Occitan Occitan, Lenga d'òc
Spoken in:	France  Spain  Italy  Monaco
Total speakers:	1,939,000
Language family:	Indo-European  Italic   Romance    Italo-Western     Western      Gallo-Iberian       Gallo-Romance        Occitano-Romance         Occitan
Official status
Official language in:	Officially recognised in Aran Valley and Catalonia, Spain, as Occitan. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest For other uses see Monaco (disambiguation Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco ( French: Principauté de Monaco; Monégasque List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family's Centum branch The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all Gallo-Romance languages Gallo-Italic languages Lombard Western Lombard Eastern The Gallo-Romance branch of Romance languages includes French, Occitan, Arpitan, and several other languages spoken in modern France The Occitano-Romance branch of Romance languages encompasses the dialects pertaining to the Occitan and the Catalan languages situated in France The Aran Valley (Era Val d'Aran la Vall d'Aran El Valle de Arán is a small valley (620 Catalonia (Cataluña Catalunya Aranese: Catalonha) is an Autonomous Community in the northeast part of Spain. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
Regulated by:	Conselh de la Lenga Occitana
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	oc
ISO 639-2:	oci
ISO 639-3:	oci
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language The Conselh de la Lenga Occitana or CLO ( English: Occitan Language Council is the body responsable for managing and developing the standard variant of the Occitan ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Occitania, the territory of the Occitan language

Occitan (IPA AmE: /ˈɑksəˌtæn/), known also as Lenga d'òc or Langue d'oc (native name: occitan [utsiˈta],^[1] lenga d'òc [ˈleŋgɔˈðɔ(k)];^[2] native nickname: la lenga nòstra [laˈleŋgɔˈnɔstrɔ]^[3] i. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic Phonology North American English regional phonology In many ways compared to English English, North American English is conservative in its Phonology. e. "our [own] language") is a Romance language spoken in Occitania, that is, Southern France, the Occitan Valleys of Italy, Monaco and in the Aran Valley of Spain. The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all Occitania ( Occitan: Occitània) refers to the lands where Occitan is the traditional language in use though more recently viewed as a minority language Southern France (or the South of France) colloquially known as Le Midi, is a loosely defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that The Occitan Valleys ( Occitan: Valadas Occitanas, Italian: Valli Occitane) are the part of Occitania (the territory of the Occitan Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest For other uses see Monaco (disambiguation Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco ( French: Principauté de Monaco; Monégasque The Aran Valley (Era Val d'Aran la Vall d'Aran El Valle de Arán is a small valley (620 Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. It is also spoken in the linguistic enclave of Guardia Piemontese (Calabria, Italy). Guardia Piemontese (Occitan La Gàrdia) is a town and Comune in the Province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy Calabria ( Latin: Brutium) is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest At the present time it is an official language only in Aran Valley (since 1990)^[4] and also in Catalonia (which includes Aran Valley) since 2006. The Aran Valley (Era Val d'Aran la Vall d'Aran El Valle de Arán is a small valley (620 Catalonia (Cataluña Catalunya Aranese: Catalonha) is an Autonomous Community in the northeast part of Spain. ^[5] Modern Occitan is the closest relative of Catalan. Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official The languages, as spoken in early medieval times, might be considered variant forms of the same language.

The area where Occitan was historically dominant is home to some 14 million inhabitants. It may be spoken as a first language by as many as two million people in France, Italy, Spain and Monaco^[6] It is furthermore stated by some researchers that up to seven million people in France understand the language. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. For other uses see Monaco (disambiguation Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco ( French: Principauté de Monaco; Monégasque However, these two estimates should be considered very optimistic upper bounds; the actual figures are almost certainly substantially lower. More widely accepted wisdom suggests that as few as half a million proficient speakers remain in France, for example. Written Occitan is generally understandable by readers who have some knowledge of French and Spanish, but especially of Catalan.

English-speakers often use the term Provençal (an older French word derived from the name of the region Provence) to refer to Occitan.

Name

History of the modern term

The name Occitan comes from lenga d'òc (i. e. òc language), which comes from òc, the Occitan word for yes. The Italian medieval poet Dante was the first to have recorded the term lingua d'oc. In his De vulgari eloquentia he wrote in Latin: "nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil" ("some say òc, others say sì, others say oïl"), thereby highlighting three major Romance literary languages which were well known in Italy, based on each language's word for "yes", the òc language (Occitan), the oïl language (French), and the sì language (Italian). De vulgari eloquentia ( On Eloquence in the vernacular) is the title of an essay by Dante Alighieri, written in Latin and initially meant to consist This was not, of course, the only defining character of each group.

The word òc came from Vulgar Latin hoc ("this"), while oïl originated from Latin hoc illud ("this [is] it"). Vulgar Latin (in Latin sermo vulgaris, "folk speech" is a Blanket term covering the popular Dialects and Sociolects of the Latin Other Romance languages derive their word for yes from the Latin sic, "thus [it is], [it was done], etc. ", such as Spanish sí, Western Lombard sé, Italian sì, Catalan sí, or Portuguese sim.

Other names for Occitan

For many centuries, the Occitan dialects (together with Catalan^[7]) were referred to as Lemosin or Provençal, the names of two regions lying within modern "Occitania". Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official Occitania ( Occitan: Occitània) refers to the lands where Occitan is the traditional language in use though more recently viewed as a minority language 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. Frédéric Mistral ( September 8, 1830 — March 25, 1914) was a French Poet who led the 19th century revival of The Félibrige (more aptly Felibritge, feliˈβridʒe in Occitan) is a literary and cultural association founded in the mid-19th century by Frédéric Mistral

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. Provençal ( Provençau) is one of several dialects of Occitan spoken by a minority of people mostly in Provence (in southern France However, many non-specialists continue to refer to the language as Provençal, causing some confusion.

