Inhabitant of Franche-Comté

The inhabitant of Franche-Comté is a Romance language belonging to the family of the Langues of oil which speaks itself in particular in north about the Franche-Comté (area of the east of the France). One indicates it by “inhabitant of Franche-Comté”, “language comtoise”, “speech comtois of oil” and often by the term of Patois. One can also indicate it by the Jurassic term or franc-comtois-Jurassic bus it is also spoken in the Canton about the Jura in Suisse. TheJurassic one belongs to a group of language which includes/understands the Picard, the Wallon and the Lorrain. These languages indeed have a certain number of joint characteristics, of which a Germanic influence.

Field

The surface of the language extends in France on the departments from the Haute-Saône, the Territoire of Belfort, the Doubs (northern), in the northern part of the the Jura, like in the Canton of the Jura (Suisse) and a small portion of the Département of Haut-Rhin (Alsace) of Romance language. Its field is limited to the south by the zones of the speeches francoprovençaux, to the west by the Burgundian speeches and Champagne and to north by the Lorraine one.

Dialects

The inhabitant of Franche-Compt3e language is composed of several dialects:

the Saone: Spoken in the high plateaus about the department of Haute-Saône.
Doubs-Ognon: Spoken in the valley of the Ognon which includes the valleys of the department of the Doubs and the part southern of the Haute-Saône.
Lomont-Doubs: Spoken in the solid mass about the Lomont, in the high-valleys in the east of the Doubs the western and part of the Canton of the Jura.
Ajoulot: Spoken in Ajoie, the valley of the Tasty , in the west of the Sundgau, with Porrentruy, which included the Territory of Belfort and parts close to the Department of Haut-Rhin and the north-western part of the Canton of the Jura.
Vâdais: Spoken with Delémont in the Canton about the Jura.
Taignon: Spoken in the frank mountains in the south-western part of the Canton about the Jura.

Source: Dalby, David (1999/2000). The Linguasphere Register off the World' S Languages and Communities Speech. (Vol. 2). Hebron, Wales, the U.K.: Linguasphere Near.

C-W communication

There currently does not exist Graphie standard unified for the inhabitant of Franche-Compt3e language, comparable so that there exists for other languages of oil such as the Normand, the Gallo or the Wallon. No standard was created to retranscribe the various dialectal variations. One can also say that there does not exist either of precise standard set for its writing, in particular with regard to the notation of the sounds. Often various C-Ws communication " are found; personelles" used by the speakers to transcribe the inhabitant of Franche-Comté with the writing.

Certain speakers, in particular within associations publishing of the compilations of texts and the periodic sheets, uses a qualified C-W communication of francized orthography which consists in bringing the writing closer to the inhabitant of Franche-Comté of the orthographical standards and conventions of French. This one was popularized by Simon Vatré in the Forties. It seems that this graphic method already had been adopted at the end of the 19° century by A. Vautherin and CH. Contejean. One however notes visible variations in the C-Ws communication based on the method of the orthography francized.

2 conventions were retained to note the sounds non-existent in the French language. Thus, one notes:

CH to note a sound comparable with the CH of the German ich (for the dialects of the north of the field).
in to note a sound nasalized between the I and the in .

In the historical texts, one finds the notation E which indicates the lengthening of the preceding vowel in a mot.

Examples

History

One has writings of the XVII° century in inhabitant of Franche-Compt3e language, even if during centuries, the language is remained mainly spoken. Also the works written in this Langue are rare, even if oldest go back to the 17th century (a papal bubble coming from the the Vatican, and translated into various languages, was translated into inhabitant of Franche-Comté). One of the oldest texts known as inhabitant of Franche-Comté goes back to 1668, and it is entitled " Dialog of Black Door and Pilory on the catch of Besancon by the French ". Despite everything, even if the French language were essential early at the elites in Franche-Comté, it was during many centuries the true language of the people, foreigner to the French language.

XIIXe and XIXe are marked by a great active retreat of the language until to its quasi-disappearance at the beginning of the XXe century. This is in particular with the policies followed within the schools aiming at imposing French against the other spoken languages in France.

Study of the language

The language was studied by the linguist Colette Dondaine who made a study of his field and writes several works on the subject.

Linguistic atlas and ethnographic of Franche-Comté (4 volumes)
the speeches comtois of oil
Christmas with the patois of Besancon

In 2007, Jean-Marie Monk, person in charge of the Jurassic Company of Emulation made appear a dictionary " French-patois" (Jurassic) of 1700 pages.

Music and literature

Alexandre Verdel, a chansonnier, cultivated the language by writing texts as inhabitant of Franche-Comté.

