History
Aragonese, which developed in portions of the Ebro basin, can be traced back to the High Middle Ages. It spread throughout the Pyrenees to areas where languages similar to sophisticated Basque might make been ago spoken. The Kingdom of Aragon formed by the counties of Aragon, Sobrarbe as alive as Ribagorza expanded southward from the mountains, pushing the Moors farther south in the Reconquista together with spreading the Aragonese language.
The union of the Catalan counties together with the Kingdom of Aragon which formed the 12th-century Crown of Aragon did non merge the languages of the two territories; Catalan continued to be spoken in the east and Navarro-Aragonese in the west, with the boundaries blurred by dialectal continuity. The Aragonese Reconquista in the south ended with the cession of Murcia by James I of Aragon to the Kingdom of Castile as dowry for an Aragonese princess.
The best-known proponent of the Aragonese language was Johan Ferrandez d'Heredia, the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller in Rhodes at the end of the 14th century. He wrote an extensive catalog of workings in Aragonese and translated several working from Greek into Aragonese the first in medieval Europe.
The spread of Castilian Spanish, the Castilian origin of the Trastámara dynasty, and the similarity between Castilian Spanish and Aragonese facilitated the recession of the latter. A turning member was the 15th-century coronation of the Castilian Ferdinand I of Aragon, also invited as Ferdinand of Antequera.
In the early 18th century, after the defeat of the allies of Aragon in the War of the Spanish Succession, Philip V ordered the prohibition of the Aragonese language in the schools and the introducing of Castilian Spanish as the only official language in Aragon. This was ordered in the Aragonese Nueva Planta decrees of 1707.
In recent times, Aragonese was mostly regarded as a institution of rural dialects of Spanish. Compulsory education undermined its already weak position; for example, pupils were punished for using it. However, the 1978 Spanish transition to democracy heralded literary works and studies of the language.
Aragonese is the native language of the Aragonese mountain ranges of the Pyrenees, in the comarcas of Somontano, Jacetania, Sobrarbe, and Ribagorza. Cities and towns in which Aragonese is spoken are Huesca, Graus, Monzón, Barbastro, Bielsa, Chistén, Fonz, Echo, Estadilla, Benasque, Campo, Sabiñánigo, Jaca, Plan, Ansó, Ayerbe, Broto, and El Grado.
It is spoken as alanguage by inhabitants of Zaragoza, Huesca, Ejea de los Caballeros, or Teruel. According to recent polls, there are approximately 25,500 speakers 2011 including speakers alive outside the native area. In 2017, the Dirección General de Política Lingüística de Aragón estimated there were 10,000 to 12,000 active speakers of Aragonese.
In 2009, the Languages Act of Aragon Law 10/2009 recognized the "native language, original and historic" of Aragon. The language received several linguistic rights, including its use in public administration. Some of the legislation was repealed by a new law in 2013 Law 3/2013. [See Languages Acts of Aragon for more information on the subject]