Окситанский язык

История современного термина

Название Occitan происходит от lenga d'òc («язык òc »), где òc означает « да». Хотя этот термин некоторое время использовался в устной форме после упадка латыни, насколько свидетельствуют исторические записи, итальянский средневековый поэт Данте был первым, кто записал термин lingua d'oc в письменной форме. В своей книге «De vulgari eloquentia» он написал на латыни «nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil» («одни говорят òc , другие sì , а третьи говорят oïl »), тем самым выделяя три основных романских литературных языка, которые были хорошо известны в Италии, на основе слова каждого языка для «да», то ос язык (Occitan), то OIL язык (французский), а sì язык (сицилийской и итальянской). Конечно, это не было единственной определяющей характеристикой каждой группы.

Слово òc произошло от вульгарного латинского hoc («это»), а oïl произошло от латинского hoc illud («это [это] оно»). Старый каталонский , а теперь и каталонский Северной Каталонии также имеют hoc ( òc ). В других романских языках слово «да» происходит от латинского sic , «так [это], [это было сделано] и т. Д.», Например, испанский sí , восточно-ломбардский sé , сицилийский и итальянский sì или португальский sim . В современном каталонском, как и в современном испанском, sí обычно используется в качестве ответа, хотя в языке сохраняется слово oi , похожее на òc , которое иногда используется в конце вопросов типа да – нет , а также в более высоком регистре как положительный ответ. отклик. ^[16] Французский использует si, чтобы ответить «да» на вопросы, задаваемые в отрицательном смысле: например, «Vous n'avez pas de frères?» "Si, j'en ai sept." («У вас нет братьев?» «Но да, у меня их семь».)

Название «Occitan» был засвидетельствован около 1300 , как occitanus , пересечение ос и aquitanus ( Аквитанцы ). ^[17]

Другие имена для Occitan

На протяжении многих веков окситанские диалекты (вместе с каталонским ) ^[18] назывались лимузенскими или провансальскими по названиям двух регионов, лежащих в пределах современной окситаноязычной области. После того, как Frédéric Mistral «s Фелибры движения в 19 - м веке, провансальский достиг наибольшего литературного признания и поэтому стал самым популярным термином для окситанский.

По словам Джозефа Англада , филолога и специалиста по средневековой литературе, который помог навязать тогда архаичный термин окситанский в качестве единственно правильного имени ^[19], слово Лемозин было впервые использовано для обозначения языка в начале 13 века каталонским трубадуром Раймоном. Видаль де Бесалу (н) в его Razós de trobar :

La parladura Francesca val mais et [es] plus avinenz a far romanz e pasturellas; mas Cella de Lemozin val mais per far vers et cansons et serventés; et per totas las terras de nostre lengage son de major autoritat li cantar de la lenga Lemosina que de negun'autra parladura, per qu'ieu vos en parlarai primeramen. ^[20]

Французский язык лучше подходит для романсов и пастурелей ; но этот (язык) из Лимузена более ценен для написания стихов, канкон и сирвен ; и во всех странах, где говорят на нашем языке, литература на лимузенском языке имеет больший авторитет, чем на любом другом диалекте, поэтому я буду использовать это имя в первую очередь.

Что касается слова « провансальский» , то его не следует воспринимать как строго означающее язык Прованса , но Окситании в целом, поскольку «в одиннадцатом, двенадцатом, а иногда и в тринадцатом веках можно было бы понимать под названием Прованс. вся территория старой Provincia romana Gallia Narbonensis и даже Аквитания ". ^[21] Термин впервые вошел в моду в Италии . ^[22]

В настоящее время лингвисты используют термины «провансальский» и «лимузинский» строго для обозначения определенных разновидностей в пределах Окситании, сохраняя название «окситанский» для языка в целом. Однако многие неспециалисты продолжают называть этот язык провансальским, что вызывает некоторую путаницу.

Один из старейших письменных фрагментов языка, найденных в официальном тексте, смешанном с латинским, датируется 960 годом:

De ишта Ора в Антея не DECEBRÀ Ermengaus Filius Eldiarda Froterio Episcopo Filio Girberga NE Раймундо Filio Бернардо vicecomite де Кастелло де Cornone ... НЕТ · L LI TOLRÀ NO · L LI DEVEDARÀ NI NO L'EN DECEBRÀ  ... включенные в другие группировки societatem не AURA , si per castellum recuperare NON O FA , и si recuperare potuerit in potestate Froterio et Raimundo LO TORNARÀ , per ipsas horas quæ Froterius et Raimundus L'EN COMONRÀ . ^[23]

Каролингские ектении (. 780 гр), как письменные и спетые на латинском языке , были ответили в Старый Occitan по аудитории ( Ora про н.у.к. ; Ту вот ЮВА ). ^[24]

Другие известные произведения включают Boecis , в 258-линии поэму , написанную полностью Лимузен диалекте Occitan между 1000 годом и 1030 и вдохновленный Боэций «s Утешение философии ; Waldensian La nobla leyczon (от 1100), ^[25] Cançó - де - Санта - Фе (с. 1054-1076), то романтика Flamenca (13 век), Песнь Альбигойского Crusade (1213-1219?), Daurel е Бето (12 или 13 век), Las, qu'i non-sun sparvir, astur (11 век) и Tomida femina (9 или 10 век).

