Editing Gascon dialect (section)

==Basque substrate==
The language spoken in Gascony before Roman rule was part of the [[Basque language|Basque]] dialectal continuum (see [[Aquitanian language]]); the fact that the word 'Gascon' comes from the Latin root ''vasco''/''vasconem'', which is the same root that gives us 'Basque', implies that the speakers identified themselves at some point as Basque. There is a proven Basque [[Substrata (linguistics)|substrate]] in the development of Gascon.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Allières|first=Jacques|title=The Basques|publisher=Center for Basque Studies|year=2016|isbn=9781935709435|location=Reno|pages=xi}}</ref> This explains some of the major differences that exist between Gascon and other Occitan dialects. 

A typically Gascon feature that may arise from this substrate is the change from "f" to "h". Where a word originally began with {{IPA|[f]}} in Latin, such as ''festa'' 'party/feast', this sound was weakened to aspirated {{IPA|[h]}} and then, in some areas, lost altogether; according to the substrate theory, this is due to the Basque dialects' lack of an equivalent {{IPA|/f/}} [[phoneme]], causing Gascon ''hèsta'' {{IPA|[ˈhɛsto]}} or {{IPA|[ˈɛsto]}}. A similar change took place [[Phonetic change "f → h" in Spanish|in Spanish]]. Thus, Latin ''facere'' gives Spanish ''hacer'' ({{IPA|[aˈθer]}}) (or, in some parts of southwestern [[Andalusia]], {{IPA|[haˈsɛɾ]}}).<ref>A. R. Almodóvar: [http://descargas.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/01472730970147595209079/030019.pdf?incr=1 ''Abecedario andaluz''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120213143218/http://descargas.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/01472730970147595209079/030019.pdf?incr=1 |date=13 February 2012 }}, Ediciones Mágina. Barcelona, 2002</ref> Another phonological effect resulting from the Basque substrate may have been Gascon's reluctance to pronounce a {{IPA|/r/}} at the beginning of words, resolved by means of a [[Prothesis (linguistics)|prothetical]] vowel.{{r|Ebro|p=312}}   

Although some linguists deny the plausibility of the Basque substrate theory, it is widely assumed that Basque, the "Circumpyrenean" language (as put by Basque linguist Alfonso Irigoyen and defended by [[Koldo Mitxelena]], 1982), is the underlying language spreading around the Pyrenees onto the banks of the Garonne River, maybe as far east as the Mediterranean in Roman times (''[[:eu:Neska|niska]]'' cited by [[Joan Coromines]] as the name of each nymph taking care of the Roman spa ''Arles de Tech'' in [[Roussillon]], etc.).<ref name="Ebro">{{cite book | author=Jimeno Aranguren, Roldan | editor=Lopez-Mugartza Iriarte, J.C. | year = 2004 | title = ''Vascuence y Romance: Ebro-Garona, Un Espacio de Comunicación'' | publisher=Gobierno de Navarra / Nafarroako Gobernua | location = Pamplona | isbn = 84-235-2506-6 }}</ref>{{rp|250–251}} Basque gradually eroded across Gascony in the High Middle Ages (Basques from the Val d'Aran cited still circa 1000), with vulgar Latin and Basque interacting and mingling, but eventually with the former replacing the latter north of the east and middle Pyrenees and developing into Gascon.{{r|Ebro|p=250, 255}}

However, modern Basque has had lexical influence from Gascon in words like ''beira'' ("glass"), which is also seen in [[Galician-Portuguese]]. One way for the introduction of Gascon influence into [[Basque language|Basque]] came about through language contact in bordering areas of the [[Northern Basque Country]], acting as adstrate. The other one has taken place since the 11th century over the coastal fringe of [[Gipuzkoa]] extending from [[Hondarribia]] to [[San Sebastián|San Sebastian]], where Gascon was spoken up to the early 18th century and often used in formal documents until the 16th century, with evidence of its continued occurrence in [[Pasaia]] in the 1870s.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://atzoatzokoa.gipuzkoakultura.net/c78f6/ | title = LOS GASCONES EN GUIPÚZCOA | publisher=IMPRENTA DE LA DIPUTACION DE GUIPUZCOA | author = Múgica Zufiría|year = 1923|access-date = 12 April 2009}} Site in Spanish</ref>{{better source needed|date=March 2021}} A minor focus of influence was the [[Way of St James]] and the establishment of ethnic boroughs in several towns based on the privileges bestowed on the ''[[Occitania|Franc]]s'' by the [[Kingdom of Navarre]] from the 12th to the early 14th centuries, but the variant spoken and used in written records is mainly the [[Occitan language|Occitan]] of Toulouse.{{cn|date=March 2021}}

The ''énonciatif'' (Occitan: ''enunciatiu'') system of Gascon, a system that is more colloquial than characteristic of normative written Gascon and governs the use of certain preverbal particles (including the sometimes emphatic affirmative ''que'', the occasionally mitigating or [[dubitative]] ''e'', the exclamatory ''be'', and the even more emphatic ''ja''/''ye'', and the "polite" ''se'') has also been attributed to the Basque substrate.<ref name="Marcus" />