Occitan language

Not to be confused withOssetian language.

Occitan
occitan,lenga d'òc,provençal / provençau
Native to	France,Spain,Italy,Monaco
Region	Occitania
Ethnicity	Occitans
Native speakers	(c. 200,000cited 1990–2012) Estimates range from 100,000 to 800,000 total speakers (2007–2012),with 68,000 inItaly(2005 survey),4,000 inSpain(Val d'Aran)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Romance Italo-Western Western Romance Gallo-Iberian Gallo-Romance Occitano-Romance Occitan
Early forms	Old Latin Vulgar Latin Proto-Romance Old Occitan
Standard forms	AraneseinSpain
Dialects	Auvergnat Gascon Languedocien Limousin Provençal Vivaro-Alpine Niçard Judeo-Provençal† Judeo-Gascon† Judeo Niçard†
Writing system	Latin alphabet(Occitan alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	Spain Catalonia(asAranese)
Recognised minority language in	France Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Centre-Val de Loire Nouvelle-Aquitaine Occitania Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Italy Guardia Piemontese Occitan Valleys(Law number 482 of 15 December 1999) Monaco
Regulated by	Conselh de la Lenga Occitana;Congrès Permanent de la Lenga Occitana;Institut d'Estudis Aranesi
Language codes
ISO 639-1	oc
ISO 639-2	oci
ISO 639-3	oci– inclusive code Individual code: sdt–Judeo-Occitan
Glottolog	occi1239
Linguasphere	& 51-AAA-f 51-AAA-g & 51-AAA-f
Geographic range of the Occitan language around 1900

Occitan(English:/ˈɒksɪtən,-tæn,-tɑːn/;Occitan:occitan[utsiˈta,uksiˈta]),also known aslenga d'òc(Occitan:[ˈleŋɡɒˈðɔ(k)];French:langue d'oc) by its native speakers, sometimes also referred to asProvençal,is aRomance languagespoken inSouthern France,Monaco,Italy'sOccitan Valleys,as well asSpain'sVal d'AraninCatalonia;collectively, these regions are sometimes referred to asOccitania.It is also spoken inCalabria(Southern Italy) in a linguistic enclave ofCosenzaarea (mostlyGuardia Piemontese). Some includeCatalanin Occitan, as thelinguistic distance( "distance" ) between this language and some Occitan dialects (such as theGascon language) is similar to the distance between different Occitan dialects. Catalan was considered a dialect of Occitan until the end of the 19th centuryand still today remains its closest relative.

Occitan is an official language of Catalonia, Spain, where a subdialect of Gascon known asAraneseis spoken (in theVal d'Aran).Since September 2010, theParliament of Cataloniahas considered Aranese Occitan to be the officially preferred language for use in the Val d'Aran.

Across history, the termsLimousin(Lemosin),Languedocien(Lengadocian),Gascon,in addition toProvençal(Provençal,ProvençauorProuvençau) later have been used as synonyms for the whole of Occitan; nowadays, the term "Provençal" is understood mainly as the Occitan dialect spoken inProvence,in southeast France.

Unlike other Romance languages such asFrenchorSpanish,Occitan does not have a single written standard form, nor does it have official status in France, home to most of its speakers. Instead, there are competing norms for writing Occitan, some of which attempt to be pan-dialectal, whereas others are based on a particular dialect. These efforts are hindered by the rapidly declining use of Occitan as a spoken language in much of southern France, as well as by the significant differences in phonology and vocabulary among different Occitan dialects.

According to theUNESCORed Book of Endangered Languages,four of the six major dialects of Occitan (Provençal,Auvergnat,Limousin and Languedocien) are consideredseverely endangered,whereas the remaining two (GasconandVivaro-Alpine) are considereddefinitely endangered.

Name

History of the modern term

The name Occitan comes from the termlenga d'òc( "language ofòc"),òcbeing the Occitan word foryes.While the term would have been in use orally for some time after the decline of Latin, as far as historical records show, the Italian medieval poetDantewas the first to have recorded the termlingua d'ocin writing. In hisDe vulgari eloquentia,he wrote in Latin,"nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil"( "for some sayòc,otherssì,yet others sayoïl"), thereby highlighting three majorRomance literary languagesthat were well known in Italy, based on each language's word for "yes", theòclanguage(Occitan), theoïllanguage(French), and thesìlanguage(Italian).

The wordòccame fromVulgar Latinhoc( "this" ), whileoïloriginated from Latinhoc illud( "this [is] it" ).Old Catalanand now the Catalan of Northern Catalonia also havehoc(òc). Other Romance languages derive their word for "yes" from the Latinsic,"thus [it is], [it was done], etc.", such as Spanishsí,Eastern Lombardsé,Italiansì,or Portuguesesim.In modern Catalan, as in modern Spanish,síis usually used as a response, although the language retains the wordoi,akin toòc,which is sometimes used at the end ofyes–no questionsand also in higher register as a positive response.French usessito answer "yes" in response to questions that are asked in the negative sense: for example,"Vous n'avez pas de frères?" "Si, j'en ai sept."( "You have no brothers?" "But yes, I have seven." ).

The name "Occitan" was attested around 1300 asoccitanus,a crossing ofocandaquitanus(Aquitanian).

