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PROVENCAL LANGUAGE
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PROVENCAL See also:LANGUAGE . The name Provencal is used to comprehend all the varieties of Romanic speech formerly spoken and written, and still generally used by See also:country See also:people in the See also:south of See also:France. The See also:geographical limits of this infinitely varied See also:idiom cannot be defined with precision, because it is conterminous on the See also:north, south and See also:east with idioms of the same See also:family, with which almost at every point it blends by insensible gradations. Roughly speaking it may be said to be contained between the See also:Atlantic on the See also:west, the See also:Pyrenees and Mediterranean on the south, and the See also:Alps on the east, and to be bounded on the north by a See also:line proceeding from the See also:Gironde to the Alps, and passing through the departments of Gironde, See also:Dordogne, Haute See also:Vienne, See also:Creuse, See also:Allier, See also:Loire, See also:Rhone, See also:Isere and See also:Savoie. These limits are to some extent conventional. True, they are fixed in accordance with the mean of linguistic characters; but it is self-evident that according to the importance attached to one See also:character or another they may be determined differently. 1. Different Names.—Though the name Provencal is generallyadopted to designate the Romanic idiom of this region, it must not be supposed that this name has been imposed by See also:general consensus, or that it rests upon any very See also:firm See also:historical basis. In the See also:southern See also:part of See also:Gaul, Romanic See also:developed itself, so to say, in the natural See also:state of language. Contrary to what took See also:place in other Romanic countries, no See also:local variety here raised itself to the See also:rank of the See also:literary idiom See also:par excellence. While in See also:Italy the Florentine, in France the See also:French See also:dialect proper (that is to say, the dialect of the Ile de France), succeeded little by little in monopolizing literary use, to the exclusion of the other dialects, we do not find that either the Marseillais or the Toulousain idiom was ever spoken or written outside of See also:Marseilles or See also:Toulouse. In consequence of this circumstance, no name originally designating the language of' a See also:town or of a small See also:district came to be employed to designate the language of the whole of southern France; and on the other See also:hand the geographical region described above, having never had any See also:special name, was not able to give one to the idiom. In the See also:middle ages the idiom was spoken of under various appellations: See also:Romans or lenga See also:romana was that most generally used. The name was employed by the authors of the See also:Leys d'amors, a See also:treatise on See also:grammar, See also:poetry and See also:rhetoric, composed at Toulouse in the 14th See also:century. But while it is capable of being applied and in fact, has been applied, to each of the Romanic See also:languages individually, the See also:term is too general to be retained in a particular See also:case; though it was revived in the beginning of the 19th century by See also:Raynouard, the author of the Lexique See also:roman. Roman or langue romane is no longer in use among scholars to See also:design the Romanic language of the south of France. In the 13th century a poet See also:born in See also:Catalonia, on the southern slope of the Pyrenees, Raimon Vidal of Besalu, introduced the name of See also:Limousin language, probably on See also:account of the See also:great reputation of some Limousin troubadours; but he took care to define the expression, which he extended beyond its See also:original meaning, by saying that in speaking of Limousin he must be understood to include See also:Saintonge, See also:Quercy, See also:Auvergne, &c. (Rasos de trobar, ed. Stengel, p. 70). This expression found favour in See also:Spain, and especially in Catalonia, where the little treatise of Raimon Vidal was extensively read. The most See also:ancient lyric poetry of the Catalans (13th and 14th centuries), composed on the See also:model of the poetry of the troubadours, was often styled in Spain poesia lemosina, and in the same country lengua lemosina, See also:long designated at once the Provencal and the old literary Catalan. The name Provencal as applied to language is hardly met with in the middle ages, except in the restricted sense of the language of See also:Provence proper, i.e. of the region lying south of See also:Dauphine on the eastern See also:side of the Rhone. Raimon Feraut, who composed about 1300, a versified See also:life of St Honorat, uses it, but he was himself a native of Provence. We can also cite the See also:title of a grammar, the Donatz proensals, by See also:Hugh Faidit (about 1250); but this See also:work was composed in north Italy, and we may conceive that the Italians living next to Provence employed the name Provencal somewhat vaguely without inquiring into the geographical limits of the idiom so called. In fact, the name Provencal became traditional in Italy, and in the beginning of the 16th century See also:Bembo could write, " Era per tutto it Ponente la favella Provenzale, ne tempi ne quali See also:ella fiori, in prezzo et in istima molta, et tra tutti gli altri idiomi di quelle parti, di gran lunga primiera. Conciosiacosa che ciascuno, o Francese, o Fiamingo, o Guascone, o See also:Borgognone, o altramente di quelle nationi che egli si See also:fosse, it quale bene scrivere e specialmente verseggiar volesse, quantunque egli Provenzale non fosse, lo faceva Provenzalmente" (See also:Prose, ed. 1529, fol. viii.) .l This passage, in which the primacy of the Provencal See also:tongue is manifestly exaggerated, is interesting as showing the name Provencal employed, though with little precision, in the sense in which we now apply it.
