Occitan is a Romance language spoken in a territory called Occitania, which comprises southern France, Monaco, part of Italy (the Occitan Valleys) and part of Spain (the Aran Valley).
Occitan has several different names: Lenga d'Òc or Langue d'Oc or sometimes Provençal (in its own language: occitan,[1] lenga d'òc[2] and sometimes provençau/provençal[3]),
This minority language has the status of an official language in Spain (see Aranese Occitan)[4] and of a protected language in Italy.[5] It has no official status in France, nor in Monaco. Its usage is quite limited compared to dominant state languages such as French, Italian and Spanish.
Nowadays, Occitan enjoys a dynamic movement of cultural defense and modern creativity, especially in literature and music. Occitan literature has been famous and uninterrupted since the 10th century,[6] including the troubadours of the Middle Ages, a baroque period, Frederic Mistral's Nobel prize in 1904 and a constant renewal nowadays.[7]
Among the Romance languages, the closest relative of Occitan is Catalan. According to the linguist Bierre Bec,[8] Occitan and Catalan form a very compact Romance subgroup, and even a common diasystem, called Occitano-Romance. It is an overlap of (or a bridge between) two larger Romance subgroups: Gallo-Romance (including French, Francoprovençal, Romansh, Ladin, Friulian and Northern Italian) and Ibero-Romance (including Aragonese, Spanish, Asturian-Leonese and Galician-Portuguese). It has to be said that Aragonese itself is more and more viewed as a bridge between Occitano-Romance and Ibero-Romance proper.[9]
The term Lenga d'Òc (that is, Occitan; literally, "Language of Yes") is often misleadingly associated with the term Langue d'Oïl (French, similarly, "oïl" being the medieval form that developed into the modern French word for "yes", "oui"). Therefore many people believe erroneously that Lenga d'Òc and Langue d'Oïl must be the two faces of a same, common language which would be "French". In fact, all specialists agree that Occitan is very much closer to Catalan and totally separate from French. The Òc-Oïl false myth is a late misunderstanding (and even a distortion) of a Medieval naming of the three following languages: Italian ("language of sì"), Occitan ("language of òc") and French ("language of oïl").
The main Occitan dialects are:[10][11]
All dialects are integrated into and respected in the ongoing standardization process (which has not been fully implemented yet). Therefore, Occitan tends to work as a pluricentric language: this means that Standard Occitan (occitan estandard), also called Wide Occitan (occitan larg), comprises converging, regional modalities. Between them, the central Lengadocian dialect is the basis of the default modality of Standard Occitan: it is suitable for learners who don't become attached to any particular regional modality. The regional modalities of Standard Occitan are suitable for learners who have special ties with one region; they are just a little more discrepant than the regional modalities of Standard English (as British, American, Canadian, Australian...), so they remain fully and easily understandable for users of all regions.[12][13][14][15]
Occitan uses the following version of the Latin alphabet with twenty-three letters:
The letter names are the following:
The letters K (ca), W (ve dobla) and Y (i grèga) have their usual place in the alphabet, but are restricted to words of foreign origin.
Some letters bear the following diacritic marks, which are mandatory on uppercases and lowercases:
Pronunciation rules are explained in the following table.
