Apocrypha Majorca

Majorcan language

The Majorcan language is undergoing a process of slow but inexorable disappearance, to be replaced by the Catalan of Barcelona.
For this, the shameful effort made by the majority of our politicians, and among others, of a group that describes itself as "intellectuals of the Balearic Islands", is being fundamental.
That far from defending and preserving the cultural and linguistic values ​​of the Balearic Islands, they belittle the language of their grandparents, to impose a language that has never been typical of the Balearic Islands.

On this page we will show that Majorca had its own Romance language before the arrival of the Muslims, which is what they used to communicate with James I of Aragon and his people. And for that it is enough to read the different chronicles of the conquest and historical documents, as we are going to do here.

Guiem Rosselló Bordoy (Majorcan historian and archaeologist), comments on a hypothesis made by Juan Vernet (Arabist and Spanish historian), in 1976 during a conference at the Estudio General Luliano of Majorca.

In this hypothesis (in spanish), Vernet asks, why Ramon Llull wrote a work that should be used for the conversion of Muslims from Majorca to Christianity, in Catalan?

According to him, this work would be directed to those Muslims who would have lost their Arabic language, to adopt the language of the conquerors, Catalan. Since Ramon Llull could have written his work perfectly in Arabic.

Applying the slightest common sense, this seems absurd. A collective that in 40 years loses its mother tongue but does not lose its religion?
There is another much more logical possibility, and that is that the indigenous population converted to Islam, continued to use the language they used before the arrival of the Muslims, la Romance language the vulgar Latin spoken by the people of Majorca.

Also, is it so difficult to assume that they could use the two languages, their Majorcan mother tongue and Arabic? Currently in Majorca most people understand or speak Majorcan and Spanish without any difficulty. Were they less intelligent at that time?

We must remember that the Muslim invasion did not mean the displacement of the native population to repopulate with Arab population.
In fact, it is estimated that the contribution of Arab and North African population to the Iberian Peninsula did not exceed 10%.
In the same way that happened in the peninsula, the native population in many cases, simply changed some lords for others. In the case of the Balearics, it was the Byzantines who were replaced by the Arabs. During the first two centuries of Arabic domination the population was not forced to convert to Islam.
In the cities, both Christians and Jews lived in a kind of ghettos , with their churches and synagogues. However, they had to pay taxes for practicing their religion, (jiza), which Muslims should not pay.

Year 123 b. C. the Romans arrive. During the Roman domination the people of the islands they got a common language, the Latin. Over the years, a language spoken by the people (vulgar Latin) is developed, which was increasingly different from that spoken by the elite (cult Latin). This happened throughout the empire, and led to the development of the different Romance languages , which after the fall of it, became the different languages ​​of many countries of Mediterranean Europe.

Year 425, the vandals came. The cultural footprint of them on the islands may be limited to some Arian churches.

Year 534, the byzantines were the new lords of the islands, and with them we still have Latin as a language, while our Romance language continues to develop.

Year 799, the Byzantine Empire retires to defend itself from the Muslim advance in the East. The Balearic Islands are now in the Carolingian orbit, from whom they receive protección from Muslim attacks. In the year 897, a papal bull makes the islands dependent on the bishopric of Gerona. Confirming its link with the Marca Hispanica created by Charlemagne. For more than 100 years, the Catalan Counties, the Septimania and the Balearic Islands are part of the same political entity within the Carolingian Empire. There is a cultural, linguistic and religious influence between the islands and the continent.

In 902 the Muslims arrive. An important amount of Balearic population flees, its destiny will be the coast of Gerona, mainly. Where they will leave their linguistic and cultural imprint.
Now the Muslims are the new lords, with them they brought the Arabian lenguage.
The people would continue using their Romance language, while the army and the administration would use the Arabic language.

To put a parallel, 100 years ago we had in Majorca the administration, the army and the Civil Guard in Spanish, while the vast majority of the population spoke their Majorcan mother tongue. In fact, especially in the villages, people had difficulty expressing themselves in Spanish.
1000 years ago we had the administration and the army in Arabic, and the vast majority of the population would speak their mother tongue, the Majorcan language of that time.

In Majorca no kharjas have been found. After the destruction that led to the Christian raids in 1114 and 1229, many documents were destroyed or lost. Anyway, we should not rule out that one day Majorcan kharjas will be discovered. Although ours, "dear Universitat.cat" (UIB), does not seem to have much interest in the Muslim period, perhaps they could find uncomfortable truths.