Other names for Occitan

For many centuries, the Occitan dialects (together withCatalan)were referred to asLimousinorProvençal,after the names of two regions lying within the modern Occitan-speaking area. AfterFrédéric Mistral'sFélibrigemovement in the 19th century, Provençal achieved the greatest literary recognition and so became the most popular term for Occitan.

According toJoseph Anglade,aphilologistand specialist ofmedievalliterature who helped impose the thenarchaictermOccitanas the standard name,the wordLemosinwas first used to designate the language at the beginning of the 13th century byCatalantroubadourRaimon Vidal de Besalú(n)in hisRazós 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.

The French language is worthier and better suited for romances andpastourelles;but [the language] fromLimousinis of greater value for writing poems andcançonsandsirventés;and across the whole of the lands where our tongue is spoken, the literature in the Limousin language has more authority than any other dialect, wherefore I shall use this name in priority.

The termProvençal,though implying a reference to the region ofProvence,historically was used for Occitan as a whole, for "in the eleventh, the twelfth, and sometimes also the thirteenth centuries, one would understand under the name of Provence the whole territory of the oldProvincia romana Gallia Narbonensisand evenAquitaine".The term first came into fashion inItaly.

Currently,linguistsuse the termsProvençalandLimousinstrictly to refer to specific varieties within Occitan, using the latter term for the language as a whole. Many non-specialists, however, continue to refer to the language asProvençal.

History

Further information:Old OccitanandOccitan literature

One of the oldest written fragments of the language found dates back to 960, shown here in italics mixed with non-italicized Latin:

De ista hora in antea nondecebràErmengaus filius Eldiarda Froterio episcopo filio GirberganeRaimundo filio Bernardo vicecomite de castello de Cornone...no·l li tolrà ni no·l li devedarà ni no l'en decebrà... nec societatem nonaurà,si per castellum recuperarenon o fa,et si recuperare potuerit in potestate Froterio et Raimundolo tornarà,per ipsas horas quæ Froterius et Raimundusl'en comonrà.

Carolingianlitanies(c. 780), though the leader sang inLatin,wereansweredto in Old Occitan by the people (Ora pro nos;Tu lo juva).

Other famous pieces include theBoecis,a 258-line-long poem written entirely in the Limousin dialect of Occitan between the year 1000 and 1030 and inspired byBoethius'sThe Consolation of Philosophy;theWaldensianLa nobla leyczon(dated 1100),Cançó de Santa Fe(c. 1054–1076), theRomance of Flamenca(13th century), theSong of the Albigensian Crusade(1213–1219?),Daurel e Betó(12th or 13th century),Las, qu'i non-sun sparvir, astur(11th century) andTomida femina(9th or 10th century).

Occitan was the vehicle for the influentialpoetryof the medievaltroubadours(trobadors) andtrobairitz:At that time, the language was understood and celebrated throughout most of educated Europe.It was the maternal language of the English queenEleanor of Aquitaineand kingsRichard I(who wrote troubadour poetry) andJohn.

With the gradual imposition of French royal power over its territory, Occitan declined in status from the 14th century on. TheOrdinance of Villers-Cotterêts(1539) decreed that thelangue d'oïl(French – though at the time referring to theFrancien languageand not the larger collection of dialects grouped under the namelangues d'oïl) should be used for all French administration. Occitan's greatest decline occurred during theFrench Revolution,in which diversity of language was considered a threat.

In 1903, the four Gospels ("Lis Evangèli",i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were translated into Provençal as spoken in Cannes and Grasse. The translation was given the official Roman Catholic Imprimatur by vicar general A. Estellon.

The literary renaissance of the late 19th century (in which the 1904Nobel Prize in Literaturewinner, Frédéric Mistral, among others, was involved) was attenuated byWorld War I,when (in addition to the disruption caused by any major war) many Occitan speakers spent extended periods of time alongside French-speaking comrades.

Origins

Linguistic evolution in southwest Europe from AD 1000 to 2000

Because the geographical territory in which Occitan is spoken is surrounded by regions in which otherRomance languagesare used, external influences may have influenced its origin and development. Many factors favored its development as its own language.

• Mountains and seas: The range of Occitan is naturally bounded by theMediterranean,Atlantic,Massif Central,Alps,andPyrenees,respectively.
• Buffer zones:aridland,marshes,and areas otherwise impractical for farming and resistant of colonization provide further separation (territory betweenLoireandGaronne,theAragondesert plateau).
• Constant populations: Some Occitan-speaking peoples are descended from people living in the region since prehistoric times.
• DeeperRomaninfluence:Julius Caesaronce said that the people of SouthernGaul(AquitaniaandNarbonensis) spoke a "purer"Vulgar Latincompared to the northern provinces of Gaul (BelgicaandLugdunensis), which were more influenced by Gaulish culture and language, this causedSouthern Francemore deeperRomanizationcompared to the north, as Gallia Narbonensis was conquered in 121 BC(more than fifty years before theGallic Wars,thus allowing Roman influence to be more deeper in the region) and Gallia Aquitania was conquered during the Gallic Wars like most of Gaul, but the region was originally primarily inhabited byAquitanitribes rather than theGauls,causingGasconto not be affected by the Gaulish influence that impacted thelangues d'oïland with the other Occitan dialects further north and east. According to Müller, "France's linguistic separation began with Roman influence"
• Variablelinguistic substrate:The Occitan dialects spoken inGasconyhave aBasquesubstrate while lackingGaulishinfluence.The dialects spoken in the rest of the Occitan-speaking areas at the other hand have a Gaulish substrate instead of Basque.
• A separatelexicon:Although Occitan is midway between theGallo-RomanceandIberian Romance languages,it has "around 550 words inherited from Latin that no longer exist in the langues d'oïl or inFranco-Provençal"
• Lack ofGermanicinfluence: "TheFrankishlexicon and its phonetic influence often end above theoc/oïlline "