grapheme | standard default pronunciation (IPA) |
standard default pronunciation (English approximate equivalent) |
alternative, standard regional pronunciations (IPA) |
---|---|---|---|
a | - [a] - [ɔ] after stress, especially when a is final |
- father - song when final |
only [a] |
à | [a] | father | |
á | [ɔ] | song | [e] |
ai | [aj] | fine | [aj] when stressed, [ej] when unstressed |
au | [aw] | house | [aw] when stressed, [ɔw] when unstressed |
b | [b] ([β] in some positions) | b | only [b] |
c | - [k] - [s] before e, i |
- car - city before e, i |
|
ç | [s] before a, o, u and final | ss | silent when final |
ch | [tʃ] | ch | - [ts] - silent when final |
d | [d] ([ð] in some positions) | d (other in some positions) | only [d] |
e | [e] | Close e as in let | [ə] |
é | [e] | Close e as in let | [ə] |
è | [ɛ] | Open e, nearly a, as in cat | [e] |
f | [f] | f | |
g | - [g] ([ɣ] in some positions) - [dʒ] before e, i - [k] when final - [tʃ] when final in some words |
- gone - fragile before e, i - k when final - ch when final in some words |
- [g] - [dz], [ʒ] - silent when final |
gu | [g] before e, i ([ɣ] in some positions) | guess before e, i | only [g] |
gü (or gu) | [gw] ([ɣw] in some positions) | penguin | only [gw] |
h | silent | silent | pronounced [h] in Gascon |
i | - [i] - [j] after vowel |
- hit - boy after vowel |
|
í | [i] | hit | |
ï | [i] | hit | |
j | [dʒ] | j | [dz], [ʒ] |
l | [l] | l | |
lh | - [ʎ] - [l] when final |
- million - tall when final |
- [j] - [ʎ], [j] when final |
m | - [m] - [n] when final |
- m - n when final |
only [m] |
n | - [n] - often silent when final |
- n - often silent when final |
pronounced when final |
nh | - [ɲ] - [n] when final |
- onion - n when final |
- [ɲ] - [n], [ɲ] when final |
n·h | - | [n]+[h] as in English enhance, only in Gascon | |
o | [u] | look | |
ó | [u] | look | |
ò | [ɔ] | hot | [wa] |
p | [p] | p | silent when final |
q | always followed by u, see below | - | |
qu | [k] | k | |
qü (or qu) | [kw] | queen | |
r | - [r] (tap or flap) - [rr] (trill) when initial - often silent when final |
- short, rolled Spanish r - long, rolled Spanish r when initial - often silent when final |
- [r], [ʀ] - [rr], [ʀ], [r] - silent or pronounced when final |
rr | - [rr] (trill) between two vowels | long, rolled Spanish rr | [rr], [ʀ], [r] |
s | - [s] - [z] between two vowels |
- s - z between two vowels |
silent when final |
sh | [ʃ] | sh | In Gascon, ish is pronounced [ʃ] |
s·h | - | - | [s] + [h] as in English dishearten, only in Gascon |
ss | [s] between two vowels | ss | |
t | [t] | t | silent when final |
th | - | - | [t], almost exclusively used in Gascon |
tg | [dʒ] before e, i | j | [dz], [tʃ] |
tj | [dʒ] before a, o, u | j | [dz], [tʃ] |
tl | [ll] | will look | [l] |
tm | [mm] | ham meat | [m] |
tn | [nn] | on night | [n] |
tz | - [ts] when final - [dz] between two vocals |
- ts when final - dz between two vocals |
- [s] or silent when final - [z] between two vocals |
u | - [y] - [w] after vowel |
- French u (resembles English cure, few) - shout, low after vowel |
|
ú | [y] | French u (resembles English cure, few) | |
ü | [y] | French u (resembles English cure, few) | |
uè (ue) | [ɥɛ] ([ɥe]) | resembles French muette | [œ], [we] |
uò | [ɥɔ] ([jɔ]) | York | |
v | [b] ([β] in some positions) | b | only [v] |
x | - [ks] - [gz] in the prefix ex- before a vowel - [s] before consonant |
- box - exam in the prefix ex- before a vowel - s before consonant |
[ks/ts], [gz/dz], [s], [z] |
z | [z] | z |
There are some particular, regional pronunciation rules.
In this section, default forms are typical of general, standard Occitan (based on the central, Lengadocian dialect) but main regional variations are also presented.
The stress has a limited mobility. It can fall:
front | central | back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
un- rounded |
rounded | unrounded | rounded | |
close | i, í /i/ |
u, ú /y/ |
o, ó /u/ | |
close-mid | e, é /e/ |
|||
open-mid | è /ɛ/ |
ò, á, final -a /ɔ/ | ||
open | a, à /a/ |
In some regional varieties, the phonemes /œ/ and /ə/ are also used.
