The occitan or language of oc (in occitan: oc occitan, lenga of òc ) is a Romance Langue spoken in the southern half of the France, in the Vallées Occitanes (in Italy), with the Val of Aran (in Spain) and in the past with Monaco. The Occitanie is defined as the linguistic and cultural space of the occitan.

The occitan has an unquestionable richness (vocabulary, expressivity, capacity of evolution), a great variability (dialectal diversity and stressings) which does not prevent mutual comprehension between the speakers of different the Dialecte S. It has of a great cultural production and a prestigious literature, old and long-lived at the same time.

The term “language of oc” appears at Dante towards 1290 and the Latin term the lingua occitana , which derives from it, appears at once after with the XIVe century in administrative texts. “Language of oc” and “occitan” are synonymous in Romance linguistics, in the near total of the cultural movement since the {{Rom|XIX|19}} {{E}} S. like in the recent administrative texts.

The number of its speakers is the subject of controversies, the evaluation which is made variable by it of a half-million to 12 million people - according to the sources (which confuse often practical active and passive knowledge). Its surface of geographical expansion covers 33 departments of the south of the France (39 by counting the departments minoritairement occitans), 14 Vallées Occitanes (in the the Alps Piedmont eases in Italy), the Val of Aran in Spain and marginally Monaco.

Names of the occitan

At the time modern, one calls it sometimes Provençal under the considerable influence of the literary movement Félibrige and sound Nobel Prize Frederic Mistral. It is also the name which the Italians gave to the language with the Moyen-âge, and thus one still usually names the English language (" provençal").

However this name has an ambiguity because it also indicates the dialect of Provence (that in addition a minority regards as a distinct language), in addition the expression “language of oc” makes think from the start of the Languedocien dialect. Undoubtedly for these reasons the term generally considered as most clearly is “occitan”.

The occitan was formerly called, lenga romana , Romance with the {{Rom|XIII|13}} {{E}} and {{Romanian|XIV|14}} {{E}} S. (term used with the {{Rom|XIX|19}} {{E}} S. to indicate old the occitan), the Limousin with the {{Romanian|XIII|13}} {{E}} S., mondin or raimondin , Gascon with the {{Romanian|XVI|16}} {{E}} Catalan S., , of Provence with the {{Romanian|XIII|13}} {{E}} and {{Romanian|XIX|19}} {{E}}; or lingua occitana with the {{Romanian|XIV|14}} {{E}} S., language of oc (even occitanic , occitanien ).

Occitans themselves said lo roma (N) (Romance), lo lemozi (N) (the Limousin) or lo proensal (of Provence) with the {{Rom|XIII|13}} {{E}} S. the expression “language of oc” was created by Dante about 1290 and the expression lingua occitana (language occitane) appeared almost at once in administrative Latin texts. However, the terms “occitan” and “Occitanie” spread only since the {{Rom|XIX|19}} {{E}} S. and more still since second half of the {{Romanian|XX|20}} {{E}} S.. Occitans used and use always other formulas to indicate their language, as “ the lenga will nòstra ” (our language) “ parlam has will nòstra mòda ” (we speak with our manner) or in Gascogne “ That parli ” (I speak).

In certain areas, the speakers use the term of patois (Larousse: to speak local, rural and of restricted extension) to indicate their language, but this term is also rejected nowadays for its connotations felt like pejorative.

Elsewhere, in the areas with strong identity, the name of the province is used to indicate the language. One says: “the auvergnat, the Limousin, the Gascon, the inhabitant of Béarn, the of Provence one, the niçois…” (these terms indicate in fact of the dialects and under-dialects occitans)

Areas occitanes

It should be noted that the urban district of Biarritz, Rebated joint and Bayonne a long time spoke only the occitan; however an important population bascophone appeared during the migrations of the time of the Industrial revolution.
  • Auvergne: it should be noted that Drill it and the Low-Auvergne knew a retreat of the occitanophonie, unlike the Cantal, Haute-Loire and of Lozere where the language is still spoken by all the 35 year old people and more.
  • Center: a very small zone in southern edge of the area.
  • Languedoc-Roussillon: except for the major part of the the Eastern Pyrenees, where one speaks Catalan (only the Fenouillèdes are occitans). The language is very weakened in the plain, but is maintained in the the Cevennes Gard oises (around Alès) and in Lozere (with the spoke gévaudannais).
  • the Limousin: The occitan is spoken in all the area by people of more than 40 years, the language finds a new breath with the training of professors of occitan.
  • the Midday-Pyrenees: the language is very weakened in the Languedocien part, threatened in the Gascon part, but much of young Gascons take it again. It is maintained particularly well into High-Guyenne (= Aveyron and northern half of the Batch).
  • Monaco: a form of occitan is spoken marginally in the Principality, beside the Ligure Monégasque.
  • Piedmont: Italian area of which only the high valleys (Valley of Suse…), known as Vallées Occitanes remained occitanophones (north-occitan). The Italian slope of the Col of Tightens speaks of Provence. In most of the area, one speaks however Italian, Piémontais or lombard, of the Parlers gallo-italics.
  • the communes of the South-east of the Poitou-Charentes which belonged to the old area of the Limousin and were attached to the departments of Charente to its creation, the Charente Limousine.
  • Provence-Alp-Coast of Azure, except the valleys of the Roya and of Bévéra and some isolates Ligure S ( figoun ) in the VAr and the the Alpes-Maritimes: Biot, Vallauris, Mons and Escragnoles. The Mentonasque has an intermediate statute.
  • the Rhone-Alps: the south of the area is occitanophone: Ardeche (in its near total) and most of Drome. On the other hand, the Lyons, the Drill and the septentrional Dauphiné which were intermediate zones of speeches between the occitan and the Francoprovençal became French-speaking precociously. The occitan was the language of the Lyons nobility at the time of the apogee of the culture of the troubadours.
  • Valley of Aran: one speaks there the Aranais, the shape of the Gascon who has a official statute there. The remainder of the Catalogne speaks Catalan.

