Occitan language

Occitan is a Romance language spoken in parts of southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Valleys, and the Val d'Aran in Catalonia. It is also spoken in the Italian province of Cosenza, where it is known as Gardiol. Historically, Occitan has been called Provençal, and its dialects include Limousin, Languedocien, and Gascon.

Unlike French or Spanish, Occitan does not have one official written form, and it is not an official language in France. Efforts to standardize its writing face challenges because of differences between dialects and because fewer people are using it as a daily language.

Occitan has a rich vocabulary, with one major dictionary listing over 250,000 unique words. However, many of its dialects are considered endangered, with only Gascon and Vivaro-Alpine having a stronger presence today.

Name

History of the modern term

The name "Occitan" comes from lenga d'òc, which means "language of òc". The word òc is the Occitan word for "yes". The famous Italian writer Dante was the first to write about this term in his book De vulgari eloquentia. He talked about three important old languages in Italy: the òc language (Occitan), the oïl language (French), and the sì language (Italian). These names come from each language’s word for "yes".

Other names for Occitan

For a long time, people called the Occitan language by names like Limousin or Provençal, after two places where it is spoken. In the 1800s, a writer named Frédéric Mistral helped make the name Provençal very popular. Today, experts use Occitan to talk about the whole language, but many people still use the name Provençal.

History

Further information: Old Occitan and Occitan literature

Occitan is an old language with written pieces dating back to the year 960. These early writings mix Occitan with Latin, showing how people spoke back then. Famous old works include poems and stories written in Occitan, such as Boecis, inspired by a wise book called The Consolation of Philosophy.

During the Middle Ages, many talented poets called troubadours used Occitan in their poems, and the language was well-known across Europe. Important figures like Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and King Richard I grew up speaking Occitan.

As French power grew, Occitan lost its importance. By the 1500s, French laws required the use of French for official matters. The use of Occitan dropped even more during a big change called the French Revolution. In the late 1800s, there was a revival of interest in Occitan literature, led by writers like Frédéric Mistral, but World War I made it harder for people to focus on the language.

Origins

Occitan developed in a special area surrounded by mountains and seas: the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Massif Central, Alps, and Pyrenees. The Romans came to this area long ago, which helped shape the language. Occitan has many words from Latin that other nearby languages don’t have, making it unique.

Occitan in the Iberian Peninsula

Occitan was also used in parts of Spain, especially in areas like Pamplona and Sangüesa. People from France settled there and used Occitan in their daily lives and for important documents. Over time, though, the local languages like Navarro-Aragonese and Castilian became more common, and Occitan slowly faded away in those regions. In some coastal areas, a type of Occitan called Gascon lasted longer, mainly because of trade connections with places like Bayonne.

Geographic distribution

The Occitan language is spoken in parts of southern France, Monaco, Italy, and Spain. About 789,000 people use it as their first language in these places. In France alone, up to seven million people understand Occitan, though most only spoke it fully in the past. By 1993, less than 7% of France’s population used it regularly.

Occitan is still used in some rural areas of southern France, especially by older people. However, it is not commonly heard in cities anymore. Efforts are being made to teach the language to children in special schools called Calandretas. In some places like Béarn, the language is used more in homes, but even there, it is not often spoken outside the home. In the Val d’Aran in Spain and the Occitan Valleys in Italy, Occitan is also spoken. In Monaco, it shares space with another local language, but French is most commonly used.

Pronunciation

This section explains how words are pronounced in the Languedocian dialect of Occitan, which is important for understanding the language. It helps standardize how Occitan is spoken.

Words ending with a vowel or s, or verb forms ending with n, stress the second-to-last syllable. Words ending with a diphthong or a consonant (except s, but including n) stress the last syllable. Some words have special marks to show their stress.

Examples include: La mecanica; destriar; cuélher; cantan; penós; gaton.

Grammar

The Languedocian dialect of the Occitan language is very important because it is in the middle of all Occitan dialects and has stayed quite unchanged. Because of this, it helps us understand the standard rules of the Occitan language.

Pronouns

Possessives

Demonstratives

Nouns

In Occitan, there are two types of nouns: masculine and feminine. To make a noun feminine, you usually add -a to the end. To make a noun plural, you add -s.

Articles

Occitan has words like “a” or “an” in English. There are two forms for one item: a masculine form un and a feminine form una. For more than one, the word is de, which becomes d' before a vowel.