It is worth of mention that there is vocalic alternation. In an unstressed syllable, and before a stressed syllable, some vocals are impossible and switch to closer vocals:
After a stressed syllable, in a word ending, the unstressed phoneme /a/ has evolved toward /ɔ/ in modern Occitan. For instance taula ('table') is pronounced [ˈtawlɔ] (only a few local varieties keep /a/ in this position, as in Old Occitan: taula [ˈtawla]).
labial | labial-palatal | labial-velar | dental or alveolar |
palatal or postalveolar |
velar | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
voice- less |
voiced | voice- less |
voiced | voice- less |
voiced | voice- less |
voiced | voice- less |
voiced | voice- less |
voiced | |
occlusive | p /p/ |
b, v /b/ |
t /t/ |
d /d/ |
c, qu /k/ |
g, gu /g/ | ||||||
fricative | f /f/ |
v (/v/) |
s, ss, ç, c /s/ |
z, s /z/ |
sh /ʃ/ |
|||||||
affricate | tz, ts /ts/ |
tz (/dz/) |
ch /tʃ/ |
j, g /dʒ/ |
||||||||
nasal | m /m/ |
n /n/ |
nh /ɲ/ |
|||||||||
lateral | l /l/ |
lh /ʎ/ |
||||||||||
trill | rr, r- /rr/ |
|||||||||||
tap or flap | r /r/[16] |
|||||||||||
approximant (glide) |
u /ɥ/ |
u /w/ |
i /j/ |
In some regional varieties, the phonemes /ʀ/, /h/ and /ʒ/ are also used.
Distinction between /v/ and /b/ is general in the northern and eastern dialects (Provençal, Vivaro-Alpine, Auvernhat and Lemosin). In the central and southwestern dialects (Lengadocian and Gascon) the phonemes /b/ and /v/ are merged into /b/ (so /v/ has disappeared).
In the central and southwestern dialects (Lengadocian and Gascon), the phonemes /b/, /d/ and /g/ have various phonetic realizations. They are occlusive by default: [b], [d], [g]. They become fricative, i.e. [β], [ð], [ɣ], when they are in contact with [r], [l] or [z] and when they are between two vowels.
Occitan is nowadays the most frequently used name for the language. This name appeared between 1290 and 1300,[17] perhaps as early as 1271[18] in texts written in Latin under forms such as occitanus, lingua occitana, simultaneously with the territory name Occitania (Occitania in Latin and English, Occitània in Occitan). It is thought that Occitania was created from òc (that is lenga d'òc) and the ending of the territory name [Aqu]itania. The terms Occitan and Occitania used to belong to a learned register for a long time but they have gained a wide usage since the second half of the 20th century.
The term Lenga d'Òc means “language of òc”, òc being the way of saying “yes”. Note that it may be said in English Lenga d'Òc as in Occitan or, less correctly, Langue d'Oc as in French. Lenga d'Òc is known in texts at least from 1291 on[19] and is the likely etymology of Oc[citan]. Notably, Lenga d'Òc was spread from De vulgari eloquentia (1303-1305), the famous essay by Italian writer Dante Alighieri, where three Romance languages were identified by the way of saying “yes”: Lenga d'Òc (“language of òc” or Occitan), Lingua di Sì (“language of sì” or Italian), Langue d'Oïl (“language of oïl” or French).
The term Provençal (provençau, provençal in Modern Occitan; proençal, proensal in Old Occitan) appeared around 1240.[20] It referred to the medieval remembrance of the large Roman territory called Provincia Romana which encompassed Provence and Languedoc, that is a large part of Occitania. Italian authors, which were influenced by the high prestige of Medieval Occitan, helped the spread of the name Provençal since Provence is the closest region of Occitania from an Italian perspective. In traditional Romance linguistics, Provençal was the most used term for the whole language before it was replaced by Occitan in the second half of the 20th century. A large part of Occitan-speaking people do not live in Provence and therefore can hardly identify themselves as “Provençal-speakers”, so the spread of the term “Occitan” has been viewed as a more neutral naming solution which does not favors any particular region. Nowadays, the term Provençal is mostly used to designate the Occitan dialect of Provence rather than the whole Occitan language.
The following terms are no longer in use to designate Occitan as a whole.