Occitan language

Spoken in

• Indo-European languages Italic languages Romance Languages Gallo-Roman languages Occitan

Oc

Oci

Occitan ( okzit. occitan [ utsitɒ ] / lenga d'Oc [ lɛŋgodɔk ], French occitan / langue d'oc ) is a Gallo- Romance language spoken mainly in the southern third of France. In addition, on the territory of Spain, the nordwestkatalonische region of Val d' Aran in the headwaters of the Garonne River and the north of Italy some Piedmontese Alpine valleys, also caused by emigration language islands in the south of Italy ( Guardia Piemontese ), North America ( Valdese, North Carolina) and in Argentina ( Pigüé ).

As an official language Occitan is recognized only in Catalonia (besides Castilian and Catalan) - in its local variant Aranese in Val d' Aran. In France ( North ) French the only official language, while Occitan belongs only to the French state in 1999 recognized with some restrictions regional or minority languages ​​under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

• 8.1 Linguistics
• 8.2 History of Literature
• 8.3 anthologies
• 8.4 dictionaries
• 8.5 grammar and grammar

The name

The name is derived from Occitan oc the Occitan word for " yes ", which originated from the Latin affirmation particle hoc. Among the Gallo- Romance languages ​​, the varieties of Occitan as langue ( s ) d'Oc are delimited by / the langue ( s ) d' oïl of northern France, the varieties of French in the broader sense. The latter are oïl for named after the old French word " yes ", which came from Latin hoc ille and was in the middle and modern French oui to. From the language langue d'oc name is also the name for the Languedoc region, which is only part of the Occitan language area.

The present name was adopted in Occitan Germans from Occitan and French occitan, which in turn are neologisms of the 19th century. They go back to the occupied since the beginning of the 14th century medieval Latin word-forms of the type lingua Occitana or occitanica, which remained restricted to the Latin official language, in contrast to Latin lingua oc ( langue d' oc) but had no equivalent in the vernacular languages and came quite out of use towards the end of the Middle Ages, to be revived only since the 17th century again in a few Latin scholar of the study of medieval manuscripts. According to their model then also appear in French at the beginning of the 19th century anecdotal evidence to support occitan (1819 ) and occitanique (1802 ), but only with the programmatic focus again on a " Occitan " language and culture, especially since the establishment of the League Occitane of 1897, the word was in occitan language establish.

In substance, the classification of the Romance languages ​​is based on their affirmation particles already in Dante Alighieri, who in his treatise De vulgari eloquentia ( "On the Eloquence in the vernacular " ) sì based on the affirmation particles oC different oïl three main branches of the Romance languages ​​. He determined, however, sì (from the Latin sic) solely as a feature of Italian, neglecting him probably little-known Spanish ( Castilian ), while the speakers of the lingua oc again as " Spaniards " ( Yspani ) designated ( Dve I, viii, 5 ), although it is mainly in southern France, not Catalan or " Spanish " troubadours as agent for sealing in the lingua oc cites in his work in the other then.

Dialects

The Occitan divided into numerous dialects, which can be divided into three groups:

• Nordokzitanisch Limousinisch ( Limousin )
• Auvergnatisch ( in Auvergne )
• Vivaro alpinisch ( in the southern part of the French Alps and Piedmont )

• Languedokisch ( in the Languedoc )
• Provençal ( in Provence ) with the dialects Provençau Maritim, from Marseille to Antibes
• Rodanenc to the Rhône Valley
• Nissart to Nice

History

The Occitan developed from the Vulgar Latin of southern Gaul. The differences in the social and cultural development between the south and the north of France in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages are also reflected in the different language development. Among other things, the varieties of the South were hardly affected as opposed to those of the North from the Franconian superstrate. They changed less quickly on lautlichem area and so retained greater similarity with the other Romance languages.

Until the 12th century, two different literary languages ​​were formed on the basis of linguistic varieties that had arisen in the area of ​​today's France from Vulgar Latin, out. North of the Loire, the Old French developed south Occitan. It played as a literary language (especially the Trobadordichtung ) in the 12th and 13th centuries an important role, which was not confined to the courts of southern France, but also in northern Spain, especially in Catalonia, and in Italy preceded the literarisation the local Romance dialects or they had a lasting influence. The Albigensian Crusade ended abruptly this cultural flowering of Occitan.