1 " The Provencal speech in the times in which it flourished was prized and held in great esteem all over the West, and among all the other idioms of that region was by far the foremost; so that every one, whether Frenchman, See also:Fleming, Gascon, Burgundian, or of what nation soever, who wished to write and versify well, although he was not a Provencal, did it in the Provencal language."
Another designation, which is supported by the great authority of See also:Dante, is that of lingua d'oco (langue d'oc). In his treatise, De vulgari eloquio (bk. i. chs. viii. and ix.), Dante divides the languages of Latin origin into three idioms, which he characterizes by the affirmative particles used in each, oc. oil, si; " nam alii oc, alii oil, alii si, affirmando loquuntur, ut puta Hispani, Franci, et See also:Latini." As is seen, he attributes the See also:affirmation oc to the Spaniards, which is of course erroneous; but there is no doubt that to the Spaniards he joined more correctly the inhabitants of southern France, for in the Vita nuova, ch. See also:xxv., and in the Convivio, I. x., he speaks of the lingua d'oco as having been long celebrated for its poets, which can apply only to the language of the troubadours. The name langue d'oc occurs also as See also:early as the end of the 13th century, in public acts, but with a different sense, that of the See also:province of See also:Languedoc, as constituted after the See also:union of the See also:county of Toulouse to the French See also: Thus in the 12th century the chronicler See also:Albert of See also:Aix-la-Chapelle (Albertus Aquensis) places the town of See also:Puy (Haute Loire) in Provincia. 2. General Characters of the Language in its Ancient State.—The Provencal language, within the limits above indicated, cannot be said to have any general characters really See also:peculiar to it. Such of its characters as are found in all the varieties of the language See also:ate met with also in neighbouring idioms; such as are not found elsewhere are not general characters, that is to say, are manifested only in certain varieties of Provencal. In reality " Provencal language " does not designate, properly speaking, a linguistic unity; it is merely a geographical expression. Tonic or Accented Vowels.—Latin a is preserved in an open syllable a m a r e, amar, a m a t u m, amat, as well as in a closed syllable carne m, See also:tarn. This character is See also:common also to the Romanic of Spain and Italy; but it is one of the best distinguishing marks between Provencal and French, for, to the north, this a, when in an open syllable, does not pass beyond a line which would run approximately through Blaye, Coutras (Gironde), Riberac, Nontron (Dordogne), Bellac (Haute Vienne), Boussac (Creuse), Montlucon, Gannat (Allier), See also:Montbrison (Loire). Starting eastward from See also:Lyons or thereabouts, there appears a notable linguistic fact which is observable in varied proportions in the departments of See also:Ain, Isere and Savoie, and in Romanic See also:Switzerland. This is, that accented Latin a in an open syllable, when preceded by a mouillure or palatalization (whatever the origin of this), becomes e; on the contrary, when there is no mouillure, it remains a. Thus we find in the Meditations of See also:Marguerite d'Oingt (Lyons, c. 1300) ensennier, deleitier, as against desirrar, recontar, regardar. Of these two endings, the former, -ter, is that which is found regularly in French, the second that which is See also:regular in Pr. Pure Pr. would have -ar in both cases (ensenhar, deleitar, desirrar. &c.) ; Fr. would have -ier (ensennier, delitier) and -er (desirer). G. I. See also:Ascoli has given the name of Francolrovencal (franca-provenzale) to the varieties of Romanic in which we find this duality of treatment in Latin a, according as it was or wasnot preceded by a palatalized See also:sound. See also:Lat. e, i become See also:close e (Ital.echiuso;Fr.e):habere,aver, See also:credit,ere, me(n)sem,See also:mes, f i d e in, fe, p 11 u in, pet. This character is not only common to Italian and Spanish, but also extends over the French domain on its western side as far as Britanny. Certain exceptions noticed in French do not occur in Pr.: thus m e r e e d e m, c e r a, p r(e h)e-(n)s u m, v e n e n u m, which give in Fr. merci, See also:tire, pits, venin, where we should have expected mercei, ceire, preis, venein, give regularly in Pr. coerce, cera, pies, See also:vere. Lat. e preserves, as in Italy, the sound of open e (Ital. e aperto) :pe de in, pe, le' v a t, leva, 1 e p o r e m, lebre. In certain determinate cases, this e, from about the 13th century onwards, may diphthongize to tie :,ego, eu, then ieu, h h r i, er, ter, f e r i o, See also:fee, flee. Lat. i is preserved, as in all the Romanic languages: a in i c u m, ami, r i p a, riba. Lat. i is treated like i long when it precedes (with See also:hiatus) another vowel : p 1 u in, p I a, piu, pia, v i a , via, I i g a t, lia. Lat. O. tis result in one and the. same sound, that of Ital. u, Fr. ou (Eng co) The same phenomenon takes place in the north of Italy and in the Romanic of Switzerland. This sound, which is styled by the Donat Proensal the o estreit (close o), is usually symbolized in the early texts by See also:simple o, and is thus confounded in spelling, though not in See also:pronunciation, with the open o (o laic of the Donat Proensal), which comes from Lat. o. Lat. u becomes u (i.e. Fr. u), as all over France, and also in part of north Italy: m u r u m, mur (=See also:mar), durum, dur (=See also:dar). Lat. an is rigorously preserved over the whole extent of the Pr. domain: a u r u m, aur, a l a u d a, alauza, p a u p e r e m, paubre. At present the preservation of Lat. au does not extend much outside the Prov. domain; it is, however, found in certain parts of the Ladina See also:zone in Switzerland (upper See also:Rhine valley), and in See also:Friuli, and it is to be supposed to have been once general over the whole of that zone. It is attested as See also:late as the 16th century in the Vaudois valleys of See also:Piedmont, and there are also examples of it in old Catalan. Elsewhere the diphthong has regularly become open o (a u r u m, Ital. and Span, ore. Fr. or, &c.). Atonic Vowels.