History

Further information: Occitan literature

Occitan was the vehicle for the influential poetry of the medieval troubadours. Occitan literature — still sometimes called Provençal literature — is a body of texts written in Occitan in what is nowadays the South of France A troubadour ( IPA:, originally) was a composer and performer of Occitan Lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100&ndash1350 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. The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts is an extensive piece of reform Legislation signed into law by Francis I of France on August 10, Occitan's greatest decline was during the French Revolution, during which diversity of language was considered a threat. The French Revolution (1789–1799 was a period of political and social upheaval in the History of France, during which the French governmental structure previously an The literary renaissance of late 19th century (which included a Nobel Prize for Frédéric Mistral) was attenuated by the First World War, where Occitan speakers spent extended periods of time alongside French-speaking comrades. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All

Origins

Because Occitan is the most central of the Romance languages, external influences could have impeded its origin and development, making it only a tributary of standard Latin. The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all However, many factors favoured 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. The Massif Central ( Occitan: Massís Central / Massís Centrau) is an elevated region in south-central France, consisting of Mountains and The Pyrenees (Pirineos French: Pyrénées; Catalan: Pirineus; Occitan: Pirenèus; Aragonese: Perinés
• 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). Loire ( Arpitan: Lêre, Occitan: Léger) is an administrative department in the east-central part of France occupying the The Garonne (Garonne in Occitan, Catalan and Spanish: Garona; Garumna is a River in southwest France and northern Aragon ( Spanish: "Aragón") is an autonomous community of Spain.
• 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. Aquitaine (Aquitània Akitania archaic Guyenne / Guienne (Occitan Guiana) is one of the 26 Regions of France, in the south-western part of 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-Romance and Ibero-Romance 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). In Linguistics, the lexicon (from Greek Λεξικόν of a language is its Vocabulary, including its words and expressions
• 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. Benjamin of Tudela (Binyamin MeTudela was a medieval Navarrese rabbi and explorer who traveled through Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 12th For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Genoa ( Genova, ˈdʒɛːnova in Italian; Zena in Genoese and Ligurian; Genua in Latin and archaically in English Pisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Ligurian Sea. All languages are spoken there" (Géo magazine, 2004, p. 73)

Occitan around the world

Usage in France

This bilingual street sign in Tolosa (Toulouse), like many such signs found in historical parts of the city, is maintained primarily for its antique charm; it is typical of what little remains of the lenga d'oc in southern French cities. Toulouse ( pronounced in standard French, and in the local accent ( Occitan: Tolosa, pronounced) is a city in southwest

Though it was still an everyday language for most of the rural population of the South well into the 20th century, it has been all but replaced by the imposition of French. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people According to the 1999 census, there are 610,000 native speakers (almost all of whom are also native French speakers) and perhaps another million persons with some exposure to the language. Following the pattern of languages in decline, most of this remainder is to be found among the eldest populations. Occitan activists (called Occitanists) have attempted, particularly with the advent of Occitan-language preschools (the Calandretas), to reintroduce the language to the young. Nonetheless, the number of proficient speakers of Occitan appears to be dropping precipitously. A tourist in the cities in southern France is unlikely to hear a single Occitan word spoken on the street (or for that matter, in a home), and will likely only find the occasional vestige, such as street signs (and of those, most will have French equivalents more prominently displayed), to remind them of the traditional language of the area. 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're from abroad or from outside Occitania (in this case, often merely and abusively referred to as Parisiens or Nordistes, which means northerners). La vergonha ( Occitan for shame beɾˈɣuɲɔ is what some Occitans call the nefarious effects of various policies of the Government of France Occitan is still spoken by many elderly people in rural areas, but they generally switch to French when dealing with outsiders.

Usage outside France

• In the Val d'Aran, a valley in the north of Catalonia (in north-eastern Spain), Aranese (a variety of Gascon, in turn a variety of Occitan) is treated as an official language, together with Catalan and Spanish. The Aran Valley (Era Val d'Aran la Vall d'Aran El Valle de Arán is a small valley (620 Catalonia (Cataluña Catalunya Aranese: Catalonha) is an Autonomous Community in the northeast part of Spain. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Aranese (aranés is a standardized form of the Pyrenean Gascon variety of the Occitan language spoken in the Aran Valley, in northwestern Catalonia Gascon (Gascon; French,) is a dialect of the Occitan language. Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official
• In Italy Occitan is also spoken in the Occitan Valleys (Alps) in Piedmont and Liguria. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest The Occitan Valleys ( Occitan: Valadas Occitanas, Italian: Valli Occitane) are the part of Occitania (the territory of the Occitan Piedmont ( Piemonte; Piedmontese and Occitan: Piemont; French: Piémont) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy. Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions An Occitan-speaking enclave also exists at Guardia Piemontese (Calabria) since the 14th century. Guardia Piemontese (Occitan La Gàrdia) is a town and Comune in the Province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy Calabria ( Latin: Brutium) is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of Italy adopted in 1999 a Linguistic Minorities Protection Law, or "Law 482", which includes Occitan, however Italian is the dominant language. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. It should be noted that the Piedmontese dialect is extremely close to Occitan.
• In Monaco, Occitan coexists with Ligurian Monegasque. For other uses see Monaco (disambiguation Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco ( French: Principauté de Monaco; Monégasque Monégasque (natively Munegascu) is a Romance language and a dialect of the modern Ligurian language, which is spoken in Monaco. French is the dominant (and imposed. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people . . ) language.
• Scattered Occitan-speaking communities exist in different countries:
  • There were Occitan-speaking colonies in Württemberg (Germany) since the 18th century, the latter as a consequence of the Camisard war. Württemberg, formerly known as Wirtemberg, is an area and a former state in Swabia, a region in southwestern Germany. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Camisards were French Protestants ( Huguenots) of the rugged and isolated Cevennes region of south-central France, who raised an insurrection against The last Occitan speakers were heard in the 1930s.
  • In the Spanish Basque country, Gascon was spoken in the center of Donostia/San Sebastián, perhaps until the beginning of the twentieth century. The Basque Country ( Basque Euskadi, Spanish País Vasco) is an autonomous community in northern Spain. Gascon (Gascon; French,) is a dialect of the Occitan language. Donostia-San Sebastián ( Basque: Donostia, IPA; Spanish: San Sebastián, known officially as Donostia-San Sebastián
  • In the Americas, Occitan-speakers exist
    • in the United States, in Valdese, North Carolina^[8] (perhaps also in Louisiana and in western states such as Idaho and Oregon)
    • in Argentina, in Pigüé
    • in Canada, in Quebec where there are Occitan associations such as Association Occitane du Québec and Association des Occitans. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Valdese is a town in Burke County, North Carolina, United States. The State of Louisiana ( or, État de Louisiane, pronounced) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America The State of Idaho ( is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America. Oregon ( is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Argentina topics. Pigüé is a town in Argentina located in the Pampas, south-west of Buenos Aires. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Quebec (kwɨˈbɛk ^[9]

