What we call Occitan or lenga d’oc is a romance language spoken in what is now the South of France (Roussillon not included). Its northern linguistic limit forms a line that passes a few kilometres north of Libourne, Confolens, Guéret, Montluçon, Tain-L’Hermitage, Briançon. Occitan is also spoken in twelve alpine valleys in Italy, and in the Val d’Aran in Spain.

The name lenga d’oc is first attested in Dante’s De Vulgari Eloquentia, where he classifies the romance languages according to how people used to say yes in their language: oïl, oc, si. Other terms have been used to name the language: romance, Provencal, Limousin, Gascon etc. the last three terms also applying to one of the regional varieties of the Occitan. The terms Occitan, Occitan language, Occitania, although attested as of the 13^th c. were rarely used until the 20^th c. when they were made more popular by the Occitaniste movement.  It is traditionally said there are six major Occitan dialects (Gascon, Languedocien, Provençal, Vivaro-alpine, Auvergnat, Limousin) yet it is difficult to draw clear-cut boundaries between those varieties since they are all part of a language continuum.

Occitan was used in the Middle Ages  not only in literature but also as the language of administration, as several charters from the 13^th c. can testify. These usages subsequently developed in the 14^th and 15^th c. when Occitan was used alongside Latin for all written purposes: official documents, archives, contracts and personal correspondence. In fact, French was introduced at a time when Occitan was about to replace Latin completely as an everyday written medium.

It is indeed in the 16^th c. that French massively replaced as a written language in Occitania, and in all Occitan provinces the elites then became bilingual. The latest administrative documents to be written in Occitan are to be found in eastern Provence and Rouergue, and they date back to around 1620. Yet in Bearn Gascon was used as an official language until 1789.

In the 20^th c. Occitan was given a unified spelling system, inspired by the system used in medieval texts. This system, called classical or Occitan, makes dialectal differences in the written language less obvious, while respecting all dialects. In Provence, another system is used alongside the Occitan one, the mistralian system. Many of the major works of the 19^th and early 20^th c. literary renaissance were actually written in this system, using the dialect of western Provence.

The decline of Occitan is obvious in towns as from the 19^th c., but in the countryside family transmission continues until after the Second World War.  Estimates of the number of speakers obtained and expanded from a few recent surveys (2006) range from one to two million speakers, out of a total population of 15 million living in Occitania. Most are over fifty. A 1999 Insee-Ined survey stated that 1,600,000 people had Occitan as the language of home when they were 5, and 790,000 said they still used it in everyday life.

 A 2006 IFOP survey in Auvergne showed that 61% understood Occitan, 42% said they could speak it more or less fluently (12% said they spoke it fluently). Also, 58% of people under 35 said they would like their children to learn the language. Generally speaking, 71% were in favour of keeping the language alive. Very promising figures indeed that will enable the media, the institutions and the education system to foster the Occitan language.

Jean Sibille

THE BASICS OF OCCITAN PRONUNCIATION

Vowels

-        The i is pronounced like in French, or like in English mist: Un nis, de ris.

-        The u is also pronounced like in French (and not like in Spanish): la luna

-        The letter a, when it is at the start of a word or in the middle, is pronounced like in English “apple”: un arbre, un cat

-        The è is open, like the “ai” sound in “air”: un mantèl, un castèl

-        The letter e without an accent is pronounced like the French “é”, not unlike the second e” in “elefant”: negre, irange

-        The letter o is pronounced like “o” in “do”: un ostau, lo solelh

-        When there is a grave accent on the letter o, it is pronounced like in English “often”: un estilò, un bòsc

-        In most places, a final a (even if followed by an s to form the plural) is pronounced like the initial o in “often”, or even sometimes like the final “a” in “Louisiana”: una cadièra, una camisa.

Special consonants

-        What is spelt lh in Occitan is pronounced like in French “escalier”: una fuèlha, una botelha.

-        The Occitan nh is the equivalent of “ñ” in Spanish or “gn” in French (think of “newspaper”): la montanha, una castanha.

Diphthongs

There are a few diphthongs (two consecutive vocal sounds) in Occitan, just like in English new, sound, oyster. The letter u then takes the sound “o” as in “do”. Una glèisa, un peis, una taula, lo coide. When three vowel sounds follow each other, you pronounce all three one after the other (cf. “Yeoville”). Suau, bueu, fiau.