—The atonic vowels (i.e. vowels of the unaccented syllables) which precede the accented syllable present no very characteristic phenomenon; but it is otherwise with those that follow the accented syllable, the See also:post-tonic vowels. The Pr. is one of the Romanic idioms which, like the French, but unlike the Castilian and many dialects of Italy, admit of only one syllable after the See also:accent. But the rules are not quite the same as in French, and in some exceptional cases real proparoxytones seem to have been preserved by ancient documents. In French the only vowel which can stand after the accented syllable is " e feminine," otherwise called " e See also:mute." In Prov. a and e are the most frequent vowels in this position, but i and o also occur. In French the first of the two post-tonic vowels of a Latin proparoxytone always disappears; in Prov. it tends to be preserved, when followed by one of the consonants n, r,1,d: te•rminum, te•rmen, ho•minem, See also:omen, ange1um, See also:angel, se•ca1em, se.guel, cre•scere, crei•sser, te•pidum, te•be. We have some instances of two syllables being retained after the tonic in the extreme south and south-east: See also:dime•negue (d i e s d o m i n i c a), See also:cano•negue (See also:canon i c u s), mo•negue, mo•nega (m o n a c u s, m o n a c a), ma•nega (m a n i c a, a handle), ca•nebe (c a n n a b i s), later dimergue, canorgue, morgue, morga, morga, carbe; however, when such apparently proparoxytonic forms appear in poetry, the ending -egue, -ega, -ebe See also:counts only as one syllable, from which it appears that the copyist, not the author, is responsible for them. Again, names of places ending in -anicus, -onicus, as Colonicus, De-Athatianicus, Dominitianicus, &c., now Colorg±ses, Dassargues, Domessargues, in See also:department See also:Gard, appear in the 12th and 13th centuries as Colonegues, Dazanegues, Domensanegues. Moreover Prov. presents in certain words coming from Latin proparoxytones the trace of forms which (like Italian) admitted two atonic vowels after the accented syllable: thus we have See also:porte•que and po.rgue (p o•r t i c u m), See also:Fabre•ga, a place name, and fa.rga (f a•b r i c a), perte•ga and pe.rga (p e•r See also:tic a), feme.na and fe•mna (f e•m i n a). We have also lagre•ma (lam r y m a), but a form accented like Fr. larme does not exist. There seems to be no doubt that these forms, in which a displacement of the Latin accent is observed, were at an earlier See also:period pronounced as proparoxytones (po.rtegue, fa.brega, pe.rtega e•See also:mena, la.grema). Consonants.—The boundary usually recognized between Prov. and French is founded upon linguistic characters furnished by the vowels, especially a; if it had been determined by, characters furnished by the consonants, the line of demarcation would have to be See also:drawn farther south, because the consonantal See also:system which is regarded as proper to French really extends in its See also:main features over the See also:northern zone of the Provencal region as defined above. As with the vowels, only a few of the salient facts can here be indicated. C initial, or second consonant of a See also:group, before a (c a b.a 1 1 u m, m e r c a t u ni), preserves its Latin sound (=k) in the greater part of the Prov. region. But in the northern zone it takes the sound of tch (Eng. ch in See also:chin) as in Old French, and this sound is still See also:pretty well preserved, although there is here and there a tendency to the present sound of ch in Fr. (=sh Eng.). The place names Castellum, Castanetum, Casale give Chastel. Chastanet, Ghazal, in Dordogne, Haute Vienne, See also:Correze, Puy de See also:Dome, See also:Cantal, Haute Loire, the north of See also:Lozere, of Ardtiche, of See also:Drome, of Isere, and of Hautes Alpes, and See also:Castel, Castanet, Cazal, farther to the south. Analogously, g initial, or second consonant of a group, followed by a, becomes j (i.e. dzh=0. Fr. and Eng. j in jam) in the same zone; G a r r i c a is Jarrija, Jarria in Dordogne, Correze, Cantal, Haute Loire, Isere, and Garriga farther south. Between two vowels t becomes d; edat, emperador, nadal, amada aetatem, imperatorem, See also:natal e, amEt ta). This was also the case in 0. Fr. until about the loth or 11th century (honurede, emperedur, lavadures, &c., in the Life of St See also:Alexis). But in the northern zone this d, representing a Latin t, See also:fell away as early as in French. In an 1 ith-century See also:text from the environs of See also:Valence we read muraor, coroaa (*m u r a t o r e m, c o r r o g a t a), Fr. corvee (P. See also:Meyer, Recueil d'anciens textes, Provencal See also:section, No. 4o). In the south, Latin d between two vowels was preserved almost everywhere until about the middle of the 12th century, when it became z (as in Fr. and Eng. zero) : cruzel, azorar, auzir, vezer (crudelem, adorare, audire, videre). In the 14th and 15th centuries this z, like every z or s soft of whatever origin, was liable to become r (lingual, not uvular) : aurir, veren (a u d i r e, v i d e n t e m). In Bearn and See also:Gascony d remained; but in the northern zone Latin d, instead of changing into z, r, disappeared as in French and quite as early. The poem of Boethius, of which the MS. is of the 11th century, shows in this respect great hesitation: e.g. d preserved in chaden, credet, tradar, veder (c a d e n t e m, *c r e d e•d i t, *t r a d a r e, e i d e r e) ; d fallen away in creessen, feeltat, traazo, vent, f e a r (*c r e d e s s e n t, f i d e l i t a t e m, *t r adationem, *vidutum,p.See also:pie. ofvidere,fidare). One of the most general facts in Pr. is the See also:habit of rejecting Latin final t, of which examples to any number are presented by the verbs. In French this t was formerly retained when it followed a vowel which remained, aimet, entret (a m a t, i n t r a t), and still remains (in See also:writing at least) when, in Latin, it follows a consonant, aiment, fait, vit (a m a n t, facit, *f a c t, vivit, *vivt); but in Pr. the t is dropped in all cases, even in the most ancient texts: aman, fai, viu. Yet in the northern zone we find the t retained in the 3rd per. pl. of verbs, -See also:ant, -ont (Lat. -a n t, -u n t). H has gone completely (or at least only appears through orthographic tradition, and very intermittently, (h)erba, (h)onor, (h)umil, &c.), not only in words of Latin origin, which is the case in Old French, but even in See also:Teutonic words (ante, ardit, arenc, ausberc, See also:elm, Fr. honte, hardi, hareng, haubert, heaume, with h aspirated). By this feature, the northern limits of which are not yet well determined, the Provencal attaches itself to the Romanic of the southern countries. N final, or See also:standing in Latin between two vowels of which the second is to be dropped, disappears in the whole central part of the Pr. domain: gran gra, See also:ben be, en e, ven ve, f i n f i , un u (g r• a n u m, be n e, i n, v e n i t, See also:fine m, u n•u m). The forms with n belong to the eastern part (See also:left of the Rhone), the western part (Gascony, but not Warn), and the region of the Pyrenees. It is possible that this loss of n went along with a lengthening of final vowel ; at least, in Bearnese when the n falls away the vowel is doubled: caperaa, besii, boo (capellanum,vicinum,bonum),&c. These are the most important characteristics of the consonants in relation to the extent of space over which they prevail. Others, which appear only within a more limited See also:area, are perhaps more curious on account of their strangeness. It will suffice to mention a few which belong to the district bounded on the west and south by the Atlantic, the Basque provinces and the Pyrenees, and which extends northward and eastward towards the See also:Garonne and its affluents, as far as the Gironde. (This includes See also:Beam, Bigorre and Gascony) Here the sound v no longer exists, being replaced generally by b; between two vowels, in Gascony, by u with the sound of See also:English w. Initial r assumes a prosthetic a: arram, arre, Arrobert (r a m u m, rem, R o b e r t u m). Ll between two vowels becomes r : aperar, caperan, or (Bearn) caperaa, bera, era (a p e f-1 a r e, c a p e l l a n u m, b e l l a, i l l a). On the contrary, at the end of words (viz. in Romanic) ll becomes g or t, d; the former See also:change seems to belong rather to Hautes and Basses Pyrenees, See also:Landes, the latter to Gironde, See also:Lot et Garonne, Gets: eg, ed, et (ille), arrasteg, -ed, -et(r a s t e 1 1 u m), casteg, -ed, -et (c a s t e 1 1 u m), capdeg, -ed, -et (c a p i t e 1 1 u m), whence Fr. See also:cadet (in 16th century capdet, originally a Gascon word). For further details upon the consonants in this region of south-west France see Romania, iii. 435-438, v. 368-369. Flexion.—Old Provencal has, like Old French, a declension consisting of two cases for each number, derived from the Latin nominative and See also:accusative. In certain respects this declension is more in conformity with See also:etymology in Provencal than in Old French, having been less influenced by See also:analogy. The following are the types of this declension, taking them in the See also:order of the Latin declensions. (I) Words in -a coming from Latin 1st decl , increased by certain words coming from Latin neuter plurals treated in Prov. as feminine singulars; one form only for each number: sing. cause, pl. causes. (2) Words of the Latin 2nd decl., with a few from the 4th ; two forms for each number: sing. subject cavals (c a b a 1 1 u s), See also:object caval (c a b a 1 1 u m) ; pl. subject caval (c a b a l l i), object cavals (c a - b a 1 1 o s. (3) Words of Latin 3rd decl. Here there are three Latin types to be considered. The first type presents the same theme and the same accentuation in all the cases, e.g. c a n i s. The second presents the same accentuation in the nominative singular and in the other cases, but the theme differs: c o•m e s, c o•m i t e m. In the third type the accentuation changes: pecc a•t o r, pecc a-t o•r e m. The first type is naturally confounded with nouns of the 2nd decl.: sing. subj. cans or cas, obj. can or ca. The second and third types are sometimes followed in their original variety; thus corns answers to c o•m e s, and co•mte to c o•m i t e m. But it has often happened that already in vulgar Latin the theme of the nominative singular had been refashioned after the theme of the oblique cases. They said in the nom. sing. h e r e d i s, parentis, principis, for heres, parens, princeps. Consequently the difference both of theme and of accentuation which existed in Latin between nominative and accusative has disappeared in Pr. This reconstruction of the nominative singular after the theme of the other cases takes place in all Latin words in -as (except abbas), in those in -io, in the greater part of those in -or, at least in all those which have an abstract meaning. Thus we obtain bontatz (b o n itatis for See also:boni ta s) and bontat(bonitatem),ciutalz (civitatisforcivitas) and ciutat (civitatem), amors (amoris for a m o r) and amor (a more m). All present participles in the subject case singular are formed in this way upon refashioned Latin nominatives: amans (a m a n t i s for a m a n s), See