Occitan is a Romance language spoken in Occitania Occitania , is the region in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasses the southern half of France, as well as Monaco and smaller parts of Italy (Occitan Valleys, Guardia Piemontese) and Spain (Aran, that is, Southern France Southern France , colloquially known as le Midi is a loosely defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Gironde, Spain, the Mediterranean, Italy, and Switzerland south of the Jura Mountains. Le Midi includes, the Occitan Valleys The Occitan Valleys are the part of Occitania (the territory of the Occitan language) which is situated within the borders of Italy. It is a mountainous territory, situated in the southern Alps: most of its valleys are oriented eastward and descend toward the plains of Piedmont of Italy, Monaco Monaco /ˈmɒnəkoʊ/ , officially the Principality of Monaco (French: Principauté de Monaco; Monégasque: Principatu de Múnegu; Italian: Principato di Monaco; Occitan: Principat de Mónegue), is a small sovereign city-state located in South Western Europe on the northern central coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It is surrounded on three sides by and in the Aran Valley The Aran Valley is a small valley (620.47 km²) in the Pyrenees mountains and a comarca (county) in the northwestern part of Catalonia, Spain. Most of the valley constitutes the only part of Catalonia on the north face of the Pyrenees, hence the only part of Catalonia whose waters drain into the Atlantic Ocean. The region is characterized by an of Spain. It is also spoken in the linguistic enclave of Guardia Piemontese Guardia Piemontese is a town and comune in the province of Cosenza in the Calabria region of southern Italy (Calabria Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian peninsula. It is bounded to the north by the region of Basilicata, to the south-west by the region of Sicily, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, and to the east by the Ionian Sea. The region covers 15,079 km2 (5,8, Italy). It is a co-official language in Catalonia Catalonia is one of the Kingdom of Spain's seventeen autonomous communities, the administrative divisions that represent the country's historical nationalities and regions. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona. Its capital city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an official, Spain (known as Aranese Aranese is a standardized form of the Pyrenean Gascon variety of the Occitan language spoken in the Aran Valley, in northwestern Catalonia on the border between Spain and France, where it is one of the three official languages besides Catalan and Spanish in Aran Valley).[2] Modern Occitan is the closest relative of Catalan Catalan is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencià (Valencian), as well as in the city of Alghero on the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken in the.[3] The languages, as spoken in early medieval times, might be considered variant forms of the same language. The term Provençal Provençal is a dialect of Occitan spoken by a minority of people in southern France, mostly in Provence. In the English-speaking world, "Provençal" is often used to refer to all dialects of Occitan, but it actually refers specifically to the dialect spoken in Provence is often used to refer to Occitan.[4]
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[5] in France, Italy, Spain and Monaco Monaco /ˈmɒnəkoʊ/ , officially the Principality of Monaco (French: Principauté de Monaco; Monégasque: Principatu de Múnegu; Italian: Principato di Monaco; Occitan: Principat de Mónegue), is a small sovereign city-state located in South Western Europe on the northern central coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It is surrounded on three sides by. In Monaco Monaco /ˈmɒnəkoʊ/ , officially the Principality of Monaco (French: Principauté de Monaco; Monégasque: Principatu de Múnegu; Italian: Principato di Monaco; Occitan: Principat de Mónegue), is a small sovereign city-state located in South Western Europe on the northern central coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It is surrounded on three sides by Occitan coexists with Monégasque Monégasque is a dialect of the modern Ligurian language, spoken in Monaco Ligurian Ligurian is a Gallo-Romance language, currently spoken in Liguria, northern Italy, and parts of the Mediterranean coastal zone of France, and Monaco. Genoese is one of the most well-known languages, spoken in Genoa, the capital of Liguria which is the other native language.[6] Some researchers state that up to seven million people in France understand the language.[who?]
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Name
Pronounced pronounced /ˈɒksɨtən/[7]. Known also as Lenga d'òc in Occitan or Langue d'oc in French (native name: occitan /utsiˈta/,[8] lenga d'òc [ˈleŋɡɔˈðɔ(k)];[9] native nickname: la lenga nòstra i.e. "our [own] language").