Foot-note: there are voluntarily isolated the areas catalanophones in order to approach the definition most often allowed of the occitan.

The occitan in the world

Enclaves occitanophones were created
  • in the south of Italy with Guardia Piemontese (Gàrdia; Calabria)
  • with the Basque Country Spanish (Gascon Colonies in the Basque Country): Saint-Sebastien/Donostia (Gascon would have been spoken in the center about the city until the beginning about the XXe century), Fontarabie, Pasajes
  • in Germany (around Heilbronn in the duchy of Württemberg, until in the years 1930 apparently)
  • in Argentine: in particular Pigüé (Province of Buenos Aires) presentation and history of Pigüé
  • to the Chile
  • in Uruguay
  • with the Mexico
  • with the Brazil
  • with the the United States mainly in States of the West:
Montpellier (Idaho), Oregon, California, but also Valdese (North Carolina) | History of English Valdese, Montpellier (Vermont), Monett (Missouri); as in Louisiana in the area of Baton-Rouge of Arnaudville and Houma where one uses a speech cajun occitan.

Some of these enclaves speak the occitan still today or use a local dialect mingled with occitan.

Linguistic family

The occitan sets up with the Catalan the group Occitano-novel of the Western Romania: it makes the transition between gallo-novel and ibéro-novel, according to the linguist Pierre Bec ( Manuel practices Romance philology , Paris, Picard, 1970).

The occitan and the Catalan are close linguistically and allow mutual comprehension. The Catalan is closer to the occitan than it is it of Spanish or Portuguese. In the same way, the occitan is closer to the Catalan than of French or than of the francoprovençal. Certain novelists like A. Sanfeld, who do not represent however the majority opinion, go even until including these two languages under the same linguistic denomination of occitan.

Jules Ronjat sought to characterize the occitan while being based on 19 principal criteria and among the most generalized. Eleven criteria are phonetic, five morphological, syntactic, and two lexical. One can thus note the least frequency of the half-closed standard French vowels (: pink, fast ). It is a characteristic of the occitanophones thanks to which one recognizes their “southernmost” accent even when they speak in French. There exists also the non-utilization of the prone personal pronoun (ex: canti/lays/sings/chanto I sing; / you sang laid sing). One can still find other features discriminating. But, only on the principal criteria, there exist seven differences with Spanish, eight with Italian, twelve with the francoprovençal and sixteen out of nineteen with French.

Pronunciation of the occitan

The pronunciation of the occitan, according to the traditional standard occitane, is done according to constant and regular rules of reading, besides some exceptions. From basic letters, the occitan uses modifying symbols which change the pronunciation of certain letters or simply mark a tonicity in the language, without changing the pronunciation it like: the closed accent (´), the open accent (`) and the dieresis (¨). Summary of the pronunciation of the occitan (Languedocien):

Vowels

  • has :
    • - has , has and with decides.
    • - has and á final decides just as - ace and - year : has dull.
  • E :
    • E or E decides.
    • E decides .
  • I or í decides or.
  • O
    • O or ó decides or.
    • ò decides .
  • U decides or in semi-vocalic position, except when it is after a vowel.

Consonants

  • B : /
  • C : . in front of " e" and " i". When it is double DC : .
  • CH :
  • C : * D : /
  • F : * G : / in front of " a" , " o" , " u". in front of " e" and " i". When it is final, it decides, in certain words . gu in front of " e" and " i" decides/
  • H : dumb man
  • J :
  • K : * L : . A double L , decides.
  • lh : , into final: .
  • m : , final. In double mm .
  • N : . Dumb man into final. in front of " p" , " b" and " m". in front of c/qu and g/gu. in front of " f". Nd and NT * nh : . In final position * p : * qu : in front of " e" and " i" ; otherwise.
  • R : and . In final position, it is dumb in the majority of words. RN and rm .
  • S : . between vowels. S gives.
  • T : . tg / tj : . Tl : . tn : . MT : . tz : * v : /
  • W : ,/
  • X : , in front of a consonant.
  • there : / * Z : , in final position.

