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Occitan language
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Occitan (AmE: /ˈɑksəˌtæn/), known also as Lenga d'òc or Langue d'oc (Occitan: occitan, lenga d'òc) is a Romance language spoken in Occitania, that is, Southern France, Monaco, some valleys of Italy, and in the Aran Valley of Spain, where it is also known as Aranese. In the present day it is an official language only in Catalonia.
The area where Occitan was historically dominant is home to some 14 million inhabitants. It may be spoken as a first language by as many as two million people in France, Italy, Spain and Monaco (Ethnologue, 2005). It is furthermore stated by some researchers that up to seven million people in France understand the language. However, these two estimates should be considered very optimistic upper bounds; the actual figures are almost certainly substantially lower. More widely accepted wisdom suggests that as few as half a million proficient speakers remain in France, for example.[citation needed]
In the English-speaking world, "Provençal" is often used to refer to Occitan.
Contents
- 1 The name of the language
- 1.1 History of the modern term
- 1.2 Other names for Occitan
- 2 History of Occitan
- 3 Linguistic assets
- 3.1 Rich lexicon
- 3.2 Learning other languages
- 4 Occitan around the world
- 4.1 Usage in France
- 4.2 Usage outside France
- 4.3 Traditionally Occitan-speaking areas
- 5 Dialects
- 5.1 Dialectal classification
- 5.2 Supradialectal classification
- 6 Linguistic characterization
- 6.1 Features of Occitan
- 6.2 Differences between Occitan and Catalan
- 6.3 Occitano-Roman linguistic group
- 7 Occitan orthography
- 8 Debates concerning linguistic classification and orthography
- 9 Occitan quotes
- 10 See also
- 11 External links
- 12 References
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The name of the language
History of the modern term
The name Occitan comes from òc, the Occitan word for yes, as opposed to oïl as used in the Oïl languages spoken in the territory now covered by northern France, parts of Belgium and the Channel Islands, which was the ancestor of the word oui of modern French. Òc has been proposed as a possible origin of the English term "OK", but linguists are far from unanimous on this point.
The Italian medieval poet Dante was the first to have used the term lingua d'oc. In his De vulgari eloquentia he wrote in Latin: "nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil" ("some say oc, others say si, others say oïl"), thereby classifying the Romance languages into three groups based on each language's word for "yes", the oïl languages (in northern France), the oc languages (in southern France), and the si languages (in Italy and Iberia). This was not, of course, the only defining character of each group.
The word òc came from Vulgar Latin hoc ("that"), while oïl originated from Latin hoc ille ("that [is] it"). Other Romance languages derive their word for yes from the Latin sic, "thus", such as Spanish sí, Insubric sé, Italian sì, Catalan sí, or Portuguese sim.
Other names for Occitan
For many centuries, the Occitan dialects (together with
Catalan[1]) were referred to as
Lemosin or
Provençal, the names of two regions lying within modern-day
Occitania. After
Mistral's
Félibrige movement in the 19th century, Provençal achieved the greatest literary recognition, and so became the most popular term for the Occitan language.
Nowadays, strictly, the terms Provençal and Lemosin are used to refer to specific varieties within Occitania, whereas Occitan is used for the language as a whole. However, many non-specialists continue to refer to the language as Provençal, causing some confusion.
History of Occitan
Occitan was the vehicle for the influential poetry of the medieval troubadours. With the gradual imposition of French royal power over its territory, Occitan declined in status from the 14th century on. By the Edict of Villers-Cotterets (1539) it was decreed that the langue d'oil (Northern French) should be used for all French administration. Occitan's greatest decline was during the French Revolution, where diversity of languages was seen as a threat.
The literary renaissance of late 19th century, including a Nobel Prize for Frédéric Mistral was however watered down by the First World War where Occitan speakers spent extended lengths of time alongside French-speaking comrades.
Origins of Occitan
Because Occitan is the most central of the Romance languages, external influences could have impeded its birth and development, making it only a tributary of standard Latin. However, many factors favored its development as a language of its own.
