Franco-Provençal language

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Franco-Provençal or Arpitan is a Romance language consisting of dialects found in Italy: (Valle d'Aosta, Piemonte, Calabria, Apulia); in Switzerland: (cantons Fribourg, Valais, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Geneva, non-German speaking parts of Bern, but not Jura where the dialects spoken are French); and in France: (Dauphinois, Lyonnais, Savoy, Franche-Comté). It is now considered an endangered language.

The language is a linguistic sub-group of its own between the Langue d'Oïl and Langue d'Oc. The name Franco-Provençal was given to the dialect group in the 19th century as it shared features of the French and Provençal without belonging to either. Although the name of the language is well established, there is some dissatisfaction with it, given that the distinguishing feature of Franco-Provençal is that it is neither French nor Provençal. The modern name Arpitan has achieved some currency for the language in recent years.

Francoprovençal is classified as a regional language of France and constitutes one of the three great Romance languages of France.

Words of Franco-provençal origin that may be found in English include:

Contents

Definition

Franco-Provençal or Arpitan is a Gallo-Roman variety of neo-Latin, which can be traced back as far as the 13th century. The language region was first identified during advances in the study of lingusitics in the 19th century. G.I. Ascoli studied the unique phonetic and structural characteristics of the vernacular, which included numerous spoken dialects, and proposed some dialect boundaries for the region in an article that appeared in 1878. He gave Franco-Provençal its name and placed it between the Langues d'Oïl group of languages (whence the appellation 'Franco') and the Langues d'Oc group (whence the appellation 'Provençal'). The boundaries, and even the validity of the language group, was debated for much of the following century, but consensus was slowly achieved.

Franco-Provençal is neither French nor Occitan, but rather a distinct Romance language. Although the original name is somewhat misleading, it is the term that continues to be used in most journals for the sake of continuity and to avoid confusion. To underline the independence of Franco-Provençal without implying a union to other language groups, some contemporary speakers and writers prefer the name Arpitan because of its lack of connotations. However, this choice is restrictive since Arpitan identifies dialects spoken in the Alps, ignoring the western dialects outside of the region. It is also called "patois", "nosta moda", or "sarde" by native speakers.

Although daily use has of the language has significantly declined in Italy, Switzerland, and France, it has been maintained in local lexical forms (Valdôtain, Faeto, Suisse Romande, Savoyan, Forézien, Bressois, Lyonnais, Dauphinois, and others.) The language is relatively well protected under the 1979 Autonomous Statute for the Val d'Aoste in Italy where it is most widely spoken (estimated 68,000 speakers) and has been incorporated into the school curriculum. However it enjoys no protection in the Province of Turin (estimated 22,000 speakers). The language has no legal protection in France (estimated 60,000 speakers).


Domain of usage of Franco-Provençal dialects

Map showing the extent of Franco-Provençal (dialectes  francoprovençaux)
Enlarge
Map showing the extent of Franco-Provençal (dialectes francoprovençaux)

The linguistic territory of Franco-Provençal is limited to the following areas (in clockwise order):

in France

in Switzerland

  • it covers the entire Romandy area with the exception of the northern fringe of the Canton of Jura where Langues d'Oil are spoken.

in Italy

  • its linguistic domain is the vallée d'Aoste (with the exception of the valley of Walser in Gressoney). It also includes the heights of Vallées Piémontaises with the following communities : Ala di Stura, Alpette, Balme, Cantoira, Carema (Carème), Castagnole Piemonte, Ceres, Ceresole Reale (Cérisoles), Chialamberto (Chalambert), Chianocco (Chanoux), Coassolo, Coazze, Corio, Frassinetto, Germagnano (St-Germain), Giaglione (Jaillons), Giaveno, Gravere (Gravière), Groscavallo, Ingria, Lanzo Torinese (Lans), Lemie, Mattie, Meana di Susa, Mezzenile, Monastero di Lanzo, Noasca, Novalesa (Novalaise), Pessinetto, Pont Canavese, Ronco Canavese, Rubiana, Sparone, Susa (Suse), Traves, Usseglio (Ussel), Valgioie (Valjoie), Valprato Soana (Valpré), Vénaus, Viù (Vieu).