In 1114, The Republic of Pisa decided attack the Balearic Islands due to frequent pirate attacks suffered by their ships. They arrive in Menorca and talk to a Menorcan peasant to gather information. They do not have any communication problems, simply because they speak a similar Romance language.
Part of the squadron is lost and arrives in Blanes , on the coast of Gerona. They think that they have arrived in Majorca and are dedicated to beating all the people they meet. After a while, the people of Girona manage to convince the Pisans that they are not in Majorca but in Gerona.
And why should they know? The people of Girona speak a Romance language similar to the one spoken in Pisa and their skin is the same color. The same as the Minorcan pays, like the great majority of people who will see when they arrive in Majorca, except the soldiers and the new lords, of African origin.

And in 1229, the Christian conquest meant again, the change of some lords by others. The language of the new lords was an incipient Catalan, if we want to call it Catalan. According to some philologists a dialect of Occitan language, which in turn was an evolution of Latin.

This is a page of the "Book of the facts", written or dictated by Jaime I.

"en aquest castell que li sia saluat, e que uos assegurets be a nos que pus ela cobra laltre comtat per iuhiy de. nostra cort, e per dret, e per rao, els altres lio atenen, que uos quel li atenats, e que li retats son castell. E sempre reterenlo. E enuiam a Oliana, e quan saberen que retut era lo castell de Pons, reterense sempre a la Comtessa. E no uolien re demanar en nom de nos pel dret que ela hauia.

47. E passat mig any nos fom a Tarragona. E uolch nostre Senyor que menys de cort, que nos no hauiem manada, foren ab nos la major partida dels nobles de Cathalunya, e per nom don Nuno Sanxe qui fo fiyl del comte don Sanxo, e en ·G· de Muntcada, el comte Dampuries, en ·R· de Muntcada, e en Guerau de Cerueylo, e en ·R· Alamany, e en ·G· de Clarmunt, e en ·Bñ· de Sancta Eugenia, senyor de Torroela. E conuida en ·P· Martel ciutada de Barçalona, e que sabia molt de mar, a nos e a tots aquels nobles qui eren aqui ab nos. E sus quant nos haguem prop de menjar, leuarense paraules entre ells. E dixem: Quiyna terra era Maylorques, ni quant, te son Regne? E demanarenho an ·P· Martel, perço con era comit de galees, e en ·P· Martel dixlos quels"

Jaime I the Conqueror, Book of the facts, chapter XLV.

This language should not be very different from the language spoken by the indigenous population of the Balearic Islands. At that time, the evolution of the different Romance languages ​​was very early, and it was very probable that original people from all the south of France and all the north of the Iberian Peninsula could be understood without too much difficulty, excepting the areas of Basque language.
And do not forget that throughout the ninth century, the Balearic Islands is part of the Carolingian Empire along with the Catalan counties and Occitania.
Recall also, that during the siege of Medina Mayurka (Palma of Majorca), there was ease of communication between the Christians and the Muslim Majorcans who supported them.

In the chronicle of Bernard Desclot we can see how the natives of Majorca expressed themselves in their Latin, that is how at that time they called the different Romance languages. This clearly shows that the people of Majorca spoke their own Romance language, with which they understood without too much difficulty with the people who came with James I of Aragon.

In this chapter of Bernat Desclot's chronicle , he describes how Alí, a Majorcan native, talks to Jaime I, on the islet of Pantaleu, in the area that is now San Telmo (in the days of Jaime I it was known as "Sa Palomera ").

CAPITOL XXXV
Com la ost del rey d'Arago pres terra en la ylla de Mallorques a hun lloch al qual dien Senta-Ponça.

Diu lo comte que, quant tots los navilis foren ajustats a la Palomera, el rey fo exit a la ylla de Pantaleu ab molts de richs homens e d'altres gents per deportar e per esduir se, com la mar los havia trevallats, ço fo un diumenge mati, quels Serrayns de la terra se foren ajustats davant la ylla de Pantaleu, tro a quinze milia Serrayns a cavall e a peu ab llurs armes. Dels quals Serrayns s'en parti hu, e gitas en mar, e nadent vench a la ylla hon lo rey era. E quant fo exit de la mar, vench devant lo rey, e agenollas a ell, e saludal en son lati. El rey feu li donar vestidures, e puix demanali del feyt de la terra e del rey serray. El Serray dix li:

(Saracen separated one and jumped into the sea and swam came to the island where the king was. And when he came out of the sea, came before the king, and knelt and greeted him in his Latin language. The king made him to give him clothes, and then asked him about the facts of the land and the Saracen king. The Saracen told him :)

This is another chapter of the chronicle of Bernat Desclot, in which the Moorish king of Majorca (Abu Yaya), after the battle of Porto Pi, sneaks into the city of Mallorques (Palma)

CAPITOL XXXVIII
lo rey serray de Mallorques entra en ciutat celadament.