also:arrant (a m a n-t e m). It is to be remarked that in regard to feminine nouns Pr. is more etymological than French. In the latter feminine nouns have generally only one form for each number: bonte for the subj. as well as for the obj. case, and not nines and bonte; in Pr. on the contrary bontatz and bontat. Still, in a large number of nouns the original difference of accentuation between the nominative singular and the other cases has been maintained, whence there result two very distinct forms for the subjunctive and See also:objective cases. Of these words it is impossible to give a full See also:list here ; we confine ourselves to the See also:exhibition of a few types, remarking that these words are above all such as designate persons: a•bas See also:aba•t, pa.stre pastor, sor soro•r, cantai•re cantado•r (c a n t a t o r, -o r e m), emperai•re emperad•or, See also:bar baro•, compa•nh companho•, lai•re lairo• (1 a t r o, -o n e m). To this class belong various proper names: E•ble Eblo•, Gui Guio•, Uc Ugo•. A few have even come from the 2nd decl., thus Pei•res Peiro•, Pons Ponso•, Ca•rles, Carlo, the vulgar Latin types being Petrus, -onem, Pontius, -onem, Carolus, -onem., (On this peculiarity of the vulgar Latin declension, see Philipon, in Romania, xxxi. 213-228.) We may mention also geographical adjectives, such as Bret Breto., Bergo•nhz Bergonho., Gasc Gasco•, &c. The plural of the 3rd decl. is like that of the second : subj. aba•t, soro•r, cantado•r, emperado•r, baro•, companho•, lairo•; obj. aba•tz, soro•rs, cantado•rs, emperado.rs, baro.s, companho•s, lairo•s, as if the Latin nominative pl. had been a b b a t i , s o r o r i, c a n t a t o r i, &c. It is barely possible that such forms actually existed in vulgar Latin; no trace of them, however, is found in the texts, See also:save in the glosses of See also:Cassel (8th century), sapient i forsapientes,andrnagreat many ancient charters See also:parent o-r u m, which implies a nominative parent i. The words of the 4th and 5th declensions present no points requiring mention here. This declension of two cases is a notable character of the whole Romanic of Gaul, north as well as south, i.e. French as well as Provencal. It must be noted, however, that in the south-west it existed only in a very restricted measure. In the _old texts of Gascony it is no longer general in the 13th century. In Bearn it appears to have been completely unknown, the nouns and adjectives having only one form, usually that of the objective case. In Catalan poetry its application is often laid down in the 13th century, but as the charters and documents See also:free from literary See also:influence show no trace of it, its introduction into the poetry of this country may be assumed to be an artificial fact. In the region where it is best observed, i.e. in the centre and north of the Provencal territory, it tends to disappear from See also:ordinary use already in the 13th century. The poet-grammarian Raimon Vidal of Besalu, who flourished about the middle of the century, points out in various troubadours transgressions of the rules of declension, and recognizes that in colloquial speech they are no longer observed. The general tendency was to retain only a single form, that of the objective case. For certain words, however, it was the subjunctive form which survived. Thus in See also:modern Pr. the words in the ending -ai•re (answering to Lat. -a t o r) are as frequent as those in -adou• (repr. - a t o re m). But there is a slight difference of meaning between these two suffixes. Adjectives, generally speaking, agree in flexion with the nouns. But there is one fact particular to adjectives and past participles which is observed with more or less regularity in certain 12th and 13th-century texts. There is a tendency to See also:mark more clearly than in the substantives the flexion of the subj. pl., chiefly when the See also:adjective or participle is employed predicatively. This is marked by the addition of an i, placed, according to the district, either after the final consonant, or else after the last vowel so as to form a diphthong with it. The following are examples from an ancient See also:translation of the New Testament (MS. in library of the Palais See also:Saint-See also:Pierre, Lyons, end of 13th century) : " Dic a vos que no siatz consirosi" (ne solliciti sitis, Matt. vi. 25) ; " que siatz visti d'els (ut videamini ab eis, Matt. vi. I); " e davant los reis els princeps seretz menadi" (et ad praesides et ad reges ducemini, Matt. x. 18). In charters of
the 12th and 13th centuries we find in the subj. case pl., and especially in this predicative use, pagaig, certifiaih, acossailhaih, representing pagati, certificate, adconsiliati.
A similar peculiarity is noticeable also in masculine substantives, but appears only in a very limited number of texts; so auzil, auzelh [Lat. a v i c e 1 1 i] (see A. See also: In the -ar conjugation we remark one verb from another conjugation: far (cf. Ital. fare) from facer e. The conjugations in -er and -re encroach each upon the territory of the other. The three Lat. verbs c a d e " r e, c a p e r e, s a p e r e have become -er verbs (caze.r, cabe•r, saber) as in Fr. cheoir, -cevoir (recevoir), savoir; and several other verbs waver between the two: crede•r, Greer, and crei•re (c r e •der e), quere.r and que.rre (q u a e-r e r e). This fluctuation is most frequent in the case of verbs which belonged originally to the -ere conjugation: arde•r and a.rdre, plaze•r and plai.re, taze•r and tavre (a r d e r e, placer e, t a c e r e). Next to the -ar conjugation, that in -ir is the one which has preserved most formative See also:power. As in the other Romanic languages, it has welcomed a large number of See also:German verbs, and has attracted several verbs which etymologically ought to have belonged to the conjugations in -ir and -re: emplir i m- p l e r e), jauzir (g a u d e r e), cosir (c o n s u e r e), erebir (eri-pere), fugir (fugere), seguir (*sequere=sequi) also segre. Except in the -ar conjugation, the ending of the See also:infinitive does not determine in a regular manner the mode of forming the different tenses. The present participles are divided into two See also:series: those in -an (obj. sing.) for the first conj., those in -en for the others. In this the Pr. distinguishes itself very clearly from the French, in which all present participles have -ant. There is also 'in Pr. a participial form or verbal adjective which is not met with in any other Romanic language, except Rumanian, where, moreover, it is employed in a different sense; this is a form in -do•r, -doi•ra, which supposes a Latin type - t o r i u s, or - t u r i u s; the sense is that of a future participle, active for the intransitive verbs, passive for the transitive: endevenido•r, -doi•ra, " that is to happen "; fazedo•r, -doi•ra, " that is to be done "; punido.r, -doi•ra, " to be punished." In conjugation properly so called we may remark the almost See also:complete disappearance of the Lat. preterite in -avi, of which traces are found only in texts written in the neighbourhood of the French-speaking region, and in Warn. In return, a preterite which seems to have been suggested by the Latin d e d i, s t e t i, has increased and become the type of the tense almost everywhere in the -ar conjugation, and in many verbs in -er and -re: amei•, ame•st, ame•t, ame•m, ame•tz, ame•ron. In French there is a form like this, or at least having the same origin, only in a small number of verbs, none of which belong to the first conjugation, and in these only in the 3rd pers. sing. and pl. (perdiit, perdierent; entendiet, entendierent, &c.). It is well known that reduplicated preterites had greatly multiplied in vulgar Latin: there have been recovered such forms as a s c e ndiderat, ostendedit, pandiderunt, adtendedit i n c e n d i d e r a t, &c. (see Schuchardt, Vokalismus See also:des Vulgarlateins, i. 35, iii. io; cf. Romania, ii. 477). But, in order to explain the Pr. form -ei, -est, -et (with open e), we must suppose a termination not in - i d i or - e d i, but in - e•d i. In the western region the 3rd pers. sing. is generally in -ec, probably by analogy with preterites like bec, crec, dec, sec, formed after the Latin type In - u i. Another notable peculiarity, of which Old French shows only rare traces, in texts of a very remote period, is the preservation of a preterite in -ara or -era, derived from the Latin pluperfect, ama•ra or amera, " I loved." The former, which is rare, comes directly from Lat. a m a.r a m, the latter has been influenced by the ordinary preterite in -ei. This preterite is used with the sense of a simple past, not of a pluperfect, and consequently is an exact doublet of the ordinary preterite, which explains how it was at length eliminated almost everywhere by the latter, of which it was a See also:mere synonym. But it remained in general use with the sense of a past conditional: ama•ra or amera, " I should have loved," fora, " I should have been." 3. Modern Provencal. In consequence of See also:political circumstances the Provencal ceased to be used for administrative as well as literary purposes about the 15th century, in some places a little sooner, in others later (notably in Beam, where it continued to be written as the language of ordinary use till the 17th, and even in some places till the 18th century). The poems in localdialect composed and printed in the 16th century, and on to our own See also:day, have no See also:link with the literature of the preceding period. Reduced to the See also:condition of a See also:patois, or popular dialect simply, the idiom experienced somewhat rapid modifications. Any one who should compare the poems of Goudelin of Toulouse (1579–1649) with those of a Toulousain See also:troubadour of the 13th century would be astonished at the changes which the language has undergone. Yet this impression would probably be exaggerated. In order to make a rigorously accurate comparison of the language at the two epochs, it would have to be written in the two cases with the same orthographic system, which it is not. The first writers of Provencal, about the loth and 11th century, applied to the language the Latin See also:orthography, pre-serving to each See also:letter, as far as possible, the value given to it in the contemporary pronunciation of Latin. To See also:express certain sounds which did not exist in Latin, or which were not there clearly enough noted, there were introduced little by little, and without regular system, various conventional symbolizations such as lh and nh to symbolize the sound of 1 and n mouillees. From this method of proceeding there resulted an orthographic system somewhat wanting in fixity, but which from its very instability See also:lent itself fairly well to the See also:variations which the pronunciation underwent in See also:time and locality. But, the tradition having been interrupted about the 15th century, those who afterwards by way of pastime attempted See also:composition in the patois formed, each for himself apart, an orthography of which many elements were borrowed from French usage. It is evident that See also:differences already considerable' must be exaggerated by the use of two very distinct orthographical systems. Nevertheless, even if we get quit of the illusion which makes us at first sight suppose differences of sound where there are merely different ways of spelling the same sound, we find that between the 14th and 16th centuries the language underwent everywhere, Bearn excepted, great modifications both in vocabulary and grammar. The Provencal literature having gradually died out during the 14th century, the vocabulary lost rapidly the greater part of the terms expressing general ideas or abstract conceptions. To See also:supply the place of these, the