Окситанский был проводником влиятельной поэзии средневековых трубадуров ( тробадоров ) и тробадуров : в то время этот язык понимали и прославляли в большей части образованной Европы. ^[26] Это был материнский язык английской королевы Элеоноры Аквитанской и королей Англии Ричарда I (написавшего стихи трубадуров) и Джона соответственно. С постепенным установлением французской королевской власти над своей территорией, окситанский статус снизился с 14 века. Постановление Вилле-Котре (1539) постановил , что Langue d'OIL (французский - хотя в то время , ссылаясь на язык Francien и не большую коллекцию диалектов , сгруппированных под названием языки ойль ) следует использовать для всех французов администрация. Наибольший упадок окситанского языка произошел во время Французской революции , когда разнообразие языков считалось угрозой.

В 1903 году четыре Евангелия, «Lis Evangèli», то есть от Матфея, Марка, Луки и Иоанна, были переведены на провансальский язык, на котором говорили в Каннах и Грассе. Это было дано официальной римско-католической санкцией генерального викария А. Эстеллона. ^{[ необходима цитата ]}

Литературный ренессанс конца 19 века (в котором , среди прочего, участвовал лауреат Нобелевской премии по литературе 1904 года Фредерик Мистраль) был ослаблен Первой мировой войной , когда окситанские ораторы проводили длительные периоды времени вместе с франкоязычными товарищами.

Происхождение

Лингвистическая эволюция в Юго-Западной Европе с 1000 по 2000 год н.э.

Поскольку географическая территория, на которой говорят на окситанском языке, окружена регионами, в которых используются другие романские языки , внешние влияния могли повлиять на его происхождение и развитие. Многие факторы способствовали его развитию как родному языку.

• Горы и моря: Ареал Окситана естественным образом ограничен Средиземным морем , Атлантическим океаном , Центральным массивом , Альпами и Пиренеями соответственно.
• Буферные зоны: засушливые земли, болота и районы, которые иным образом непрактичны для земледелия и сопротивления колонизации, обеспечивают дальнейшее разделение (территория между Луарой и Гаронной , пустынное плато Арагона ).
• Постоянное население: некоторые люди, говорящие на окситанском языке, произошли от людей, живущих в этом регионе с доисторических времен. ^[27]
• Незначительное кельтское влияние ^[27]
• Древнее и долгосрочное влияние римлян: Юлий Цезарь однажды сказал, что жители Аквитании могут научить римлян лучше говорить на латыни. Согласно Мюллеру, «лингвистическое разделение Франции началось с римского влияния» ^[28].
• Отдельный лексикон : хотя окситанский язык находится где-то посередине между галло-романским и иберийским романскими языками , он содержит «около 550 слов, унаследованных от латыни, которых нет ни в langues d'oïl, ни во франко-провансальском » ^[28].
• Незначительная германизация: « Франкский лексикон и его фонетическое влияние часто заканчиваются выше черты oc / oïl » ^[28]

Окситан на Пиренейском полуострове

Каталанский язык в северных и центральных прибрежных регионах Средиземноморья и на Балеарских островах тесно связан с окситанским языком , разделяя многие лингвистические особенности и общее происхождение (см. Окситано-романские языки ). Этот язык был одним из первых, получивших престиж как средство массовой информации среди романских языков в средние века. Действительно, в XII и XIII веках каталонские трубадуры, такие как Герау де Кабрера, Гильем де Бергадан, Гильем де Кабестань, Угуэ де Матаплана, Раймон Видаль де Бесалу, Сервери де Жирона, Формит де Перпинхан и Хофре де Фойша, писали на окситанском языке.

В конце XI века франки , как их тогда называли, начали проникать на Пиренейский полуостров по Пути Святого Иакова через Сомпорт и Ронсесвальес , обосновываясь в различных местах королевств Наварра и Арагон , соблазняя привилегиями, предоставленными им наваррскими королями . Они обосновались в этнических районах, где окситанский язык использовался в повседневной жизни, например, в Памплоне, Сангуэсе , Эстелле-Лисарре и т. Д. ^[29] Язык, в свою очередь, стал статусным языком, выбранным наваррскими королями, знатью и высшими классами для официальных и официальных лиц. торговые цели в период с начала 13 века до конца 14 века. ^[30] Эти боро в Наварре , возможно, были сплоченные сообщества с небольшим смешиваясь, в условиях , когда естественная среда была преимущественно Басков -speaking. Для письменных административных записей был выбран вариант койне, основанный на диалекте Лангедока из Тулузы с довольно архаичными лингвистическими особенностями.