As part of the centralization begun by Louis XIV on the linguistic level Occitan was abolished as the language of instruction in public schools and the use of repressed in everyday life. Especially since the French Revolution from 1789 lost the language in importance, now that the entire population has been included in the political life of the French central government and organized from this educational system that catered exclusively of French,.

1854 founded the poet and lawyer Frédéric Mistral for the purpose of revival of the Provençal language and literature, the language movement Félibrige that tried to enforce as a model for a linguistic normalization of the Occitan Provencal of Mistral's birthplace Mail Lane, where the orthographic normalization not only adapted to the circumstances of this dialect was also influenced by the orthography of the ( northern) French. Not on Provencal, but at Languedokischen and in the case of traditional conventions of the tradition of medieval Trobadordichtung oriented, in contrast, the linguist Louis Alibert in his grammar of Occitan (1935 ). His initiative was continued since 1945 by the Institut d' Estudis Occitans in Toulouse, and Robert Lafont adapted the rules of the IEO 1951 finally specifically for the Provencal. In the " Provencal " in the succession Mistral launched the program of the " Okzitanier ", the politically aimed at creating a politically autonomous Occitania, violent resistance, which is gradually subsided only recently.

Altokzitanisch

The Altokzitanische (often known as Provençal) was a renowned literary language, which enjoyed high prestige in addition to the old French and means of expression was the Trobadordichtung. features:

• Existence of a Zweikasusflexion ( as Altfriaulisch and Old French), and therefore freer word order: cavaliers "The Knight " in the casus rectus ( nominative ) Sg against cavalier " the knight " in the casus obliquus ( accusative and all other cases).
• Per drop language, i.e., the use of the Subjektpronomes was not mandatory
• Peculiarities in spelling and phonetics: "ll" for [ ʎ ], "s" marked voiceless s ( ie [s ] ), "z" voiced s (ie, [z ] ), " g " at the end of a word often [ tʃ ], "j " for the sound [ dʒ ]. Diphthongs exist, as usual for the Western Romance languages ​​, not. Latin final-a is first weakened to " e" and then to [ ə ]. The data obtained in Altokzitanischen forms in- a were in Neuokzitanischen predominantly to -o. The Latin diphthong / au / is retained: Vulgar. Tauru > altokz. taur ( Taurus ), Vulgar. Auru > aur (Gold) (similar to the Friulian and Romanian ).

Example of a altokzitanischen text:

Raimon Vidal de Besalu: Abril issi 'e mays intravascular

Grammatical Text Analysis:

• Zweikasusflexion: mays (1): nominative (may be the accusative ), cascus ( 2), neus ( 5), freidors ( 5)
• Partitive article: cascus dels auzels ( 2)
• Playing as well as by que ... que ( 3) but also by e ... e ( 7)
• Paratactic conjunctions prevalent: e ( 4) car ( 4)
• Plural -s becomes voiced after voiced consonant: frugz (6) and not * frugs
• Prepositions and adverbs: atras (4 ) (< Vulgar AD TRANS. )
• Vocalization of the Latin 'l' before a consonant: Vulgar. DULCE > altokz. dossa ( 7)
• The paradigm of STARE accepts the ESSE in the past tense (also in Old French! ): estava ( 8) " I was ," Approach to an opposition between EAT and STARE as in Spanish.
• Get the Latin Diphtongs / au /: pauc (9 )

Today's distribution

Occitan is to be found in France in thirty-one departments of the South, with speakers who have already learned as a primary language, usually French and Occitan only mastered as a second language and used mainly in the private sphere. This outweighs the proportion of older people compared to younger people, by men against women and rural residents compared to city dwellers. Official surveys do not exist, estimates and projections diverge considerably. After 1993 published estimates of the European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages ​​were 12 to 13 million people in the region understand 48% of Occitan, 28 % were able to speak this language, 13 % read, 6% write, and about 9 %, which is one to two million they used speakers daily.

Occitan is now taught in France at some government schools and more than 30 private schools ( as of 2000), so-called Calandretas, used in addition to the French as the language of instruction.

Of the population of Val d' Aran speak around 65 % ( 4000-5000 ) Aranese and 90 % understand it.