Occitan in the Iberian Peninsula

Catalan in Spain's northern and central Mediterranean coastal regions and theBalearic Islandsis closely related to Occitan, sharing many linguistic features and a common origin (seeOccitano-Romance languages). The language was one of the first to gain prestige as a medium for literature among Romance languages in the Middle Ages. Indeed, in the 12th and 13th centuries, Catalan troubadours such asGuerau de Cabrera,Guilhem de Bergadan, Guilhem de Cabestany,Huguet de Mataplana,Raimon Vidal de Besalú,Cerverí de Girona,Formit de Perpinhan, andJofre de Foixàwrote in Occitan.

At the end of the 11th century, theFranks,as they were called at the time, started to penetrate theIberian Peninsulathrough theWays of St. JamesviaSomportandRoncesvalles,settling in various locations in the Kingdoms ofNavarreandAragonenticed by the privileges granted them by theNavarrese kings.They settled in large groups, forming ethnicboroughswhere Occitan was used for everyday life, inPamplona,Sangüesa,andEstella-Lizarra,among others.These boroughs in Navarre may have been close-knit communities that tended not to assimilate with the predominantlyBasque-speaking general population. Their language became the status language chosen by the Navarrese kings, nobility, and upper classes for official and trade purposes in the period stretching from the early 13th century to the late 14th century.Written administrative records were in akoinébased on the Languedocien dialect from Toulouse with fairly archaic linguistic features.

Evidence survives of a written account in Occitan from Pamplona centered on theburningof borough San Nicolas from 1258, while theHistory of the War of Navarreby Guilhem Anelier (1276), albeit written in Pamplona, shows a linguistic variant fromToulouse.

Things turned out slightly otherwise in Aragon, where the sociolinguistic situation was different, with a clearer Basque-Romance bilingual situation (cf. Basques from theVal d'Arancitedc. 1000), but a receding Basque language (Basque banned in the marketplace of Huesca, 1349).While the language was chosen as a medium of prestige in records and official statements along with Latin in the early 13th century, Occitan faced competition from the rising local Romance vernacular, theNavarro-Aragonese,both orally and in writing, especially after Aragon's territorial conquests south toZaragoza,HuescaandTudelabetween 1118 and 1134. It resulted that a second Occitan immigration of this period was assimilated by the similarNavarro-Aragonese language,which at the same time was fostered and chosen by the kings ofAragon.In the 14th century, Occitan across the whole southern Pyrenean area fell into decay and became largely absorbed intoNavarro-Aragonesefirst andCastilianlater in the 15th century, after their exclusive boroughs broke up (1423,Pamplona's boroughs unified).

Gascon-speaking communities were called to move in for trading purposes by Navarrese kings in the early 12th century to the coastal fringe extending fromSan Sebastianto the riverBidasoa,where they settled down. The language variant they used was different from the ones in Navarre, i.e. aBéarnese dialectof Gascon.Gascon remained in use in this area far longer than in Navarre and Aragon, until the 19th century, thanks mainly to the fact that Donostia andPasaiamaintained close ties withBayonne.

Geographic distribution

Usage in France

This bilingual street sign inToulouse,like many such signs found in Toulouse's historical districts, is maintained primarily for its antique charm, and is typical of what little remains of thelenga d'òcin southern French cities.

Though it was still an everyday language for most of the rural population of southern France well into the 20th century, it is now spoken by about 100,000 people in France according to 2012 estimates.There is a movement in regions of France where Occitan was widely spoken to introduce educational programs to encourage young people in these regions to learn the language.

According to the 1999 census, there were 610,000 native speakers (almost all of whom were also native French speakers) and perhaps another million people with some exposure to the language. Following the pattern oflanguage shift,most of this remainder is to be found among the eldest populations. Occitan activists (calledOccitanists) have attempted, in particular with the advent of Occitan-language preschools (theCalandretas), to reintroduce the language to the young.

Nonetheless, the number of proficient speakers of Occitan is thought 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 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.

Occitan speakers, as a result of generations of systematic suppression and humiliation (seeVergonha), seldom use the language in the presence of strangers, whether they are from abroad or from outside Occitania (in this case, often merely and abusively referred to asParisiensorNordistes,which meansnortherners). Occitan is still spoken by many elderly people in rural areas, but they generally switch to French when dealing with outsiders.

Occitan's decline is somewhat less pronounced inBéarnbecause 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 ofArtixis notable for having elected to post street signs in the local language.