Свидетельства письменного отчета на окситанском языке из Памплоны о сожжении городка Сан-Николас в 1258 году сохранились до наших дней, в то время как История войны за Наварру Гильема Анелье (1276), хотя и написанная в Памплоне, показывает лингвистический вариант из Тулузы . ^[31]

Несколько иначе обернулось дело в Арагоне, где социолингвистическая ситуация была иной, с более четкой баскско-романской двуязычной ситуацией (ср. Басков из долины Валь д'Аран, цитируемой около 1000 г.), но с уменьшением баскского языка (баскский запрещен на рынке). Уэски, 1349 г.). ^{[32] [33]} В то время как язык был выбран в качестве средства престижа в записях и официальных заявлениях наряду с латынью в начале 13 века, окситанский язык столкнулся с конкуренцией со стороны набирающего популярность местного романского языка, наварро-арагонского диалекта , как в устной, так и в письменной форме. , особенно после территориальных завоеваний Арагона к югу от Сарагосы , Уэски и Туделы между 1118 и 1134 годами. Это привело к тому, что вторая окситанская иммиграция этого периода была ассимилирована схожим наварро-арагонским языком , который в то же время поощрялся и выбирался королями из Арагона . В XIV веке язык пришел в упадок на всей территории южных Пиреней и стал в значительной степени поглощен сначала наварро-арагонским, а позже - кастильским в 15 веке, после того, как их исключительные районы распались (1423 г., районы Памплоны объединены). ^[34]

Гасконоговорящие общины были призваны в торговых целях королями Наварры в начале XII века до прибрежной полосы, простирающейся от Сан-Себастьяна до реки Бидасоа , где они и поселились. Используемый языковой вариант отличался от того, который использовался в Наварре, то есть на беарнском диалекте гасконца ^[35], при этом гасконский язык использовался намного дольше, чем в Наварре и Арагоне, до 19-го века, в основном благодаря тесным связям Доностия и Пасайя с Байонной .

Использование во Франции

Хотя он все еще был повседневным языком для большей части сельского населения южной Франции даже в 20 веке, по оценкам 2012 года, в настоящее время на нем говорят около 100 000 человек во Франции. ^[1]

Согласно переписи 1999 года, было 610 000 носителей языка (почти все из которых также являются носителями французского языка) и, возможно, еще миллион человек в какой-то мере знали этот язык. Следуя схеме языкового сдвига , большая часть этого остатка приходится на старшее население. Окситанские активисты (называемые окситанами ) пытались, в частности, с появлением дошкольных учреждений с окситанским языком обучения ( Calandretas ), вернуть язык молодежи. ^{[ необходима цитата ]}

Nonetheless, the number of proficient speakers of Occitan is 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 is likely to 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.^{[citation needed]}

Occitans, as a result of more than 200 years of conditioned suppression and humiliation (see Vergonha), seldom speak their own language in the presence of foreigners, whether they are from abroad or from outside Occitania (in this case, often merely and abusively referred to as Parisiens or Nordistes, which means northerners). Occitan is still spoken by many elderly people in rural areas, but they generally switch to French when dealing with outsiders.^{[citation needed]}

Occitan's decline is somewhat less pronounced in Béarn because of the province's history (a late addition to the Kingdom of France), though even there the language is little spoken outside the homes of the rural elderly. The village of Artix is notable for having elected to post street signs in the local language.^{[citation needed]}

Usage outside France

• In the Val d'Aran, in the northwest corner of Catalonia, Spain, Aranese (a variety of Gascon) is spoken. It is an official language of Catalonia together with Catalan and Spanish.
• In Italy, Occitan is also spoken in the Occitan Valleys (Alps) in Piedmont and Liguria. An Occitan-speaking enclave also has existed at Guardia Piemontese (Calabria) since the 14th century. Italy adopted in 1999 a Linguistic Minorities Protection Law, or "Law 482", which includes Occitan; however, Italian is the dominant language. The Piedmontese language is extremely close to Occitan.
• In Monaco, some Occitan speakers coexist with remaining native speakers of Monégasque (Ligurian). French is the dominant language.
• Scattered Occitan-speaking communities have existed in different countries:
  • There were Occitan-speaking colonies in Württemberg (Germany) since the 18th century, as a consequence of the Camisard war. The last Occitan speakers were heard in the 1930s.
  • In the Spanish Basque country, Gascon was spoken in San Sebastián, perhaps as late as the early 20th century.^[36]
  • In the Americas, Occitan speakers exist:
    • in the United States, in Valdese, North Carolina^[37][38]
    • in Canada, in Quebec where there are Occitan associations such as Association Occitane du Québec and Association des Occitans.^[39]
    • Pigüé, Argentina – Community settled by 165 Occitans from the Rodez-Aveyron area of Cantal in the late 19th century.
    • Guanajuato, Mexico – A sparse number of Occitan settlers are known to have settled in that state in the 19th century.^[40]

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 the langue d'oïl Saintongeais dialect is spoken.
• Midi-Pyrénées – including one of France's largest cities, Toulouse. There are a few street signs in Toulouse in Occitan, and since late 2009 the Toulouse Metro announcements are bilingual French-Occitan,^[41] but otherwise the language is almost never heard spoken on the street.
• Languedoc-Roussillon (from "Lenga d'òc") – including the areas around the medieval city of Carcassonne, excluding the large part of the Pyrénées-Orientales where Catalan is spoken (Fenolheda 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 transitional dialect between Ligurian and Occitan, (Roiasc, including the Brigasc dialect of Ligurian). In the department of Alpes-Maritimes there were once isolated towns that spoke Ligurian, but those varieties are now extinct. The Mentonasc dialect of Ligurian, spoken in Menton, is a Ligurian transition dialect with a strong Occitan influence.
• In Monaco, Occitan, imported by immigrants coexisted in the 19th and 20th centuries with the Monégasque dialect of Ligurian. French is the dominant language.
• Poitou-Charentes – Use of Occitan has declined here in the few parts it used to be spoken, replaced by French. Only Charente Limousine, the eastern part of the region, has resisted. The natural and historical languages of most of the region are the langues d'oïl Poitevin and Saintongeais.
• Limousin – A rural region (about 710,000 inhabitants) where Limousin is still spoken among the oldest residents. French is the dominant language.
• Auvergne – The language's use has declined in some urban areas. The department of Allier is divided between a southern, Occitan-speaking area and a northern, French-speaking area.
• Centre-Val de Loire – 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.
• Occitan Valleys (Piedmont) – Italian region 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.