  1. element 1

  2. element 2
  3. element 3

Bonds between the occitan and the Catalan

At an old stage, the Catalan and the occitan could not be categorically differentiated. The fact that one writes quasi-exclusivement in Latin at that time makes impossible any formal categorization. In any case, the first texts in vulgar languages, although very similar show already some differences. Which were accentuated with half of XIIe century, which had with pressures of political and geographical insulation. The Gascon, not isolated from the remainder of Occitanie was considered a dialect occitan; while the Catalan, nearer to the Languedocien from a linguistic point of view than of other dialects occitans, was considered a different language. The Catalan poets wrote in occitan until XIVe century. The first writer who wrote all his work as a Catalan, like occitan, was the Valencian Ausiàs March. In the work of the philologist of the XIX° century Friedrich Christian Diez the Catalan is regarded as an integral share of the occitan, still called " provençal" ; however it announces the differences of them. In 1931, the recent return to the statute of autonomy of Catalonia was likely to be blocked by the defense of the membership of the Catalans to a unit mainly not Spanish. It is only into 1934 that the Catalan intellectuals proclaimed solemnly that the Catalan was distinct from the occitan.

The occitan and the Catalan are characterized by the manner of writing the language (Graphie). Occitans of today mainly chose to use a C-W communication close to the medieval language (and origins Latin be), for example by adding it - N final “null and void” pronounced in Provence. Others had preferred to francize their C-Ws communication (Provençaux Inhabitant of Avignon, linguistic school Gaston-Phébus in Gascogne…). The Catalans on their side chose a C-W communication centered on their manner of pronouncing (not final N with català for example).

The pronunciation varies between Catalan and occitan, for example:

  • the " o" /" ó" always decides like, except when it has grave accent " ò" : (pònt - bridge: /p ɔnt/, eleven: /'unze/, antropologia: /antrupulu ' dʒiɔ/)
  • When a word finishes with - has, or the closed accent, " á" , this one decides as/(placed: /pl ásɔ/, sentiái - OJ sentia-: /sentj ' ɔj/) except when it with the grave accent " - à" : .
  • the occitan avoids the pronunciation of two consonants of continuation, often by not pronouncing the first and by reinforcing the second (to abdicate would be written " addicà" , " cc" " decides; ts" as a Languedocien, occitan decides " utsità").
  • In the occitan the tonic syllable of the words approached French with time, under the influence of this last. The majority of the stressed syllables on the antepenultimate as a Catalan change in the occitan (MÚsica (cat) muSIca (oc), PÀgina (cat) paginated (oc), boTÀnica (cat) botaNIca (oc), inDÚstria (cat) indusTRIa (oc)…). Only the Niçois and the Vivaro-alpine of the Vallées Occitanes maintained the pronunciation original, near to the Catalan.

For the catalanophones, the traditional C-W communication of the occitans to the advantage of resembling the Catalan woman enough. That is due for a good portion so that in work of actualization and fixing of this C-W communication, led by Loís Alibèrt in 1937, one followed criteria very similar to those followed by Pompeu Fabra for the Catalan. The two C-Ws communication were based on the medieval C-W communication, formed when the two languages were closer of their common origins and that in more the contacts were more intense (poetry in Catalonia was made mainly in occitan even in XIVe century). Despite everything, there are some differences of which it is necessary to hold account for reading with the facility the texts occitans:

  • One preserves the " n" final of the words, although in the majority of the dialects occitan, he does not decide (the exceptions are the of Provence one, and the Gascon, who includes aranais it). Examples: " occitan" , " concepcion".
  • the " h" is not written when he does not decide (the " h" is put as a Catalan): I has a òme (cat: hi ha a home). The " h" puts itself in Gascon to indicate that he decides aspired, when he replaces usually the " f" other dialects occitan and of the Catalan. Example: in Gascon " hèsta" , in the other dialects " fèsta" , as a Catalan " festa".
  • the Digraph S " lh" , " nh" and " sh" correspond to the Catalan " ll" , " ny" and " ix". The digraphs " lh" and " nh" were also adopted since the Middle Ages by the Portuguese standards and in a recent way in the Romance C-W communication of the language Vietnamese.

The political aspect, cultural and religious is important too. The Catalonia, contrary to the Occitanie profited a long time from a allied official independence to a strong economic development. Moreover, space occitan is defined overall by its membership in France, the Catalan is mainly defined by his membership in Spain. Still recently the languages continue to evolve/move separately: the Catalan is a whole of dialects which have tendency to hispaniser in contact with the Castillan; the occitan, has to him tendency to galliciser in contact with French. The important weight of the languages Spanish and French in the world weighs heavily on the reports/ratios of linguistic domination within the France and of the Spain.

It should not however be concluded from it that the occitan and the Catalan are very different. There exists a rather good mutual comprehension between catalanophones and occitanophones. Moreover, many historical, cultural and friendly bringings together bring closer these people.

  • Comparative occitan/Catalan
Here a text in its Languedocien version (occitan Southerner-west) and Catalan woman majorquine (Catalan of the Balearic Islands). The literary form or antiquated of the Catalan majorquin is sometimes specified in the remarks.

Origins of the occitan

The occitan is most central of the Romance Langues, for this reason, the influences external of the Romance periphery could prevent its birth and its development by making only one crossing point tributary of an external Koinê, or support its development as a Common language specific. It is this second possibility which was carried out, supported by certain circumstances which gave to the occitan its originality:

Language occitane or languages of oc?

Languages or dialects?