History of the modern term
Occitania Occitania , is the region in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasses the southern half of France, as well as Monaco and smaller parts of Italy (Occitan Valleys, Guardia Piemontese) and Spain (Aran, the territory of the Occitan languageThe 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 Dante Alighieri , commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. He was born in Florence. He died and is buried in Ravenna. The name Dante is, according to the words of Jacopo Alighieri, a hypocorism for Durante. In contemporary documents it is followed by the patronymic Alagherii or de Alagheriis; it was Boccaccio who was the first to have recorded the term lingua d'oc. In his De vulgari eloquentia De vulgari eloquentia is the title of an essay by Dante Alighieri, written in Latin and initially meant to consist of four books, but abandoned in the middle of the second. It was probably composed shortly after Dante went into exile; internal evidence points to a date between 1302 and 1305. The first book deals with the relationship between Latin 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 Vulgar Latin was the nonstandard form of the Latin language; because of its nonstandard nature, it had no official orthography, and only Classical Latin was used in writing. It is sometimes called colloquial 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 In linguistics, a yes-no question, formally known as a polar question, is a question whose expected answer is either "yes" or "no". Formally, they present an exclusive disjunction, a pair of alternatives of which only one is acceptable. In the English language, such questions can be formed in both positive and negative forms 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 Gallia Aquitania was a province of the Roman Empire, bordered by the provinces of Gallia Lugdunensis, Gallia Narbonensis, and Hispania Tarraconensis. It lies in present-day southwest France, where it gives its name to the modern region of Aquitaine).[11]
Other names for Occitan
For many centuries, the Occitan dialects (together with Catalan Catalan is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencià (Valencian), as well as in the city of Alghero on the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken in the[12]) were referred to as Lemosin or Provençal, the names of two regions lying within modern "Occitania Occitania , is the region in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasses the southern half of France, as well as Monaco and smaller parts of Italy (Occitan Valleys, Guardia Piemontese) and Spain (Aran". After Mistral Frédéric Mistral was a French writer and lexicographer of the Occitan language. Mistral won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1904 and was a founding member of Félibrige and a member of l'Académie de Marseille. He was born on September 8, 1830 in Maillane in the Bouches-du-Rhône département in southern France, where he died March 25, 1914 and's Félibrige The Félibrige is a literary and cultural association founded by Frédéric Mistral and other Provençal writers to defend and promote Occitan language and literature. It is presided over by a capolièr 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 Provençal is a dialect of Occitan spoken by a minority of people in southern France, mostly in Provence. In the English-speaking world, "Provençal" is often used to refer to all dialects of Occitan, but it actually refers specifically to the dialect spoken in Provence and Lemosin Limousin is a dialect of the Occitan language, spoken in the three departments of Limousin, parts of Charente and the Dordogne in the southwest of France 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
Further information: Old Occitan Old Occitan, also called Old Provençal, was the earliest form of the Occitan language, as attested in writings dating from the 8th through the 14th Centuries, Occitan literature Occitan literature — still sometimes called Provençal literature — is a body of texts written in Occitan in what is nowadays the South of France. It originated in the poetry of the eleventh- and twelfth-century troubadours, and inspired the rise of vernacular literature throughout medieval EuropeOccitan was the vehicle for the influential poetry Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning. Poetry may be written independently, as discrete poems, or may occur in conjunction with other arts, as in poetic drama, hymns, lyrics, or prose poetry. It is published in dedicated magazines ( of the medieval troubadours A troubadour was a composer and performer of Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz. 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 The French Revolution was a period of radical social and political upheaval in French and European history. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years. French society underwent an epic transformation as feudal, aristocratic, and religious privileges evaporated under a sustained assault from liberal political, during which diversity of language was considered a threat. The literary renaissance of late 19th century (which included a Nobel Prize for Frédéric Mistral Frédéric Mistral was a French writer and lexicographer of the Occitan language. Mistral won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1904 and was a founding member of Félibrige and a member of l'Académie de Marseille. He was born on September 8, 1830 in Maillane in the Bouches-du-Rhône département in southern France, where he died March 25, 1914 and) was attenuated by the First World War World War I was a military conflict centered on Europe that began in the summer of 1914. The fighting ended in late 1918. This conflict involved all of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies and the Central Powers. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized in one of, 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 Massif Central is an elevated region in south-central France, consisting of mountains and plateaus, the Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a range of mountains in southwest Europe that form a natural border between France and Spain. They separate the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of continental Europe, and extend for about 430 km (267 mi) from the Bay of Biscay (Cap Higuer) to the Mediterranean Sea (Cap de Creus), and the Alps The Alps are one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east; through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany; to France in the west.
- Buffer zones: Very dry land, marshes In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, and other herbaceous plants, and areas otherwise impractical for farming and resistant of colonization provide further separation (territory between Loire The Loire is the longest river in France. With a length of 1,013 kilometres (629 mi), it drains an area of 117,000 km2 (45,000 sq mi), which represents more than a fifth of France's land area. It rises in the Cévennes in the département of Ardèche at 1,350 m (4,430 ft) near Mont Gerbier de Jonc, and flows for over 1,000 km (620 mi) north and Garonne The Garonne is a river in southwest France and northern Spain, with a length of 575 km (357 miles), the Aragon Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the region comprises three provinces from north to south: Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza (also called Saragossa in English) desert plateau).
- Constant populations: Some Occitan-speaking peoples are descended from people living in the region since prehistory (Bec, 1963).
- Little Celtic The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages influence (Bec, 1963)
- Ancient and long-term Roman influence: Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Cæsar/Caesar was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire once said that the people of Aquitaine Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne (Occitan: Guiana), is one of the 26 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, Lot et Garonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes and Gironde. In the Middle Ages 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)
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