Number of speakers

The area where Occitan was historically dominant has approximately 16 million inhabitants. Recent research has shown it may be spoken as a first language by approximately 789,000 people^[1][2] in France, Italy, Spain and Monaco. In Monaco, Occitan coexists with Monégasque Ligurian, which is the other native language.^[42][43] Some researchers state that up to seven million people in France understand the language,^[44][45][46] whereas twelve to fourteen million fully spoke it in 1921.^[47] In 1860, Occitan speakers represented more than 39%^[48] of the whole French population (52% for francophones proper); they were still 26% to 36% in the 1920s^[49] and fewer than 7% in 1993.

Occitan is fundamentally defined by its dialects, rather than being a unitary language. That point is very conflictual in Southern France, as many people do not recognize Occitan as a real language and think that the next defined "dialects" are languages.^[50] Like other languages that fundamentally exist at a spoken, rather than written, level (e.g. the Rhaeto-Romance languages, Franco-Provençal, Astur-Leonese, and Aragonese), every settlement technically has its own dialect, with the whole of Occitania forming a classic dialect continuum that changes gradually along any path from one side to the other. Nonetheless, specialists commonly divide Occitan into six main dialects:

• Gascon: includes the Béarnese and Aranese (spoken in Spain).
• Languedocien (lengadocian)
• Limousin (lemosin)
• Auvergnat (auvernhat)
• Provençal (provençau or prouvençau), including the Niçard subdialect.
  • Shuadit language
• Vivaro-Alpine (vivaroaupenc), also known as "Alpine" or "Alpine Provençal", and sometimes considered a subdialect of Provençal

The northern and easternmost dialects have more morphological and phonetic features in common with the Gallo-Italic and Oïl languages (e.g. nasal vowels; loss of final consonants; initial cha/ja- instead of ca/ga-; uvular ⟨r⟩; the front-rounded sound /ø/ instead of a diphthong, /w/ instead of /l/ before a consonant), whereas the southernmost dialects have more features in common with the Ibero-Romance languages (e.g. betacism; voiced fricatives between vowels in place of voiced stops; -ch- in place of -it-), and Gascon has a number of unusual features not seen in other dialects (e.g. /h/ in place of /f/; loss of /n/ between vowels; intervocalic -r- and final -t/ch in place of medieval -ll-). There are also significant lexical differences, where some dialects have words cognate with French, and others have Catalan and Spanish cognates. Nonetheless, there is a significant amount of mutual intelligibility.

Gascon is the most divergent, and descriptions of the main features of Occitan often consider Gascon separately. Max Wheeler notes that "probably only its copresence within the French cultural sphere has kept [Gascon] from being regarded as a separate language", and compares it to Franco-Provençal, which is considered a separate language from Occitan but is "probably not more divergent from Occitan overall than Gascon is".^[51]

There is no general agreement about larger groupings of these dialects.

Max Wheeler divides the dialects into two groups:^[51]

• Southwestern (Gascon and Languedocien), more conservative
• Northeastern (Limousin, Auvergnat, Provençal and Vivaro-Alpine), more innovative

Pierre Bec divides the dialects into three groups:^[52]

• Gascon, standing alone
• Southern Occitan (Languedocien and Provençal)
• Northern Occitan (Limousin, Auvergnat, Vivaro-Alpine)

Bec also notes that some linguists prefer a "supradialectal" classification that groups Occitan with Catalan as a part of a wider Occitano-Romanic group. One such classification posits three groups:

• "Arverno-Mediterranean" (arvèrnomediterranèu), same as Wheeler's northeastern group, i.e. Limousin, Auvergnat, Provençal and Vivaro-Alpine
• "Central Occitan" (occitan centrau), Languedocien, excepting the Southern Languedocien subdialect
• "Aquitano-Pyrenean" (aquitanopirenenc), Southern Languedocien, Gascon and Catalan

According to this view, Catalan is an ausbau language that became independent from Occitan during the 13th century, but originates from the Aquitano-Pyrenean group.