In Italy, the number of speakers is estimated at 50,000. In the Occitan valleys of Piedmont Occitan is dominated by 49.5 % of the population.

Through emigration some more remote Occitan language islands, so especially the community, founded in the 16th century by the north Italian Waldensians Guardia Piemontese in Nordwestkalabrien, the settlement Valdese also founded in the 19th century by the north Italian Waldenses originated outside the original Catalan, French and northern Italian distribution area in North Carolina and since 1884 by immigrants from Aveyron populated locality Pigüé in Argentina.

Pronunciation and Phonetics

Phonetics

Regional exist, the phonemes / œ / and / ə /.

Pronunciation

Vowels

• A: be -a-, a- and à [ a] pronounced.
• Unstressed word-final -a is pronounced [ ɔ / O].
• á word-final [ ɔ ] is pronounced.

• E or é [e ] is pronounced.
• Is è [ ɛ ] pronounced.

• Is o or ó [ u] or [ w] pronounced.
• Is ò [ ɔ ] pronounced.

Consonants

• B: [b]
• C [ k]. [s ] before "e" and "i". When it is doubled (cc ) [TS ].
• Ch [ tʃ ]
• ç [ s]
• D: [d ] / [ ð ]
• F: [ f]
• G [ g] / [ ɣ ] in front of " a", " o", "u". [ dʒ ] before "e" and "i". At the end of a word it is pronounced [k ] or, in a few words, [ tʃ ]. gu before " e" and " i" [g ] / [ ɣ ]
• H: mostly silent
• J: [ dʒ ], [ dz ]
• K [ k]
• L [ l]. Doubles ( ll ) it is geminiert pronounced as [ ll ].
• Lh: [ ʎ ], word-final [ l].
• M: Doubles (mm) it is geminiert [mm ].
• S [ n]. At the end of the word dumb. [m] in front of " p", "b" and "m". [ ŋ ] before c / qu and g / gu. [ ɱ ] before "f". nd and nt [n ]
• Nh: [ ɲ ]. At the end of the word [ s ].
• P: [ p]
• R: [ r] and [ ɾ ]. At the end of a word it is silent in most words. rn and rm [ ɾ ].
• S: [s]. [z ] between vowels. ss [s].
• T: [t]. tg / tj is [ tʃ ]. tl is [ ll ]. tn is [nn ]. tm is [mm ]. tz is [ ts ]
• V: [b ], [ v] in Ostokzitanischen.
• W: [w ], [ b]
• X: [ ts ], [ s] before a consonant.
• Y: [i ] / [j ]
• Z: [z ]

Morphology and Syntax

• Verb: three conjugacy classes: first group -ar, -ir second group, third group -er/-re.

Example of the Präsenskonjugation

A few verbs in -ir are formed suffix - iss- without: sentir ( listen ) - senti, Sentes, sent, sentèm, sentètz, senton

• Occitan is a Prodropsprache, so needs not subject pronoun, as the endings of verbs give clear information about the person.

• Negation is formed by post- verbal pas.

• The definite articles are lo ( Sg ), los ( Pl ) for masculine, la ( Sg ) and read ( Pl ) for feminine nouns. Before vowel lo and la are elided to l '. The indefinite articles are un ( mask ) and una (fem. ). #

• Noun: There are two grammatical genders. Masculine nouns end in a consonant or -e, feminine nouns in-a: lo filh ' the Son ', la filha ' daughter '.

• Plural: As in all Western Romance languages ​​there are in the Occitan one sigmatic plural, that is, in general, a - s is appended to the singular form: OME, omes ' Man Men ', femna, femnas ' woman ' women '.

Words that end in- s,- ç, -ch, -f,- g, -sc, -st, - xt, -x, form the plural in -es: peis, peisses ' fish, fish ', photographer, Fotografes ' photographer, photographers, ' text ' text ' text, text '. Words that end in- tz, form the plural in - ses: Crotz, croses ' cross, crosses '.

• Compared to the French Occitan has relatively many articles on prepositions, only the masculine article merge with the preposition:

• While the Altokzitanische as Old French had a Zweikasusflexion, there is in modern Occitan no Nominalkasus. The syntactic relations are expressed by means of word order and use of prepositions.

Vocabulary

The vocabulary of Occitan is largely Roman / Latin origin and resembles especially that of the Catalan.