Usage outside France

Aranese signage inBossòst,Val d'Aran,Spain

• In the Val d'Aran, in the northwest corner ofCatalonia,Spain,Aranese (a variety of Gascon) is spoken. It is an official language ofCataloniatogether with Catalan and Spanish.
• InItaly,Occitan is also spoken in theOccitan Valleys(Alps) inPiedmont.An Occitan-speaking enclave also has existed atGuardia Piemontese(Calabria) since the 14th century. Italy adopted in 1999 aLinguistic Minorities Protection Law,or "Law 482", which includes Occitan; however,Italianis the dominant language. ThePiedmontese languageis extremely close to Occitan.
• InMonaco,some Occitan speakers coexist with remaining native speakers ofMonégasque(Ligurian). French is the dominant language.
• Scattered Occitan-speaking communities have existed in different countries:
  • There were Occitan-speaking colonies inWürttemberg(Germany) since the 18th century, as a consequence of theCamisardwar. The last Occitan speakers were heard in the 1930s.
  • In the SpanishBasque country,Gascon was spoken inSan Sebastián,perhaps as late as the early 20th century.
  • In the Americas, Occitan speakers exist:
    • in the United States, inValdese, North Carolina
    • in Canada, inQuebecwhere there are Occitan associations such asAssociation Occitane du QuébecandAssociation des Occitans.
    • 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.

Traditionally Occitan-speaking areas

• Aquitaine– excluding the Basque-speaking part of thePyrénées-Atlantiquesin the western part of the department and a small part ofGirondewhere thelangue d'oïlSaintongeais dialectis 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 theToulouse Metroannouncements are bilingual French-Occitan,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 ofCarcassonne,excluding the large part of thePyrénées-Orientaleswhere Catalan is spoken (Fenolhedais 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 theBrigasc dialectof Ligurian). In thedepartmentofAlpes-Maritimesthere were once isolated towns that spokeLiguriancalled Figún,but those varieties are now extinct. TheMentonasc dialectof Ligurian, spoken inMenton,is a Ligurian transition dialect with a strong Occitan influence. French is the dominant language of the Alpes-Maritimes,DauphinéandFrench Rivieraareas.
• InMonaco,Occitan, imported by immigrants coexisted in the 19th and 20th centuries with theMonégasque dialectof Ligurian.Frenchis 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 thelangues d'oïlPoitevinand 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. French is the dominant language. The department ofAllieris 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 northernLyonnais,ForezandDauphinéparts belong to theFranco-Provençal languagearea. French is the dominant language.
• 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 peopleinFrance,Italy,SpainandMonaco.In Monaco, Occitan coexists withMonégasqueLigurian,which is the other native language.Up to seven million people in France understand the language,whereas twelve to fourteen million fully spoke it in 1921.In1860,Occitan speakers represented more than 39%of the whole French population (52% forfrancophonesproper); they were still 26% to 36% in the 1920sand fewer than 7% in 1993.

Dialects

Occitan dialects according toPierre Bec

Supradialectal classification of Occitan according to Bec

Supradialectal classification of Occitan according to Sumien

Occitan is fundamentally defined by its dialects, rather than being a unitary language, as it lacks an officialwritten standard.Like other languages that fundamentally exist at a spoken, rather than written, level (e.g. theRhaeto-Romance languages,Franco-Provençal,Astur-Leonese,andAragonese), every settlement technically has its own dialect, with the whole of Occitania forming a classicdialect continuumthat changes gradually along any path from one side to the other. Nonetheless, specialists commonly divide Occitan into six main dialects:

• Gascon:includes theBéarneseandAranese(spoken in Spain).
  • Judeo-Gascon
• Languedocien(lengadocian)
• Limousin(lemosin)
• Auvergnat(auvernhat)
• Provençal(provençauorprouvençau), including theNiçardsubdialect.
  • Judeo-Provençal
  • Judeo-Niçard
• 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 theGallo-ItalicandOïl languages(e.g.nasal vowels;loss of final consonants; initialcha/ja-instead ofca/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 theIbero-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/chin 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 ofmutual intelligibility.

Occitan words and their French, Catalan and Spanish cognates

English	Cognate of French		Cognate of Catalan and Spanish
	Occitan	French	Occitan	Catalan	Spanish
house	maison	maison	casa	casa	casa
head	testa	tête	cap	cap	cabeza
to buy	achaptar	acheter	crompar	comprar	comprar
to hear	entendre	entendre	ausir/audir	oir	oír
to be quiet	se taire	se taire	calar	callar	callar
to fall	tombar	tomber	caire	caure	caer
more	pus	plus	mai	més	más
always	totjorn	toujours	sempre	sempre	siempre

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".

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

Max Wheeler divides the dialects into two groups:

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

Pierre Becdivides the dialects into three groups:

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

In order to overcome the pitfalls of the traditional romanistic view, Bec proposed a "supradialectal" classification that groups Occitan withCatalanas 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 anausbau languagethat became independent from Occitan during the 13th century, but originates from the Aquitano-Pyrenean group.

Jewish dialects

Occitan has 3 dialects spoken by Jewish communities that are all now extinct.

Judeo-Gascon

Asociolectof the Gascon dialect spoken bySpanish and Portuguese JewsinGascony.It, like many other Jewish dialects and languages, contained large amounts ofHebrewloanwords.It went extinct afterWorld War 2with the last speakers being elderly Jews inBayonne.About 850 unique words and a few morphological and grammatical aspects of the dialect were transmitted to Southern Jewish French.

Judeo-Provençal

Judeo-Provençalwas a dialect of Occitan spoken by Jews inProvence.The dialect declined in usage after Jews were expelled from the area in 1498, and was probably extinct by the 20th century.

