Occitan Language Languages Or Dialects History Of Occitan

The name of the language comes from oc, the medieval Occitan word for yes, as opposed to northern French or langue d'oïl (the ancestor of the modern French oui). The word oc came from Latin hoc, while oïl originated from Latin hoc ille. The word Occitan is modelled after the historical region of Occitania, which in turn is modelled after Aquitania, a former Roman administrative region.

1 Languages or dialects?

The actual use of the term Occitan seems rather confusing. Some authors consider that Occitan is a family of languages, including:

which are seen as separate languages. Béarnais is considered as a dialect of Gascon.

Many linguists and almost all Occitan writers disagree with the view that Occitan is a family of languages and think that Limousin, Auvergnat, Gascon, Languedocien and Provençal, and Alpine Provençal are dialects of a single language.

Despite the differences in these languages or dialects, most of the speakers can understand usage from the other dialects. The same is true about CatalanCatalan Catal Valenci is a Romance language spoken by approximately 12 million people in a territory called the Catalan countries which spans portions of Spain, France, Andorra and Italy, although the majority of Catalan speakers are in Spain. Classificat, as some linguists consider Occitan and Catalan to be two varieties of the same language.

In France Occitan is used for all the dialects spoken, while Provençal is used for the dialects spoken in the South-East, the Rhône RiverThe River Rhone ( Latin Rhodanus French Rhone Occitan Rose German Rotten is one of the major rivers (ca. 800 km [500 miles] long) of Europe, running through Switzerland and France. Course It rises near the Rhone glacier in Valais, Switzerland, in the Sain (Rose in Occitan) being more or less the border with the notable exception of Nimes.

The term Provençal is also used by English, but according to linguistic classification ProvençalProvencal Prouvencau in Provencal language) is one of several dialects of the Romance language Occitan, which is spoken by a minority of people in southern France and other areas of France. Provencal" is often used to refer to all dialects of Occitan, but is just one of the dialects grouped under the label Occitan, the variant of the ProvenceProvence is a former province and is now a region of southeastern France, located on the Mediterranean Sea adjacent to France's border with Italy. It is now part of the administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Cote-d'Azur. The traditional region of Provenc region, the literary dialect used by Frederic Mistral and the Felibrige .

Linguistic science contradicts the popular belief that Provençal and Occitan are two separate languages, a belief that could be traced back to Frederic Mistral. Despite the fact that Mistral himself was a republican, the agenda of the Felibrige was to promote a revival of the Provençal tongue, which was largely in contradiction with the republican ideal of reinforcing the unity of France by enforcing the use of French language to the exclusion of all other languages. The claim that Provençal and Occitan were two languages was probably made by the conservative members to avoid integrating South-West members in the Felibrige as the South-West of France was (and remained for a long time) a region strongly supporting the left-wing of the republicans.

2 History of Occitan

Occitan was the vehicle for the first vernacular poetry of medieval Europe, that of the troubadors. With the gradual imposition of French royal power over its territory, Occitan declined in status from the 14th century on. Its greatest decline was during the French Revolution, where diversity of languages was seen as a threat.

3 Usage

4 Usage in France

Though it was still the everyday language of most of the rural population of the South well into the 20th century, it had been replaced in more formal uses by French. Today there are still several million native speakers of Occitan, though they are to be found mostly in the older generations. Ethnic activism, particularly the Occitan-language preschools, the Calandretas, have reintroduced the language to the young.

5 Usage outside France

Certain Occitan-speaking colonies were set up at the beginning of the 20th century, in Calabra (Italy), Wurttemberg (Germany)

6 Features of Occitan

Among the diachronical features of Occitan as a Romance language:

Unlike French, stressed A of Latin is preserved (Latin mare > Oc. mar, but > Fr. mer).
Like French, changed Latin U to [y] and shifted the series of back vowels U>y, o>u O>o.
Gascon changed initial Latin F to aspirated [h] (Latin filiu > Gascon Oc. hilh), like medieval Spanish did (Gascon and Spanish were under Basque influence).
Other lenition and palatalisation phenomena shared with other western Romance languages, especially with Catalan.

7 Occitan Orthography

There are two orthographies currently used for Occitan, one (known as classical) which is based on that of Mediaeval Occitan, and one (sometimes known as mistralian, due to its use by the Felibres, including Mistral) which is based on modern French orthography. There is some conflict between users of each system.

The classical orthography has the advantage of maintaining a link with earlier stages of the language, and reflects the fact that Occitan is not merely a variety of French. It also allows speakers of one dialect of Occitan to write intelligibly for speakers of other dialects (e.g. the Occitan for day is written jorn in the classical orthography, but could be jour, joun or journ, depending on the writer's origin, in mistralian orthography).

The mistralian orthography has the advantage of not forcing Occitan speakers who are already (as is usually the case) literate in French to learn an entirely new system. It has also be used by a number of eminent writers, particularly in Provençal.

The digraphs lh and nh, used in the classical orthography, were adopted by the Portuguese norm.

8 Vocabulary table

This table compares Occitan with other Romance languages

Latin	French	Italian	Spanish	Occitan	Catalan (Central)	Portuguese	Roumanian
clave	clef	chiave	llave	clau	clau	chave	cheie
noctem	nuit	notte	noche	nuèit	nit	noite	noapte
cantare	chanter	cantare	cantar	cantar	cantar	cantar	cânta
capra	chèvre	capra	cabra	cabra	cabra	cabra	capra
lingua	langue	lingua	lengua	lenga	llengua	lingua	limba
platea	place	piazza	plaza	plaça	plaça	praça	piata
pons	pont	ponte	puente	pònt	pont	ponte	pod
ecclesia	église	chiesa	iglesia	glèisa	església	igreja	biserica
hospitalis	hôpital	ospedale	hospital	espitau	hospital	hospital	spital
caseus \| Vulgar Latin formaticum	fromage	formaggio	queso	formatge	formatge	queijo	brânza

9 Occitan quotes

One of the most notable passages of Occitan in Western literature occurs in the 26th canto of Dante's Purgatorio in which the troubadour Arnaut Daniel responds to the narrator:

«Tan m'abellis vostre cortes deman, / qu'ieu no me puesc ni voill a vos cobrire. / Ieu sui Arnaut, que plor e vau cantan; / consiros vei la passada folor, / e vei jausen lo joi qu'esper, denan. / Ara vos prec, per aquella valor / que vos guida al som de l'escalina, / sovenha vos a temps de ma dolor»

The above phrase, translated:

So pleases me your courteous demand, / I cannot and I will not hide me from you. / I am Arnaut, who weep and singing go;/ Contrite I see the folly of the past, /And joyous see the hoped-for day before me. / Therefore do I implore you, by that power/ Which guides you to the summit of the stairs, / Be mindful to assuage my suffering!

10 External links

Languages of France Languages of Italy Languages of Spain Romance languages

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