Domergue Sumien proposes a slightly different supradialectal grouping.^[53]

• Arverno-Mediterranean (arvèrnomediterranèu), same as in Bec and Wheeler, divided further:
  • Niçard-Alpine (niçardoaupenc), Vivaro-Alpine along with the Niçard subdialect of Provençal
  • Trans-Occitan (transoccitan), the remainder of Provençal along with Limousin and Auvergnat
• Pre-Iberian (preïberic)
  • Central Occitan (occitan centrau), same as in Bec
  • Aquitano-Pyrenean (aquitanopirenenc), same as in Bec

Dialect IETF subtags

Several IETF language variant tags have been registered:^[54]

• oc-aranese: Aranese.
• oc-auvern: Auvergnat.
• oc-cisaup: Cisalpine, northwestern Italy.
• oc-creiss: Croissant
• oc-gascon: Gascon.
• oc-lemosin: Leimousin.
• oc-lengadoc: Languedocien.
• oc-nicard: Niçard.
• oc-provenc: Provençal.
• oc-vivaraup: Vivaro-Alpine.

Standardization

All regional varieties of the Occitan language have a written form; thus, Occitan can be considered as a pluricentric language. Standard Occitan, also called occitan larg (i.e., 'wide Occitan') is a synthesis that respects and admits soft regional adaptations (which are based on the convergence of previous regional koinés).^[53] The standardization process began with the publication of Gramatica occitana segon los parlars lengadocians ("Grammar of the Languedocien Dialect") by Louis Alibert (1935), followed by the Dictionnaire occitan-français selon les parlers languedociens ("French-Occitan dictionary according to Languedocien") by the same author (1966), completed during the 1970s with the works of Pierre Bec (Gascon), Robèrt Lafont (Provençal), and others. However, the process has not yet been completed as of the present.^{[clarification needed]}. Standardization is mostly supported by users of the classical norm. Due to the strong situation of diglossia, some users thusly reject the standardization process, and do not conceive Occitan as a language that can be standardized as per other standardized languages.

Writing system

There are two main linguistic norms currently used for Occitan, one (known as "classical"), which is based on that of Medieval Occitan, and one (sometimes known as "Mistralian", due to its use by Frédéric Mistral), which is based on modern French orthography. Sometimes, there is conflict between 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, journ, or even yourn, 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, presumably by Gerald of Braga, a monk from Moissac, who became bishop of Braga in Portugal in 1047, playing a major role in modernizing written Portuguese using classical Occitan norms.^[55]
• The Mistralian norm (or less exactly Mistralian orthography) has the advantage of being similar to that of French, in which most Occitan speakers are literate. Now, it is used mostly in the Provençal/Niçard dialect, besides the classical norm. It has also been used by a number of eminent writers, particularly in Provençal. However, it is somewhat impractical, because it is based mainly on the Provençal dialect and also uses many digraphs for simple sounds, the most notable one being ou for the [u] sound, as it is in French, 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 used only 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.

Note that Catalan version was translated from the Spanish, while the Occitan versions were translated from the French. The second part of the Catalan version may also be rendered as "Són dotades de raó i de consciència, i els cal actuar entre si amb un esperit de fraternitat", showing the similarities between Occitan and Catalan.

Orthography IETF subtags

Several IETF language subtags have been registered for the different orthographies:^[54]

• oc-grclass: Classical Occitan orthography.
• oc-grital: Italian-inspired Occitan orthography.
• oc-grmistr: Mistralian-inspired Occitan orthography.

Debates concerning linguistic classification and orthography

The majority of scholars think that Occitan constitutes a single language.^[58] Some authors,^[59] constituting a minority,^[58] reject this opinion and even the name Occitan, thinking that there is a family of distinct lengas d'òc rather than dialects of a single language.

Many Occitan linguists and writers,^[60] particularly those involved with the pan-Occitan movement centered on the Institut d'Estudis Occitans, disagree with the view that Occitan is a family of languages; instead they believe Limousin, Auvergnat, Languedocien, Gascon, Provençal and Vivaro-Alpine are dialects of a single language. Although there are indeed noticeable differences between these varieties, there is a very high degree of mutual intelligibility between them ^[61] partly because they share a common literary history; furthermore, academic and literary circles have identified them as a collective linguistic entity—the lenga d'òc—for centuries.

Some Provençal authors continue to support the view that Provençal is a separate language.^[62] Nevertheless, the vast majority of Provençal authors and associations think that Provençal is a part of Occitan.^[63]

This debate about the status of Provençal should not be confused with the debate concerning the spelling of Provençal.

• The classical orthography is phonemic and diasystemic, and thus more pan-Occitan. It can be used for (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 or less phonemic but not diasystemic and is 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 system writes Polonha, whereas the Mistralian spelling system has Poulougno, for [puˈluɲo], 'Poland'.

The question of Gascon is similar. Gascon presents a number of significant differences from the rest of the language; but, despite these differences, Gascon and other Occitan dialects have very important common lexical and grammatical features, so authors such as Pierre Bec argue that they could never be considered as different as, for example, Spanish and Italian.^[64] In addition, Gascon's being included in Occitan despite its particular differences can be justified because there is a common elaboration (Ausbau) process between Gascon and the rest of Occitan.^[58] The vast majority of the Gascon cultural movement considers itself as a part of the Occitan cultural movement.^[65][66] And the official status of Val d'Aran (Catalonia, Spain), adopted in 1990, says that Aranese is a part of Gascon and Occitan. A grammar of Aranese by Aitor Carrera, published in 2007 in Lleida, presents the same view.^[67]