" Ulysses and Climène " of Madeleine and Georges Becker are stories (" riôles") contained in a booklet of 59 pages, drawn by Metthez printing works from Montbeliard in 1949. That tells the stories of an old couple of Lougres. Several of these stories were republished and translated in the memories of the company of emulation of Montbeliard, in 1995, 1996 and 1997.

Jules Surdez, teacher originating in the Close-of-Doubs the, collected during its life of the hundreds of Jurassic oral tales in inhabitant of Franche-Compt3e language (in the Jurassic dialect) which it then transcribed with the writing.

Noëls, plays having for framework the Nativity, constitute part of the historical literature (as from the XVIIe century). It should be noted that these texts must be considered with precaution since the Graphie and the lexicon used are the majority very influenced by the French.

The language in the canton of the Jura

The language knows a relatively important activity in the canton of the Jura by the existence of several associations protecting it and making live the Jurassic patois. Article 42.2 of the constitution of the Republic and Canton of the Jura refer to the language under the term of patois:

(Article 42.2): " They (the State and communes) take care and contribute to the conservation, enrichment and the development of the Jurassic inheritance, in particular of the patois. "

April 26th, 1997, Jean-Marie Moine proposed to consider the creation of a Circle of study of the patois within the Jurassic Société of Emulation (SJE). It will have nevertheless to be waited on April 28th, 2001 so that this Circle is born. Named Voiyïn (renewal, in French), it meets four times regularly per annum. Its activities consist in particular with: to record patoisants; to establish a catalog of all that was written or which appeared in patois (articles, books, discs, cassettes, video-cassettes, etc); to present research tasks on the language patoise, and to take note of the texts new patois written today by the members of the Circle; to gather all the documents and to place them at the disposal of the public. The person in charge of the Circle, as of his creation, is Jean-Marie Moine.

Founder, in 1956, of the " Réton di Ciôs-di-Doubs" (the Echo of Close-of-Doubs), friendly of patoisants, Badet Joseph (1915-2007) (more known under the name of " Djôsèt Barotchèt") engage for defense and the safeguard of the patois. He is in particular the author of nineteen plays as well as many poems and songs put in music by Paul Montavon and Ernest Beuchat. He gives also courses of patois, takes part in broadcasts radio and written many articles in the newspapers. In 1983, it receives the Jurassic Literary prize.

Publications

Various associations of " patoisants" of franc-comtoise-Jurassic language publish periodic publications.

"Voiyïn" for the Jurassic Company of Emulation (S.J.E)
" Lou patois of tchie nos" for the Union of the patoisants of Romance language of Belfort
" Nové raye" for a.P.E, association of the Romance patoisants of the Sundgau (Alace - Haut-Rhin)

Toponymy

Belfort: Béfô
Besancon: Besancon
Champlitte: Champitre
Montbeliard: Monbyai
Vesoul : Vezou

Quotations

Extracts from " Sebastien Police chief, working silk worker and martyr républicain" :

" My father, I said it already, liked much his native land, the Franche-Comté. It had preserved the practice of speaking with his/her children the patois about the surroundings about Besancon. Never he spoke to us French, and my brothers and me we always spoke patois to him; we spoke French only with our mother who did not speak the patois of Besançon."

Drawn from " 600 anecdotes ignored out of 30 communes of Doubs" :

" To speak (of) patois, it is not to leave the subject. It being gone from there between the two wars, gradually, without one to realize it. And why? Our parents, between them, spoke patois, but they ceased speaking it with their children. They thought that could the géner to learn French at the school. And moreover the teacher sanctioned a pupil who left a word patois . At this point in time French killed the patois. The cohabitation had become impossible. French was a malicious antagonist for the patois, which required only of survivre."

Testimony of a speaker in Lou patois of tchie our : bulletin of the Union of Patoisants in Romance Language

" The intérête that it carried being studied of the patois consolidated us in our attachment, our fidelity with what was the language of our aïeux distances. Language wrongfully scorned as being the expression of the classes inferiors of the company of antan."

Works

to see Regional French Vocabulary of Révérent Father Henri Fleisch of Jonvelle, in 1951

Internal bonds

External bonds

Union of the patoisants of Romance language of Belfort: http://patois.belfort.free.fr
Jurassic Company of Emulation: http://www.sje.ch/
Lou Frondon! - Experimental Blog as inhabitant of Franche-Comté: http://loufrondon.blogspot.com
the cancoillotte.net site contains a dictionary of words of regional French of Franche-Comté.
the site of Jean-Rene contains some inhabitants of Franche-Compt3e phrases.

Identitecomtoise.net - Identity of the Franche-Comté
Site on the patois of the canton of the Jura (dialect of the inhabitant of Franche-Comté): http://patois.isuisse.com/
Site of the songs of oil: http://projetbabel.org/oil/

Random links: