Occitan language
Occitan, or langue d'oc is a Romance language spoken across the southern third of France (to the south of the Loire), as well as in some of the Alpine valleys in Italy and in the Val d'Aran in Spain.The name of the language comes from oc, the medieval Occitan word for yes, as opposed to northern French or langue d'oÃÂïl (the ancestor of the modern French oui). The word oc came from Latin hoc, while oÃÂïl 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.
The actual use of the term Occitan seems rather confusing. Some authors consider that Occitan is a family of languages, including:
- Auvergnat (Auvernhat)
- Gascon
- Limousin (Lemosin)
- Languedocian (Lengadocian)
- ProvenÃÂçal
- Alpine ProvenÃÂçal
- Shuadit or Judeo-ProvenÃÂçal (considered extinct since 1977)
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 ProvenÃÂçal, and Alpine ProvenÃÂçal 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 Catalan, 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 RhÃÂône River (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 Provençal is just one of the dialects grouped under the label Occitan, the variant of the Provence region, the literary dialect used by Frederic Mistral and the Felibrige.
Linguistic science contradict the popular belief that Provencal 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 Provencal 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 Provencal and Occitan where two languages was probably intended to avoid to integrate 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.
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.
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.
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.
ÃÂëTan 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 dolorÃÂû
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!
See also: Languages of France