authors who have written in the patois of the south during the last few centuries have been obliged to See also:borrow from French, modifying at the same time their form, a multitude of vocables which naturally have remained for the most part unintelligible to people who know only the patois. In this case the See also:adoption of See also:foreign words was excusable; but it did not stop here. Little by little, as See also:primary instruction (now compulsory) was diffused, and introduced, first in the towns and afterwards in the villages, certain knowledge of French, words purely French, have been introduced into use in place of the corresponding dialect words. Thus, one hears constantly in Provence pe.ro, mere, fri.ro, forms adapted from French, instead of paire, maire, fraire, cache (catsha•=Fr. cacher) instead of escoundre, &c. In the phonology, the modifications are of the natural order, and so have nothing revolutionary. The language has developed locally tendencies which certainly already existed during the flourishing period, although the ancient orthography did not recognize them. Of the vowels, a tonic is generally preserved; an in an open syllable becomes o (open) in part of the departments of See also:Aveyron, Lot, Dordogne, Correze, Cantal and south of Haute Loire: gro (gran u m), mo (m a n u m), po (p a n e m). This nasalized a must have had a particular sound already in O. Pr., for it is qualified in the Donatz Proensals (ed. Stengel, p. 49) as a estreit (= close or narrow a). A feature almost general is the passage of post-tonic a into o : terra, amavo, amado ( e r r a, a m a b a t, a m a t a). In many places, particularly in the east, examples of this change occur as early as the end of the 15th century. But even yet there are a few cantons, notably See also:Montpellier and its neighbourhood, and also See also:Nice, where the ancient post-tonic a is preserved. It is remarkable that the Latin diphthong au, which had become simple o in almost all Romanic lands at the date of the most ancient texts, is to this day preserved with a very distinct diphthongal sound everywhere in the south of France. In the See also:morphology, the leading feature of modern Provencal is the ever greater simplification of grammatical forms. Not only have the two forms (nominative and objective) in each number, in nouns and adjectives, been reduced to one—this reduction manifested itself in ordinary use already in the 14th century—but in many places there no longer remains any distinction between the singular and the plural. In a great part of the south ieu (e g o) does See also:duty as an objective, me or mi being very restricted in use. In part of Drome it is the other way, mi being substituted in the nominative for ieu, which it has completely displaced. It is perhaps in conjugation that the greatest changes from the older form ofpthe language are seen. Analogy, basing itself upon one or another much used form, has acted with immense force, tending to make general in the whole conjugation, without any regard to the original classes to which the various verbs belonged, certain terminations, chiefly those which were accented, and thus appeared to the popular See also:instinct to have more significance. The result, if the tendency were carried the full length, would be the reduction of all the three conjugations to one. Perhaps before this point is reached the patois of the south will themselves have disappeared. As the endless modifications which the language undergoes, in vocabulary and grammar alike, develop themselves in different directions, and each over an area differently circumscribed, the general aspect of the language becomes more and more confused, without the possibility of grouping the endless varieties within dialectal divisions, there being hardly any case in which a certain number of phonetic or morphological facts present themselves within the same geographical limits. The See also:custom has been adopted of roughly designating these varieties by the name of the ancient provinces in which they appear. Limousin (divided into High and See also:Low Limousin), Marchese, Auvergnese, Gascon, Bearnese, Rouergat, Languedocian, Provencal, &c.; but these divisions, though convenient in use, correspond to no actualities. See also:Nimes and Montpellier are in Languedoc, and See also:Arles and See also:Tarascon are in Provence; nevertheless the dialect of Nimes resembles that of Arles and Tarascon more than that of Montpellier. Texts.—For the See also:history of the Provencal in all its varieties there are many more materials than for any other Romanic language, not excepting even Italian or French. The literary texts go back to the loth or iith century (see below). For phonetic purposes many of these texts are of secondary value, because the See also:MSS. in which they have reached us, and several of which, especially for the poetry of the troubadours, are of Italian origin, have altered the original forms to an extent which it Is not easy to determine; but we possess a countless number of charters, coutumes, regulations, accounts, registers of See also:taxation, which are worthy of See also:absolute confidence—first, because these documents are in most cases original, and, secondly, because, none of the dialectical varieties having raised itself to the rank of the literary language, as happened in France with the central (Parisian) variety and in Italy with the Florentine, writers never had the temptation to abandon their own idiom for another. For a selection of that See also:kind of documents see P. Meyer, Documents linguistiques du midi de la France (vol. i., 1909, in 8vo, containing the documents of Ain, Basses Alpes, Hautes Alpes, Alpes Maritimes). It is proper to add that Provencal possesses two ancient grammars of the 13th century (the earliest compiled for any Romanic idiom)—the Donatz proensals and Razos de trobar (see below, PROVENCAL LITERATURE). Although very See also:short, especially the second, which is a collection of detached observations, they furnish valuable data. The 14th-century Leys d'amors presents the language in a somewhat artificial state—the written rather than the spoken language. BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. Ancient Condition.