Alfred Germond de Lavigne was published in Paris. Born in Paris in 1812, Germond de Lavigne was a translator into French of Spanish authors such as Quevedo, Cervantes, Rojas, Avellaneda, Lope de Rueda and Pérez Galdós; he was the editor of the publication La Gazette des eaux (1858–1891) and amember of Real Academia Española, as well as ahigh-ranking employee in the French Ministry of War. OPEN ACCESS
ADRIà MARTí-BADIA 199 The Itinéraire descriptif, historique et artistique de l’Espagne et du Portugal is important for being the first guide to include photographic illustrations. It went through two further editions, in 1866 (2nd) and 1880 (3rd). Amodernised version, Espagne et Portugal, was published in 1872 and reprinted the same year, in 1879 and in 1887. From 1887 onwards, it was published almost annually until the author’s death in 1896. As for the language of the Catalans, Germond de Lavigne states that [l]’idiome catalan est celui des provinces méridionales de la France, c’est la langue limousine introduite par nous, avec nos lois et nos moeurs, lors de la grande lutte contre les Maures, et lorsque la Catalogne s’appelait la Marche espagnole et dépendait de l’ancienne Septimanie. Mais cet idiome aperdu en Catalogne la douceur qui le caractérise dans nos provinces, et qui s’est mieux conservée dans le royaume de Valence. On parle peu le castillan, et si on le parle, il est défiguré par un mélange d’expressions et de tournures catalanes. (1859: 271) [The Catalan language is that of the southern provinces of France, it is the Limousin language introduced by us, with our laws and morals, during the great struggle against the Muslims, and when Catalonia was called Marca Hispanica and depended on the ancient Septimania. But this language has lost in Catalonia the sweetness that characterises it in our provinces and that has been better preserved in the kingdom of Valencia. Moreover, Spanish is rarely spoken, and if it is spoken, it is disfigured by amixture of Catalan expressions and turns of phrase.] Thus, the Parisian writer appropriates for the French sphere not only the Occitan language but also Catalan, which he considers to be the same under the name of “Limousin”. Then we should note the inclusion of the kingdom of Valencia in this linguistic domain, as well as the fact that in Catalonia, Spanish is spoken little and badly because —as understood from the context— Catalan is spoken for the most part. Further on, in the chapter devoted to the province of Alicante, the author states that [o]n parle le castillan dans les classes élevées, mais parmi les autres on aconservé dans toute sa pureté l’ancien idiome valencien ou la langue d’oc apportée par les Aragonais. Cette langue, dure et souvent désagréable dans la bouche des Aragonais, est très-agréable chez les Valenciens et les Alicantais, particulièrement chez les femmes. (1859: 491) [Spanish is spoken by the ruling social class while the rest of society has preserved in all its purity the ancient Valencian language or language of Oc carried by the Aragonese. This language, which is harsh and often unpleasant in the mouths of the Aragonese, is very pleasant in the mouths of the Valencians and natives of Alicante, especially the women.] In other words, the great majority of the population speaks Catalan. Otherwise, beyond the subjective and recurrent statement he makes about the pleasant pronunOPEN ACCESS
200 LINGUISTICA PRAGENSIA 2/2023 ciation of this language among the Valencians and especially among women, it is worth noting that he refers to the Aragonese as the bearers of the Catalan language in the kingdom of Valencia, an assertion that must be understood in the sense that the Catalans were part of the crown of Aragon. On this occasion, he uses what in literature is called asynecdoche. In fact, in the following fragments we will see that he does not use this device again. In the chapter devoted to the province of Valencia he states: Le peuple valencien emploie l’idiome limousin, l’ancienne langue d’Oc, introduite par don Jaime le Conquérant, la même que parlent les Catalans, mais plus pure, mieux prononcée, et sans ces rudes terminaisons qui rendent si pénible àl’oreille le langage du peuple de la campagne de Barcelone; on parle du reste partout, et très-purement, la langue castillane. (1859: 680) [The Valencians use the Limousin language, the ancient language of Oc, introduced by King Jaume Iof Aragon and Valencia, just like the Catalans, but purer, better pronounced and without those rough endings that make the language of the inhabitants of the Barcelona countryside so painful to the ear; apart from this, Spanish is spoken everywhere, and very purely.] Leaving aside the repeated and personal affirmation about the phonetics of the Catalans and Valencians, the assertion about linguistic usage is curious in the sense that he first affirms that the language of the Valencians is Catalan —he