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. Aquitaine (Aquitània Akitania archaic Guyenne / Guienne (Occitan Guiana) is one of the 26 Regions of France, in the south-western part of Basque ( native name: euskara) is the Language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain Pyrénées-Atlantiques ( Gascon: Pirenèus-Atlantics; Basque: Pirinio-Atlantiarrak or Pirinio-Atlantikoak) is a department Gironde (Gironda is a common name for the Gironde Estuary - sound where merge the mouths of the Garonne river and of the Dordogne river - and for Saintongeais ( patouê saintonjhouê jhabrail) is a language spoken halfway down the western coast of France in the former provinces of Saintonge, The towns of Biarritz, Anglet, and Bayonne are originally Occitan-speaking, with Basque-speaking groups, but their Basque populations grew sharply during the industrial revolution. Biarritz ( French: Biarritz, bjaˈʀits Gascon Occitan: Biàrritz; Basque: Biarritz or Miarritze is a town Anglet ( Gascon Occitan Anglet, Basque Angelu) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department Bayonne ( French: Bayonne bajɔn Gascon Occitan and Basque: Baiona) is a city and commune of southwest The Basques (Euskaldunak are a people who inhabit a region spanning over parts of north-central Spain and southwestern France.
• Midi-Pyrénées — including one of France's largest cities, Toulouse. Midi-Pyrénées ( Occitan: Miègjorn-Pirenèus or Mieidia-Pirenèus) is the largest region of Metropolitan France by area larger Toulouse ( pronounced in standard French, and in the local accent ( Occitan: Tolosa, pronounced) is a city in southwest There are a few street signs in Toulouse in Occitan, but the language is almost never heard spoken.
• 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 (Fenolhedés is the only Occitan-speaking area of the Pyrénées-Orientales). Languedoc-Roussillon ( Occitan: Lengadòc-Rosselhon; Catalan: Llenguadoc-Rosselló) is one of the 26 regions of France. Carcassonne (Carcassona is a fortified French town in the Aude département, of which it is the Prefecture, Pyrénées-Orientales (Eastern Pyrenees Pirineus Orientals Pirenèus Orientals is a department of southern France adjacent to the northern Spanish frontier Fenouillèdes ( Occitan: Fenolhedés/Fenolheda, Catalan: Fenolledès/Fenolleda) is a French comarca and a traditional Occitan
• Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur — except for the Roya and Bévéra valleys, where there is a transition dialect between Ligurian and Occitan (Roiasc, including Brigasc). Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA ( Provençal Occitan: Provença-Aups-Còsta d'Azur in classical norm or Prouvènço-Aup-Costo d'Azur in Mistralian Brigasc is a Dialect of the Ligurian language, having a strong Occitan influence which is spoken in Italy and France. There were former and now extinct isolated towns that spoke Ligurian in the Alpes-Maritimes département. Ligurian is also the name of an extinct language of Italy Ligurian is a Gallo-Romance language currently spoken in Liguria Alpes-Maritimes ( Occitan: Aups Maritims) is a department in the extreme southeast corner of France. In the context of the political and geographic organization of France and many of its former colonies a department (département depaʁtǝmɑ̃ is an Administrative division Mentonasque, that is spoken in Menton, is an Occitan transition dialect with a strong Ligurian influence. Mentonasc (in Occitan also called Mentonasque or Mentonnais (in French is an Occitan subdialect traditionally assigned to the Occitan language (Provençal Menton (mɑ̃tɔ̃ Occitan: Menton in classical norm or Mentan in Mistralian norm Italian: Mentone) is a commune
• In Monaco, Occitan coexists with Ligurian Monegasque. For other uses see Monaco (disambiguation Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco ( French: Principauté de Monaco; Monégasque Monégasque (natively Munegascu) is a Romance language and a dialect of the modern Ligurian language, which is spoken in Monaco. French is the dominant (and imposed. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people . . ) language.
• Poitou-Charentes — Use of Occitan has declined here in the few parts it used to be spoken, replaced by French. Poitou-Charentes is an administrative region in central western France comprising four departments: Charente, Charente-Maritime, Only Charente limousine, the eastern part of the region, has resisted. But moreover the natural & historical languages of most of the region are the Poitevin and Saintongeais. Poitevin ( Poetevin) is a language spoken by the people in Poitou. Saintongeais ( patouê saintonjhouê jhabrail) is a language spoken halfway down the western coast of France in the former provinces of Saintonge,
• Limousin — A rural region (about 710,000 inhabitants) where Occitan (Lemosin dialect, Nord-Occitan family) is still spoken among the oldest residents. Limousin ( Occitan: Lemosin) is one of the 26 regions of France.
• Auvergne — The language's use has declined in some urban areas. Auvergne ( Occitan: Auvèrnhe / Auvèrnha) is one of the 26 administrative regions of France. The departement of Allier is divided between a southern Occitan-speaking area and a northern French-speaking area. Allier ( Occitan: Alèir) is a department in south-central France named after the Allier River.
• Centre region — Some villages, in the extreme South, speak Occitan. Centre is one of the 26 regions of France, located towards the northwest of the actual centre of the country
• Rhône-Alpes — While the south of the region is clearly Occitan-speaking, the central and northern Lyonnais, Forez and Dauphiné parts belong to the Arpitan language area. Rhône-Alpes ( Franco-Provençal: Rôno-Arpes; Occitan: Ròse Aups) is one of the 26 regions of France, located on the After the division of the Carolingian Empire, the region was part of the Kingdom of Burgundy. Forez is a former province of France, corresponding approximately to the central part of the modern Loire département and a part The Dauphiné or Dauphiné Viennois is a former province in southeastern France, roughly corresponding to the present departments ' of the Franco-Provençal ( Francoprovençal) or Arpitan ( Vernacular: frp francoprovençâl arpitan patouès; francoprovenzale arpitano dialetto
• Occitan Valleys (Piedmont, Liguria) — Italian regions where Occitan is spoken only in the southern and central Alpine valleys. The Occitan Valleys ( Occitan: Valadas Occitanas, Italian: Valli Occitane) are the part of Occitania (the territory of the Occitan Piedmont ( Piemonte; Piedmontese and Occitan: Piemont; French: Piémont) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy. Liguria is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of the Italian regions
• Val d'Aran — part of Catalonia that speaks a mountain dialect of Gascon Occitan. The Aran Valley (Era Val d'Aran la Vall d'Aran El Valle de Arán is a small valley (620 Catalonia (Cataluña Catalunya Aranese: Catalonha) is an Autonomous Community in the northeast part of Spain.