—There does not exist any comprehensive work upon the Provencal whence to obtain a precise See also:idea of the history of the language at its different epochs. See also:Diez's Grammatik der romanischen Sprachen is still the groundwork. It gives, especially in the 3rd ed. (1869–1872), the last revised by the author, the results of extensive researches conveniently arranged. But Diez had only a slender knowledge of the language in its present state, and in his time phonology had made little progress. The French translation of MM. G. See also:Paris, A. Brachet and See also:Morel-Fatio (Paris, 1873–1876) was to be completed by a supplementary See also:volume, but this expedient had to be abandoned, it having been recognized that what was wanted was not a supplement but a general recast. Meyer-Lubke's Grammatik der romanischen Sprachen (See also:Leipzig, 189o–1899; Fr. trans., with indexes, 189o–1906), though representing a more advanced state of See also:Romance See also:philology, is marred by an unusual number of inaccuracies, and is of little use for the study of Provencal. The " Recherches philologiques sur la langue romane," and " Resume de la grammaire romane," published by Raynouard at the beginning of vol. i. of his Lexique roman (1838), are entirely out of date. The " Tableau sommaire des flexions provencales," published by K. Bartsch, in the Chrestomathie proven-See also:gale, though much improved in later See also:editions, is incomplete and often erroneous. Better is the introduzione grammaticale to V. Crescini's Manualetto provenzale (2nd ed., 1905). Grandgent's Outline of the Phonology and Morphology of Old Provencal (See also:Boston, 1905) is also to be recommended. But the actual state of our knowledge of ancient Provencal must be sought in a great number of scattered See also:dissertations or monographs, which will be found especially in the Romania, the Revue de la societe pour l'etude des langues See also:romanes, and other See also:periodicals, to which may be added some See also:academic dissertations published mainly in See also:Germany, and the special studies upon the language of particular texts prefixed to editions of these. As to dictionaries, the Lexique roman, ou dictionnaire de to langue des troubadours, by Raynouard (6 vols. 8vo, Paris, 1836–1844), can always be used with See also:advantage. It has been largely supplementedby See also:Professor E. See also:Levy in his Provenzalisches Supplement-Worterbuch (5 vols., Leipzig, 1892–1910, stops actually at letter P). The numerous special vocabularies appended by editors to texts published by them cannot be neglected. These yield a considerable number of words, either wanting or wrongly explained in the Lexique roman. 2. Modern Form.—The most useful grammatical works (all done with insufficient knowledge of phonology, and under the preconceived idea that there exist dialects with definite circumscription) are J. B. See also:Andrews, Essai de grammaire du dialecte mentonais [Men-See also:tone] (Nice, 1878), see also his " Phonetique mentonaise," in Romania, xii. 394 ; Cantagrel, " Notes sur l'orthographie et la prononciation languedocienne," prefixed to La See also:Crimson de la Lauseto, by A. Mir (Montpellier, 1876); Chabaneau, Grammaire limousine (Paris, 1876), referring especially to the variety of Nontron, in the north of See also:Perigord (Dordogne) ; See also:Constans, Essai sur l'histoire du sousdialecte du See also:Rouergue (Montpellier and Paris, 188o) ; Lespy, Grammaire bearnaise (2nd ed., Paris, 188o) ; A. See also:Luchaire, Etudes sur See also:les idiomes pyreneens de la regionfrancaise (Paris, 1879); Moutier, Grammaire dauphinoise, dialecte de la vallee de la Drome (See also:Montelimar, 1882) ; Ruben, " Etude sur le patois du Haut Limousin," prefixed to Poems by J. Foucaud, in ,the Limousin patois (See also:Limoges, 1866). Far See also:superior in every respect are See also:Alfred Dauzat's essays on the language of North Auvergne: Phonetique historique du patois de Vinzelles (Paris, 1897), Morphologic du patois de Vinzelles (Paris, 1900), Geographie phonetique d'une region de la Basse Auvergne (Paris, 1906). As to dictionaries, we may mention, among others, Andrews, Vocabulaire frangais-mentonais (Nice, 1877) ; See also:Azais, Dictionnaire des idiomes romans du midi de la France (3 vols. 8vo, Montpellier, 1877), taking for its basis the dialect of See also:Beziers ; Chabrand and De Rochas d'Aiglun, Patois des Alpes Cottiennes et en particulier du Queyras (See also:Grenoble and Paris, 1877) ; Couzinie, Dictionnaire de la langue romane-castraise (See also:Castres, 185o) ; Garcin, Nouveau dictionnaire provencal See also:francais (2 vols., Draguignan, 1841): Honnorat, Dictionnaire provencal francaise (2 vols. 4to, See also:Digne, 1846–1847), De Sauvages, Dictionnaire languedocien francais (new ed., 2 vols., See also:Alais, 182o) ; Vayssier, Dictionnaire patois francais du departement de l'Aveyron (Rodez, 1879). F. See also:Mistral's Tresor dou Felibrige, ou dictionnaire provencal francais (2 vols. 4to, 188o–1888) is the most complete of all. This See also:dictionary takes as its basis the variety of Maillane (in the north of Bouches-du-Rhone), the author's native district, but gives, as far as possible, all the forms used in the south of France. It is by far the best of all the dictionaries of the southern dialects which have yet been published, and, to a great extent, will enable the student to dispense with all the others. (P. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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