From Alcocebre to Alcossebre – (a facebook article)
It always catches my attention when our followers in the social media refer to Alcossebre using the various names by which our locality has been known throughout its history: Alcocéber, Alcocebre and Alcossebre.
In fact, one very quick and easy way to recognise our oldest visitors is to hear them say Alcocéber or Alcocebre, as the change to Alcossebre happened very recently.
For me, to hear the Alcocebre takes me back to memories of my childhood, when one of my major preoccupations was to decide – at length – which ice-lolly I was going to buy in La Jijonenca.
I am overwhelmed by a feeling of nostalgia, and I seem to be able to smell the sea on descending from the bus where we always sat with our legs up on the seat and where it was so hot that we had to fan ourselves with a comic. Then we would run to the beach, crossing the road with care because then there were no zebra crossings and cars arrived loaded to the gunnels, with bikes heaped onto the roof rack.
I was delighted to sit with the adults – lolly in my hand and nose plastered with Nivea Sun – to listen to them discussing all sorts of things, which of course, sounded very important to me. I remember that one of the things was about the correct way to refer to our town. If my memory does not fail me, the general consensus of the time – or at least, among those I knew – was that the correct way was to say Alcocéber or Alcossebre, but not Alcocebre. I wonder what memories you have!
The origin of the name
At the beginning of the 1990’s, the Alcala de Xivert council commissioned Josep Lacreu i Cuesta, at that time director of the Linguistic and Translation Assessment Department, to prepare an etymological report. According to his investigations, the place name Alcocéber comes from the Hispanic Arabic alqasába, which in its turn came from the classic Arabic gasabah, i.e., a small castle.
According to the same report, the ‘r’ in Alcocéber was not etymological, but rather a phonetic variation on being crossed with Valencian. This also would explain the forms of Alcossevre, Alcocéber and – the oldest – Alcocéver.
Nowadays, bearing in mind the etymology, the traditional phonetics and the rules of spelling, Alcossebre is considered as the correct name when referring to this beautiful coastal locality.
On the other hand, the name of Capicorb (formerly Cap i Corp) is documented as far back as the 14th century – although it is possibly even older – and it appears that it comes from Latin and that the meaning it is given would be ‘punta corbada’, which means ‘curved point’ in Valencian. The origin of this name could be the point formed by the semi-submerged delta of the San Miguel River.
The State Official Bulletin dated 16th April 1997 published the Decreto 205/1996, by which the Valencian Government approved the proposal of the Alcala de Chivert council (during a meeting held on 24th April 1996) to change the name of Alcocebre to Alcossebre, as well as the new denomination of Alcala de Xivert for Alcala de Chivert and Capicorb for Cap i Corp.
There is no doubt that we shall continue to hear all the variations on the name, which is inevitable because they have been used for many years.... and who knows, but perhaps in four centuries time, another blogger@ will sit down to comment on more changes.
It always catches my attention when our followers in the social media refer to Alcossebre using the various names by which our locality has been known throughout its history: Alcocéber, Alcocebre and Alcossebre.
In fact, one very quick and easy way to recognise our oldest visitors is to hear them say Alcocéber or Alcocebre, as the change to Alcossebre happened very recently.
For me, to hear the Alcocebre takes me back to memories of my childhood, when one of my major preoccupations was to decide – at length – which ice-lolly I was going to buy in La Jijonenca.
I am overwhelmed by a feeling of nostalgia, and I seem to be able to smell the sea on descending from the bus where we always sat with our legs up on the seat and where it was so hot that we had to fan ourselves with a comic. Then we would run to the beach, crossing the road with care because then there were no zebra crossings and cars arrived loaded to the gunnels, with bikes heaped onto the roof rack.
I was delighted to sit with the adults – lolly in my hand and nose plastered with Nivea Sun – to listen to them discussing all sorts of things, which of course, sounded very important to me. I remember that one of the things was about the correct way to refer to our town. If my memory does not fail me, the general consensus of the time – or at least, among those I knew – was that the correct way was to say Alcocéber or Alcossebre, but not Alcocebre. I wonder what memories you have!
The origin of the name
At the beginning of the 1990’s, the Alcala de Xivert council commissioned Josep Lacreu i Cuesta, at that time director of the Linguistic and Translation Assessment Department, to prepare an etymological report. According to his investigations, the place name Alcocéber comes from the Hispanic Arabic alqasába, which in its turn came from the classic Arabic gasabah, i.e., a small castle.
According to the same report, the ‘r’ in Alcocéber was not etymological, but rather a phonetic variation on being crossed with Valencian. This also would explain the forms of Alcossevre, Alcocéber and – the oldest – Alcocéver.
Nowadays, bearing in mind the etymology, the traditional phonetics and the rules of spelling, Alcossebre is considered as the correct name when referring to this beautiful coastal locality.
On the other hand, the name of Capicorb (formerly Cap i Corp) is documented as far back as the 14th century – although it is possibly even older – and it appears that it comes from Latin and that the meaning it is given would be ‘punta corbada’, which means ‘curved point’ in Valencian. The origin of this name could be the point formed by the semi-submerged delta of the San Miguel River.
The State Official Bulletin dated 16th April 1997 published the Decreto 205/1996, by which the Valencian Government approved the proposal of the Alcala de Chivert council (during a meeting held on 24th April 1996) to change the name of Alcocebre to Alcossebre, as well as the new denomination of Alcala de Xivert for Alcala de Chivert and Capicorb for Cap i Corp.
There is no doubt that we shall continue to hear all the variations on the name, which is inevitable because they have been used for many years.... and who knows, but perhaps in four centuries time, another blogger@ will sit down to comment on more changes.
