Evolving grammatical systems : The Basque–Romance interface as a model of morphological evolution
| Autoři | |
|---|---|
| Rok publikování | 2026 |
| Druh | Další prezentace na konferencích |
| Fakulta / Pracoviště MU | |
| Citace | |
| Popis | The western Pyrenean region, where Basque has coexisted for centuries with Romance varieties (Gascon, Aquitan, French, Spanish), provides an exceptional case for investigating language evolution through contact. Basque—a non-Indo-European isolate with agglutinative morphology—has long interacted with fusional Romance systems, creating a rich environment for structural adaptation. This study interprets the Basque–Romance contact zone as an evolutionary system in which grammatical structures replicate, mutate, and stabilize under communicative and cognitive pressures. The analysis integrates diachronic and synchronic evidence from three sources: Historical corpora: Onomastic and textual data from Gascony, Aquitaine, and Navarre documenting morphological innovations. Comparative Romance Data: Early French and Gascon corpora showing shifts correlated with Basque contact. Contemporary bilingual data: Speech from Basque-Spanish bilinguals (COREC/COSER) and qualitative interviews. Variables were selected based on typological salience: features showing structural divergence from standard Romance and isomorphism with Basque constructions. This allows us to distinguish contact-induced evolution from internal drift. (a) Morphological replication and toponymy Medieval Gascon and Aquitan place names show diffusion of Basque-derived suffixes (-os/-osse, -etz, -ona), as in Léonosse, Orthez, and Bayonne. These affixes, typically resistant to borrowing, were phonologically integrated into Romance, demonstrating that bound morphology can replicate when supported by structural accommodation. (b) Auxiliary evolution In Gascon, the use of ésser (to be) with unergative verbs (que soi anat, ‘I went’) mirrors Basque’s izan/ukan alternation. Medieval Navarrese Spanish displays parallel reorganization (haber/ser alternation). These realignments reveal adaptive restructuring of auxiliary systems toward cross-linguistic compatibility. (c) Morphosyntactic adaptation in Basque Spanish Modern Basque-influenced Spanish exhibits continuing evolution. The clitic system shows animacy-based reanalysis (le/les used for masculine/feminine) and omission (No O encuentro), reflecting Basque’s argument encoding. Unlike historical shifts that often faded due to stigma, these modern changes are reinforcing; as Basque gains prestige, these forms are becoming stable markers of bilingual identity. The influence of Basque reveals a continuum of contact-driven evolution. Bound morphology replicated and auxiliary paradigms reorganized under ergative alignment. These findings demonstrate that structural borrowing is not random but constrained by social and psychological factors. Innovations survive when they reduce cognitive load for bilinguals and are supported by the prestige of the source language. The Basque contact zone exemplifies how languages evolve through interaction. Phonological and syntactic features in Gascon and Spanish reflect centuries of adaptive restructuring. Viewing these processes through an evolutionary lens clarifies that “irregular” patterns are natural outcomes of selection within mixed linguistic ecologies. The western Pyrenees thus provide a living laboratory where linguistic forms compete, converge, and stabilize, yielding new grammatical architectures from Late Latin to the present day. |
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