Historical Aspects of the Aragones

Throughout this article we have analyzed the degree of Latinization of the Aragonese area and its influence on the genesis of romance. While from Ebro’s valley area to the foothills of the Pre-Pyrenees, Romanization was early and intense, in the Pyrenees (northern areas of Aragon, Sobrarbe and Ribagorza) the process of Romanization was weaker and delayed, which could explain the accumulation of place names of the Basque types in that territory and their adaptation to the phonetic romance.
In this regard, to know the linguistic history of Aragon, we analyze the history of the primitive county of Aragon. In this sense, to speak of a primitive and unified Aragonese romance is generalizing excessively, since such linguistic system does not agree with the circumstances that concurred in the formation of Aragon as a political entity, nor with the autochthonous features that still allow to observe the “altoaragonesas” speeches in our days. Since the eighth century, in the Aragonese Pyrenees, there are three separate regions separated by nature and with a disparate historical trajectory, heart parts of three counties that will give rise to the primitive kingdom of Aragon: the county of Aragon, the county of Sobrarbe and the one of Ribagorza.

Keywords: Linguistics, Aragonese romance, Romanization, Toponymy, Vocalism.