Quant lo rey serray fo fuyt de la batalla e s'en fon muntat en les muntanyes, si stech amagat al bosch quatre jorns; que ne fo atrobat, tro quels Serrayns qui foren scapats de la batalla, ben huyt milia, lo atrobaren. E puix ab ell ensemps vingueren s'en vers la ciutat, de nit, per tal que poguessen entrar dins. Si que, aquella nuyt que vench apres fo molt scura e torbada. Els Serranys de la ciutat que sabien quel rey venia, llur senyor, e volia entrar en la ciutat, per tal quels crestians de la ost no s'en apercebessen, aportaren moltes falles e moltes lums enceses, e de aquella part hon la ost era, e cridaren molt fortment en llur llati, si quel cel e la terra tot s'en entras en aquesta hora. E lo rey serrahi ab sa gent, aquesta hora, que era al gall cantant, recollis en la ciutat que cells de la ost non saberen res aquella nit, tant staven maravellats dels crits e dels fochs quels Serrayns feren.

(The Saracens of the city who knew that the king was coming, his lord, and wanted to enter the city, provided the Christians of the host did not warn, provided many fires and many lights on, and from that part where the host it was, and they shouted very loudly in their Latin, so heaven and earth came in at this hour. And the Saracen king with his people, this hour, which was the cock crowing, would gather in the city that those of the host would not they knew nothing that night, so much they marveled at the screams and fires that the Saracens did).

In the "Book of the facts" you can see how Jaime I does not need interpreters to communicate with the natives of Majorca, however when they have to talk to Abu Yaya, leader of the Almohad sect coming from North Africa who governed the Islands, they need the assistance of a translator of algaravia, as the Christians called the Arabic language.

Book of the facts, paragraph 74 (pag.119) - first interview of Nuño Sans (count of Roselló) with Abu Yaya (King of Mallorques).

E enuiam hi don Nuno ab X cauallers seus, e I iuheu de Saragoça qui sabia algarauia per trujaman, e hauia nom don Bahihel.

Book of the facts, paragraph 76 (pag.122) - second interview.

"E quan se foren acostats lo Rey de Maylorques e don Nuno, deualaren en la tenda, e parlaren lo Rey tan solament ab II de sos ueyls: e don Nuno, e lalfaquin qui anaua per trujanma, e els cauallers qui eren ab don Nuno estauen de fora ab alguns sarrains qui estauen ab els."

Now Balearic Islands is part of the Crown of Aragon. With regard to language, new settlers continue to arrive, enriching the native language.
While most of the native Muslims, just as they did upon the arrival of the Muslim conquerors, adopt the religion of the new lords.
And the Christian natives, who during the domination of the Almohad sect feigned their conversion o Islam, can re-practice their faith freely.
A cultured or literary language is created, differentiated from the language of the people. It is the same story repeated other times.

A few years after the Christian conquest Ramon Llull was born in Palma of Majorca . He writes in the language of the new lords, but he uses words and forms of expression that do not exist in Limousin (Catalan). They are forms of expression in Majorcan that continue present today. It is probably the language that Ramón Llull has heard during his childhood and adolescence in the streets of Palma.
This is something that makes Catalanism very nervous, and they are incapable of giving a coherent explanation without shaking that absurd Catalonian theory of "the Catalan repopulation".
Antoni M. Badia i Margarit (Catalan philologist and linguist) describes the mallorquinismos of Llull, and tries to give an explanation without leaving the Catalanist thought.

This is something that can be read in the book.
Word in Majorcan and its corresponding in Catalan:
pus - més
feels - fidels
perrós - peresós
poria - podria
servici - servei
enganar - enganyar...

But the Majorquinisms of Llull are not only words, but forms of expression totally present in the Majorcan today.
"Other features, and quite typical, of the Majorcan talking. One of them, the placement of forms within the combination of weak pronouns. Like this:"
qui la vos podria dir - qui us la podria dir - who could tell you

Or the most notorious characteristic of Majorcan speech such as the salty article.
"In fact, it is hard, even violent, not to admit that the IPSE article by Ramón Llull is the same IPSE of today's Majorcan, and I highlight it again, now based on a single example, it can be the most carecteristic, because its concretion shows to what point it is surprising, forced and everything, to insist on not accepting the Balearic dialects in Ramon Llull."