Dialects

Dialectal classification

According to linguist Pèire Bèc (Pierre Bec), in Manuel pratique d'occitan moderne (Paris, Picard, 1973), here is the most widely accepted dialectal classification. Pierre Bec (in Occitan Pèire Bèc) is an Occitan poet and linguist

• Gascon
• Northern Occitan (nòrd-occitan) group
  • Lemosin
  • Auvernhat
  • Vivaroalpenc or Vivaro-Alpine
• Southern Occitan (sud-occitan) group
  • Provençal (Provençau), including the Niçard subdialect
  • Lengadocian

Supradialectal classification

Pèire Bèc says that another "supradialectal" classification is possible, that follows different criteria:

• Arvèrnomediterranèu
  • Lemosin
  • Auvernhat
  • Vivaroalpenc or Vivaro-Alpine
  • Provençal (Provençau), including the Niçard subdialect
• Central Occitan (Occitan central), i. Gascon (Gascon; French,) is a dialect of the Occitan language. Northern Occitan (nòrd-occitan is a group of Occitan Dialects mostly spoken in Southern France. Auvergnat (French name or Auvernhat (native name is one of several dialects of the Occitan language spoken in Auvergne, which is a historical province Vivaro-Alpine (English name or Vivaroalpenc Vivaroaupenc (native name is the northeastern dialect of the Occitan language. Southern Occitan (sud-occitan is a group of Occitan dialects mostly spoken in Southern France. Provençal ( Provençau) is one of several dialects of Occitan spoken by a minority of people mostly in Provence (in southern France Niçard ( Classical orthography) Nissart/Niçart ( Mistralian orthography) Niçois ( French) or Nizzardo ( Italian Languedocien (French name or Lengadocian (native name is an Occitan dialect spoken by some people in the part of southern France known as Languedoc Pierre Bec (in Occitan Pèire Bèc) is an Occitan poet and linguist Auvergnat (French name or Auvernhat (native name is one of several dialects of the Occitan language spoken in Auvergne, which is a historical province Vivaro-Alpine (English name or Vivaroalpenc Vivaroaupenc (native name is the northeastern dialect of the Occitan language. Provençal ( Provençau) is one of several dialects of Occitan spoken by a minority of people mostly in Provence (in southern France Niçard ( Classical orthography) Nissart/Niçart ( Mistralian orthography) Niçois ( French) or Nizzardo ( Italian e. the Lengadocian dialect, excepting the Southern Lengadocian subdialect
• Aquitanopirenenc
  • Southern Lengadocian subdialect
  • Gascon
  • The Catalan language is an Ausbau language which became independent from Occitan during the 13th century. Languedocien (French name or Lengadocian (native name is an Occitan dialect spoken by some people in the part of southern France known as Languedoc Gascon (Gascon; French,) is a dialect of the Occitan language. Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official The Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache ( framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists for analysing and categorising the status of language varieties But it comes from the Aquitanopirenenc stem.

