Provençal dialect

Provençal (Template:IPAc-en, Template:IPAc-en,<ref>Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh</ref> Template:IPAc-en, Template:IPA; Template:Langx or Template:Lang Template:IPA) is a variety of Occitan,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> spoken by people in Provence and parts of Drôme and Gard. The term Provençal used to refer to the entire Occitan language, but more recently it has referred only to the variety of Occitan spoken in Provence.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>On the persistent use of Provençal as a synonym of Occitan see: Constanze WETH. « L'occitan / provençal ». Manuel des langues romanes, Edited by Klump, Andre / Kramer, Johannes / Willems, Aline. DE GRUYTER. 2014. Pages: 491–509. ISBN (Online): 9783110302585</ref> However, it can still be found being used to refer to Occitan as a whole, e.g. Merriam-Webster states that it can be used to refer to general Occitan, though this is going out of use.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Provençal is also the customary name given to the older version of the Occitan language used by the troubadours of medieval literature, when Old French or the Template:Lang was limited to the northern areas of France. Thus, the ISO 639-3 code for Old Occitan is [pro].

In 2007, all the ISO 639-3 codes for Occitan dialects, including [prv] for Provençal, were retired and merged into [oci] Occitan. The old codes ([prv], [auv], [gsc], [lms], [lnc]) are no longer in active use, but still have the meaning assigned to them when they were established in the Standard.<ref> Template:Cite web</ref>

Some groups have called for Provençal's recognition as a full language, distinct from Occitan. The Regional Council of Provence has variously labelled Provençal as a dialect of Occitan or as a distinct language, depending on different lobbies and political majorities.

Subdialects

The main subdialects of Provençal are:

• Rodanenc (in French Rhodanien) around the lower Rhone river, Arles, Avignon, Nîmes.
  • A Rodanenc subvariety, the Shuadit (or Judeo-Provençal), has been considered extinct since 1977. It was spoken by the Jewish community around Avignon. When Jews were granted freedom of residence in France the dialect declined.
• Maritim or Centrau or Mediterranèu (Maritime or Central or Mediterranean) around Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Toulon, Cannes, Antibes, Grasse, Forcalquier, Castellane, Draguignan.
• Niçard in the lower County of Nice.

Gavòt (in French Gavot), spoken in the Western Occitan Alps, around Digne, Sisteron, Gap, Barcelonnette and the upper County of Nice, but also in a part of the Ardèche, is not exactly a subdialect of Provençal, but rather a closely related Occitan dialect, also known as Vivaro-Alpine. So is the dialect spoken in the upper valleys of Piedmont, Italy (Val Maira, Val Varaita, Val Stura di Demonte, Entracque, Limone Piemonte, Vinadio, Sestriere).<ref>Nòrmas ortogràficas, chausias morfològicas e vocabulari de l'occitan alpin oriental [tèxte imprimit] / Commission internacionala per la normalizacion linguistica de l'occitan alpin, Published by Espaci Occitan, Piemonte, 2008 . - 242. Template:ISBN-PN-01</ref> Some people view Gavòt as a variety of Provençal since a part of the Gavot area (near Digne and Sisteron) belongs to historical Provence.

Orthography

When written in the Mistralian norm ("Template:Lang"), definite articles are Template:Lang in the masculine singular, Template:Lang in the feminine singular and Template:Lang in the masculine and feminine plural (Template:Lang before vowels). Nouns and adjectives usually drop the Latin masculine endings, but -e remains; the feminine ending is -o (this is the opposite of the neighbouring Italian masculine gender). Nouns do not inflect for number, but all adjectives ending in vowels (-e or -o) become -i, and all plural adjectives take -s before vowels.

When written in the classical norm ("Template:Lang"), definite articles are masculine Template:Lang [lu], feminine Template:Lang [la], and plural Template:Lang [lej/lejz = li/liz]. Nouns and adjectives usually drop the Latin masculine endings, but -e [e] remains; the feminine ending is -a [ɔ]. Nouns inflect for number, all adjectives ending in vowels (-e or -a) become -ei/-eis [ej/ejz = i/iz] in some syntactic positions, and most plural adjectives take -s.

Comparison of articles and endings between the two norms

		English	Mistralian norm	Classical norm
Singular	Masculine	the good friend	Template:Lang Template:IPA	Template:Lang Template:IPA
	Feminine		Template:Lang Template:IPA	Template:Lang Template:IPA
Plural	Masculine	the good friends	Template:Lang Template:IPA = Template:IPA	Template:Lang Template:IPA = Template:IPA
	Feminine		Template:Lang Template:IPA = Template:IPA	Template:Lang Template:IPA = Template:IPA

Pronunciation remains the same in both norms (Mistralian and classical), which are only two different ways to write the same language.

The IETF language tags register Template:Code for the Mistralian orthography and Template:Code for the classical one.<ref name="BCP47">Template:Cite web</ref>

Literature

Modern Provençal literature was given impetus by Nobel laureate Frédéric Mistral and the association, Félibrige, which he founded with other writers, such as Théodore Aubanel. The beginning of the 20th century saw other authors like Joseph d'Arbaud, Batisto Bonnet and Valère Bernard. It has been enhanced and modernized since the second half of the 20th century by writers such as Robèrt Lafont, Pierre Pessemesse, Claude Barsotti, Template:Interlanguage link, Template:Interlanguage link, Template:Interlanguage link, Template:Interlanguage link, Template:Interlanguage link, Template:Interlanguage link, Bernat Giély, and many others.

See also

• Occitan conjugation
• Languages of France

References

• Jules (Jùli) Ronjat, L’ourtougràfi prouvençalo, Avignon: Vivo Prouvènço!, 1908.
• Robert Lafont, Phonétique et graphie du provençal: essai d’adaptation de la réforme linguistique occitane aux parlers de Provence, Toulouse: Institut d’Études Occitanes, 1951 [2nd ed. 1960]
• Robèrt Lafont, L’ortografia occitana, lo provençau, Montpellier: Universitat de Montpelhièr III-Centre d’Estudis Occitans, 1972.
• Jules Coupier, (& Philippe Blanchet) Dictionnaire français-provençal / Diciounàri francés-prouvençau, Aix en Provence: Association Dictionnaire Français-Provençal / Edisud, 1995. (rhodanian dialect)
• Philippe Blanchet, Le provençal : essai de description sociolinguistique et différentielle, Institut de Linguistique de Louvain, Louvain, Peeters, 1992 (lire en ligne [archive]).
• Philippe Blanchet, Dictionnaire fondamental français-provençal. (Variété côtière et intérieure), Paris, éditions Gisserot-éducation, 2002.
• Philippe Blanchet, Découvrir le provençal, un "cas d'école" sociolinguistique [archive], cours en ligne de l'Université Ouverte des Humanités, 2020.
• Philippe Blanchet, Langues, cultures et identités régionales en Provence. La Métaphore de l’aïoli, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2002.
• Pierre Vouland, Du provençal rhodanien parlé à l'écrit mistralien, précis d'analyse structurale et comparée, Aix-en-Provence, Edisud, 2005, 206 pages.
• Alain Barthélemy-Vigouroux & Guy Martin, Manuel pratique de provençal contemporain, Édisud 2006, Template:ISBN

External links

• Template:Wikivoyage-inline
• Provençal - English Dictionary - a list of words, with some mistakes
• Modern Provençal phonology and morphology studied in the language of Frederic Mistral (1921)