The exclusion of Catalan from the Occitan sphere, even though Catalan is closely related, is justified because there has been a consciousness of its being different from Occitan since the later Middle Ages and because the elaboration (Ausbau) processes of Catalan and Occitan (including Gascon) have been quite distinct since the 20th century. Nevertheless, other scholars point out that the process that led to the affirmation of Catalan as a distinct language from Occitan started during the period when the pressure to include Catalan-speaking areas in a mainstream Spanish culture was at its greatest.^[68]

The answer to the question of whether Gascon or Catalan should be considered dialects of Occitan or separate languages has long been a matter of opinion or convention, rather than based on scientific ground. However, two recent studies support Gascon's being considered a distinct language. For the very first time, a quantifiable, statistics-based approach was applied by Stephan Koppelberg in attempt to solve this issue.^[69] Based on the results he obtained, he concludes that Catalan, Occitan, and Gascon should all be considered three distinct languages. More recently, Y. Greub and J.P. Chambon (Sorbonne University, Paris) demonstrated that the formation of Proto-Gascon was already complete at the eve of the 7th century, whereas Proto-Occitan was not yet formed at that time.^[70] These results induced linguists to do away with the conventional classification of Gascon, favoring the "distinct language" alternative.^{[citation needed]} Both studies supported the early intuition of the late Kurt Baldinger, a specialist of both medieval Occitan and medieval Gascon, who recommended that Occitan and Gascon be classified as separate languages.^[71][72]

Jules Ronjat has sought to characterize Occitan with 19 principal, generalizable criteria. Of those, 11 are phonetic, five morphologic, one syntactic, and two lexical. For example, close rounded vowels 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

Most features of Occitan are shared with either French or Catalan, or both.

Features of Occitan as a whole

Examples of pan-Occitan features shared with French, but not Catalan:

• Latin ū [uː] (Vulgar Latin /u/) changed to /y/, as in French (Lat. dv̄rvm > Oc. dur).
• Vulgar Latin /o/ changed to /u/, first in unstressed syllables, as in Catalan (Lat. romānvs > Oc. roman [ruˈma]), then in stressed syllables (Lat. flōrem > Oc. flor [fluɾ]).

Examples of pan-Occitan features shared with Catalan, but not French:

• Stressed Latin a was preserved (Lat. mare > Oc. mar, Fr. mer).
• Intervocalic - t- was lenited to /d/ rather than lost (Lat. vitam > Oc. vida, Fr. vie).

Examples of pan-Occitan features not shared with Catalan or French:

• Original /aw/ preserved.
• Final /a/ becomes /ɔ/ (note in Valencian (Catalan), /ɔ/ may appear in word-final unstressed position, in a process of vowel harmony).
• Low-mid /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ diphthongized before velars. /ɛ/ generally becomes /jɛ/; /ɔ/ originally became /wɔ/ or /wɛ/, but has since usually undergone further fronting (e.g. to [ɥɛ], [ɥɔ], [jɔ], [œ], [ɛ], [ɥe], [we], etc.). Diphthongization also occurred before palatals, as in French and Catalan.
• Various assimilations in consonant clusters (e.g. ⟨cc⟩ in Occitan, pronounced /utsiˈta/ in conservative Languedocien).

Features of some Occitan dialects

Examples of dialect-specific features of the northerly dialects shared with French, but not Catalan:

• Palatalization of ca-, ga- to /tʃa, dʒa/.
• Vocalization of syllable-final /l/ to /w/.
• Loss of final consonants.
• Vocalization of syllable-final nasals to nasal vowels.
• Uvularization of some or all ⟨r⟩ sounds.

Examples of dialect-specific features of the southerly dialects (or some of them) shared with Catalan, but not French:

• Latin -mb-,-nd- become /m, n/.
• Betacism: /b/ and /v/ merge (feature shared with Spanish and some Catalan dialects; except for Balearic, Valencian and Algherese Catalan, where /v/ is preserved).
• Intervocalic voiced stops /b d ɡ/ (from Latin -p-, -t, -c-) become voiced fricatives [β ð ɣ].
• Loss of word-final single /n/ (but not /nn/, e.g. an "year" < ānnvm).

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

• Latin initial /f/ changed into /h/ (Lat. filivm > Gasc. hilh). This also happened in medieval Spanish, although the /h/ was eventually lost, or reverted to /f/ (before a consonant). The Gascon ⟨h⟩ has retained its aspiration.
• Loss of /n/ between vowels. This also happened in Portuguese and Galician (and moreover also in Basque).
• Change of -ll- to ⟨r⟩ /ɾ/, or ⟨th⟩ word-finally (originally the voiceless palatal stop /c/, but now generally either /t/ or /tʃ/, depending on the word). This is a unique characteristic of Gascon and of certain Aragonese dialects.

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

• Merging of syllable-final nasals to /ŋ/. This appears to represent a transitional stage before nasalization, and occurs especially in the southerly dialects other than Gascon (which still maintains different final nasals, as in Catalan).
• Former intervocalic /ð/ (from Latin -d-) becomes /z/ (most dialects, but not Gascon). This appears to have happened in primitive Catalan as well, but Catalan later deleted this sound or converted it to /w/.
• Palatalization of /jt/ (from Latin ct) to /tʃ/ in most dialects or /(j)t/: lach vs lait (Gascon lèit) 'milk', lucha vs luta (Gascon luta) 'fight'.
• Weakening of /l/ to /r/ in the Vivaro-Alpine dialect.