Judeo-Niçard

The least attested of the Judeo-Occitan dialects, Judeo-Niçard was spoken by the community of Jews living inNice,who were descendants of Jewish immigrants from Provence, Piedmont, and other Mediterranean communities. Its existence is attested from a few documents from the 19th century. It contained significant influence in both vocabulary and grammar from Hebrew.

Southern Jewish French

All three of these dialects have some influence in Southern Jewish French, a dialect of French spoken by Jews in southern France. Southern Jewish French is now estimated to only be spoken by about 50–100 people.

Domergue Sumienproposes a slightly different supradialectal grouping.

• 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.

IETF dialect tags

• pro:Old Occitan (until the 14th century).
• sdt:Judeo-Occitan

SeveralIETF language variant tagshave been registered:

• 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.

Codification

Standardization

All regional varieties of the Occitan language have a written form; thus, Occitan can be considered as apluricentric language.Standard Occitan, also calledoccitan larg(i.e., 'wide Occitan') is a synthesis that respects and admits soft regional adaptations (which are based on the convergence of previous regionalkoinés).The standardization process began with the publication ofGramatica occitana segon los parlars lengadocians( "Grammar of the Languedocien Dialect" ) byLouis Alibert(1935), followed by theDictionnaire occitan-français selon les parlers languedociens( "French-Occitan dictionary according to Languedocien" ) by the same author (1966), completed during the 1970s with the works ofPierre Bec(Gascon),Robèrt Lafont(Provençal), and others. However, the process has not yet been completed as of the present.Standardization is mostly supported by users of theclassical norm.Due to the strong situation ofdiglossia,some usersthusly reject the standardization process, and do not conceive Occitan as a language that can be standardized as per other standardized languages.

Writing system

Further information:Occitan alphabet

There are two main linguistic norms currently used for Occitan, one (known as "classical" ) based on that of Medieval Occitan, and one (sometimes known as "Mistralian", due to its use byFrédéric Mistral) based on modernFrench orthography.Sometimes, there is conflict between users of each system.

• Theclassical norm(or less exactlyclassical 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 fordayis writtenjornin the classical norm, but could bejour,joun,journ,or evenyourn,depending on the writer's origin, in Mistralian orthography). The Occitan classical orthography and theCatalanorthography are quite similar: they show the very close ties of both languages. The digraphslhandnh,used in the classical orthography, were adopted by theorthography of Portuguese,presumably byGerald of Braga,a monk fromMoissac,who became bishop ofBragain Portugal in 1047, playing a major role in modernizing writtenPortugueseusing classical Occitan norms.
• TheMistralian norm(or less exactlyMistralian orthography) has the advantage of being similar to that of French, in which most Occitan speakers are literate. Now, it is used mostly in theProvençal/Niçarddialect, 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 beingoufor the[u]sound, as it is in French, written asounder the classical orthography.

There are also two other norms but they have a lesser audience. TheEscòla dau Pò norm(orEscolo dóu Po norm) is a simplified version of the Mistralian norm and is used only in the Occitan Valleys (Italy), besides the classical norm. TheBonnaudian norm(orécriture auvergnate unifiée, EAU) was created by Pierre Bonnaud and is used only in theAuvergnatdialect, besides the classical norm.

Comparison between the four existing norms in Occitan: extract from theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights

Classical norm	Mistralian norm	Bonnaudian norm	Escòla dau Pò norm
Provençal Totei lei personas naisson liuras e egalas en dignitat e en drech. Son dotadas de rason e de consciéncia e li cau (/fau/) agir entre elei amb un esperit de frairesa.	Provençal Tóuti li persouno naisson liéuro e egalo en dignita e en dre. Soun doutado de rasoun e de counsciènci e li fau agi entre éli em' un esperit de freiresso.
NiçardProvençal Toti li personas naisson liuri e egali en dignitat e en drech. Son dotadi de rason e de consciéncia e li cau agir entre eli emb un esperit de frairesa.	NiçardProvençal Touti li persouna naisson liéuri e egali en dignità e en drech. Soun doutadi de rasoun e de counsciència e li cau agì entre eli em' un esperit de frairessa.
Auvergnat Totas las personas naisson liuras e egalas en dignitat e en dreit. Son dotadas de rason e de consciéncia e lor chau (/fau/) agir entre elas amb un esperit de frairesa.		Auvergnat Ta la proussouna neisson lieura moé parira pà dïnessà mai dret. Son charjada de razou moé de cousiensà mai lhu fau arjî entremeî lha bei n'eime de freiressà. (Touta la persouna naisson lieura e egala en dïnetàt e en dreit. Soun doutada de razou e de cousiensà e lour chau ajî entre ela am en esprî de freiressà.)
Vivaro-Alpine Totas las personas naisson liuras e egalas en dignitat e en drech. Son dotaas de rason e de consciéncia e lor chal agir entre elas amb un esperit de fraternitat.			Vivaro-Alpine Toutes les persounes naisoun liures e egales en dignità e en drech. Soun douta de razoun e de counsiensio e lour chal agir entre eels amb (/bou) un esperit de freireso.
Gascon Totas las personas que naishen liuras e egaus en dignitat e en dreit. Que son dotadas de rason e de consciéncia e que'us cau agir enter eras dab un esperit de hrairessa.	Gascon(Febusian writing) Toutes las persounes que nachen libres e egaus en dinnitat e en dreyt. Que soun doutades de rasoû e de counscienci e qu'ous cau ayi entre eres dap û esperit de hrayresse.
Limousin Totas las personas naisson liuras e egalas en dignitat e en drech. Son dotadas de rason e de consciéncia e lor chau (/fau/) agir entre elas emb un esperit de frairesa.
Languedocien Totas las personas naisson liuras e egalas en dignitat e en drech. Son dotadas de rason e de consciéncia e lor cal agir entre elas amb un esperit de frairesa.