Codification

Standardization

All these regional varieties of the Occitan language are written and valid. Standard Occitan, also called Occitan larg (i. e. "wide Occitan") is a synthesis which respects and admits soft regional adaptations (which are based on the convergence of previous regional koines). In Linguistics, a koiné language ( common language) is a Standard language or Dialect, that has arisen as a result of contact between two So Occitan can be considered as a pluricentric language. A pluricentric language is a Language with several standard versions both in spoken and in written forms. ^[10] The standardization process began during the 1970s with the works of Pèire Bèc, Robèrt Lafont, Rogièr Teulat, Jacme Taupiac and Patric Sauzet. Pierre Bec (in Occitan Pèire Bèc) is an Occitan poet and linguist Robèrt Lafont (ruˈβɛɾt laˈfun in Occitan (born in Nîmes on March 16, 1923) is an Occitan Intellectual from Provence But it has not been achieved yet. It is mostly supported by users of the classical norm. Occitan ( IPA BrE: /ˈɒksɪtn/ AmE: /ˈɑksəˌtɑn/ known also as Lenga d'òc or Langue d'oc (native name occitan Due to the strong situation of diglossia, some users still reject the standardization process and don't conceive Occitan as a language which could work just as other standardized languages. In Linguistics, diglossia is a situation where in a given society there are two (often closely-related languages one of high prestige, which is generally used

Writing system

Further information: Occitan alphabet

There are two main linguistic norms currently used for Occitan, one (known as classical) which is based on that of Mediaeval Occitan, and one (sometimes known as Mistralian, due to its use by the Felibres, including Mistral) which is based on modern French orthography. The Occitan alphabet consists of the following 23 Latin letters: Letter names Diacritics Remarks Sometimes, there is some conflict between some users of each system.

• The classical norm (or less exactly classical orthography) has the advantage of maintaining a link with earlier stages of the language, and reflects the fact that Occitan is not a variety of French. It is used in all Occitan dialects. It also allows speakers of one dialect of Occitan to write intelligibly for speakers of other dialects (e. g. the Occitan for day is written jorn in the classical norm, but could be jour, joun or journ, depending on the writer's origin, in Mistralian orthography). The Occitan classical orthography and the Catalan orthography are quite similar: they show the very close ties of both languages. Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official The digraphs lh and nh, used in the classical orthography, were adopted by the Orthography of Portuguese, most probably after Friar Gerald, a monk from Moissac, became bishop of Braga in Portugal in 1047 and played a major role in modernizing written Portuguese using classical Occitan norms. The Portuguese alphabet consists of the following 23 Latin letters: Letter names and pronunciations Only the most frequent sounds are Moissac is a town and commune of the Tarn-et-Garonne département, in southwestern France. Braga (ˈBrag-uh a city and municipality in northwestern Portugal, is the capital of the district of Braga, the oldest archdiocese Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. ^[11]
• The Mistralian norm (or less exactly Mistralian orthography) has the advantage of not forcing Occitan speakers who are already (as is usually the case) literate in French to learn an entirely new system. Nowadays it is mostly used in the Provençal/Niçois dialect, besides the classical norm. Provençal ( Provençau) is one of several dialects of Occitan spoken by a minority of people mostly in Provence (in southern France Niçard ( Classical orthography) Nissart/Niçart ( Mistralian orthography) Niçois ( French) or Nizzardo ( Italian It has also been used by a number of eminent writers, particularly in Provençal. However, it is somewhat impractical, since it is based mainly on the Provençal dialect and also uses many digraphs for simple sounds, most notably ou for the [u] sound, written as o under the classical orthography.

There are also two other norms but they have a lesser audience. The Escòla dau Pò norm (or Escolo dóu Po norm) is a simplified version of the Mistralian norm and is only used in the Occitan Valleys (Italy), besides the classical norm. The Bonnaudian norm (or écriture auvergnate unifiée, EAU) was created by Pierre Bonnaud and is used only in the Auvergnat dialect, besides the classical norm. Auvergnat (French name or Auvernhat (native name is one of several dialects of the Occitan language spoken in Auvergne, which is a historical province

Debates concerning linguistic classification and orthography

The majority of scholars believe that Occitan constitutes a single language. ^[12] Some authors,^[13] constituting a tiny minority,^[14] refuse this opinion and even the name Occitan: they think that there is a family of distinct languages (called langues d'oc / lengas d'oc in plural) rather than dialects.

Many Occitan linguists and writers, particularly those involved with the pan-Occitan movement centred on the Institut d'Estudis Occitans, disagree with the view that Occitan is a family of languages and think that Limousin, Auvergnat, Languedocien, Gascon, Provençal and Alpine Provençal are dialects of a single language. The Institut d'Estudis Occitans (istiˈtyd desˈtyðiz utsiˈtas or IEO, or Occitan Studies Institute, or Institute for Occitan Studies, is a cultural Though there are some noticeable differences between these varieties, there is a very high degree of mutual intelligibility between them ^[15]; they also share a common literary history, and in academic and literary circles, have been identified as a collective linguistic entity—the langue d'oc—for centuries. In Linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between Languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand

Some Provençal authors ^[16] 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. ^[17]

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

• The classical orthography is more phonemic and diasystematic, and so more pan-Occitan. A phonemic orthography is a Writing system where the written Graphemes correspond to Phonemes the spoken sounds of the language In Linguistics, in the field of structural Dialectology, a diasystem is a single genetic Language which has two or more standard forms It is used in (and adapted to) all Occitan dialects and regions, including Provençal. Its supporters think that Provençal is a part of Occitan.
• The Mistralian orthography of Provençal is more or less phonemic but not diasystematic 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. A phonemic orthography is a Writing system where the written Graphemes correspond to Phonemes the spoken sounds of the language In Linguistics, in the field of structural Dialectology, a diasystem is a single genetic Language which has two or more standard forms French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people

For example, the classical (pan-Occitan) spelling writes Polonha where the Mistralian spelling system has Poulougno, for [puˈluɲo], 'Poland'.