Comparison with other Romance languages and English

Lexicon

A comparison of terms and word counts between languages is not easy, as it is impossible to 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,^[74] 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 (as in World Wide Web) is oèb, for example.

Differences between Occitan and Catalan

The separation of Catalan from Occitan is seen by some^{[citation needed]} as largely politically (rather than linguistically) motivated. However, the variety that has become standard Catalan differs from the one that has become standard Occitan in a number of ways. Here are just a few examples:

• Phonology
  • Standard Catalan (based on Central Eastern 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); that is precisely the reverse of the development that took place in Western Catalan dialects and the rest of the Romance languages, including Occitan. Thus Standard Catalan ésser [ˈesə] corresponds to Occitan èsser/èstre [ˈɛse/ˈɛstre] 'to be;' Catalan carrer [kəˈre] corresponds to Occitan carrièra [karˈjɛɾo̞] 'street', but it is also carriera [karˈjeɾo̞], in Provençal.
  • The distinctly Occitan development of word-final -a, pronounced [o̞] in standard Occitan (chifra 'figure' [ˈtʃifro̞]), did not occur in general Catalan (which has xifra [ˈʃifrə]). However, some Occitan varieties also lack that feature, and some Catalan (Valencian) varieties have the [ɔ] pronunciation, mostly by vowel harmony.
  • When in Catalan word stress falls in the antepenultimate syllable, in Occitan the stress is moved to the penultimate syllable: for example, Occitan pagina [paˈdʒino̞] vs. Catalan pàgina [ˈpaʒinə], "page". However, there are exceptions. For example, some varieties of Occitan (such as that of Nice) keep the stress on the antepenultimate syllable (pàgina), and some varieties of Catalan (in Northern Catalonia) put the stress on the penultimate syllable (pagina).
  • Diphthongization has evolved in different ways: Occitan paire vs. Catalan pare 'father;' Occitan carrièra (carrèra, carrèira) vs. Catalan carrera.
  • Although some Occitan dialects lack the voiceless postalveolar fricative phoneme /ʃ/, others such as southwestern Occitan have it: general Occitan caissa [ˈkajso̞] vs. Catalan caixa [ˈkaʃə] and southwestern Occitan caissa, caisha [ˈka(j)ʃo̞], 'box.' Nevertheless, some Valencian dialects like Northern Valencian lack that phoneme too and generally substitute /jsʲ/: caixa [ˈkajʃa] (Standard Valencian) ~ [ˈkajsʲa] (Northern Valencian).
  • Occitan has developed the close front rounded vowel /y/ as a phoneme, often (but not always) corresponding to Catalan /u/: Occitan musica [myˈziko̞] vs. Catalan música [ˈmuzikə].
  • The distribution of palatal consonants /ʎ/ and /ɲ/ differs in Catalan and part of Occitan: while Catalan permits them in word-final position, in central Occitan they are neutralized to [l] and [n] (Central Occitan filh [fil] vs. Catalan fill [fiʎ], 'son'). Similarly, Algherese Catalan neutralizes palatal consonants in word-final position as well. Non-central varieties of Occitan, however, may have a palatal realization (e.g. filh, hilh [fiʎ, fij, hiʎ]).
  • Furthermore, many words that start with /l/ in Occitan start with /ʎ/ in Catalan: Occitan libre [ˈliβɾe] vs. Catalan llibre [ˈʎiβɾə], 'book.' That feature is perhaps one of the most distinctive characteristics of Catalan amongst the Romance languages, shared only with Asturian, Leonese and Mirandese. However, some transitional varieties of Occitan, near the Catalan area, also have initial /ʎ/.
  • While /l/ is always clear in Occitan, in Catalan it tends to be velarized [ɫ] ("dark l"). In coda position, /l/ has tended to be vocalized to [w] in Occitan, while remained dark in Catalan.
  • Standard Eastern Catalan has a neutral vowel [ə] whenever a or e occur in unstressed position (passar [pəˈsa], 'to happen', but passa [ˈpasə], 'it happens'), and also [u] whenever o or u occur in unstressed position, e.g. obrir [uˈβɾi], 'to open', but obre [ˈɔβɾə], 'you open'. However, that 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, but there is a great variety amongst dialects. Medieval conjugations were much closer. A characteristic difference is the ending of the second person plural, which is -u in Catalan but -tz in Occitan.
  • Occitan tends to add an analogical -a to the feminine forms of adjectives that 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' followed by the infinitive of the verb: donar 'to give,' va donar 'he gave.' That has the same value as the 'normal' preterite shared by most Romance languages, deriving from the Latin perfect tense: Catalan donà 'he gave.' The periphrastic preterite, in Occitan, is an archaic or a very local tense.
• Orthography
  • The writing systems of the two languages differ slightly. 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, and the Catalan system recommended by the Institut d'Estudis Catalans and Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua is specific to Catalan and Valencian. For example, in Catalan, word-final -n is omitted, as it is not pronounced in any dialect of Catalan (Català, Occità); central Occitan also drops word-final -n, but it is retained in the spelling, as some eastern and western dialects of Occitan still have it (Catalan, Occitan). Some digraphs are also written in a different way such as the sound /ʎ/, which is ll in Catalan (similar to Spanish) and lh in Occitan (similar to Portuguese) or the sound /ɲ/ written ny in Catalan and nh in Occitan.