The same extract in six neighboringRomance languagesand English for comparison

French Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternité.

Franco-Provençal Tôs los étres homans nêssont libros et ègals en dignitât et en drêts. Ils ant rêson et conscience et dêvont fâre los uns envèrs los ôtros dedens un èsprit de fraternitât.

Catalan Totes les persones neixen/naixen lliures i iguals en dignitat i en drets. Són dotades de raó i de consciència, i cal que es comportin fraternalment les unes amb les altres.

Spanish Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales en dignidad y derechos y, dotados como están de razón y conciencia, deben comportarse fraternalmente los unos con los otros.

Portuguese Todos os seres humanos nascem livres e iguais em dignidade e direitos. Eles são dotados de razão e consciência, e devem comportar-se fraternalmente uns com os outros.

Italian Tutti gli esseri umani nascono liberi ed uguali in dignità e in diritti. Sono dotati di ragione e di coscienza e devono comportarsi fraternamente l'uno con l'altro.

English 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.

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

SeveralIETF language subtagshave been registered for the different orthographies:

• 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.Some authors,constituting a minority,reject this opinion and even the nameOccitan,thinking that there is a family of distinctlengas d'òcrather than dialects of a single language.

Many Occitan linguists and writers,particularly those involved with the pan-Occitan movement centered on theInstitut 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 ofmutual intelligibilitybetween thempartly because they share a common literary history; furthermore, academic and literary circles have identified them as a collective linguistic entity—thelenga d'òc—for centuries.

Some Provençal authors continue to support the view that Provençal is a separate language.Nevertheless, the vast majority of Provençal authors and associations 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.

• Theclassical orthographyisphonemicanddiasystemic,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.
• TheMistralian orthographyof Provençal is more or less phonemic but not diasystemic and is closer to theFrenchspelling 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 writesPolonha,whereas the Mistralian spelling system hasPoulougno,for[puˈluɲo],'Poland'.

The question ofGasconis 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.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.The vast majority of the Gascon cultural movement considers itself as a part of the Occitan cultural movement.And the official status ofVal d'Aran(Catalonia,Spain), adopted in 1990, says thatAraneseis a part ofGasconand Occitan. A grammar of Aranese by Aitor Carrera, published in 2007 inLleida,presents the same view.

The exclusion ofCatalanfrom 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.

The answer to the question of whetherGasconorCatalanshould 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 first time, a quantifiable, statistics-based approach was applied by Stephan Koppelberg in attempt to solve this issue.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.These results induced linguists to do away with the conventional classification of Gascon, favoring the "distinct language" alternative.Both studies supported the early intuition of the lateKurt Baldinger,a specialist of both medieval Occitan and medieval Gascon, who recommended that Occitan and Gascon be classified as separate languages.

Linguistic characterization

Further information:Occitan phonology

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 distinctiveméridionalaccent. Unlike French, it is apro-drop language,allowing the omission of the subject (canti:I sing;cantasyou sing)—though, at least in Gascon, the verb must be preceded by an "enunciative" in place of the pronoun,efor questions,befor observations,quefor other occasions:e.g.,que soi(I am),E qu'ei?(He/she is?),Be qu'èm.(We are.).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 eitherFrenchorCatalan,or both.

Features of Occitan as a whole

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

• Latinū[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 Latinawas 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 inValencian(Catalan),/ɔ/may appear in word-final unstressed position, in a process ofvowel 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⟩inOccitan,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 ofca-, ga-to/tʃa,dʒa/.
• Vocalization of syllable-final/l/to/w/.
• Loss of final consonants.
• Vocalization of syllable-final nasals tonasal vowels.
• Uvularizationof 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/bdɡ/(from Latin-p-, -t, -c-) become voiced fricatives[βðɣ].
• Loss of word-final single/n/(but not/nn/,e.g.an"year" <ānnvm).

Examples ofGascon-specific features not shared with French or Catalan:

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

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 Latinct) to/tʃ/in most dialects or/(j)t/:lachvslait(Gasconlèit) 'milk',luchavsluta(Gasconluta) 'fight'.
• Weakening of/l/to/r/in the Vivaro-Alpine dialect.

