Editing Gascony (section)

===Duchy of Gascony===
{{main|Duchy of Gascony}}
{{See also|Dukes of Gascony|History_of_the_Basque_people#Early_Middle_Ages|label 2 = Basque people in the Early Middle Ages}}
[[File:Vasconia wide 740 3 - 80.jpg|thumb|300px|The Duchy was meant to hold sway over the Basques (''Vascones'').]]

Old historical literature{{examples|date=April 2019}} sometimes{{when|date=April 2019}} claims the Basques took control of the whole of Novempopulania in the [[Early Middle Ages]], founding its claims on the testimony of [[Gregory of Tours]], on the etymological link between the words "Basque" and "Gascon" – both derived from "Vascones" or "Wasconia", the latter being used to name the whole of Novempopulania.

Modern historians reject this hypothesis, which is sustained by no archeological evidence. For Juan José Larrea, and Pierre Bonnassie, "a Vascon expansionism in Aquitany is not proved and is not necessary to understand the historical evolution of this region".<ref>Juan José Larrea, Pierre Bonnassie: ''La Navarre du IVe au XIIe siècle: peuplement et société'', pp. 123-129, De Boeck Université, 1998.</ref> This Basque-related culture and race is, whatever the origin, attested in (mainly Carolingian) Medieval documents, while their exact boundaries remain unclear ("Wascones, qui trans Garonnam et circa Pirineum montem habitant" -- "Wascones, who live across the Garonne and around the Pyrenees mountains", as stated in the [[Royal Frankish Annals]], for one).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://libro.uca.edu/lewis/sfc1.htm |title=The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050 |publisher=The Library of Iberian Resources Online |access-date=26 September 2010 |archive-date=22 May 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130522224947/http://libro.uca.edu/lewis/sfc1.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The word ''Vasconia'' evolved into ''Wasconia'', and then into ''Gasconia''<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of Vasconia |url=http://www.kondaira.net/eng/Historia0007.html |access-date=9 March 2023 |archive-date=9 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230309152940/http://www.kondaira.net/eng/Historia0007.html |url-status=live }}</ref> (''w'' often evolved into ''g'' under the influence of [[Romance language]]s; cf. ''warranty'' and ''guarantee'', ''warden'' and ''guardian'', ''wile'' and ''guile'', ''William'' and ''Guillaume''). The gradual abandonment of the Basque-related Aquitanian language in favor of a local [[Vulgar Latin]] was not reversed. The replacing local Vulgar Latin evolved into Gascon. {{citation needed span|It was heavily influenced by the original Aquitanian language|date=December 2018}} (for example, Latin ''f'' became ''h''; cf. Latin {{lang|la|fortia}}, French {{lang|fr|force}}, Spanish {{lang|es|fuerza}}, Occitan {{lang|oc|fòrça}}, but Gascon {{lang|oc|hòrça}}). {{citation needed span|Interestingly, the Basques from the French side of the [[Basque Country (historical territory)|Basque Country]] traditionally call anyone who does not speak Basque a "Gascon".|date=December 2018}}

Meanwhile, Viking raiders conquered several Gascon towns, among them Bayonne in 842–844. Their attacks in Gascony may have helped the political disintegration of the duchy until their defeat by [[William II Sánchez of Gascony]] in 982. In turn, the weakened ethnic polity known as Duchy of Wasconia/Wascones, unable to get around the general spread of feudalization, gave way to a myriad of counties founded by Gascon lords.