says “lemosín”— and then goes on to say that everywhere else Spanish is spoken. The route that this French traveller took from Madrid to Valencia was via Almansa and, once in the Valencian Country, he passed through la Font de la Figuera, Moixent, Montesa, l’Alcúdia de Crespins, Xàtiva, Manuel, Carcaixent, Alzira, Algemesí, Benifaió, Silla, Catarroja and Alfafar until he reached the Valencian capital. All these towns are within the Catalan linguistic domain and in the mid-19th century they were monolingual —apart from the aforementioned ruling classes, who were in avery small minority, especially outside the city of Valencia. And the other routes he travelled through the province of Valencia were Valencia-Dénia, Valencia-Torres Torres (to later continue towards Teruel), Valencia-Barcelona and Cuenca-Valencia. On this last itinerary, he entered the Valencian Country via Villargordo del Cabriel and continued via Caudete de las Fuentes, Utiel, Requena and El Rebollar (the latter villages of Requena-Utiel region and annexed to the province of Valencia in 1851, afew years before the trip), Buñol, Chiva and Cheste (from the region of Hoya de Buñol and Spanish-speaking for centuries), Mislata (from l’Horta and Catalan-speaking) and Valencia. We can therefore understand the French traveller’s statement after having followed these itineraries, especially the Cuenca-Valencia route, where he surely did not notice the presence of the Catalan language until he got to Mislata, on the outskirts of the Valencian capital. As for the province of Castellón, he also devotes achapter to it in which he states that OPEN ACCESS
ADRIà MARTí-BADIA 201 [l]’idiome varie selon les districts: dans la Plana c’est le valencien ou la langue limousine, riche, brève, énergique et harmonieuse; mais àmesure qu’on avance vers la Catalogne, le langage devient rude et brusque. Dans la plaine de Segorbe on parle le castillan avec quelques variantes, et vers l’Aragon il est vicié par un détestable accent. (1859: 698) [The language spoken varies according to the region: in Plana Alta and Plana Baixa, Valencian or Limousin is spoken, rich, brief, energetic and harmonious; but as one moves towards Catalonia, the language becomes rough and broken. Moreover, in the Segorbe area, Spanish is spoken with some variations, and towards Aragon it is enworsened by adetestable accent.] In other words, Germond de Lavigne notes that in the regions of Plana of Castellón, Catalan is spoken, as well as on the road to Catalonia, while in the plain of Segorbe and towards Aragon, Spanish is spoken. He also devotes achapter to the island of Majorca, in which he notes that [l]e castillan n’est guère parlé àMajorque que dans les circonstances officielles; dans la vie privée, le riche comme le pauvre parlent majorquin. Cette langue, qui ressemble au catalan et abeaucoup d’analogie avec le patois de Montpellier et de ses environs, se prête merveilleusement àla poésie. (1859: 715) [Spanish is only spoken in Majorca in official circumstances, but in private life, both the rich and the poor speak Majorcan. This language, which resembles Catalan and has many similarities with the patois of Montpellier and the surrounding area, lends itself wonderfully to poetry.] Even so, in the section devoted to Ibiza, he is more categorical: “Leur langue est une corruption de l’ancien Limousin” (1859: 726), i.e. “their language is acorruption of the old Limousin”. In the end, Germond de Lavigne notes that the Majorcans —and even more so the Ibicencans— speak Catalan, like the Catalans and Valencians of the Catalan-speaking regions. 2.14 ÉLISÉE RECLUS In 1861, between August and September, the French geographer Élisée Reclus visited the Iberian Peninsula for the first time, sent by Editorial Hachette, to collaborate on the second edition of Guide of the Pyrenees prepared by Adolphe Joanne with the title Itinéraire Général de la France (1862), when he visited the northern regions of the Basque Country, Navarre, Aragon and Catalonia. Son of afamily of geographers, Reclus was born in 1830 in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande (Aquitaine). He left the family home with his older brother Élie when he was twelve years old to work and see the world. He lived and worked in countries such as Germany, Switzerland, England and the United States, among others. Alibertarian ideologue, member of the First International and affiliated to the International Workingmen’s Association (IWA), he founded the Université nouvelle de Bruxelles in OPEN ACCESS