Occitano-Romance 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, although this is mainly a consequence of using the classical (orthographical) norm of the Occitan, which is precisely focused in showing the similarities between the Occitan dialects with Catalan. Occitan and Catalan form a common diasystem (or a common Abstandsprache), which is called Occitano-Romance, according to the linguist Pierre Bec.^[75] Speakers of both languages share early historical and cultural heritage.

The combined Occitano-Romance 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 could speak Occitan well, though around half understood it; it is thought that the number of Occitan users has decreased dramatically since then. By contrast, in the Catalonia administered by the Government of Catalonia, nearly three-quarters of the population speak Catalan and 95% understand it.^[76]

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'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 aquella valor / que vos guida al som de l'escalina, / sovenha vos a temps de ma dolor.

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.

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:

"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.

Translation:

"I am Arnaut who loves the wind,

and chases the hare with the ox,

and swims against the torrent."

French writer Victor Hugo's classic Les Misérables also contains some Occitan. In Part One, First Book, Chapter IV, "Les œuvres semblables aux paroles", one can read about Monseigneur Bienvenu:

"Né provençal, il s'était facilement familiarisé avec tous les patois du midi. Il disait: — E ben, monsur, sètz saget? comme dans le bas Languedoc. — Ont anaratz passar? comme dans les basses Alpes. — Pòrti un bon moton amb un bon formatge gras, comme dans le haut Dauphiné. [...] Parlant toutes les langues, il entrait dans toutes les âmes."

Translation:

"Born a Provençal, he easily familiarized himself with the dialect of the south. He would say, E ben, monsur, sètz saget? as in lower Languedoc; Ont anaratz passar? as in the Basses-Alpes; Pòrti un bon moton amb un bon formatge gras as in upper Dauphiné. [...] As he spoke all tongues, he entered into all hearts."

E ben, monsur, sètz saget?: So, Mister, everything's fine?

Ont anaratz passar?: Which way will you go?

Pòrti un bon moton amb un bon formatge gras: I brought some fine mutton with a fine fat cheese

The Spanish playwright Lope de Rueda included a Gascon servant for comical effect in one of his short pieces, La generosa paliza.^[77]

John Barnes's Thousand Cultures science fiction series (A Million Open Doors, 1992; Earth Made of Glass, 1998; The Merchants of Souls, 2001; and The Armies of Memory, 2006), features Occitan. So does the 2005 best-selling novel Labyrinth by English author Kate Mosse. It is set in Carcassonne, where she owns a house and spends half of the year.

The French composer Joseph Canteloube created five sets of folk songs entitled Songs of the Auvergne, in which the lyrics are in the Auvergne dialect of Occitan. The orchestration strives to conjure vivid pastoral scenes of yesteryear.

Michael Crichton features Occitan in his Timeline novel.

• Baìo
• History of the Basque language
• Languages of France
• Languages of Italy
• Languages of Spain
• Occitan cross
• Occitan cuisine

Explanatory footnotes

• Anglade, Joseph (1921). Grammaire de l'ancien provençal ou ancienne langue d'oc: phonétique et morphologie (in French). Paris: C. Klincksieck.
• Backer, Louis de (1860). Grammaire comparée des langues de la France, par Louis de Baecker. Flamand, allemand, celto-breton, basque, provençal, espagnol, italien, français, comparés au sanscrit (in French). Paris: C. Blériot.
• Bec, Pierre (1963). La Langue occitane. Que sais-je? 1059 (in French). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
• Bec, Pierre (1973). Manuel pratique d'occitan moderne (in French). Paris: A. & J. Picard.
• Carrera, Aitor (2007). Gramatica Aranesa (in Occitan). Lleida: Pagès Editors. ISBN 978-84-9779-484-8.
• Gaussen, Yvan (1927). Du fédéralisme de Proudhon au Félibrige de Mistral (in French). Nîmes: A. Chastanier.
• Kremnitz, Georg (2002). "Une approche sociolinguistique". In Kirsch, Fritz Peter; Kremnitz, Georg; Schlieben-Lange, Brigitte (eds.). Petite histoire sociale de la langue occitane: Usages, images, littérature, grammaires et dictionnaires (in French). Chabrant, Catherine trans. Canet, France: Trabucaire. ISBN 978-2-912966-59-9.
• Smith, Nathaniel B.; Bergin, Thomas Goddard (1984). An Old Provençal Primer. New York: Garland. ISBN 0-8240-9030-6.

• Orbilat.com – Overview and grammar of Occitan
• Occitanet.free.fr – a guide to the language
• Globegate.UTM.edu – Troubadour & Early Occitan Literature
• Ostaldoccitania.net – The house of Occitan associations of Toulouse
• Eonet.ne – "LexRomEdic", electronic version of Lexique Roman of Rainouard (A provisional version is available).
• arrilemosin.fr – Occitan Limousin group website with maps and vocabulary