Contents
Occitan language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
OccitanOccitan, Lenga d'òc
Spoken in France
Spain
Italy
Monaco
Total speakers 1,000,000-3,700,000[1]
Language family Indo-European
Official status
Official language in Officially recognised in Catalonia, Spain,
(known as Aranese in Aran Valley).
Regulated by Occitan Academy in progress
Language codes
ISO 639-1 oc
ISO 639-2 oci
ISO 639-3 oci
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
Occitan (pronounced /ˈɒksɨtən/)[2], known also as Lenga d'òc in Occitan or Langue d'oc in French (native name: occitan /utsiˈta/,[3] lenga d'òc [ˈleŋɡɔˈðɔ(k)];[4] native nickname: la lenga nòstra i.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. It is also spoken in the linguistic enclave of Guardia Piemontese (Calabria, Italy). It is a co-official language in Catalonia, Spain (known as Aranese in Aran Valley).[5] Modern Occitan is the closest relative of Catalan.[6] The languages, as spoken in early medieval times, might be considered variant forms of the same language. The term Provençal is often used to refer to Occitan.[7]
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 1.5 million people[8] in France, Italy, Spain and Monaco. In Monaco Occitan coexists with Monégasque Ligurian which is the other native language.[9] Some researchers state that up to seven million people in France understand the language.[who?]
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 (various Italian and Iberian languages). 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"). Old Catalan and nowadays the Catalan of Northern Catalonia (France, Catalunya Nord) also have hoc (òc) too. 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, or Portuguese sim. In Modern Catalan, as in modern Spanish, sí is usually used as a response, although the language retains the word oi, akin to òc, which is sometimes used at the end of Yes-no questions and in higher register also as a positive response.[10]
The name "Occitan" is sometimes considered a neologism, however it was attested around 1300 as "occitanus", a crossing of oc and aquitanus (Aquitanian).[11]
Other names for Occitan
For many centuries, the Occitan dialects (together with Catalan[12]) were referred to as Lemosin or Provençal, the names of two regions lying within modern "Occitania". 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.
Nowadays, linguists use the terms Provençal and Lemosin strictly to refer to specific varieties within Occitania, whereas Occitan is used for the language as a whole. Many non-specialists, however, continue to refer to the language as Provençal, causing some confusion.
History
Occitan was the vehicle for the influential poetry of the medieval troubadours. 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'oïl (Northern French) should be used for all French administration. Occitan's greatest decline was during the French Revolution, during which diversity of language was considered a threat. 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.
Origins
Because Occitan is surrounded by other Romance languages, external influences could have impeded its origin and development, making it only a tributary of standard Latin. 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, the Atlantic Ocean, the Massif Central, the Pyrenees, and the Alps.
- 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).
- 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. 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 langue d'oïl or in franco-provençal" (Bec, 1963, 20, 21).
- Little germanization: "The Frankish lexicon and its phonetic influence often end above the oc/oïl line" (Bec, 1963, 20, 21)
Occitan in Spain
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Occitan is closely related to Catalan with which it shares many linguistic features and even a common origin. The language was one of the first to gain prestige as a medium for literature among Romance languages in the Middle Ages. At the end of the 11th century, Franks, as they were called at the time, started to penetrate in the Iberian Peninsula through the Ways of St. James via Somport and Roncesvaux, settling on various spots of the Kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon enticed by the privileges granted on them by the Navarrese kings. They established themselves in ethnic boroughs where Occitan was used for everyday life, e.g. Pamplona, Sangüesa, Estella, etc. The language in turn became the status language chosen by the Navarrese kings, nobility and upper classes for official and trade purposes in the period stretching from mid 11th century to late 14th century. These boroughs in Navarre may have been close-knit communities with little mingling, in a context where the natural milieu was predominantly Basque-speaking. The variant chosen for written records was a koiné based on Languedocien from Toulouse with fairly archaic linguistic features. Some literature was even developed in Navarre (History of the War of Navarre by Guilhem Anelier, 1276).
Things turned out slightly otherwise in Aragon, where the sociolinguistic situation was different, with a clearer Basque-Romance bilingual situation (cf. Basques from the Val d'Aran cited circa 1000),[13] but a receding Basque language (Basque banned in the marketplace of Huesca, 1349).[14][15] While the language was chosen as a medium of prestige in records and official statements along with Latin in the 11th century, Occitan faced competition from the rising local Romance vernacular, the Navarro-Aragonese, both orally and in writing, especially after Aragon's territorial conquers south to Zaragoza, Huesca and Tudela between 1118 and 1134. It resulted that a second Occitan inmigration of this period was assimilated by the similar Navarro-Aragonese language, which at the same time was fostered and chosen by the kings of Aragon. The language fell into decay in the 14th century across the whole southern Pyrenean area and became largely absorbed into Navarro-Aragonese first and Castilian later in the 15th century, after their exclusive boroughs broke up (1423, Pamplona's boroughs unified).
Gascon-speaking communities were called in for trading purposes by Navarrese kings in the early 12th century to the coastal fringe extending from Donostia to the Bidassoa, where they settled down. The language variant used was different from the ones used in Navarre, i.e. a Bearnèse Gascon, with Gascon being in use far longer than in Navarre and Aragon till the 19th century, thanks mainly to the close ties held by Donostia and Pasaia with Bayonne.
Occitan around the world
Usage in France