What the author of the book is telling us is that 30 years after the Christian conquest of Majorca there were Majorquinisms, words and forms of expression that do not exist in Catalan. It is not necessary to be very clever to conclude that these majorquinisms, is not more than the Romance language that Ramón Llull has listened from his childhood in the streets of Palma, is not more than the Romance language that the natives Majorcan conserved during all the period of Muslim domain of the Balearics. The same Romance language in which they communicated 300 years ago with the Catalan counties and Occitania, when the Balearic Islands were part of the Carolingian Empire.

Today, we can see these majorquinisms in our kids, studying in a totally politicized and catalanised educational system where Catalan-Barcelona has been imposed by blood and fire, a language that has never been typical of the Balearic Islands. And our kids, like Ramón Llull did, write in an incorrect Catalan, with Majorcan words and forms of expression.

A century later, the Majorcan population clearly differentiates the language of Majorca from the language brought by the new settlers.
In an interview to which he was professor of medieval history at the University of the Balearic Islands, Álvaro Santamaría, tells us about an event that occurred at that time.

"In 1341, a century after the Christian conquest of the Kingdom of Majorca, in the course of a judicial investigation into the theft of a quilt perpetrated a year earlier, Geralda, owner of the quilt, when questioned by the judge (as she has documented Gabriel Llompart ): "¿Qué idiomote loquebatur?(What language did he speak ) answering Geralda that in Roussillon ("dixit quod rossillionenssem"), so the magistrate who was conducting the investigation, deduced that the thief could not be a Guiem Revull, who is from Majorca or lives in Majorca, because he speaks in the Majorcan way ("Guillermus Revull est de Maioricis vel moratur in Maioricis et loquetur ad modum maioricencem").

As is clear from what is attested in the judicial inquiry, the people of Majorca knew and were already aware in 1340, that their speech in the Majorcan way, identified them as Majorcan, as natives or inhabitants of Majorca, for the same reason that Mrs. Geralda identified by speaking in Rosellones to the unknown suspect, as Roussillon. "

The professor tells us about the differentiation in the language that was spoken 100 years after the conquest. But this differentiation already took place from the first moment of the conquest, between the language of the conquerors and the Majorcan Romance language, which the inhabitants of the island surely spoke.

In 1595 Juan Binimelis published his "Historia nova de l'Illa de Mallorca" in the Majorcan language.
This is a literary Mallorcan, it is not the language in which the people commonly speak.

In 1736 this work by Ramón Llull, "Doctrina pueril", was printed. Translated from the Limousin language in which it was written by Ramón Llull, into the usual Majorcan language so that the boys of Majorca can understand it.

In 1835 Juan José Amengual creates a Majorcan grammar, 83 years before the current Catalan grammar of Pompeu Fabra of 1918.

In 1880, Antoni María Alcover (Mossén Alcover), writes under the pseudonym of Jordi d'es Racó , " The Majorcan rondallas " They were and are, a compilation of folk tales, written in the language of the people, the Majorcan language. Reading the rondallas we realize the expressions and words that have been lost in the last 100 years, to get closer and closer to the official Catalan.

Mossén Alcover had a fundamental participation in the dictionary of the Catalan-Valencian-Majorcan language, which It was used traitorously by Pompeu Fabra, according to Alcover, to create his dictionary of the Catalan language.
Mossén Alcover later regretted having collaborated with what would be the basis of current Catalanism. He apologized to the Majorcan people and sent a letter to the Balearic vanguard newspaper to try to correct it, but it was too late, the damage was done.

It is from the second third of the 19th century, when Catalanism began to gain strength, with the support of the powerful Catalan bourgeoisie.This really is the most important factor in the rise of Catalanism, inside and outside of Catalonia.
The possibility of financing literary competitions, academies of the Catalan language or buying accessions, and marginalizing anyone who does not agree with the principles of Catalanism, an attitude that has lasted until today.

A clear example of this is Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke , linguist, romanist and Swiss-born Hispanist, in 1890 he assigned to the Catalan language the status of Provencal dialect in his "Grammar of Romance Languages", where he says:

"In the East the transition is operated little by little with Catalan in Roussillon: The latter speaks (parlen), which is nothing more than a Provencal dialect ..."

In this way, the literary language moves further away from the language of the people, the Majorcan. And as it happens nowadays, from the 1930s, all those who do not write in standard Catalan are crossed out by ignorant and uneducated.

