Provençal (/ˌprɒvɒ̃ˈsɑːl/, also UK: /-sæl/,[4] US: /ˌproʊ-, -vən-/; French: provençal [pʁɔvɑ̃sal], locally [pχɔvãⁿˈsalə]; Occitan: provençau or prouvençau [pʀuvenˈsaw]) is a Romance language, either considered as a variety of Occitan or a separate language, spoken by people in Provence and parts of Drôme. Historically, the term Provençal has been used to refer to the whole of the Occitan language, but today it is considered more technically appropriate to refer only to the variety of Occitan spoken in Provence.[5][6] 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.[7]

Provençal
prouvençau (mistralian norm) provençal/provençau (classical norm)
Native to	France, Italy, Monaco
Native speakers	(350,000 cited 1990)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Gallo-Romance Occitano-Romance Occitan Provençal
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	prov1235
ELP	Provençal
IETF	oc-provenc[2][3]

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 langue d'oïl 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 them when they were established in the Standard.[8]

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).[9] 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 ("normo mistralenco"), definite articles are lou in the masculine singular, la in the feminine singular and li in the masculine and feminine plural (lis 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 ("norma classica"), definite articles are masculine lo, feminine la, and plural lis. Nouns and adjectives usually drop the Latin masculine endings, but -e remains; the feminine ending is -a. Nouns inflect for number, all adjectives ending in vowels (-e or -a) become -i, and all plural adjectives take -s.

Pronunciation remains the same in both norms (Mistralian and classical), which 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, 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, Max-Philippe Delavouët [Wikidata], Philippe Gardy [Wikidata], Florian Vernet [Wikidata], Danielle Julien [Wikidata], Jòrgi Gròs [Wikidata], Sèrgi Bec [Wikidata], Bernat Giély, and many others.

See also

• Occitan conjugation
• Languages of France

Notes

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, ISBN 2-7449-0619-0

External links

Occitan edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Provençal phrasebook travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Provençal - English Dictionary - a list of words, with some mistakes
• Modern Provençal phonology and morphology studied in the language of Frederic Mistral (1921)

На других языках

[fr] Provençal

[it] Dialetto provenzale

[ru] Провансальский диалект