Where does broken bread come from? Secrets of a letter documented in the Catalan language for more than a thousand years

It is celebrated on March 3 Broken day. The day has been made to fall on this day because it is the third day of March, and therefore both contain the honorific spelling.

The letter J is one of the spellings that represents the sound of this deaf person. The Catalan spelling says it is one The spelling of ce is modified with the diacritic mark, separator. It is surrounded by a touch of mystery that often arouses curiosity.

The original, for example, sparked controversy. Two of the scientists who studied it are paleontologists Tanya Alex I Jesus Altoro. They explained in an interview with 324.cat that the result of their academic research resulted in the book “Lettres que parlen. Viatge als orígens del català,” which was published in 2023.

According to Alex, it is a “revolutionary study” in which “the first Catalan heartbeats” are brought together with figures such as Saint Basia, Bishop of Barcelona, ​​who in the fourth century was already writing in Latin in the presence of Catalan. .

“In examining its origins, we focused on the broken Si, which we first find at home in texts from the 11th century.”

“Innocents”, the first broken song in the Catalan language

They explained that the first example found in Catalan is generic 1011 In the glossary (primitive dictionary) accompanying the “Liber iudicum Popularis”.

According to Alex, there is a word relationship that contains the word “HarmlessAnd next to it is the word shown.The innocent“, for clarification. The manuscript of Catalan origin is preserved in the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial in Madrid, where it arrived as a gift from the Bishop of Vic.

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The broken ce first used by the judge and deacon Bonsom (© El Escorial, RBSE, ms. Z.II.2, fol. 274v.)

Alex and Alturo also discover the person who put it in writing: Al Deacon and Judge Barcelona Bonsuman active person in the monastery.

What is the graphic origin of the letter “ç”?

Jesús Altoro explains that our alphabet derives from Roman and Latin: “It was not always fixed in the number of letters and the CE spelling was introduced in the third century BC.”

Zeta and I were adopted Greeks as early as the 2nd century BC and this was due to Greek cultural influence on Rome. “Greek words often contain these two spellings,” Altoro specifies.

“The broken ce was not necessary in Latin and its derivatives were introduced into the new Latin languages.”

Traditional theory Experts explain that what has been accepted so far is that the broken ce is graphically derived from the zeta shift. “Or even that it was a combination of Zeta and C. This is denied.”

It is not a loan from Spanish

Accepted theories about the formation of the Spanish orthography ce trencada have been applied to Catalan, but these scholars consider the discontinuity of Catalan orthography to be little more than a Latin “i” from the consonant group “ci”.

“The conventional idea is that it arrived as a loanword from Spanish, but that's not true.”

According to Alturo, ç derives from a graphic development of the association between ce and i, when they have a sibilant pronunciation.

Give an example: “The Latin word 'provincia' was pronounced /boycott/ Over the centuries, the syllable “ti” was written with a variant of “ce” and a dropped “i.” It is called a graphic link. Over time, the “i” became a dash, which is currently the separator.”

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The graphic origin is the same for all languages ​​that use it, whether Romance or not, such as Polish, according to the professor. The fact that we found evidence of a broken ce here in Catalonia in 1011 “means that in the 11th century there was already a certain custom of writing in Catalan,” he adds.

Trassa and Ogaka

Experts say this message allows us to describe certain words with greater etymological properties.

Alturo also defends cities like Terrassa grammatically, phonetically, and graphically Now it is written incorrectly.

“It comes from the Latin 'terracia' so the derivative should be terraça, with a broken ce. It's the same case as Ogassa, in Ripollès. The root word is 'aquacia' and the derivative would be Ogaça.”

Straight or curved tail?

Broken Ce was very popular on the networks when Andalusian student from Catalan I posted a topic on Twitter that went viral and received thousands of interactions.

Paloma Vargas noticed that her Catalan teacher wrote the letter “ç” with a straight stick crossing the “c” instead of writing the letter “ç” with a more curved tail. The curiosity of this tweet sparked a lot of controversy.

According to Altoro, whether the tail is straighter or not It's just an aesthetic issue In this case, “it has no scientific interest.”

The first writer and the first writer in the Catalan language

In 2022, Alex and Alturo are interviewed by Xavier Graset in “Més 324” because they were able to identify the first writer in the Catalan language documented so far: the subdeacon Ramon de Capo.

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You can replay the full interview:

Now, they explain that they are fully publishing the characterAlba Guibert de RiopremierShe is the first woman who was able to identify who wrote in the Catalan language. In conjunction with 8M, they will give a presentation with all the details in Santa Eulàlia de Riuprimer, in Osuna.

Promoters of the day of the broken, newsletter and Rhoda Mots website It has been publishing the Catalan language for 25 years and is best known for its game illogical. Alex and Altoro agree it's a “great idea” that helps spread the language.

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