- Mountains and seas: The range of Occitan is bounded naturally by the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, the Massif Central, the Pyrenees, and the Alps.
- Buffer zones: Very dry land, marshes, and areas otherwise impractical for farming and resistant of colonization provide further separation (territory between Loire and Garonne, the Aragon desert plateau).
- Constant populations: Some Occitan-speaking peoples are descended from people living in the region since prehistory (Bec, 1963).
- Little Celtic influence (Bec, 1963)
- Ancient and long-term Roman influence: Julius Caesar once said that the people of Aquitaine could teach the Romans themselves to speak Latin more correctly. According to Müller, "France's linguistic separation began with Roman influence" (Bec, 1963, pp. 20, 21)
- A separate lexicon: Although Occitan is mid-way between Gallo-Roman and Ibero-Roman language groups, it has "around 550 words inherited from Latin that do not exist in the langues d'oïl nor in franco-provençal" (Bec, 1963, 20, 21).
- Little germanization: "The Frankish lexicon and its phonetic influence often end above the oc/oïl line" (Bec, 1963, 20, 21)
- Variety: Occitania has always been a linguistic crossroads, thanks to its commercial importance. The Spanish rabbi Benjamin of Tudela described Occitania in 1573 as a marketplace bringing together "Christians and Muslims, where Arabs, Lombard merchants, visitors from Rome, from all parts of Egypt, the lands of Israel, Greece, Gaul, Genoa, and Pisa. All languages are spoken there" (Géo magazine, 2004, p. 73)
Linguistic assets
Rich lexicon
A comparison of terms and word counts between languages is not easy, as it is impossible to precisely count the number of words in a language. (See Lexicon, Lexeme, Lexicography for more information.)
Some have claimed around 450,000 words exist in the Occitan language[citation needed], a number comparable to English (The Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged with 1993 addenda reaches 470,000 words, as does the Oxford English Dictionary, Second edition.) The Merriam-Webster Web site estimates that the number is somewhere between 250,000 and 1 million words.
The magazine Géo (2004, p. 79) claims that American English literature can be more easily translated into Occitan than French, excluding modern technological terms that both languages have integrated.
A comparison of the lexical content can find more subtle differences between the languages. For example, Occitan has 128 synonyms related to cultivated land, 62 for wetlands, and 75 for sunshine (Géo). The language went through an eclipse during the Industrial Revolution, as the vocabulary of the countryside became less important. At the same time, it was disparaged as a patois. Nevertheless, Occitan has also incorporated new words into its lexicon to describe the modern world. The Occitan word for web is oèb, for example.
Learning other languages
Native speakers of Occitan are predisposed, according to Géo magazine (p. 79), to learning other languages, often offsetting the increase in difficulty of learning a new language at an advanced age.
Furthermore, Occitan's geography as a central Romance language facilitates comprehension of neighboring languages (Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.) Among languages in its family, it has the most points in common with the others. Below is a comparison of Occitan (central dialect) with other Romance languages:
Common words in Romance languages, with English for reference
| Latin | Occitan | Catalan | French | Italian | Spanish | Portuguese | Romanian | English
|
| cantare
| cantar (chantar)
| cantar
| chanter
| cantare
| cantar
| cantar
| cânta
| to sing
|
| capra
| cabra (chabra, craba)
| cabra
| chèvre
| capra
| cabra
| cabra
| capră
| goat
|
| clavis
| clau
| clau
| clef/clé
| chiave
| llave
| chave
| cheie
| key
|
| ecclesia, basilica
| glèisa
| església
| église
| chiesa
| iglesia
| igreja
| biserică
| church
|
| formaticum, Vulgar Latin caseus
| formatge (hormatge)
| formatge
| fromage
| formaggio
| queso
| queijo
| caş
| cheese
|
| lingua
| lenga (lengua)
| llengua
| langue
| lingua
| lengua
| língua
| limbă
| language
|
| nox, noctis
| nuèch (nuèit)
| nit
| nuit
| notte
| noche
| noite
| noapte
| night
|
| platea
| plaça
| plaça
| place
| piazza
| plaza
| praça
| piaţă
| [city] square
|
| pons, pontis
| pont (pònt)
| pont