Comparison with other Romance languages and English

Common words in Romance languages, with English (a Germanic language) for reference

Latin (all nouns in theablative case)

Occitan (including main regional varieties)

Catalan

French

Norman

Romansh (Rumantsch Grischun)

Ladin (Gherdëina)

Lombard

Italian

Spanish

Portuguese

Sardinian

Romanian

English

cantare

c(h)antar

cantar

chanter

canter, chanter

chantar

cianté

cantà

cantare

cantar

cantar

cantare

cânta(re)

'(to) sing'

capra

c(h)abra

cabra

chèvre

quièvre

chaura

cëura

cavra

capra

cabra

cabra

craba

capră

'goat'

clave

clau

clau

clé, clef

clef

clav

tle

ciav

chiave

llave

chave

crae

cheie

'key'

ecclesia,basilica

(e)glèisa

església

église

église

baselgia

dlieja

giesa

chiesa

iglesia

igreja

gresia/creia

biserică

'church'

formatico(Vulgar Latin),caseo

formatge (fromatge, hormatge)

formatge

fromage

froumage, fourmage

chaschiel

ciajuel

furmai/furmagg

formaggio

queso

queijo

casu

caș

'cheese'

lingva

leng(u)a (linga)

llengua

langue

langue

lingua

lenga, rujeneda

lengua

lingua

lengua

língua

limba

limbă

'tongue, language'

nocte

nuèch (nuèit)

nit

nuit

nît

notg

nuet

nocc

notte

noche

noite

nothe

noapte

'night'

platea

plaça

plaça

place

plache

plazza

plaza

piassa

piazza

plaza

praça

pratza

piață

'square, plaza'

ponte

pont (pònt)

pont

pont

pont

punt

puent

punt

ponte

puente

ponte

ponte

punte (small bridge)

'bridge'

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. (SeeLexicon,Lexeme,Lexicographyfor more information.)

Some have claimed around 450,000 words exist in the Occitan language,a number comparable to English (theWebster's Third New International Dictionary,Unabridged with 1993 addenda reaches 470,000 words, as does the Oxford English Dictionary, Second edition). The Merriam-Webster website estimates that the number is somewhere between 250,000 and 1 million words.

The magazineGéo(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 theIndustrial Revolution,as the vocabulary of the countryside became less important. At the same time, it was disparaged as apatois.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) isoèb,for example.

Differences between Occitan and Catalan

The separation of Catalan from Occitan is seen by someas 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
  Main articles:Occitan phonologyandCatalan phonology
  • Standard Catalan (based on Central Eastern Catalan) is unique in that Latin shortedeveloped into a close vowel/e/(é) and Latin longedeveloped 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 Catalanésser[ˈesə]corresponds to Occitanèsser/èstre[ˈɛse/ˈɛstre]'to be;' Catalancarrer[kəˈre]corresponds to Occitancarrièra[karˈjɛɾo̞]'street', but it is alsocarriera[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 hasxifra[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, Occitanpagina[paˈdʒino̞]vs. Catalanpàgina[ˈpaʒinə],"page". However, there are exceptions. For example, some varieties of Occitan (such as that ofNice) keep the stress on the antepenultimate syllable(pàgina),and some varieties of Catalan (in Northern Catalonia) put the stress on the penultimate syllable(pagina).
  • Diphthongizationhas evolved in different ways: Occitanpairevs. Catalanpare'father;' Occitancarrièra (carrèra, carrèira)vs. Catalancarrera.
  • Although some Occitan dialects lack thevoiceless postalveolar fricativephoneme/ʃ/,others such as southwestern Occitan have it: general Occitancaissa[ˈkajso̞]vs. Catalancaixa[ˈkaʃə]and southwestern Occitancaissa, caisha[ˈka(j)ʃo̞],'box.' Nevertheless, someValencian dialectslike Northern Valencian lack that phoneme too and generally substitute/jsʲ/:caixa[ˈkajʃa](Standard Valencian) ~[ˈkajsʲa](Northern Valencian).
  • Occitan has developed theclose front rounded vowel/y/as aphoneme,often (but not always) corresponding to Catalan/u/:Occitanmusica[myˈziko̞]vs. Catalanmúsica[ˈmuzikə].
  • The distribution ofpalatal consonants/ʎ/and/ɲ/differs in Catalan and part of Occitan: while Catalan permits them in word-final position, in central Occitan they areneutralizedto[l]and[n](Central Occitanfilh[fil]vs. Catalanfill[fiʎ],'son'). Similarly,Algherese Catalanneutralizes 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: Occitanlibre[ˈliβɾe]vs. Catalanllibre[ˈʎiβɾə],'book.' That feature is perhaps one of the most distinctive characteristics of Catalan amongst the Romance languages, shared only withAsturian,LeoneseandMirandese.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 bevelarized[ɫ]( "dark l"). In coda position,/l/has tended to be vocalized to[w]in Occitan, while remained dark in Catalan.
  • StandardEastern Catalanhas aneutral vowel[ə]wheneveraoreoccur in unstressed position (passar[pəˈsa],'to happen', butpassa[ˈpasə],'it happens'), and also[u]wheneverooruoccur in unstressed position, e.g.obrir[uˈβɾi],'to open', butobre[ˈɔβɾə],'you open'. However, that does not apply toWestern Catalandialects, whose vowel system usually retains thea/edistinction in unstressed position, or to Northern Catalan dialects, whose vowel system does not retain theo/udistinction in stressed position, much like Occitan.
• Morphology
  • Verbconjugationis 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-uin Catalan but-tzin Occitan.
    Further information:Occitan conjugationandCatalan conjugation
  • Occitan tends to add ananalogical-ato thefeminineforms of adjectives that are invariable in standard Catalan: for example, Occitanlegal/legalavs. Catalanlegal/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: Catalandonà'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 theInstitut d'Estudis Occitansand theConselh de la Lenga Occitanais designed to be a pan-Occitan system, and the Catalan system recommended by theInstitut d'Estudis CatalansandAcadèmia Valenciana de la Llenguais specific to Catalan and Valencian. For example, in Catalan, word-final-nis 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 isllin Catalan (similar to Spanish) andlhin Occitan (similar to Portuguese) or the sound/ɲ/writtennyin Catalan andnhin Occitan.

Occitano-Romance linguistic group

Despite these differences, Occitan and Catalan remain more or lessmutually 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 commonAbstandsprache), which is calledOccitano-Romance,according to the linguistPierre Bec.Speakers of both languages share early historical and cultural heritage.

The combined Occitano-Romance area is 259,000 km²,with a population of 23 million. 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 theCataloniaadministered by theGovernment of Catalonia,nearly three-quarters of the population speak Catalan and 95% understand it.

Preservation

In the modern era, Occitan has become a rare and highly threatened language. Its users are clustered almost exclusively in Southern France, and it is unlikely that any monolingual speakers remain. In the early 1900s, the French government attempted to restrict the use and teaching of many minority languages, including Occitan, in public schools. While the laws have since changed, with bilingual education returning for regions with unique languages in 1993, the many years of restrictions had already caused serious decline in the number of Occitan speakers. The majority of living speakers are older adults.

Samples

According to the testimony ofBernadette Soubirous,the Virgin Mary spoke to her (Lourdes,25 March 1858) in Gascon saying:Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou( "I am theImmaculate Conception",the phrase is reproduced under this statue in the Lourdes grotto with a Mistralian/Febusian spelling), confirming the proclamation of this Catholic dogma four years earlier.

Inscription in Occitan in the Abbey of Saint-Jean de Sorde,Sorde-l'Abbaye:"Blessed are those who die in the Lord."

One of the most notable passages of Occitan in Western literature occurs in the 26thcantoofDante'sPurgatorioin which the troubadourArnaut Danielresponds 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 10thCanto:

"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 writerVictor Hugo's classicLes Misérablesalso contains some Occitan. In Part One, First Book, Chapter IV, "Les œuvres semblables aux paroles",one can read aboutMonseigneur 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 grasas 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 playwrightLope de Ruedaincluded a Gascon servant for comical effect in one of his short pieces,La generosa paliza.

John Barnes'sThousand Culturesscience fiction series (A Million Open Doors,1992;Earth Made of Glass,1998;The Merchants of Souls,2001; andThe Armies of Memory,2006), features Occitan. So does the 2005 best-selling novelLabyrinthby English authorKate Mosse.It is set inCarcassonne,where she owns a house and spends half of the year.

The French composerJoseph Canteloubecreated five sets of folk songs entitledSongs 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 Crichtonfeatures Occitan in hisTimelinenovel.

See also

• Association internationale d'études occitanes
• Baìo
• History of the Basque language
• Languages of France
• Languages of Italy
• Languages of Spain
• Occitan cross
• Occitan cuisine
• Language policy in France

Bibliography

• Anglade, Joseph (1921).Grammaire de l'ancien provençal ou ancienne langue d'oc: phonétique et morphologie(in French). Paris: C. Klincksieck.Archivedfrom the original on 18 January 2021.Retrieved21 February2013.
• 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.Archivedfrom the original on 12 April 2016.Retrieved14 August2010.
• Bec, Pierre(1963).La Langue occitane.Que sais-je? 1059 (in French). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
• Bec, Pierre(1971).Manuel pratique de philologie romane. Français, roumain, sarde,rhéto-frioulan, francoprovençal, dalmate. Phonologie, index.Paris: Picard.
• Bec, Pierre (1973).Manuel pratique d'occitan moderne(in French). Paris: A. & J. Picard.
• Carrera, Aitor (2007).Gramatica Aranesa(in Occitan). Lleida: Pagès Editors.ISBN978-84-9779-484-8.
• Gaussen, Yvan (1927).Du fédéralisme de Proudhon au Félibrige de Mistral(in French). Nîmes: A. Chastanier.Archivedfrom the original on 18 July 2012.Retrieved14 August2010.
• 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.ISBN978-2-912966-59-9.
• Ursula Reutner:"'Minor' Gallo-Romance Languages". In: Lebsanft, Franz/Tacke, Felix:Manual of Standardization in the Romance Languages.Berlin: de Gruyter (Manuals of Romance Linguistics 24), 773–807.
• Smith, Nathaniel B.; Bergin, Thomas Goddard (1984).An Old Provençal Primer.New York: Garland.ISBN0-8240-9030-6.

External links

• Orbilat.comArchived13 August 2021 at theWayback Machine– Overview and grammar of Occitan
• Occitanet.free.frArchived29 May 2006 at theWayback Machine– a guide to the language
• Globegate.UTM.edu– Troubadour & Early Occitan Literature
• Ostaldoccitania.netArchived6 January 2011 at theWayback Machine– The house of Occitan associations of Toulouse
• Eonet.ne– "LexRomEdic", electronic version of Lexique Roman of Rainouard (A provisional version is available).
• arrilemosin.frArchived4 January 2017 at theWayback Machine– Occitan Limousin group website with maps and vocabulary