Chapter I: Introduction

1. The language here studied is, in the main, that used by the poets of Southern France during the 12th and 13th centuries. The few works that we have earlier than the 12th century must, of course, be utilized for such information as they afford concerning the process of linguistic change; and lacking words or forms must occasionally be sought in writings later than the 13th. Prose literature, moreover, should not be neglected, as it greatly enlarges our vocabulary and throws much light on local divergences. The modern dialects need be cited only to determine the geographical distribution of variations.

2. The extent of the Provençal territory is sufficiently indicated by the map on p. viii. The upper black line separates Provençal on the northwest and north from French, on the northeast from Franco-Provençal; on the east are the Gallo-Italic dialects. The lower black line divides Provençal on the southwest from Basque, on the south from Spanish, on the southeast from Catalan. The boundary line between French and Provençal must be determined somewhat arbitrarily, as there is no distinct natural division; the several linguistic characteristics of each idiom do not end at the same point, and thus one language gradually shades into the other. The line shown on the map is based on the development of free accented Latin a, which remains a in Provençal, but is changed to e in French. The limits of other phonetic phenomena may be found in Suchier’s maps at the back of Vol. I of Gröber’s _Grundriss_. There may be seen also a large map showing the place of Provençal among the Romance languages. Consult, furthermore, P. Meyer in _Romania_, XXIV, 529.

3. The Spanish and Gallo-Italic frontiers are more clearly defined, and Basque is entirely distinct. Franco-Provençal and Catalan, on the other hand, are closely related to Provençal and not always easy to divide from it. Catalan, in fact, is often classed as a Provençal dialect; but it is sufficiently different to be studied separately.[2] Franco-Provençal, rated by some philologists as an independent language, has certain characteristics of Provençal and certain features of French, but more of the latter; in some respects it is at variance with both. The Gascon, or southwest, dialects of Provençal differ in many ways from any of the others and present not a few similarities to Spanish[3]; they will, however, be included in our study.

4. The Provençal domain embraces, then, the following old provinces: Provence, Languedoc, Foix, part of Béarn, Gascony, Guyenne, Limousin, most of Marche, Auvergne, the southwestern half of Lyonnais and the southern half of Dauphiné. The native speech in this region varies considerably from place to place, and the local dialects are, for convenience, roughly grouped under the names of the provinces; it should be remembered, however, that the political and the linguistic boundaries rarely coincide. For some of the principal dialect differences, see §§ 8 and 10-13.

5. The language of the poets was sometimes called _lemosí_; and, in fact, the foundation of their literary idiom is the speech of the province of Limousin and the adjacent territory on the north, west, and southwest.[4] The supremacy of this dialect group is apparently due to the fact that it was generally used for composition earlier than any of the others: popular song, in all probability, had its home in the borderland of Marche[5]; religious literature in the vulgar tongue developed in the monasteries of this region; the artistic lyric was cultivated, we know, at the court of Ventadour, and it must have found favor at others. Furthermore, many of the leading troubadours belonged by birth or residence to the Limousin district.

6. The troubadours’ verses, as we have them, seldom represent any one dialect in its purity. The poet himself was doubtless influenced both by literary tradition and by his particular local usage, as well as by considerations of rhyme and metre. Moreover, his work, before reaching us, passed through the hands of various intermediaries, who left upon it traces of their own pronunciation. It should be said, also, that the Limousin was not a single dialect, but a group of more or less divergent types of speech. For these reasons we must not expect to find in Provençal a uniform linguistic standard.

7. Neither was there a generally accepted system of orthography. When the vulgar tongue was first written, the Roman letters were used with approximately the same values that they had in Latin, as it was then pronounced. As the Provençal sounds changed, there was a conflict between the spellings first established and new notations based on contemporary speech. Furthermore, many Provençal vowels and consonants had no equivalents in Latin; for these we find a great variety of representations. The signs are very often ambiguous: for instance, _c_ before _e_ or _i_ (as in _cen_, _cinc_) generally stands in the first texts for ts, in the more recent ones for s, the pronunciation having changed; _z_ between vowels in early times usually means dz (_plazer_), but later z (_roza_); _i_ between vowels (_maiór_) indicates either y or dž (English _j_), according to the dialect; a _g_ may signify “hard” g (_gerra_), dž (“soft” _g_: _ges_), or tš (English _ch_: _mieg_). It is probable that for a couple of centuries diphthongs were oftenest written as simple vowels.

8. Some features of the mediæval pronunciation are still obscure. The close ọ was transformed, either during or soon after the literary epoch, into ụ (the sound of French _ou_); hence, when we meet in a late text such a word as _flor_, we cannot be certain whether it is to be sounded flọr or flụr. We do not know at what time Latin ū in southern France took the sound ü (French _u_): some suppose that it was during or shortly before the literary period; if this be true, the letter _u_ (as in _tu_, _mur_) may represent in some texts ụ, in others ü. In diphthongs and triphthongs whose first element is written _u_ (_cuer_, _fuolha_, _nueu_, _buou_), this letter came to be pronounced in most of the dialects like French _u_ in _huit_, while in others it retained the sound of French _ou_ in _oui_; we cannot tell exactly when or where, in ancient times, this development occurred. In the diphthongs ue, uo (_luec_, _fuoc_), opinions disagree as to which vowel originally bore the stress; subsequent changes seem to indicate that in the 12th and 13th centuries the practice varied in the different dialects. Old Provençal must have had in some words a peculiar type of r, which was sufficiently palatal in its articulation to call for an i-glide before it (_esclairar_); we do not know precisely how it was formed; in most regions it probably was assimilated to the more usual r as early as the 12th century. The š and ž (palatal s and z) apparently ranged, in the several dialects, between the sounds of French _ch_ and _j_ on the one hand, and those of German _ch_ (in _ich_) and _j_ (in _ja_) on the other; the former types were largely assimilated, doubtless by the 13th century, to s and z (_pois_, _maisó_), the latter were not (_poih_, _maió_).