202 LINGUISTICA PRAGENSIA 2/2023 1894. He is considered aprecursor of social geography, geopolitics, geohistory and ecology. Of the work Itinéraire Général de la France (1862), we are interested in the third volume, subtitled Les Pyrénées et le réseau des chemins de fer du midi et des Pyrénées. In this publication, Reclus only mentions the Catalan language on afew occasions, such as in the introduction, as in the following fragment: Ce patois apour domaine toute la région qui s’étend àl’ouest de la Garonne. Sur l’autre rive de ce fleuve, commence la zone du languedocien, qui s’arrête aux Corbières. Au delà de ces montagnes, on parle catalan. (Joanne 1862: XLIV) [This dialect [Gascon] covers the whole region west of the river Garonne. On the other bank of the river there begins the Languedocian zone, which stops at the Corbières Massif; beyond these mountains, Catalan is spoken.] In other words, he identifies Gascon and Languedocian —both dialects of Occitan— and Catalan, which is spoken in the south of the Corbières Massif. The latter assertion can also be seen in the following fragment: Le bourg de Mosset est, dit-on, l’extrême frontière septentrionale du patois catalan; sur le versant opposé des montagnes qui dominent Mosset, les paysans parlent la vieille langue limousine ou romane àpeu près dans sa pureté primitive. (Joanne 1862: 682) [The village of Mosset10 is said to be the northern end of the Catalan patois; on the opposite side of the mountains overlooking Mosset, the peasants speak the ancient Limousin or Roman language more or less in its primitive purity.] With these words, Reclus includes Northern Catalonia and its inhabitants in Catalanophony; what we cannot infer from his statements, however, is what linguistic relationship he identifies between Catalan and Occitan. 2.15 HENRY O’SHEA In 1865, the Irishman Henry O’Shea published AGuide to Spain in London. Born in Limerick (Ireland) in 1782, O’Shea was aquartermaster in the British army who, after taking part in the French War, established himself as abusinessman first in Madrid (1824) and later —and definitively— in Valencia, where he became related to the Valencian nobility. Henry O’Shea —who after his establishment in Madrid became known as Enrique— was related to Thomas Trenor Keating,11 with whom he came from Ireland and who became involved in trade and finance after the end of the war. 10 In the northern Catalan region of Conflent. 11 The first of the Trénor family to arrive in Spain. OPEN ACCESS
ADRIà MARTí-BADIA 203 At the beginning of AGuide to Spain, after discussing the climate, geography and history, among other things, he devotes achapter to the languages spoken in the different territories. It is here that he states that [i]n many regions of Spain[,] the early-formed dialects subsist still, and are spoken almost exclusively by the lower classes, namely, in the E. and N.E. the Valencian, Aragonese, Navarrese, and the Catalan. (O’Shea 1865: LXXIII) And then he continues with the rest of the languages of Spain. Further on, in the chapter devoted to the Valencian Country, he states that [th]e Valencianets, as they call themselves, speak asort of Limousin dialect, the old Langue d’Oc, which Don Jaime introduced from Cataluña. The pronunciation and meaning of some words differ from that spoken in the Principado, and the softer, more harmonious terminations used here indicate the proximity of Andalusia —heat— and more time to lose, or at all events lost. (O’Shea 1865: 489) O’Shea acknowledges that the Valencians speak the language introduced with the Christian conquest and creation of the kingdom of Valencia in the 13th century, considers that it is related to Occitan —he calls it “Limousin” and “language of Oc”— and that the differences with the language of the Catalans are reduced to the pronunciation and meaning of some words. AGuide to Spain, which was agreat success in the last third of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, does not mention the Balearic Islands until its third edition, in 1868, called Guide to Spain & Portugal including the Balearic Islands. And it is when he speaks of the language used by the Balearics that he states that “[th]e ‘Mallorquin’ is acorruption of the Catalan dialect, but the pronunciation bespeaks proximity to Italy, and is softer than at Barcelona” (1868: 342b). In other words, Majorquin is also part of the Catalan language, like Valencian. He goes on to comment on aseries of words “from Majorca” that may be useful to the reader, such as articles or some specific words. He goes on to state that [th]ere is great similarity between Mallorcan and the Languedocian patois of Montpellier. Indeed, the intercourse was frequent between that city, the birthplace of Don Jayme I., and Mallorca. (O’Shea 1865: 342b) On the other hand, in the first nine editions he does not comment on the language of the Catalans. But in thelater editions he does, as in this fragment from the tenth edition: The language of the country —Catalan— is adialect of the Lemosin, or Romance, spoken from the mountains of Auvergne to Valencia. In the 13th and 14th centuries it had some resemblance to the Languedocian and Gascon dialects, but has since been more influenced by the Provençal, which it now greatly resembles. (O’Shea 1895: 107a) OPEN ACCESS