Unlike English, which always uses “the”, Occitan changes “the” depending on whether it is one or many, and whether it is masculine or feminine.

The little word l' is used before a word that starts with a vowel.

Verbs

Verbs change to show who is doing the action, how many people, when it happens, and the way it is being talked about. There are three ways to end verbs: -ar, -ir, and -re. Verbs ending in -ir can have two slightly different ways.

Here are some examples of regular verbs:

• Parlar (= to speak), parlat (= spoken), parlant (= speaking).

• Dormir (= to sleep), dormit (= slept), dormint (= sleeping).

• Sentir (= to feel), sentit (= felt), sentent (= feeling).

• Batre (= to beat), batut (= beaten), beatent (= beating).

Irregular verbs

Two very important irregular verbs are èsser/èstre (= to be) and aver (= to have).

Reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs need a special word to show that someone is doing something to themselves. These special words change depending on who is doing the action. An example is se levar (= to get up).

Negation

To say “not” in Occitan, you add pas after the verb. For example:

• Parli pas (= I don't speak).
• An pas parlat (= They haven't spoken).
• Vesi pas res (= I don't see anything).
• Lo tròbi pas enluòc (= I don't find him anywhere).
• Sortís pas jamai (= He never goes out).
• Degun es pas vengut (= Nobody came).

Dialects

Occitan has many dialects, which are ways of speaking the language that change from place to place. Experts usually group them into six main types: Gascon, Languedocien, Limousin, Auvergnat, Provençal, and Vivaro-Alpine. These dialects share many words and ways of speaking, but they also have some differences.

Some dialects have more features in common with languages spoken in nearby areas. For example, the northern dialects share traits with Gallo-Italic and Oïl languages, while the southern dialects share traits with Ibero-Romance languages. Gascon, one of the dialects, has some special features that make it stand out from the others.

There are also special dialects that were once spoken by Jewish communities, but these are no longer used today. These included Judeo-Gascon, Judeo-Provençal, and Judeo-Niçard. Each of these had unique words and ways of speaking that mixed Occitan with Hebrew.

Codification

All regional varieties of the Occitan language have a written form, making it a language with many forms. Standard Occitan, also called occitan larg, is a mix that respects regional differences. The standardization process began with the publication of a grammar book in 1935 and a dictionary in 1966, and it continued with more works in the 1970s. However, this process is still not finished.

There are two main ways to write Occitan. One, called the classical norm, is based on older forms of the language and works for all dialects. The other, called the Mistralian norm, is closer to French spelling and is mostly used in the Provençal dialect. These two systems sometimes cause disagreements among users.

Several special codes have been created to identify different writing systems for Occitan.

Linguistic characterisation

Occitan is a language spoken in parts of southern France and nearby areas. Experts have identified 19 main features that help define this language. These include 11 sound-related features, five shape-related features, one structure-related feature, and two word-related features. One notable feature is that close rounded vowels are uncommon in Occitan. This can influence how French speakers from these regions sound.

Unlike French, Occitan allows the subject to be left out of sentences (for example, "I sing" becomes simply "sing"). However, in one Occitan dialect called Gascon, a special word must come before the verb instead of using a pronoun. The rules for these words change depending on whether it is a question, an observation, or another situation. Many of these 19 features differ from those in Spanish, Italian, Franco-Provençal, and French.

Features of Occitan

Most Occitan features are shared with French or the language Catalan, or both.

Features of Occitan as a whole

Examples of features found in Occitan and French, but not in Catalan:

• A Latin sound changed to a specific sound in both French and Occitan.
• Another Latin sound changed to yet another sound, first in unstressed words in both French and Occitan, and later in stressed words.

Examples of features found in Occitan and Catalan, but not in French:

• A stressed Latin sound stayed the same in both Occitan and Catalan, but changed in French.
• A Latin sound between vowels softened to a different sound in Occitan and Catalan, but was lost in French.

Examples of features in Occitan that are not shared with Catalan or French:

• An original sound stayed unchanged.
• A final sound changed to another sound.
• Certain sounds changed before specific letters.
• Different sounds happened in clusters of consonants.

Features of some Occitan dialects

Examples of features in northern Occitan dialects that are shared with French, but not Catalan:

• The sounds "ca" and "ga" changed to similar sounds.
• A sound at the end of a syllable changed to another sound.
• Final sounds were lost.
• Sounds at the end of syllables changed to vowel-like sounds.
• Some "r" sounds changed to a specific sound.