The question of Gascon is a little similar. Gascon (Gascon; French,) is a dialect of the Occitan language. Gascon presents a number of significant differences from the rest of the language; but despite these differences, Gascon and other Occitan dialects share a very important common lexical and grammatical material, so authors such as Pierre Bec argue that they could never be considered as different as, for example, Spanish and Italian. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. ^[18] In addition, the fact that Gascon is included within Occitan despite its particular differences, can be also justified ^[19] because there is a common elaboration (Ausbau) process between Gascon and the rest of Occitan. The Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache ( framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists for analysing and categorising the status of language varieties The vast majority of the Gascon cultural movement ^[20] considers itself as a part of the Occitan cultural movement. And the official status of Val d'Aran (Catalonia, Spain), adopted in 1990, says that Aranese is a part of Gascon and Occitan. The Aran Valley (Era Val d'Aran la Vall d'Aran El Valle de Arán is a small valley (620 Catalonia (Cataluña Catalunya Aranese: Catalonha) is an Autonomous Community in the northeast part of Spain. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Aranese (aranés is a standardized form of the Pyrenean Gascon variety of the Occitan language spoken in the Aran Valley, in northwestern Catalonia Gascon (Gascon; French,) is a dialect of the Occitan language. Occitan ( IPA BrE: /ˈɒksɪtn/ AmE: /ˈɑksəˌtɑn/ known also as Lenga d'òc or Langue d'oc (native name occitan A grammar of Aranese by Aitor Carrera, published in 2007 in Lleida, presents the same view. Lleida (Standard Central Catalan ˈʎejðə or North-Western Catalan; Spanish Lérida, though officially referred as Lleida

The exclusion of Catalan from the Occitan sphere, although Catalan is a language closely related to Occitan, is justified because there has been a conscience of it being different from Occitan since the later Middle Ages and the elaboration (Ausbau) processes of Catalan and Occitan (including Gascon) have been quite distinct since the 20th century. Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official

Linguistic characterisation

Jules Ronjat has sought to characterize Occitan by 19 principal criteria, as generalized as possible. Of those, 11 are phonetic, five morphologic, one syntactic, and two lexical. Close rounded vowels (French: rose, yeux) are rare or absent in Occitan. This characteristic often carries through to an Occitan speaker's French, leading to a distinctive méridional accent. Meridional French (French Français méridional) is a regional variant of the French language. Unlike French, it is a pro-drop language allowing the omission of the subject (canti: I sing; cantas you sing). A pro-drop language (from "pronoun-dropping" is a Language in which certain classes of Pronouns may be omitted when they are in some sense pragmatically Among these 19 discriminating criteria, 7 are different from Spanish, 8 from Italian, 12 from Franco-provençal, and 16 from French.

Features of Occitan

Among the diachronic features of Occitan as a Romance language:

• Unlike in French, stressed Latin A was preserved (Latin mare > Oc. mar, but > Fr. mer).
• Like in French, Latin U changed into [y], shifting around the series of back vowels, [u] > [y], [o] > [u]. A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as
• Gascon changed Latin initial [f] into [h] (Latin filiu > Gascon Oc. Gascon (Gascon; French,) is a dialect of the Occitan language. hilh), like medieval Spanish (possibly under Basque influence). Basque ( native name: euskara) is the Language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain
• Other lenition and palatalisation phenomena shared with the rest of the Western Romance languages, especially with Catalan. Lenition is a kind of Consonant mutation that appears in many Languages Along with assimilation, it is one of the primary sources of historical change Palatalization or palatalisation (ˌpælətəlɨˈzeɪʃən generally refers to two phenomena As a process or the result of a process Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official

Comparison with other Romance languages

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. Vulgar Latin (in Latin sermo vulgaris, "folk speech" is a Blanket term covering the popular Dialects and Sociolects of the Latin (See Lexicon, Lexeme, Lexicography for more information. In Linguistics, the lexicon (from Greek Λεξικόν of a language is its Vocabulary, including its words and expressions For its use in the context of Computer Science see Lexical analysis. The pursuit of lexicography is divided into two related disciplines Practical lexicography is the art or Craft of compiling writing and editing dictionaries )

Some have claimed around 450,000 words exist in the Occitan language,^[21] 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. Webster's Dictionary is the name given to a common type of English language dictionary in the United States. ) The Merriam-Webster Web site estimates that the number is somewhere between 250,000 and 1 million words.

The magazine Géo (2004, p. GEO is a family of educational monthly magazines The first edition appeared in Germany in 1976 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. The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture manufacturing and transportation had a profound effect on the At the same time, it was disparaged as a patois. Patois is any language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in Linguistics. Nevertheless, Occitan has also incorporated new words into its lexicon to describe the modern world. The Occitan word for web is oèb, for example.