The use of the name “occitan” and the idea that there is not that only one language is prone to polemics. He is admitted by the very large majority of the linguists novelists who there exists a linguistic unit of the occitan, exceeding the dialectal framework. Certain authors, minority, think however that there does not exist one, but " langues" of oc. The Gascon and the Catalan pose also a problem of classification considering certain sides ibéro-novels. Occitan and Catalan are gathered under the linguistic designation of group occitano-novel.

The various dialects of the occitan are:

It proves that at the beginning of XIIIe century the documents of Saintonge, of Angoumois, Aunis and the Poitou were already written in perfect French, which could let suppose that the local dialects were rather close to the Langues of oil that of a Langue of oc of the type the Limousin. Or on the contrary that constitutes an additional proof of an early Francization. Indeed, the use of the " bon" French in the writings, with the detriment of the use of the local speech shows a certain acceptance of the royal authority by the local elites.

Classification supradialectale

Pierre Bec said that another classification " supradialectale" is possible, according to the following criteria:

Literary language " unifiée"

It should be noticed that between the XI {{E}} and the XIII {{E}} century, there existed a literary language named by the troubadours of the generic name of " language romane" or " roman" (it was never indicated like " occitan" by the contemporary authors) to differentiate it from Latin. The modern authors brought it closer to the Greek Koinê, which was the shape of Greek relatively unified under the hellenistic period (300 av. J. - C. - 300 a. J. - C.), even if this last language were more varied on a regional level than it is too often believed. The " language romane" used by the troubadours seemed to have for base the Limousin dialect which the first troubadour would have employed, the duke of Aquitaine - count de Poitiers Guillaume IX (1086-1126). The success of this last and the presence of some of the first troubadours originating in the Limousin and Gascogne at the court of his/her son Guillaume X (1126-1137) which was their sovereign, easily explain the diffusion of this literary language within the duchy of Aquitaine. The Languedoc future and Provence knew the troubadours only thereafter in second half of XIIe century.

However Pierre Nozzle, large specialist in the troubadours indicated as of 1967 qu ' “It is difficult besides to judge this language with precision since we know only one pale copy of it, that which the scribes agreed to transmit to us in the various manuscripts. If dialectal substrate there is, it is often that of the copyist who appears without his knowledge. And there, very often, the arbitrary reign absolute: to worms of interval, such or such word presents itself, not only with another C-W communication, but with a phonetism pertaining to an absolutely different dialect. And that to still say if one compares, in connection with the same text, the various lessons bequeathed by the manuscripts! It is impossible to say exactly in which language poetries of the troubadours were written”.

Apart from the literature of the troubadours, one cannot find elements proving the use of a linguistic standard unified in the charters and the other documents of Languedoc, of Provence, of Auvergne, of Catalonia, of the Limousin or Gascogne. To summarize, the written practices were rather distinct from one area to another and perceptions accrediting the idea of a linguistic unification on all space covering all these areas are very often only the result of a relatively homogeneous C-W communication because resulting from the C-W communication used for Latin. In any case, all medieval historical testimonys show that linguistic space that one names " today; occitan" sheltered people which regarded themselves as different from/to each other in spite of the linguistic proximities which besides are perceived since the XIXe century than with the Moyen-âge (the people until XIIe century included: the Aquitanian ones, Gascons, Goths and Provençaux; starting from the beginning of XIVe century: Limousins, Auvergnats, Gascons, people of " the language of oc" , Catalans and Provençaux).

The language and its assets

Richness of the lexicon

The usual dictionary of occitan comprises approximately 50.000 to 60.000 words, as for French, but one also could advance figures as high as 450.000 words, which is given like comparable with the English.

The Géo. magazine

Training of foreign languages

The occitan would also predispose, according to the sources of the magazine Géo , with the training of the foreign languages. Indeed, the human ear with the capacity to hear 24.000 hertz. However, the use of the native tongue filters and “deforms” the foreign sounds. French perceives only 5.000 hertz of them, while the occitan perceives 8.000 of them at least With the Middle Ages, Dante is the first to have employed the term of “ lingua of oco ”. He opposed name language of oc (occitan) to language of oil (French and its dialects) and to the language of if (Italian, its native tongue). He based himself on the particle being used for the assertion: in the first, “yes” is said òc , but oil in the second, and if in the Italian dialects. The three terms come from Latin: hoc for the first, hoc ille for the second and sic for the third.

One of the most notable passages in the Western literature in occitan is the 26e song simultaneously with the Purgatory of Dante, in which the troubadour Arnaut Daniel answers the narrator: “Tan me abellis vostre the Cortes deman,/that ieu No me puesc nor voill has your cobrire. /Ieu sui Arnaut, that plor E vau cantan; /consiros vei the passada folor,/E vei jausen lo joi that esper, denan. /Macaw your prec, per aquella valor/that your Al som escalina guided,/sovenha your has time of my dolor”.

Decline of the language

Under monarchy

The decline of the occitan like administrative language and arts person lasts of the end of the 15th century at the 19th century. The occitan did not cease losing its statute of erudite language. During XVIe century, the C-W communication previously from of use falls into the lapse of memory (what accentuated the Ordonnance of Villers-Cotterêts which imposes the administrative use of French). Pierre Bec ( COp cit. ) specifies that in the 1500 still pronunciation and the C-W communication corresponded but that in 1550 the divorce is consumed. In 1562, the duke of Savoy gives the order to the notaries of the County of Nice to write from now on their Italian acts. As from this moment, of the C-Ws communication patoisantes fascinating for reference the official languages proliferate.