Examples of features in southern Occitan dialects that are shared with Catalan, but not French:

• Latin sound combinations changed to single sounds.
• The sounds "b" and "v" merged into one sound.
• Sounds between vowels became soft sounds.
• Final single "n" sounds were lost, but double "n" sounds stayed.
• The "n" sound was lost between vowels.
• The "ll" sound changed to "r" or another sound.

Examples of other dialect-specific features not shared with French or Catalan:

• Final sounds merged into a nasal sound.
• A soft "d" sound between vowels changed to "z" in most dialects.
• The "jt" sound changed to "tch" in most dialects.
• The "l" sound weakened to an "r" sound in one dialect.

Comparison with other Romance languages and English

A comparison of terms and word counts between languages is difficult, as it is hard to count the number of words in any language. Some believe there are around 450,000 words in Occitan, similar to the number in English. One magazine noted that translating modern English literature into Occitan is easier than into French, except for technical terms both languages share. Occitan has many words for farmland, wetlands, and sunshine, showing its history tied to rural life. Despite this, Occitan was often seen as less important during industrial times. Today, it has adopted new words for modern concepts, like the word for "web."

Differences between Occitan and Catalan

The separation of Catalan from Occitan is sometimes seen as more political than linguistic. However, standard Catalan and standard Occitan have some differences. For example:

• Catalan changes certain vowel sounds differently than Occitan.
• Occitan keeps the final "a" sound, while Catalan often does not.
• Stress in words can fall on different syllables in each language.
• Some words that sound alike in Occitan have different forms in Catalan.
• Occitan uses a rounded "u" sound in some words where Catalan does not.
• The sounds made by certain letter combinations differ between the languages.
• Words starting with "l" in Occitan often start with a different sound in Catalan.

Despite these differences, Occitan and Catalan are often easy for speakers of each language to understand, especially in writing. They share a common history and culture. The area where these languages are spoken covers a large region with many speakers, although the number of active Occitan speakers in France has declined over time. In areas governed by Catalonia, most people speak or understand Catalan.

Preservation

In recent times, the Occitan language has become very rare and is in danger of disappearing. Most people who still speak it live in Southern France, and it is unlikely that there are any people who only speak Occitan today. In the early 1900s, the French government made it hard to use or teach Occitan in schools. Even though laws have changed and now allow bilingual education since 1993, the years of these restrictions caused many fewer people to speak Occitan. Today, most of the people who can still speak it are older.

Samples

One famous piece of writing in Occitan appears in a story by Dante. In this story, a poet named Arnaut Daniel speaks to the main character. Here is what he says in Occitan, with a modern version and an English translation:

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

In modern Occitan:

Tan m'abelís vòstra cortesa demanda, / que ieu non-pòdi ni vòli m'amagar de vos. / Ieu soi Arnaut, que plori e vau cantant; / consirós vesi la foliá passada, / e vesi joiós lo jorn qu'espèri, davant. / Ara vos prègui, per aquela valor / que vos guida al som de l'escalièr, / sovenhatz-vos tot còp de ma dolor.

And in English:

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 well-known quote is from Arnaut Daniel himself:

"Ieu sui Arnaut qu'amas l'aura
e chatz le lebre ab lo bou
e nadi contra suberna"

Modern Occitan:

"Ieu soi Arnaut qu'aimi l'aura
e caci [chaci] la lèbre amb lo buòu
e nadi contra subèrna.

English:

"I am Arnaut who loves the wind,
and chases the hare with the ox,
and swims against the torrent."

The famous French writer Victor Hugo also used Occitan in his book Les Misérables.

Finally, here is the first line of a document about rights for all people, written in Occitan:

Occitan: Totes los èssers umans naisson liures e egals en dignitat e en dreches. Son dotats de rason e de consciéncia e se devon comportar los unes amb los autres dins un esperit de fraternitat.

[All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.]

Use in non-Occitan works

The Occitan language has been used in many books, plays, and songs that are not written in Occitan. For example, a 16th-century Spanish playwright used a character who spoke a form of Occitan for humor.

Some famous books include a science fiction series by John Barnes and a best-selling novel by Kate Mosse set in Carcassonne. In movies and stories, Occitan appears in books like Timeline by Michael Crichton. A French composer also made songs using the Auvergne version of Occitan, aiming to bring to life beautiful scenes from the past.