Differences between Occitan and Catalan

As detailed above, the separation of Catalan from Occitan is largely politically (rather than linguistically) motivated. However, the variety that has become standard Catalan does differ from that which has become standard Occitan in a number of ways. The following are just a few examples:

• Phonology
  • (Standard) Catalan is unique in that Latin short e developed into a close vowel /e/ (é) and Latin long e developed into an open vowel /ɛ/ (è); this is precisely the reverse of the development that took place in the other Catalan dialects, and the rest of the Romance languages, including Occitan. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning Thus Standard Catalan ésser [ˈesə] corresponds to Occitan èsser/èstre [ˈɛse/ˈɛstre] 'to be;' Catalan carrer [kəˈre] corresponds to Occitan carrièra [karˈjɛɾo̞] 'street. '
  • The distinctly Occitan development of word-final -a, pronounced as [o̞] in standard Occitan (e. g. chifra 'figure' [ˈtʃifro̞]), did not occur in general Catalan (which has xifra [ˈʃifrə]). However, some Occitan varieties also lack this feature and some Catalan (Valencian) varieties have the [ɔ] pronunciation mostly happening during a vowel harmony process. Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance ( see below) assimilatory phonological process involving Vowels in some languages
  • 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, some varieties of Occitan (e. g. , around Nice) keep the stress on the antepenultimate syllable (pàgina) while some varieties of Catalan (in Northern Catalonia) keep the stress on the penultimate syllable (pagina).
  • Diphthongisation has evolved in different ways, e. In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with g. Occitan paire vs. Catalan pare 'father;' Occitan carrièra (carrèra, carrèira) vs. Catalan carrera.
  • Some Occitan dialects lack the voiceless postalveolar fricative phoneme /ʃ/ but south-western Occitan presents it, e. The voiceless palato-alveolar fricative or domed postalveolar fricative ( IPA) is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages g. general Occitan caissa [ˈkajso̞] vs. Catalan caixa [ˈkaʃə] and south-western Occitan caissa, caisha [ˈka(j)ʃo̞], 'box. '
  • Occitan has developed the close front rounded vowel /y/ as a phoneme, often (but not always) corresponding to Catalan /u/, e. The close front rounded vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU g. Occitan musica [myˈziko̞] vs. Catalan música [ˈmuzikə].
  • The distribution of palatal consonants /ʎ/ and /ɲ/ differs in Catalan and a part of Occitan: whilst Catalan permits these sounds in word-final position, in central Occitan they are neutralised to [l] and [n] (e. Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU g. central Occitan filh [fil] vs. Catalan fill [fiʎ], 'son'). Non-central varieties of Occitan, however, can have a palatal realisation (e. g. filh, hilh [fiʎ, fij, hiʎ]).
  • Also, many words that start with /l/ in Occitan start with /ʎ/ in Catalan, e. g. Occitan libre [ˈlibre] vs. Catalan llibre [ˈʎibrə], 'book. ' This is perhaps one of the most distinctive characteristics of Catalan amongst the Romance languages. However, some transitional varieties of Occitan, near to the Catalan area, also have initial /ʎ/.
  • Standard Eastern Catalan has a neutral vowel [ə] whenever a or e occur in unstressed position (e. Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official In Linguistics, specifically Phonetics and Phonology, schwa can mean the following An unstressed and toneless neutral g. passar [pəˈsa], 'to happen,' but passa [ˈpasə], 'it happens'), and also [u] whenever o or u occur in unstressed position (e. g. voler [buˈlɛ], 'to want,' but vol [ˈbɔl], 'he wants. ' However, this does not apply to Western Catalan dialects, whose vowel system usually retains the a/e distinction in unstressed position, nor to Northern Catalan dialects, whose vowel system does not retain the o/u distinction in stressed position, much like Occitan. Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official
• Morphology
  • Verb conjugation is slightly different, although there is a great variety amongst dialects. Morphology is the field of Linguistics that studies the internal structure of words In Linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a Verb, Noun or Adjective from its Principal parts by Inflection 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. Analogy is both the cognitive process of transferring Information from a particular subject (the analogue or source to another particular subject (the target and In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong Catalan legal / legal.
  • Catalan has a distinctive past tense formation, known as the 'periphrastic preterite,' formed from a variant of the verb 'to go' plus the infinitive of the verb: donar 'to give,' va donar 'he gave. ' This has the same value as the 'normal' preterite shared by most Romance languages, deriving from the Latin perfect tense: in Catalan, donà 'he gave. ' The periphrastic preterite only exists in Occitan as an archaic or as a very local tense.
• Orthography
  • The writing systems of the two languages differ slightly. The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific Writing system to write the language The modern Occitan spelling recommended by the Institut d'Estudis Occitans and the Conselh de la Lenga Occitana is designed to be a pan-Occitan system, whereas the Catalan system recommended by the Institut d'Estudis Catalans is specific to Catalan. The Institut d'Estudis Occitans (istiˈtyd desˈtyðiz utsiˈtas or IEO, or Occitan Studies Institute, or Institute for Occitan Studies, is a cultural The Conselh de la Lenga Occitana or CLO ( English: Occitan Language Council is the body responsable for managing and developing the standard variant of the Occitan The Institut d'Estudis Catalans (Institute for Catalan Studies or IEC is an academic institution which seeks to undertake research and study into "all elements of Catalan culture For example, in Catalan, word-final -n is omitted, as this is not pronounced in any dialect of Catalan (so we have Català, Occità); central Occitan also drops word-final -n, but it is retained in the spelling, as some eastern and western dialects of Occitan do retain the final consonant (so we have Catalan, Occitan). 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. In Linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between Languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand Occitan and Catalan form a common diasystem (or a common Abstandsprache) which is called Occitano-Romance by linguist Pèire Bèc. In Linguistics, in the field of structural Dialectology, a diasystem is a single genetic Language which has two or more standard forms The Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache ( framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists for analysing and categorising the status of language varieties The Occitano-Romance branch of Romance languages encompasses the dialects pertaining to the Occitan and the Catalan languages situated in France Pierre Bec (in Occitan Pèire Bèc) is an Occitan poet and linguist ^[22] The two peoples share early historical, cultural, and amicable 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 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. ^[23]

