Growing (Occitanie)

See also: Growing (homonymy)

The Growing (in occitan lo Creissent ) is a zone in the extreme north of the Occitanie, in the shape of crescent, where one speaks about the varieties of the Limousin and Auvergnat (Occitan or Langue of oc) which refers of transition towards the French (Langue of oil); however the linguistic features occitans remain dominant there.

The first author who used the term of Growing was the linguist occitan Jules Ronjat, in his thesis of 1913.

Sometimes, the speeches of the Crescent on the Limousin side, in the west, are also called marchois but they do not correspond exactly to the extension of the province of the Marche.

The territory

The territory of the Crescent is composed:
  • Of a fine band which crosses the medium of the department of the Charente, of south-west in the North-East, while passing just to the east of Angouleme.
  • Of a widening of this band of the west in the east, covering the extreme north of the departments of the High-Vienna and the Digs, the southern half of the Département Allier and some occitanes communes in the south of the departments of the Vienna, the Indre and the Cher.

Occitanes the most important cities of the Crescent are Guéret, Montlucon and Vichy.

The attribution of the Crescent to the occitan

The large majority of the linguists specialists in the Crescent affirm the character mainly occitan this linguistic zone (Tourtoulon & Bringuier, Dahmen, Escoffier, Chambon & Olivier, Quint). Only Jules Ronjat expresses a more careful opinion while refusing to say explicitly if Grow to it changing more occitan or of French. Following the prudence of Ronjat, some books of popularization occitanist (Pierre Nozzle, Robert Lafont) hesitated to present the Crescent like a zone completely occitane. Nevertheless, the cultural experiments undertaken in the Crescent starting from the Années 1970 (Quint, Blackbird) prove that the awakening occitane, on the linguistics plans and cultural, made there without difficulty. Currently, therefore, and since the years 1970, the published charts of the Occitanie include almost all the Crescent in the Country of Oc.

In the same way, the writer occitan of French expression Valéry Larbaud (1881-1957), which was originating in Vichy, in the Crescent, expressed in Jaune white blue (1927) his affection for the idea of large a Occitanie which he wanted to see developing in the future.

Historical, territorial and linguistic evolution

The influences of French are old in the Crescent: as of second half of the 13th century, the administrative documents and legal were written there in French and not in occitan, as well in the Marche (field the Limousin) as in Bourbonnais (field Auvergnat). That came from the presence from administrators and French-speaking lords. In Bourbonnais, even, the first known documents written in vulgar language are French acts with some inserted forms occitanes, as from 1245. Thus the Crescent knew a situation of Diglossie franco-occitane as of this time, well a long time before the penetration of French in the remainder of Occitanie.

It is certain that the limit between occitan and French moved back with the wire of the centuries and that it was more in north formerly. The French speeches located at the north of the Crescent (southern of the Berry, north of the Bourbonnais) still keep the traces of a substrate occitan (Dahmen).

The projection of French towards the Crescent is a long and progressive phenomenon, it is different from the rather fast desoccitanisation of the Poitou, the Saintonge and the Angoumois which was done between XIIe/XIIIe and XVe centuries.

In the speeches of the Crescent, the progression of the gallicisms advances and weakens the occitan. During the last centuries, it seems that this progression has more quickly advanced in Walk (Limousin field) that in Bourbonnais (auvergnat field). But since the XXe century, in all the cases of figure, the generalization of French led to a situation of Diglossie and similar linguistic substitution in the whole of Occitanie. That relativizes, today, the “francized” aspect of the occitan of the Crescent, since almost all the parlars occitans are francized.

Dialectologic subdivisions

There does not exist clear dialectologic subdivision in the Crescent and the general impression is that of a great fragmentation. There is no clear limit between Auvergnat and the Limousin, since the “limit” between these two dialects is a vast zone of transition in all is Limousin area (well beyond the Crescent).

In any case, from a cultural point of view, and possibly dialectologic, the west of the Crescent is attached rather to the the Limousin or with the Marche (one speaks about marchois , as a under-dialect of the the Limousin), while is the Increasing one is attached to the Bourbonnais (and with the field dialectologic Auvergnat).

In the field Auvergnat, one distinguishes a zone from influence of the Francoprovençal in the south-east of the Bourbonnais (south-eastern Allier), towards the Montagne bourbonnaise. The D intervocalic has fallen there for one very old time, in particular in the termination - aa (for - ada ), as in Vivaro-alpine (where the fall of D is also explained by the proximity with the francoprovençal).

Features of the speeches of the Crescent

The speeches of the Crescent are rather heterogeneous (according to Ronjat) but one often finds there the characteristics following:
  • According to testimonys of the occitanophones of the Crescent, mutual comprehension is a little difficult but often possible with the other speeches occitans southernmost. It is much more difficult with the French speeches located more at north.
  • the final vowels - has and - E are often completely amuïes in occitan Crescent, whereas they decide very clearly in the remainder of the speeches of oc. On the other hand it is possible to make hear the terminations - ace and - be who can possibly attract the tonic accent. In spite of this phenomenon, there are still traces of the mobile tonic accent, which can fall on the penultimate syllable from a word (word paroxytone) or of course the last syllable (word oxytone), contrary with what occurs in French where the tonic accent is always on the last syllable.
  • the recourse expressive, in spite of the invasion of French forms (e.g. was competed with will èra ), keep a great number of authentic features occitans and even a great creativity lexical and idiomatic (Escoffier).

See too

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