The language of king de France will end up being essential in all the country in the oral examination (old provinces occitanophones like Poitou, Saintonge or Charentes, Walk and Low-Auvergne, as well as part of the Rhone-Alps). It will be essential only in the administrative and legal writings elsewhere (areas currently occitanophones).

To accustom the people to be yielded with the king, with our manners, and our habits, there is nothing which can contribute to it more to make so that the children learn how the French language, so that it their becomes as familiar as their, to be able practically so not to repeal the use of those, at least to have the preference in the opinion of the inhabitants of the country| Colbert in 1666

During the Revolution

The French revolution will confirm this tendency, because the Jacobins, to support the national unit, will force French like only official language, which will not prevent the language of oc from remaining the spoken language, to even be used by the revolutionists to propagate their theses more effectively.

Quotations of the Abbot Gregoire in 1793:

The unit of the Republic orders the unit of idiom and all the French must honor themselves to know a language (Foot-note: French) who from now on, will be par excellence that of the virtues of courage and freedom.

It would be well time that one preached only in French, the language of the reason. We do not see that there is more the small inconvenience to destroy our patois, our patois is too heavy, too coarse the destruction of the patois imports with the expansion of the Lights, with the purified knowledge of the religion, the easy execution of the laws, national happiness and political peace.

Nevertheless the knowledge and the exclusive use of the French language are closely related to the maintenance of freedom to the glory of the Republic. The language must be like the Republic, moreover the majority of the patois have an indigence of words which comprises only inaccurate translations. Citizens, that a healthy emulation animates you to banish of all the regions of France these jargons. You have only republican feelings: the language of freedom must only express them: only it must be used as interpreter in the social relations.

Actions of the press

The language, in spite of some literary attempts at the 16th century, does not survive any more but in the seldom written popular uses and this until the 19th century with the revival of the Félibrige. The media occitans become them-even burning adversaries of the occitan:

This unhappy gibberish (Foot-note: the occitan) that it is time to proscribe. We are French, speak French|a reader of the Echo of Vaucluse, 1828

The patois carries the superstition and separatism, the French must speak the language about freedom|The Gazette of the South, 1833

Destroy, if you can, the wretched patois of Limousins, of Périgourdins and of Auvergnats, force to them by touts the possible ways with the unit of the French language as to the uniformity of the weights and measures, we will approve you large heart, you will render service to its cruel populations and the remainder of France which forever been able to include/understand them|The Messenger, 9/24/1840

Under the Republic: the school and administration

The occitan will remain for a large majority the only spoken language by the population until the beginning of the 20th century. At that time, the French republican school (as of the III° republic) plays a great part in the disappearance of the spoken usage of the language occitane. On the one hand the school becomes free and obligatory for all. In addition, the French education system causes an important retreat of the occitan by the means of a policy of denigration and culpabilisation of the occitanophones. Indeed, it tends to make feel guilty the speakers occitans by pretexting that to succeed in the life it is necessary to speak French. The repression of the use of the language within the school is very important: physical maltreatment, humiliations… At that time, it is said that “it is interdict to spit by ground and of speaking patois”. The term of patois is contestable because pejorative besides. The purpose of it was to make forget that the occitan is a language and to make believe that the use of the patois was obscurantist because it was not the same one from one village to another.

The patois is the worst enemy of the teaching of French in our elementary schools. The tenacity with which in certain countries, the children speak it between them as soon as they are free to make the despair of many Masters who seek by all kinds of means, fight this annoying practice. Among the means it is one which I saw successfully employing in a rural school of high Provence… The morning, while entering in class, the Master gives to the first pupil of division higher a marked penny of a cross made than the knife… This penny is called: the sign. It acts for the owner of is signed (for the “signor” as the pupils say) to get rid of the penny by giving it to another pupil whom it will have surprised pronouncing a word of patois. I began to reflect about proceeded… It is that I find, beside real advantages, a disadvantage which seems to me rather serious. On ten children, I suppose who were surprised to speak patois in the course of the day, only the last is punished. There is not the one injustice? I preferred, up to that point, to punish all those which are let take. |General correspondence of the primary Inspection, 1893

I consider that a teaching of the local dialect can be given only in proportion of the utility which it offers for the study and the knowledge of the national language| Leon Bérard, Minister for the State education, December 1921

Social changes

The social changes of the beginning of the XXe century are also at the origin of the depreciation of the language. With the industrial revolution and the urbanization, not to speak that the occitan constituted a handicap to reach important stations. Many parents then chose to speak only French with their children. However, for them-even, French was the language of the school and the administration, but it was not their native tongue.

Demographic decline

The hecatombs of the First World War singularly accelerated the movement of Francization. Indeed, in Occitanie, there were specific demographic behaviors: the choice of the single child. One can legitimately consider, that the linguistic dynamism occitan died with the demographic decline of the occitans.