Occitan quotes

According to the testimony of Bernadette Soubirous, the Virgin Mary spoke to her (Lourdes, 25 March 1858) in Gascon saying: Que soi era Immaculada Concepcion ("I am the Immaculate Conception", the phrase is reproduced under this statue in the Lourdes grotto with a nonstandard spelling), confirming the proclamation of this Catholic dogma four years earlier. Saint Bernadette (born Marie-Bernarde Soubirous January 7 1844 – April 16 1879) was a miller's daughter from the town of Lourdes ( Occitan: Lorda) is a town and commune situated in the southwest of the Hautes-Pyrénées department, lying in the first Pyrenean Events 1199 - Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France which leads to his death on April 6. Year 1858 ( MDCCCLVIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common For dogmatic context see Roman Catholic Mariology. For artistic depictions see Roman Catholic Marian art.

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. The Divine Comedy Arnaut Daniel de Riberac (today Arnaut Danièl) was an Occitan Troubadour of the 12th century praised by Dante as " il miglior fabbro / 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"

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:

"leu 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. Victor-Marie Hugo ( ( February 26, 1802 – May 22, 1885) was a French Poet, Playwright, Novelist Les Misérables (pronounced /le miːzeʁabl(ə translated variously from French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched 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. Lope de Rueda (1510? Seville - 1565 Córdoba) was a Spanish Dramatist and Author, regarded by some as the best of his era ^[24]

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. John Barnes (born 1957 is a prolific American Science fiction author whose stories often explore questions of individual moral responsibility within a larger social A Million Open Doors (1992 is a Science fiction Novel, the first book of the Thousand Cultures series by John Barnes. Earth Made of Glass (1999 is a Science fiction Novel, the second book of the Thousand Cultures series by John Barnes whose story The Merchants of Souls (2002 is a Science fiction Novel, the third book of the Thousand Cultures series by John Barnes whose story The Armies of Memory (2006 is a Science fiction Novel, the fourth book of the Thousand Cultures series by John Barnes whose story So does the 2005 best-selling novel Labyrinth by English author Kate Mosse. Labyrinth is an archaeological mystery English-language novel written by Kate Mosse set both in the Middle Ages and present-day France Kate Mosse (born 20 October 1961 is an English Author and Broadcaster. It is set in Carcassonne, where she owns a house and spends half of the year. Carcassonne (Carcassona is a fortified French town in the Aude département, of which it is the Prefecture,

Notes

See also

Internal links

• Occitan dialects: Gascon (including Aranese), Lemosin, Auvernhat, Vivaroalpenc, Provençal (including Niçard), Lengadocian
• Occitan alphabet
• Occitan cross
• Baìo
• Institut d'Estudis Occitans
• Catalan language
• Languages of France
• Languages of Italy
• Languages of Spain

External links

• SIL
• Overview and grammar of Occitan
• Guide to online Occitan dictionaries
• Thesoc – Base de données linguistiques
• Dire en òc – Méthode pour apprendre l'occitan
• Occitan Institute
• The Council of the Occitan Language
• Radio Occitania
• Radio Lengadòc (Montpelhièr)
• Radio Lengadòc (Narbona)
• Occitania.org
• occitania.fr
• Occitanet – a guide to the language (English option)
• Troubadour & Early Occitan Literature
• DICCIONARI GENERAL OCCITAN DE CANTALAUSA
• panOccitan.org – Online dictionary, conjugation and spell checker - Provides a language variety which is criticized by specialists of the Occitan language. Gascon (Gascon; French,) is a dialect of the Occitan language. Aranese (aranés is a standardized form of the Pyrenean Gascon variety of the Occitan language spoken in the Aran Valley, in northwestern Catalonia Auvergnat (French name or Auvernhat (native name is one of several dialects of the Occitan language spoken in Auvergne, which is a historical province Vivaro-Alpine (English name or Vivaroalpenc Vivaroaupenc (native name is the northeastern dialect of the Occitan language. Provençal ( Provençau) is one of several dialects of Occitan spoken by a minority of people mostly in Provence (in southern France Niçard ( Classical orthography) Nissart/Niçart ( Mistralian orthography) Niçois ( French) or Nizzardo ( Italian Languedocien (French name or Lengadocian (native name is an Occitan dialect spoken by some people in the part of southern France known as Languedoc The Occitan alphabet consists of the following 23 Latin letters: Letter names Diacritics Remarks The Occitan cross — also cross of Occitania, cross of Languedoc, cross of Forcalquier and Toulouse cross,— is the symbol of Occitania The baìo is a traditional festival that takes place every five years in the municipality of Sampeyre in Valle Varaita in the province of Cuneo. The Institut d'Estudis Occitans (istiˈtyd desˈtyðiz utsiˈtas or IEO, or Occitan Studies Institute, or Institute for Occitan Studies, is a cultural Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official There are a number of languages of France. The French language is by far the most widely spoken and the only Official language of France, but several The official language of Italy is Standard Italian, a descendant of the Tuscan dialect and a direct descendant of Latin (some 75% of Italian words are of Latin origin The Languages of Spain are the languages spoken or once spoken in Spain.
• TVist'1 – Daily press review in Occitan - Provides a language variety which is criticized by specialists of the Occitan language.
• Occitan and Portuguese with Japanese translation
• Òc per l'occitan Labelised enterprises and organisms directory