| pont
| ponte
| puente
| ponte
| punte
| bridge
|
Occitan around the world
Usage in France
Though it was still an everyday language for most of the rural population of the South well into the
20th century, it has been all but replaced by the imposition of
French. According to the 1999 census, there are 610,000 native speakers (almost all of whom are also native French speakers) and perhaps another million persons with some exposure to the language. Following the pattern of languages in decline, most of this remainder is to be found among the eldest populations. Occitan activists (called
Occitanists) have attempted, particularly with the advent of Occitan-language preschools (the
Calandretas), to reintroduce the language to the young. Nonetheless, the number of proficient speakers of Occitan appears to be dropping precipitously. A tourist in the cities in southern France is unlikely to hear a single Occitan word spoken on the street (or for that matter, in a home), and will likely only find the occasional vestige, such as street signs (and of those, most will have French equivalents more prominently displayed), to remind them of the traditional language of the area. Occitan is still spoken by many elderly people in rural areas, but they generally switch to French when dealing with outsiders.
Usage outside France
In the Val d'Aran, a valley in the north of Catalonia (in north-eastern Spain), Aranese (a variety of Gascon, in turn a variety of Occitan) is treated as an official language, together with Catalan and Spanish. In Italy Occitan is also spoken in some Alpine valleys of the Province of Cuneo in Piedmont.
- Occitan-speaking colonies have existed in Italy (Piedmont and from there to Guardia Piemontese, Calabria) since the 14th century, and in Württemberg (Germany) since the 18th century, the latter as a consequence of the Camisard war.
- In the Spanish Basque country, Gascon was spoken in the center of Donostia/San Sebastián until the beginning of the twentieth century.
- In Val d'Aran (Catalonia,Spain), where Aranese is spoken; Aranese is a variety of Gascon, therefore a dialect of Occitan.
- Rarely, In the United States (western states such as Idaho and Oregon), certain colonies still use Occitan today, or a dialect composed of Occitan mixed with the local language.[citation needed]
Traditionally Occitan-speaking areas
- Aquitaine — excluding the Basque-speaking part of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques in the western part of the department and a small part of Gironde where Saintongeais is spoken. The towns of Biarritz, Anglet, and Bayonne are originally Occitan-speaking, with Basque-speaking groups, but their Basque populations grew sharply during the industrial revolution.
- Midi-Pyrénées — including one of France's largest cities, Toulouse. There are a few street signs in Toulouse yet in Occitan, but the language is almost never heard spoken.
- Languedoc-Roussillon — including the areas around the medieval city of Carcassonne, excluding the large part of the Pyrénées-Orientales where Catalan is spoken (Fenolhedés is the only Occitan-speaking area of the Pyrénées-Orientales).
- Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur — except for the Roya and Bévéra valleys, where there is a transition dialect between Ligurian and Occitan (Roiasc, including Brigasc). There were former and now extinct isolated towns that spoke Ligurian in the Alpes-Maritimes département. Mentonasque, that is spoken in Menton, is an Occitan transition dialect with a strong Ligurian influence.
- Independent state of Monaco — The Monegasque language, a Ligurian dialect, is traditionally spoken as well as Occitan.
- Poitou-Charentes — Use of Occitan has declined here, replaced by French. Only Charente limousine, the eastern part of the region, has resisted.
- Limousin — A rural region (about 710,000 inhabitants) where Occitan (Lemosin dialect, Nord-Occitan family) is still spoken among the oldest residents.
- Auvergne — The language's use has declined in some urban areas. The departement of Allier is divided between a southern Occitan-speaking area and a northern French-speaking area.
- Centre region — Some villages, in the extreme South, speak Occitan.
- Rhône-Alpes — While the south of the region is clearly Occitan-speaking, the central and northern Lyonnais, Forez and Dauphiné parts belong to the Franco-Provençal language area.