Immigration

Following the losses of the First World War, Occitanie had recourse as of the Années 1920 to foreign immigration to be repopulated and be rebuilt (Spanish, Italian, Armenian,…). The newcomer learned the language which was impossible to circumvent to be integrated: French. This immigration was primarily urban causing of this fact a dilution of the occitanophones downtown and a cut with the rural populations, still largely occitanophones. It should be noted that the rare immigrants in rural areas often learned the occitan and one sometimes transmitted to their children.

Modern forms the antione

The adversaries of the occitan exist still today, in various forms:

With 4000 francs I could buy a machine-gun and finish some with the occitan. |The assistant main thing of a college of the Toulouse suburbs, years 1990

The nissart is useless because Niçois speak French very well|A mayor of the Alpes-Maritimes years 1990
Our vision of the “languages” and the regional “cultures”, asepticized, bathes in the niaise fog of the ecologist-folk finer feelingss and nourishes images of a revisited past… It cannot be a national target. By proposing on the young generations a return to languages which survived only in the spoken forms, essentially private of the essential passage to the maturity which gives the written form, literary, philosophical, does one seriously believe to offer to them a future of work, social integration, thought? | Daniele Sallenave, Leave, breakers of unit! , Le Monde, July 3rd, 1999

The quotations are drawn from: PUJOL J-P., 2004. Sottisier in connection with the ethnic minorities. the small chauvinistic anthology , ED. Lacour- Rediviva, August 2004, 66 p.

Rebirths of the language

First rebirth

Whereas the language seems strongly attacked, various movements of defense of the literature occitane are born. For the period 1650 - 1850, the language is renewed. One attended various currents which converged one towards the other to give again prestige with the language. The recognition of the literature occitane can be allotted, in particular, with the resident of Agen Jacques Boé (known as Jasmin) and with the nimois Jean Reboul. This first rebirth prepared the advent of the Félibrige. One distinguishes:

the erudite movement
After the lapse of memory of the troubadours, those know in second half of the XVIIIe century a revival of interest. In the southernmost aristocratic circles, one calls into question the alleged literary supremacy of French. One attends a linguistic and literary research. One finds the romantic taste for the Middle Ages. The folklore, the novels and the tales pastoral are of interest. The historians work on the “Albigensian Crusade” and on the history of the South.

the labor movement
Apelavam my lenga una lenga romana . It worms is the junction of two currents of the reappearing occitan. One: the “language”: its daily “patois”; the other: the “lenga romana” is a mark of scholarship. The patois is seen like a language of a very high row. The love for the people and his miseries is sung by Victor Gélu.

the middle-class movement and esthète
A contrario “scientists” who are turned towards the past in a direction of research érudites and “workmen” which proposes their dynamism of proletarians, the middle-class poets (or of minor nobility) will locate between the two. The movement is more amateur, but with a great passion for the language.

the utility movement
Dr. Honnorat included/understood the need of more than linguistic realism. The language had lost its orthographical and morphological coding. Indiscipline in grammar or the C-W communication was even asserted in the labor movement. Honnorat published its dictionary of Provence-French as of 1840. It is a precursor which gives again with the occitan its dignity and its coherence.

Second rebirth

A first attempt at return to a graphic standard takes place at the XIXe century: it is conceived by Joseph Roumanille and is popularized by Frederic Mistral. The second literary rebirth of the language was done at the XIXe century under the control of the Félibrige. At that time the language is primarily used by the rural people. Mistrals and its fellow-members of Félibrige gave again prestige with the language, by giving him a standard and literary works. Their action was sometimes interfered a political will. The félibres said: “a nation which has only one literature, a nation which destroys the peripheral languages, it is a nation unworthy of its destiny of nation”. The occitan, in its form of Provence and its C-W communication inhabitant of Avignon, was diffused much further that the borders from the occitanophonie. Still today the literature mistralienne is studied in countries like Japan or in Scandinavia. Mistral is the only author the only occitanophone to be rewarded for its work at most point, he received the Nobel Prize of literature. The linguistic reform mistralienne found its best workman in Auguste Fourès de Castelnaudary (1848 - 1891) who, in its various poetic collections, acclimatized it in Languedoc. Later, other writers of Languedoc or the Limousin Antonin Perbosc (1861), Prosper Estieu (1860), Roux (1834 - 1905) try to unify the language. They restored the traditional C-W communication and removed the language from gallicisms. The Perbosc-Estieu system becomes the base of the C-W communication of the “modern” occitan. The lexicographer and grammairien Louis Alibert, supported by the Catalans, publish in 1935, with Barcelona: the Gramatica occitana segon los parlars lengadocians . It improves the writing to establish the traditional Graphie inspired by the standard old and adapted to the modern language.

Examples of modern C-W communication occitane

Reading and pronunciation:

Contemporary time

In spite of one period of strong devalorization of the language (see the chapter on the decline), of new authors are born:

- max Rouquette (1908 - 2005) played an irreplaceable part in the maintenance of the culture occitane and its major reactivation. It was translated in the United States, in Germany and in Japan, then later it translated itself its works into French. The Comédie-Française pays homage today to him.

- Felix-Marcel Castan (1923 - 2001), philosopher, became the leader of the reflections on the occitanism and cultural decentralization. He is the first to be established:

- Bernard Manciet, (1923 - 2005), diplomat and Gascon contractor, is one of the paradoxical poets most considerable.

