Occitan

I've already mentioned several times on here about this episode of Fry's Planet Word. If you haven't already seen it, the above video is a clip from it in which he talks about Occitan, an endangered language that is spoken in parts of southern France (as well as in Italy and Spain). The clip also contains and interesting bit about the French Academy, which I think I've also mentioned before. 


Anyway, this clip prompted me to do a bit of research on Occitan, and what I found really interested me. The first time I listened to the farmer speak the language in the clip, I thought it sounded very similar to French. However, the second time, I could pick out similarities to Spanish (having learnt Spanish at GCSE level). When you look at it written, though, it's so obvious that it is a different language, for example:

Totei lei personas naisson liuras e egalas en dignitat e en drech. Son dotadas de rason e de consciéncia e li cau (/fau) agir entre elei amb un esperit de frairesa.

This is an extract of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in one of Occitan's dialects, Provençal. (I found it on Wikipedia, if you're interested- click here). The article also gave the same extract in French: 

Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternité.

Spanish:

Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales en dignidad y derechos y, dotados como están de razón y conciencia, deben comportarse fraternalmente los unos con los otros.

and Italian:

Tutti gli esseri umani nascono liberi ed uguali in dignità e in diritti. Sono dotati di ragione e di coscienza e devono comportarsi fraternamente l'uno con l'altro. 

This is a street sign in Toulouse,
the one below is in Occitan. 

The one in Provençal is completely different to the others, isn't it? I found this really interesting- before I started researching it, I just assumed that Occitan would be really similar to French. I didn't even realise it had so many dialects (the main six being Provençal, Gascon, Languedoc, Limousin, Alpine and Auvergne).


As I mentioned earlier, Occitan is an endangered language- 5-6 million people are able to speak it, although only about 1.5 million speak the language daily. Of course, all of these people can also speak French and apparently, tend to speak it rather than Occitan around foreigners. The majority of speakers are elderly, which is also a problem, as it is often not passed on to the younger generations. 


The episode of Fry's Planet Word that the clip is from talks about language as an identity, and I think it's clear from watching it that the speakers of Occitan would certainly lose part of their identity without the language. As the farmer said, it's an important part of the culture of the area he is from- it makes him belong more to it, so it should continue to survive. 


So that's just a little bit about Occitan. Hope you found it interesting!


Caitlin


P.S. I won't be posting for another week! I'm going to New York, New York!! ^_^