- Piedmont, Liguria — Italian regions where Occitan is spoken only in the southern and central Alpine valleys.
- Val d'Aran — part of Catalonia that speaks a mountain dialect of Gascon Occitan.
Dialects
Dialectal classification
According to Pierre Bec, in Manuel pratique d'occitan moderne (Paris, Picard, 1973), here is the most widely accepted dialectal classification.
Supradialectal classification
Pierre Bec says that another "supradialectal" classification is possible, that follows different criteria:
- Arvèrnomediterranèu
- Central Occitan (Occitan central), i. e. the Lengadocian dialect, excepting the Southern Lengadocian subdialect
- Aquitanopirenenc
- Southern Lengadocian subdialect
- Gascon
- The Catalan language is an Ausbau language which became independent from Occitan during the 13th Century. But it comes from the Aquitanopirenenc stem.
Linguistic characterization
Jules Ronjat has sought to characterize Occitan by 19 principal criteria, as generalized as possible. Of those, 11 are phonetic, five morphologic, one syntactic, and two lexical. Close rounded vowels (French: rose, yeux) are rare or absent in Occitan. This characteristic often carries through to an Occitan speaker's French, leading to a distinctive méridional accent. Unlike French, it is a pro-drop language allowing the omission of the subject (canti: I sing; cantas you sing). Among these 19 discriminating criteria, 7 are different from Spanish, 8 from Italian, 12 from Franco-provençal, and 16 from French.
Features of Occitan
Among the diachronic features of Occitan as a Romance language:
- Unlike in French, stressed Latin A was preserved (Latin mare > Oc. mar, but > Fr. mer).
- Like in French, Latin U changed into [y], shifting around the series of back vowels, [u] > [y], [o] > [u].
- Gascon changed Latin initial [f] into [h] (Latin filiu > Gascon Oc. hilh), like medieval Spanish (under Basque influence).
- Other lenition and palatalisation phenomena shared with the rest of the Western Romance languages, especially with Catalan.
Differences between Occitan and Catalan
As detailed above, the separation of Catalan from Occitan is largely politically (rather than linguistically) motivated. However, the variety that has become standard Catalan does differ from that which has become standard Occitan in a number of ways. The following are just a few examples:
- Phonology
- (Standard) Catalan is unique in that Latin short e developed into a close vowel /e/ (é) and Latin long e developed into an open vowel /ɛ/ (è); this is precisely the reverse of the development that took place in some Catalan dialects and the other Romance languages, including Occitan. Thus Standard Catalan ésser [ˈesə] corresponds to Occitan èsser/èstre [ˈɛse/ˈɛstre] 'to be;' Catalan carrera [kəˈreɾə] corresponds to Occitan carrièra [karˈjɛɾo] 'street.'
- The distinctly Occitan development of word-final -a, pronounced as [ɔ] in standard Occitan (e.g. chifra 'figure' [ˈtʃifrɔ]), did not occur in general Catalan (which has xifra [ˈʃifrə]). However, some Occitan varieties also lack this feature and some Catalan (Valencian) varieties know the [ɔ] pronunciation.
- When in Catalan word stress falls in the antepenultimate syllable, in Occitan the stress is moved to the penultimate syllable: for example, Occitan pagina [paˈdʒinɔ] vs. Catalan pàgina [ˈpaʒinə], "page". However, some varieties of Occitan (e.g., around Nice) keep the stress on the antepenultimate syllable (pàgina) while some varieties of Catalan (in Northern Catalonia) keep the stress on the penultimate syllable (pagina).
- Diphthongisation has evolved in different ways, e.g. Occitan paire vs. Catalan pare 'father;' Occitan carrièra (carrèra, carrèira) vs. Catalan carrera.
- Some Occitan dialects lack the voiceless postalveolar fricative phoneme /ʃ/ but south-western Occitan know it, e.g. general Occitan caissa [ˈkajso] vs. Catalan caixa [ˈkaʃə] and south-western Occitan caissa, caisha [ˈka(j)ʃɔ], 'box.'