The southernmost valleys of Piedmont are Occitan.


History

In 1873 (published in 1878), the linguist Ascoli defined Franco-Provençal in these terms:

"J'appelle franco-provençal un type linguistique qui réunit, en plus de quelques caractères qui lui sont propre, d'autres caractères dont une partie lui est commune avec le français et dont une autre lui est commune avec le provençal, et qui ne provient pas d'une tardive confluence d'éléments divers, mais au contraire atteste de sa propre indépendance historique, peu différente de celle par lesquelles se distinguent entre eux les autres principaux types romans"
"I call Franco-Provençal a type of language which brings together, along with characteristics which are its own, some characteristics of which a part it has in common with French and the other part of which it has in common with Provencal, and which is not due to a late confluence of diverse elements, but on the contrary attests to is own independent history, little different than those by which it distinguishes itself among the principal Romance languages".

Historically, the region covers three-quarters of the territories of the ancient pre-Roman Allobrogie.

These languages are often attested since the 12th century, but are seldom written and remain above all an oral vehicle. In the 13th century, with the abandonment of Latin as a common language, appeared the first official texts which were acts of notaries and witnesses. There is however at least one long text from the 13th century written in Lyonnais Arpitan, namely the Vie de sainte Béatrice d'Ornacieux by Marguerite d'Oingt from which here is an excerpt:

" § 112 : Quant vit co li diz vicayros que ay o coventavet fayre, ce alyet cela part et en ot mout de dongiers et de travayl, ancis que cil qui gardont lo lua d'Emuet li volissant layssyer co que il demandavet et que li evesques de Valenci o volit commandar. Totes veys yses com Deus o aveyt ordonat oy se fit. "

Note

The relative rarity of a written corpus is due essentially to the decided "Francification" of the major urban and cultural centers in the Franco-Provençal region, among them Lyon, Geneva, and Grenoble. Generally called a patois, it had for a long time a low social status, as have dozens of other patois which comprise the linguistic wealth of France.

Amélie Gex (born 1835, Chapelle-Blanche, France - died 1883, Chambéry, France), the great Savoyard poet, wrote in her native patois language. Her works include: "Reclans de Savoie" (« Les Echos de Savoie », 1879), "Lo Cent Ditons de Pierre d’Emo" (« Les Cent dictons de Pierre du bon sens », 1879), "Fables" (1898), and "Contio de la Bova" (« Les Contes de l’Etable », -?-).

The disappearance of Franco-Provençal languages is advanced in France and in Switzerland (except, perhaps in the isolated areas of the canton of Valais), although it may be maintained in Val d'Aoste for political and historic reasons. Nonetheless, this patois (also called thus by the Valdôtains themselves) is in considerable decline in Aoste and in the valley of Doire Baltée; it is more precariously maintained in the areas of the less cosmopolitan lateral valleys (Cogne, Champorcher, Valsavaranche...), where the idiom is enjoying a certain revival, in the tradition of Émile Chanoux.

List of Franco-Provençal (Arpitan) dialects

Bibliography

  • Certains textes valdôtains ont été collectés dans le recueil « Tobie de Brissogne » aux éditions Musumeci, Quart (AO).
  • Pierre Bec, « Manuel pratique de philologie romane », (Paris: Ed. Picard, 1971), ébauche, p. 357 et seq., a philological analysis of Franco-Provençal. The Alpine dialects have been particularly studied
  • Gaston Tuaillon and Jean-Baptiste Marti, « Atlas linguistique et ethnographique du Jura et des Alpes du nord », (ALJA)(éditions du CNRS). Gaston Tuaillon is also the author of numerous articles and monographs (cf. Savoyard).
  • G.I. Ascoli, "Schizzi franco-provenzali", « Archivio glottologico italiano », III (1878), p. 61.
  • George Jochnowitz, « Dialect Boundaries and the Question of Franco-Provençal », (Paris: Mouton & Co., 1973).

See also

See also

External links

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