Occitan language

Occitan, or Lenga d'òc, or Langue d'oc is a Romance language spoken in a territory called Occitania (i.e. Southern France, Monaco and some valleys of Italy and Spain). All of its subdivisions are generally mutually intelligible. The area where Occitan had been 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 (see Usage in France, below). More widely accepted wisdom suggests that as few as half a million proficient speakers remain in France, for example.

In France, Italy and Spain, Occitan or Langue d'oc is the general name given to all dialects of the language. Provençal used to be a synonym of Occitan but since the second half of the XXth Century, it has been used mainly to refer to the Occitan dialect of Provence.

In the English-speaking world, "Provençal" is often used to refer to all dialects of Occitan as well as to medieval versions of Occitan known as "Langue d'oc".

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 oui as used in French.

The medieval Italian poet Dante was the first to have used the term of "lingua d'oco." 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 use of "yes.": oïl languages (in northern France); oc languages (in southern France) and 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 the Spanish sí, Italian sì, Catalan sí, or Portuguese sim.

The remaining Romance language, Romanian, took its yes-word from Slavic, da.

Other names for Occitan

For many centuries, the Occitan dialects (together with Catalan) 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.

Linguistic status

Scholars dispute whether Occitan constitutes a single language, and some characterize the lengas d'òc as a family of distinct languages rather than dialects.

Many Occitan linguists and writers, particularly those involved with the pan-Occitan movement centred on the Institut d'Estudis Occitans in Tolosa (Toulouse), 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 indeed a number of noticeable differences between these varieties, in many cases 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 langues d'oc - for centuries.

Provençal writers are a notable exception. Many Provençal authors continue to support the view that Provençal is a separate language; they use the old Provençal orthographic system, i.e. that used by the Mistral's Félibrige movement of the 19th century, which was based in Provence. The newer, pan-Occitan movement centres on Lengadòc, which many Provençal authors resent. (The Mistralian spelling is more phonetic, and therefore more specific to Provençal, whereas the modern system is more phonemic, and so more pan-Occitan: for example, a Mistralian Provençal author might write bouno where the modern pan-Occitan system has bona, for , 'good'.)

The question of Gascon is more controversial still, as Gascon presents a number of significant differences from the rest of the family; Gascon and Lengadocian could be considered as different as, for example, Spanish and Italian. In addition, given the fact that Gascon is included within Occitan despite its particular differences, it is hard to justify (in purely linguistic terms) the exclusion of Catalan from the Occitan sphere; Catalan is a language closely related to Occitan, although there has been a conscience of it being different to Occitan since the later Middle Ages.

Linguistic science (i.e. Linguistics) does not make a rigorous, scientific distinction between 'languages' and 'dialects.' It is popularly believed that two mutually intelligible dialects are automatically considered dialects of one language, whereas mutually unintelligible dialects must be classed as different languages. However, this is not true: diasystems of mutually intelligible dialects are often split into two or more languages for non-linguistic reasons (cf. Romanian and Moldovan, Hindi and Urdu); similarly, many mutually unintelligible dialects are considered to form part of the same language (e.g. a variety of Spanish spoken in Galicia vs. one spoken in Andalusia - or, more importantly, Gascon vs. Provençal). In addition, difficulty will naturally arise when one attempts to quantify the term 'mutual intelligibility.' To what extent must two dialects overlap or be understood in order to be considered of the same language? To what extent does (or should) linguistic history and linguistic evolution play in such a categorization? It should be noted further, and with a great deal of stress, that the heirarchical categorization of languages or dialects into a series based on purity or "correctness", is based on socio-political motivations, usually intended to support an oligarchy of some sort. (See Language-dialect aphorism.)

Within the context of Occitan, this means that the status of the language cannot be defined by comparing this or that linguistic feature; it is ultimately a socio-political construct. The reason, therefore, that Gascon is traditionally grouped within Occitan, but Catalan classed as a separate language, is not entirely linguistic, but also political: Gascony has been under the control of the French for centuries, whereas Catalonia was the dominant region in the Kingdom of Aragon and later a part of Spain and France. Similarly, whether Provençal is a dialect of Occitan or a separate language depends entirely on each speaker's political views.

Occitan around the world

Occitan-speaking colonies developed in Italy (Calabria and Piedmont).
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), where Aranese is spoken; Aranese is a variety of Gascon, therefore a dialect of Occitan.
In Germany (duchy of Württemberg), Argentina and Uruguay.
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.

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 vowels (French: pâte, 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.

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 (Lengadocian) Occitan in a number of ways. The following are just a few examples:

Phonology
- (Standard) Catalan is unique in that Latin short e developed to close vowel (é) and Latin long e developed to open (è); this is precisely the reverse of the development that took place in the other Romance languages, including Occitan. Thus Catalan ésser corresponds to Occitan èstre 'to be;' Catalan carrera corresponds to Occitan carrièra 'street.'
- The distinctly Occitan development of word-final -a, pronounced as in standard Occitan (e.g. chifra 'figure' ), did not occur in Catalan (Catalan has xifra ). However, some Occitan varieties also lack this feature.
- In Occitan, the word stress is often moved to the penultimate syllable, mirroring French pronunciation, whereas in Catalan, except for Northern dialects, it remains on the antepenultimate syllable, in line with Spanish: for example, Occitan musica classica vs. Catalan música clàssica , 'classical music.'
- Diphthongisation has evolved in different ways, e.g. Occitan paire vs. Catalan pare 'father;' Occitan carrièra vs. Catalan carrera.
- Most Occitan dialects lack the phoneme , e.g. Occitan caissa vs. Catalan caixa , 'box.'
- Occitan has developed as a phoneme, often (but not always) corresponding to Catalan , e.g. Occitan musica' vs. Catalan música .
- The distribution of palatal consonats and differs in Catalan and Occitan: whilst Catalan permits these sounds in word-final position, in Occitan they are neutralised to and (e.g. Occitan filh vs. Catalan fill , 'son'). Also, many words that in Occitan start with start with in Catalan, e.g. Occitan libre vs. Catalan llibre , 'book.' This is perhaps one of the most distinctive characteristics of Catalan amongst the Romance languages.
- Standard Eastern Catalan has a neutral vowel whenever a, è or é occur in unstressed position (e.g. passar , 'to happen,' but passa , 'it happens'), and also whenever ò, ó or u occur in unstressed position (e.g. voler , 'to want,' but vol , 'he wants.' However, this does not apply to Western Catalan dialects, whose vowel system usually retains the a/e distinction in unstressed position, and 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 is unique to Catalan; there is no parallel in Occitan.

Writing systems differ significantly between the two languages. The modern Occitan spelling recommended by the Institut d'Estudis Occitans 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); standard Occitan also drops word-final -n, but it is retained in the spelling, as some northern dialects of do retain it (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 Spanish or French and either of them, 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 it should be noted, however, that only those who are highly educated speak Catalan as well as, for example, a native English speaker would speak English [http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/socio/docs/censling2001.pdf.

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, 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 in the Industrial revolution, as the vocabulary of the countryside became less important. At the same time, it was disparaged as a patois.

The language has 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.

Furthermore, Occitan's geography as a central Romance language facilitates comprehension of neighboring languages (Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.) Among languages in its family, Occitan 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 langues, with English for reference
- bgcolor="#eeeeee"
Latin	French	Italian	Spanish	Occitan	Catalan	Portuguese	Romanian	English	- bgcolor="#ffffff"	clavis	clef/clé	chiave	llave	clau	clau	chave	cheie	key	- bgcolor="#ffffff"	nox, noctis	nuit	notte	noche	nuèit/nuèch	nit	noite	noapte	night	- bgcolor="#ffffff"	cantare	chanter	cantare	cantar	cantar	cantar	cantar	cânta	sing	- bgcolor="#ffffff"	capra	chèvre	capra	cabra	cabra	cabra	cabra	capră	goat	- bgcolor="#ffffff"	lingua	langue	lingua	lengua	lenga/lengua	llengua	língua	limbă	language	- bgcolor="#ffffff"	platea	place	piazza	plaza	plaça	plaça	praça	piaţă	plaza	- bgcolor="#ffffff"	pons, pontis	pont	ponte	puente	pònt	pont	ponte	punte	bridge	- bgcolor="#ffffff"	ecclesia (also basilica)	église	chiesa	iglesia	glèisa	església	igreja	biserică	church	- bgcolor="#ffffff"	caseus (Vulgar Latin formaticum)	fromage	formaggio	queso	formatge	formatge	queijo	caş	cheese

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 Frederic Mistral was however watered down by the First World War where Occitan speakers spent long times along French-speaking comrades.

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 Metropolitan 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. Ethnic activists 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 Metropolitan French equivalents more prominently displayed), to remind them of the traditional language of the area.

Usage outside France

In the Val d'Aran, a valley in the north of Catalonia (in north-eastern Spain), Aranese (a dialect 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 Calabria (Italy) since the 14th century, and in Württemberg (Germany) since the 18th century, the latter as a consequence of the Camisard war.

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 were originally Basque-speaking, with Occitan-speaking groups, until 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.
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur — except for the Roya and Bévéra valleys, and some isolated areas speaking Ligurian in Var and the Alpes-Maritimes départements. The Mentonasque language is a blend of Occitan (Provençal) and Ligurian. In the independent state of Monaco the Monegasque language, a Ligurian dialect, is spoken despite strong Provençal immigration.
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 the Marche and Basse-Auvergne areas.
Rhône-Alpes — While the south of the region is clearly Occitan-speaking, the northern Lyonnais, Forez and Dauphiné parts, which were the intermediate zones between Occitan and Franco-Provençal, have become French-speaking.
Piedmont — Italian region where Occitan is still spoken only in the high valleys. Elsewhere, Italian and a Franco-Provençal dialect dominate.
Val d'Aran — part of Catalonia that speaks a mountain dialect of Gascon.
Aragon — a region next to Val d'Aran and the French border.

Features of Occitan

Among the diachronic features of Occitan as a Romance language:

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

Occitan orthography

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

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

The mistralian orthography has the advantage of not forcing Occitan speakers who are already (as is usually the case) literate in French to learn an entirely new system. It has also been used by a number of eminent writers, particularly in Provençal. However, it is somewhat unpractical, since it is centered mainly in the Provençal dialect and also uses many digraphs for simple sounds, most notably ou for the sound, which is written as o under the classical orthography. The classic o also respects the fact that some Southern Occitan dialects retain [o as a sound in stressed position.

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

Occitan quotes

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

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

The above phrase, translated:

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

The Spanish playwright Lope de Rueda included a Gascon servant for comical effect in one of his short pieces, La generosa palizaRegistro de Representantes by Lope de Rueda, in Spanish. Peirutón speaks a mix of Gascon and Catalan..

External links

References

Much of the content of this article comes from Occitan. The following references are cited by that article:

Bec, 1963
Géo Magazine, 2004
Institut de Sociolingüística Catalana, 2004