During these years the Majorcan language has lost many of its words and expressions, approaching more and more the normalized Catalan.
Before the fall of the Franco regime the Catalans had already taken positions. With the arrival of democracy, the autonomic process begins.
It is in this autonomic process that the Catalanists exert all their influence. They achieve that the Statute of Autonomy includes Catalan as the official language of the Balearic Islands, with respect for dialectal forms, although the latter has been forgotten.



Grabriel Cañellas

And the person responsible for this disaster was the president of the Balearic Autonomy at that moment, Grabriel Cañellas. A character judged by corruption, and that also delivered all the educational system to Catalanism
This was due to the ignorance of the Balearic political leaders of that moment, of their own history, and possibly because of the "irresistible persuasion" exercised by the wealthy Catalanism.

Now, after 40 years of Catalanism, they are achieving what did not achieve 40 years of Francoism.
In schools, children are educated exclusively in Catalan. Any expression written in Majorcan is labeled as "hick ang ignorance".
The plaques of street names, which during the Franco era were read in Majorcan, have now been replaced by others in Catalan.

If for centuries, in the Balearics, there has always been a clear differentiation between the written language and the language of the people. Now Catalan is getting standard Catalan is the only one that the people use, which will mean the disappearance of the Majorcan language.
Now they calls hick to whom he writes in Majorcan, later he will be a hick whom speak in Majorcan language.

This is taken from a .cat forum, this is the reality of what they call linguistic normalization, the disappearance of everything that is not the Barcelonian standard. This is what we will find in a few years in the Balearic Islands, not only the disappearance of the salty article, but the disappearance of Balearic words and forms of expression.

A la zona de Palafrugell quan jo era petit la majoria de gent salava. Ara s'ha perdut gairebé del tot, però queden els toponims: Sa Riera, Sa Tuna...
Racó català

In the area of Palafrugell when I was a kid, most people were salating. Now it's been lost almost entirely, but the toponyms are still there: Sa Riera, Sa Tuna...

To say that the Majorcan language is a dialect of Catalan, is to say that the Mexican language is a dialect of the Argentine language.
What they call Catalan is not more than 100 years old, it is simply the dialect spoken in Barcelona (barceloní, the most corrupt dialect of the different dialects spoken in the old Crown of Aragon, full of Castilianisms and Gallicisms), to which They cleaned a little to make it the Catalan standard. .
While the Majorcan language, which preserves most faithfully medieval words and expressions, which should be preserved as a linguistic treasure, is despised, and is disappearing in favor of that corrupt Barcelona dialect.

Father Batllori (translation), historian and university professor. Prize Prince of Asturias 1995 and doctor honoris cause by different Catalan univesidades. In 1992, University of Gerona:

"The Catalan of Barcelona that is tried to impose in Valencia is an infamous and infamous dialect, what is being tried to impose in Valencia and the Balearic Islands, as a literary language, is the infamous dialect of Barcelona" ..., "it will never be accepted that a dialect as infected as Barcelona can be imposed as a national language "...

During the first years of the Franco regime, the Catalan was considered a dialect of Spanish, and who disagreed with this was considered a communist red or an independence supporter. Now during the Catalan regime, the Majorcan is considered a dialect of Catalan and anyone who thinks otherwise is considered a fascist Spanish or a ignorant.
During the Franco regime, there were Majorcan families who only spoke to their children in Spanish so they would not learn Majorcan language, which they considered a vulgar and peasants language.
Now we have citizens who speak a corrupted Majorcan by all kinds of Catalan words, such as: nosaltres-vusaltres, després, esport, servei, vacances ... The salty article is lost and there are some collectives that speak Catalan of Barcelona directly without any flush. They think that they are more educated and even more intelligent, when in reality they are no more than victims of their own ignorance, just like those Majorcan families in Franco's time.

Normally politicians, especially from the Balearic left, only speak Catalan in institutional discourses, but in debates or interviews they use Majorcan.
In a program of debates of a Balearic television, appeared a young person pertaining to a catalanist party of Majorca, MES.
It really impressed me, because he spoke with a Majorcan closed accent, but in Catalan, with those words that sound so insulting in Majorcan mouths like: "nusaltres, purtá, sota ..."
It was a mixture of indignation and sadness.

IS THIS THE FUTURE OF OUR LANGUAGE? DISAPPEARANCE TO BE REPLACED BY A CATALAN OF BARCELONA WITH MAJORCAN ACCENT