- Occitan has developed the close front rounded vowel /y/ as a phoneme, often (but not always) corresponding to Catalan /u/, e.g. Occitan musica [myˈzikɔ] vs. Catalan música [ˈmuzikə].
- The distribution of palatal consonants /ʎ/ and /ɲ/ differs in Catalan and a part of Occitan: whilst Catalan permits these sounds in word-final position, in central Occitan they are neutralised to [l] and [n] (e.g. central Occitan filh [fil] vs. Catalan fill [fiʎ], 'son'). Non-central varieties of Occitan, however, can have a palatal realization (e.g. filh, hilh [fiʎ, fij, hiʎ]).
- Also, many words that start with /l/ in Occitan start with /ʎ/ in Catalan, e.g. Occitan libre [ˈlibre] vs. Catalan llibre [ˈʎibrə], 'book.' This is perhaps one of the most distinctive characteristics of Catalan amongst the Romance languages. However, some transition varieties of Occitan, near to the Catalan area, also know /ʎ/.
- Standard Eastern Catalan has a neutral vowel [ə] whenever a or e occur in unstressed position (e.g. passar [pəˈsa], 'to happen,' but passa [ˈpasə], 'it happens'), and also [u] whenever o or u occur in unstressed position (e.g. voler [buˈlɛ], 'to want,' but vol [ˈbɔl], 'he wants.' However, this does not apply to Western Catalan dialects, whose vowel system usually retains the a/e distinction in unstressed position, or to Northern Catalan dialects, whose vowel system does not retain the o/u distinction in stressed position, much like Occitan.
- Morphology
- Verb conjugation is slightly different, although there is a great variety amongst dialects. Medieval conjugations were much closer.
- Occitan tends to add an analogical -a to the feminine forms of adjectives which are invariable in standard Catalan: for example, Occitan legal / legala vs. Catalan legal / legal.
- Catalan has a distinctive past tense formation, known as the 'periphrastic preterite,' formed from a variant of the verb 'to go' plus the infinitive of the verb: donar 'to give,' va donar 'he gave.' This has the same value as the 'normal' preterite shared by most Romance languages, deriving from the Latin perfect tense: in Catalan, donà 'he gave.' The periphrastic preterite only exists in Occitan as an archaic or as a very local tense.
- Orthography
- Writing systems differ slightly between the two languages. The modern Occitan spelling recommended by the Institut d'Estudis Occitans and the Conselh de la Lenga Occitana is designed to be a pan-Occitan system, whereas the Catalan system recommended by the Institut d'Estudis Catalans is specific to Catalan. For example, in Catalan, word-final -n is omitted, as this is not pronounced in any dialect of Catalan (so we have Català, Occità); central Occitan also drops word-final -n, but it is retained in the spelling, as some eastern and western dialects of Occitan do retain the final consonant (so we have Catalan, Occitan).
Occitano-Roman linguistic group
Despite these differences, Occitan and Catalan remain more or less mutually comprehensible, especially when written — more so than either is with Spanish or French, for example. The two peoples share early historical, cultural, and amicable heritage.
The combined Occitano-Roman area is 259,000 km² and represents 23 million speakers. However, the regions are not equal in terms of language speakers. According to Bec 1969 (pp.120–121), in France, no more than a quarter of the population in counted regions speak Occitan well, though around half can understand it; it is thought that the number of Occitan users has decreased dramatically since then. By contrast, in Catalonia, nearly three quarters of the population speak Catalan and 95% understand it [1].
Occitan orthography
There are two main linguistic norms 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. Sometimes, there is some conflict between some users of each system.
- The classical norm (or less exactly classical orthography) has the advantage of maintaining a link with earlier stages of the language, and reflects the fact that Occitan is not a variety of French. It is used in all Occitan dialects. 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 norm, but could be jour, joun or journ, depending on the writer's origin, in Mistralian orthography). The Occitan classical orthography and the Catalan orthography are quite similar: they show the very close ties of both languages. The digraphs lh and nh, used in the classical orthography, were adopted by the Orthography of Portuguese.
