I am Occitan and Occitania, known as Aquitania in Roman times and Languedoc in the Middle Ages, is the largest minority in Europe with 13 million people and 200,000km².
Occitan was the first literary language of Europe and was understood in many countries; it's the mother tongue of troubadours and earned a Nobel Prize in 1904 with Frederic Mistral. Modern Portuguese spelling was the work of Occitan monks.
Its territory covers the southern third of France as well as northern Spain and Alpine Italy where it is officially recognized. It was annexed to the kingdom of France after the Pope-led Albigensian crusade killed hundreds of thousands Occitan citizens around the 1200s.
After the 1789 French Revolution, successive political leaders and governments tried to suppress Occitan, prohibiting for example any publication or official use. Until the 1940s, Occitan pupils were often slapped and made to wear a clog around their necks in shame for speaking a word in their tongue.
2006-11-29 22:51:12 · 7 answers · asked by MicaGBM 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Hi!
Occitan comes from OC for OUI, The rest of the country said OIL.
Occitan is very similar to Catalan, but there are many doubts as to whether or not the OCCITAN spoken today is similar or not to the Original one.
Some Influences from Provencal, Catalan, Spanish, Modern French, Nissard and Italian were introduced by the Grammarians of New Occitan in the last Century!
The law which prohibited Occitan was from the French National Hero "Jules Ferry" and is from 1904!
Somehow it made France united, so they say!
Germany or Italy have a lot of dialects, French ones are dead :(
2006-11-30 01:56:33 · answer #1 · answered by F R 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sure I know it, I'm french too and quite involved in the language issue, as I'm part of another minority, much smaller than yours: I'm Breton. What you say about what has been done to make Occitan disappear happened with Breton too, actually it happened with all the minority languages of France, which is for me what France should be the most shameful of, as they're still carrying the same policy but with "sweeter" methods now, such as changing the consitution so that they can't sign the European Treaty about minority languages... France is the only European country that didn't sign it.
I don't speak Occitan myself but I understand most of it, especially southern dialects such as Languedocian, Gascon, etc... and I can speak Catalan, which comes from Occitan. I'd like to answer you in French as it would make it easier for me and probably for you too but I want people in here to understand what I write, so that they know a little bit more about the "country of human rights" ;)
Anyways, if you're doing that to defend your language, keep on fighting!!
Adeusiatz
2006-11-29 23:45:21 · answer #2 · answered by El Emigrante 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
i'm a sucker for a southern drawl. Dolly Parton Kelly Pickler additionally, if ever there exchange right into a voice of an Angel on earth it particularly is that of Alison Krause. i'm greatly surprised p.c.. did no longer point out Sir Paul. he's have been given a large one nonetheless. Sam Elliott has been doing voice overs for years now -- I consider you on his.
2016-10-04 13:30:01 · answer #3 · answered by elidia 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Oc and non.
I was in Perigord this past summer, not quite sure if that's Occitania or not. I found the people surprisingly easy to understand.
2006-11-29 23:49:06 · answer #4 · answered by Goddess of Grammar 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
i am somewhat familiar with it, but i am familiar with the pre-roman languages of iberian and tartessian.
2006-12-01 01:57:09 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
never heard of it..... thanks for the info
2006-11-30 01:18:54 · answer #6 · answered by Kelly 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
no, thanks for the info
2006-11-29 23:11:52 · answer #7 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