- Robert Lafont (1923), academic (linguist and historian of the literature of oc), poet, playwright, novelist and essay writer.

- Pierre Nozzle (1921), specialist in language and literature of oc and writer, published in 1997 the Century of gold of Gascon poetry (1550-1650) .

- François Fontan, founder of the principles of the Ethnisme.

- Jean Boudou (1920-1975) is a novelist, a storyteller and a poet who wrote all his work in occitan. Its name in occitan is Joan Bodon.

In 1931-39, the autonomy acquired by Catalonia, which supports the Occitanisme, gave again a whiplash with the dynamism occitan.

The IEO (Institute of Estudis Occitans) work since 1945 for the defense and the promotion of the language occitane. Its action is responsible mainly for the safeguard and the development of the occitan. It intervenes in: - research - studies, conferences and publications - the promotion of the teaching of the occitan - formation: training courses, meetings of summer… - the vacation centres youth - visual arts: exposures - music - the edition: the IEO is the largest editor of language of oc with its collections: prose, poetry, popularization, books for the children… Moreover, the regional sections and secondary roads of the IEO, the Circles occitans local take part in the animation and the cultural life of the country.

In 1951, the Loi Deixonne authorizes the teaching of the occitan in the schools in France. This law will be supplemented then by the creation of CAPES (teaching Training certificate with secondary education) of occitan in 1991, although the number of stations proposed is below the needs and the request.

Recent period

Current statute of the occitan

The installation of the Code of education also reduced the possibilities offered by the law Deixonne, which was replaced by this law.

The policy of the regional and minority languages (laws on the regional languages, teaching…). In certain communities of the Occitanie, one finds a bilingual posting including the local alternative of the language occitane.

European study on the occitan in Spain The Italian Parlement adopted in 1999 a law intended for the linguistic minorities of the country: law of the December 15th 1999, n° 482, “delle Standard in materia di tutela minoranze linguistiche storiche”, in French: “Standards as regards protection of the historical linguistic minorities”. Article 2 of the law is explicit, because it enumerates the minorities touched by the law: there Occitans and the Catalans are included/understood. Under the terms of article 6 of the Constitution and in harmony with the general principles establish by the European and international organizations, the Republic protects the language and the Albanian culture from the populations , Catalan, Germanic, Greek, Slovenien and Croatian, and about those which speak French, the francoprovençal, the Frioulan, the Ladin, the occitan and the Sarde.
European study on the occitan in Italy

These last years two great united demonstrations for the language occitane gathered 12.000 people approximately with Carcassonne in October 2005 and 20.000 people approximately with Béziers in March 2007. People of all political tendencies and all dialects occitans together claimed on these two occasions a greater recognition of the public authorities for the language occitane, an amplified presence of the language in the public mediums and an access facilitated to the training of the language at the public school.

Use

A survey shows that 80% of the inhabitants of the linguistic zone occitane questioned (speakers or not of the language) are favorable to the teaching of the occitan. However the number of stations offered by the administration is very in on this side expressed needs.

Two thirds of probed consider that the language is rather on the decline.

The decline is also underlined by the European institutions, as well as UNESCO. The Dialecte S occitans are classified in situation of important or very important danger of disappearance.

This decline is perhaps the explanation to the fact that only 5% of the population occitanophone activate (12% in Aquitaine) transmits its language to its descendants (in France). This rate of transmission is very weak, although it is better than for other regional languages of France (ex: Breton, Francoprovençal,…). At this rate/rhythm, the occitan will be probably in the social situation of the Irish in one or two generations, i.e. there will remain a still notable number people occitanophones, but the speakers of the occitan will be isolated within a broad linguistic territory occitan.

However lately, an young generation which D-occitanise was appeared. It does not have any more shame to speak the “patois”. This generation is mainly of origin rural, or resulting from cultivated mediums having carried out higher learning. The number of pupils according to a teaching in occitan (except Catalan) in 2000/2001 was of 71.912 people.

Certain areas (Languedoc-Roussillon, the Midday-Pyrenees, and to a lesser extent, Provence-Alp-Coast of Azure) developed a policy in favor of the language and the culture of oc. That consists in giving assistances for teaching, the movements cultural, the publications, supporting the television programs in occitan (magazines, newspapers of information, Web-TV) and supporting the public use of the occitan. In the other French areas occitanes, the actions are practically on a null level.

Reality occitane is a share constitutive of the European culture. She is recognized and studied like such in the foreign universities: in Germany, in the United States, in Scandinavia, in Japan even… The occitan is studied in universities of the whole world within the framework of the studies of the Romance languages. The language and culture occitanes can be studied also a little everywhere in the world, for example in the universities in:

In Principality of Catalonia, the training of the occitan is possible at the school (including out of the zone occitanophone).

In France, it was driven back a long time by the school, it starts to be recognized in official teaching: course of occitan in options or bilingualism of the schools calandretas. Even the French government, in his report/ratio of 1998 on the regional languages, recognizes today, that “the occitan is characterized by its geographical extension, by far most important brought back to the French territory, and by a cultural production particular arts person with unquestionable prestige, at the same time very old and long-lived”.

