Provençal dialect

For other uses of Provençal, see Provençal (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Franco-Provençal, a distinct language that shares features of both French and Provençal.

Provençal
Prouvençau (mistralian norm) Provençau (classical norm)
Spoken in	France, Italy, Monaco, small community in California[citation needed]
Region	Europe
Native speakers	362,000 [1]  (date missing)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Gallo-Iberian Gallo-Romance Occitano-Romance Occitan Provençal
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist List	oci-prv

Provençal (Occitan: Provençau or Prouvençau, IPA: [pɾuvenˈsaw]) 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.

"Provençal" (with "Limousin") is also the customary name given to the older version of the langue d'oc used by the troubadours of medieval literature, corresponding to Old French or the langue d'oïl of the northern areas of France.

In 2007, the ISO 639-3 code changed from prv to oci, as prv was merged into oci.

Sub-dialects

The main sub-dialects 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, Marseilles, 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 an occitan dialect of its own, also known as Vivaro-Alpine. So is the dialect spoken in the upper valleys of Piedmont, Italy (Val Maira, Val Varacha, Val d'Estura, Entraigas, Limon, Vinai, Pignerol, Sestriera). Some people view Gavòt as a variety of Provençal since a part of the Gavot area (near Digne and Sisteron) belongs to historical Provence.

Grammar

Written in mistralian norm ("normo mistralenco") the definite articles are masculine lou, feminine la, and plural li (lis before vowels). Nouns and adjectives, the Latin masculine endings have mostly dropped, but -e remains, while the feminine ending is -o. 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: lo bon ami "the good friend" (masc.), la bono amigo "the good friend" (fem.), li bons ami "the good friends" (masc.), li bonis amigo "the good friends" (fem.).

Written in classical norm ("norma classica") the definite articles are masculine lo, feminine la, and plural lis. Nouns and adjectives, the Latin masculine endings have mostly dropped, but -e remains, while the feminine ending is -a. Nouns do inflect for number, all adjectives ending in vowels (-e or -a) become -i, and all plural adjectives take -s: lo bon amic "the good friend" (masc.), la bona amiga "the good friend" (fem.), lis bons amics "the good friends" (masc.), lis bonis amigas "the good friends" (fem.).

The prononciation always remains the same, the two norms (mistralian and classical) are only two different ways to write the same language.

Literature

Modern Provençal literature was given impetus by Nobel laureate Frédéric Mistral and the association Félibrige he founded with other writers, such as Théodore Aubanel. The beginning of the 20th Century saw other authors like Joseph d'Arbaud 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, Max-Philippe Delavouët, Philippe Gardy, Florian Vernet, Danielle Julien, Jòrgi Gròs, Sèrgi Bec, Bernat Giély, and many others.

See also

• Occitan conjugation
• Languages of France

References

• Manuel pratique de provençal contemporain, Alain Barthélemy-Vigouroux & Guy Martin, Édisud 2006, ISBN 2-7449-0619-0
• Provencal Language at the Classic Encyclopedia, based on the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Smith, Nathaniel B.; Bergin, Thomas Goddard (1984). An Old Provençal Primer. Garland. ISBN 0824090306. 

External links

• Ethnologue 15th Edition report for Provençal
• Ethnologue 16th Edition shows Provençal as a dialect of occitan
• Provençal - English Dictionary - a list of words, with some mistakes
• Modern Provençal phonology and morphology studied in the language of Frederic Mistral (1921)