- The Mistralian norm (or less exactly 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. Nowadays it is mostly used in the Provençal/Niçois dialect, besides the classical norm. It has also been used by a number of eminent writers, particularly in Provençal. However, it is somewhat impractical, since it is based mainly on the Provençal dialect and also uses many digraphs for simple sounds, most notably ou for the [u] sound, written as o under the classical orthography.
There are also two other norms but they have a lesser audience. The Escòla dau Pò norm (or Escolo dóu Po norm) is a simplified version of the Mistralian norm and is only used in the Occitan Valleys (Italy), besides the classical norm. The Bonnaudian norm (or écriture auvergnate unifiée, EAU) was created by Pierre Bonnaud and is used only in the Auvergnat dialect, besides the classical norm.
Debates concerning linguistic classification and orthography
The vast majority of scholars think that Occitan constitutes a single language. Some authors, constituing a tiny minority, refuse this opinion and even the name Occitan: they think that there is a family of distinct languages (called langues d'oc / lengas d'oc in plural) rather than dialects.
Many Occitan linguists and writers, particularly those involved with the pan-Occitan movement centred on the Institut d'Estudis Occitans, disagree with the view that Occitan is a family of languages and think that Limousin, Auvergnat, Languedocien, Gascon, Provençal and Alpine Provençal are dialects of a single language. Though there are some noticeable differences between these varieties, there is a very high degree of mutual intelligibility between them; they also share a common literary history, and in academic and literary circles, have been identified as a collective linguistic entity — the langue d'oc — for centuries.
Some Provençal authors continue to support the view that Provençal is a separate language. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Provençal authors think that Provençal is a part of Occitan.
This debate about the status of Provençal should not be confused with the debate concerning the spelling of Provençal.
- The classical orthography is more phonemic, and so more pan-Occitan. It is used in (and adapted to) all Occitan dialects and regions, including Provençal. Its supporters think that Provençal is a part of Occitan.
- The Mistralian orthography of Provençal is more phonetic and closer to the French spelling, and therefore more specific to Provençal; its users are divided between the ones who think that Provençal is a part of Occitan and the ones who think that Provençal is a separate language.
For example, the classical (pan-Occitan) spelling writes Polonha where the Mistralian spelling system has Poulougno, for [puˈluɲo], 'Poland'.
The question of Gascon is more controversial still, as Gascon presents a number of significant differences from the rest of the language; but despite of these differences, Gascon and other Occitan dialects share a very important common lexical and grammatical material, so they could never be considered as different as, for example, Spanish and Italian.[2] In addition, the fact that Gascon is included within Occitan despite its particular differences, can be also justified because there is a common elaboration (Ausbau) process between Gascon and the rest of Occitan. The vast majority of the Gascon cultural movement considers itself as a part of the Occitan cultural movement. And the official status of Val d'Aran (Catalonia, Spain), adopted in 1990, says that Aranese is a part of Gascon and Occitan.
The exclusion of Catalan from the Occitan sphere, although Catalan is a language closely related to Occitan, is justified because there has been a conscience of it being different to Occitan since the later Middle Ages and the elaboration (Ausbau) processes of Catalan and Occitan (including Gascon) have been quite distinct since the 20th Century.
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 strophe translates to:
- 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!
Another notable Occitan quotation, this time from Arnaut Daniel's own 10th Canto:
- "leu sui Arnaut qu'amas l'aura
- E chatz le lebre ab lo bou
- E nadi contra suberna"
Translation:
- "I am Arnaut who loves the wind,
- And chases the hare with the ox,
- And swims against the torrent."
The Spanish playwright Lope de Rueda included a Gascon servant for comical effect in one of his short pieces, La generosa paliza.[3]
John Barnes's Thousand Cultures science fiction series (A Million Open Doors, 1992; Earth Made of Glass, 1998; The Merchant of Souls, 2001; and The Armies of Memory, 2006), features Occitan.
See also