Recent developments

Remy Pech, president of the Université Toulouse Mirail declared that it is “in total contradiction with the objectives of the republican decentralization announced by the government”.

The Party occitan considers that it is “a programmed liquidation of the teaching of the occitan”.

Alain Rainal of the Federation of the teachers of language and culture of oc (FELCO) speaks about liquidation about teaching about the occitan and thus about liquidation about the language occitane. Indeed, the stations of CAPES decrease by 30% on average; the CAPES of occitan decreases, him, by 71%. According to him, the government requests more solidarity from poorest, and asks less richest. It adds that the regional languages and cultures, it is something of very important, a priceless inheritance. Thus that deserves not to be dropped, but at least to be left on the level of front. Mr. Rainal adds: that this news is worrying for the teaching of the bilingual or trilingual occitan. The parents of pupils know that there is a possibility professionally of developing this acquired knowledge. The number of stations to the being reduced contest, it will be necessary to pass a contest for only four stations. That causes a great difficulty and grants only few professional prospects (Assessments concerning the language occitane and the claims for the “Center regionau dels ensenhaires for occitan” (CREO).

The Winter Olympics 2006 of Turin were held also in valleys occitanes Piedmont. “Confined of Òc” as well as the political institutions of the province of Turin, the communities of mountain (Val Pelis, Val Cluson, high valley Susa) and the commune of Bardonèche had asked that the occitan belong to the official languages of the Plays, asks which was not followed of effect. There were in any event public demonstrations like the presentation of the festival of Rodez for example. For more information on the occitan in the province of Turin:

The BTV (Barcelona Televisió) diffuses each week a tv news in occitan called “Inf' òc”. These emissions of Catalan television are sometimes in Gascon, sometimes as a Languedocien. The zone of diffusion covers Barcelona, of course, but also Girona, Sant Cugat, Mataró

The Catalans and the occitans work together on the terminology. It is what was decided in July at a meeting in the Valley of Aran. A convention was passed between the Institut of estudis Catalan, the Institut of estudis occitans, the General advice of Aran and Termcat to publish lexicons in 2005. Four lexicons were created in the fields of the mathematical , of the biology , ecology , the Internet and the mobile telephony . Termcat (organism in charge to work on the terminology of the Catalan) proposed to place its work at the disposal. Indeed, 90% of the Catalan lexicon are directly applicable to the occitan. These lexicons, and those which will follow, will be particularly useful for the teachers: elementary school to the college, and even beyond.

The General advice of Aran required a new statute of the area of Catalonia in Spain. This statute would enable him to have clean competences in order to negotiate agreements with the areas occitanes of France. Moreover, the General advice would manage itself the actions concerning the language and the culture aranaises. In addition, a request for Co-officiality of the occitan and the Catalan in all the area was formulated. This would result in to make recognize the occitan like one of the official languages of Spain.

September 30th, 2005, the Catalan Parliament adopted in the majority absolute the project again statute of autonomy of Catalonia. The new statute recognizes in its article 9.5 the officiality (in all Catalonia) of " the language occitane, known as aranès in the Valley of Aran". The recognition of Valley of Aran in the Statute also was supported by the parties ERC and ICV-EUiA, whereas PP Catalan was in favor to recognize in the Statute the singularity of Aran, but to in no case to refer to this territory like a " national reality occitane". The project received the downstream of Madrid so that this statute becomes law. The Spanish Parliament had in particular removed the term “nation” of the article first to qualify Catalonia. Certain Spanish politicians consider that the project again statute is a step towards the division of the State and that it is thus not in conformity with the Constitution.

June 18th, 2006, the referendum concerning the new statute for Catalonia is largely approved by the Catalan population: more than 70% of favorable votes. Three parties had invited to vote “yes”: the Catalan Socialist party (PSC, with the head of the regional government), Communists and greens of Iniciativa per Catalunya (ICV, member of the government coalition) and Christian-Democrats of Convergencia I Unio (CiU). The Catalan independence republicans of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) had invited to vote “not”, just as the Popular party (PP, centralizing right-hand side). The first reproach the new statute for not recognizing Catalonia like " nation" and not to give total autonomy to the area on the taxes, the ports and the airports. The seconds estimate that the text grants too much self-management, in particular tax, in Catalonia and that it is " anticonstitutionnel".

The Statute gives officiality to aranais and considers the Valley of Aran " reality occitane". Article 11, of the new statute known as: The people aranais exerts the self-government according to this Statute by Conselh Generau d' Aran (higher institution political of the Valley of Aran) and the other institutions clean . The second paragraph announces: The citizens of Catalonia and its political institutions recognize Aran like a reality occitane founded on its identity cultural, historical, geographical and linguistic, defended by Aranais with the wire of the centuries . This Statute recognizes, defends and respects this specificity and recognizes also Aran like a singular territorial entity in Catalonia, which is the object of a particular protection by the means of a special legal mode . In addition, in article 6, referring to the languages of Catalonia, appears in the new Statute that the language occitane, called aranès in Aran, is the language own and official of this territory is also official in Catalonia, in agreement with what established this Statute and laws of linguistic standardization .

The Généralité of Catalonia will create a service to develop the officiality of the occitan

Notes & References

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