9. The following table comprises the Old Provençal sounds with their usual spellings, the latter being arranged, as nearly as may be, in the order of their frequency. Diphthongs and triphthongs are included in the vowel list, compound consonants in the consonant table. For an explanation of the phonetic symbols, see p. vii. The variant pronunciations are discussed in § 8.

VOWELS.

SOUND. SPELLINGS. EXAMPLES.

ạ _a_ _pan_

ą _a_ _car_

ai _ai_, _ay_ _paire_, _cays_

au _au_ _autre_

ẹ _e_ _pena_

ę _e_ _cel_

ẹi _ei_, _ey_ _vei_, _veyre_

ęi _ei_, _ey_ _seis_, _teysser_

ẹu _eu_ _beure_

ęu _eu_ _breu_

ị _i_, _y_ _amic_, _ydola_
ię _ie_, _e_ _quier_, _velh_

ięi _iei_, _iey_, _ei_ _ieis_, _lieys_, _leit_

ięu _ieu_, _eu_ _mieu_, _deus_

ịu _iu_ _estiu_

ọ (or ụ) _o_, _u_ _corre_, _sun_

ǫ _o_ _cors_

ọi _oi_, _oy_ _conoisser_, _oyre_

ǫi _oi_, _oy_ _pois_, _poyssán_

ọu _ou_ _dous_

ǫu _ou_ _mou_

ụ: see ọ, ü

ü (or ụ?) _u_ _mut_

uę, üę _ue_, _o?_ _cuec_, _olh?_

uęi, üęi _uei_, _uey_, _oi?_ _cueissa_, _pueyssas_, _oit?_

uęu, üęu _ueu_, _ou?_ _nueu_, _bou?_

üi _ui_, _uy_ _cuit_, _duy_

uǫ, üǫ _uo_, _o_ _gruoc_, _folha_

uǫi, üǫi _uoi_, _oi_ _puoi_, _noit_

uǫu, üǫu _uou_, _ou_ _pluou_, _ou_

CONSONANTS.

SOUND. SPELLING. EXAMPLES.

b _b_, _bb_ _bel_, _abbat_

d _d_ _don_

dz _z_, _c_ _plazer_, _dicén_

dž _i_, _g_, _tg_, _gg_, _ioc_, _gen_, _paratge_, _viagge_,
_ti_, _tgi_, _ih_ _coratie_, _lotgiar_, _puihar_

ð _d_ _veder_

f _f_, _ph_ _fer_, _phizica_

g _g_, _gu_ _gras_, _guan_, _guerra_

h (Gascon) _h_, _f?_ _ham_, _fe?_[6]

k _c_, _qu_, _k_, _g_ _cais_, _quar_, _quer_, _ki_,
_longs_[7]

l _l_, _ll_ _leu_, _belleza_

l´ _lh_, _ill_, _ilh_, _fuelha_, _meillor_, _failha_,
_ll_, _l_, _il_, _vellar_, _viel_, _voil_, _fiyl_,
_yl_, _yll_, _li_ _fayllentia_, _filia_

m _m_, _mm_ _mes_, _commanda_

n _n_, _nn_ _nas_, _annat_

n´ _nh_, _gn_, _inh_, _ign_, _cenher_, _plagner_, _poinh_,
_ing_, _innh_, _ingn_, _seignor_, _soing_, _poinnher_,
_ngn_,_nn_, _n_, _in_, _fraingner_, _ongnimen_, _vinna_,
_ng_, _ynh_, _ni_, _ny_, _franén_, _soin_, _sengor_,
_nyh_ _poynh_, _lenia_, _senyoria_,
_senyhor_

ŋ _n_ _lonc_

p _p_, _pp_, _b_ _prop_, _opparer_, _obs_[8]

r _r_ _rire_

r´ _r_ _cuer_

rr _rr_ _terra_[9]

s _s_, _ss_, _c_, _ç_, _x_ _sap_, _fassa_, _cenat_, _ça_,
_locx_

š _ss_, _s_, _sh_, _h_, _faissa_, _cais_, _pueysh_,
_hs_ _Foih_, _faihs_

t _t_, _tt_, _d_ _tot_, _attenir_, _nud_[8]

ts _c_, _z_, _tz_, _ç_, _cel_, _faz_, _parlatz_, _ço_,
_gz_, _cz_, _ti_ _fagz_, _czo_, _fayllentia_[10]

tš _ch_, _g_, _ich_, _ig_, _chan_, _plag_, _ueich_, _faig_,
_h_, _gz_ _lah_, _gaugz_[11]

v _u_ (printed _v_) _ven_

y _i_, _y_ _gabia_, _preyar_

z _s_, _z_, _ç_ _pausa_, _roza_, _riçia_
(＜ _ridēbat_)

ž _s_, _z_, _i_ _raso_, _poizo_, _maio_

10. The Gascon group presents certain striking divergences from the other dialects: (1) it shows a b corresponding to Provençal v, as in _be_ = _ve_ ＜ _vĕnit_, _abetz_ = _avetz_ ＜ _habētis_; (2) it substitutes r for l between vowels, as in _bera_ = _bela_ ＜ _bĕlla_; (3) it changes initial f to h, as in _he_ = _fe_ ＜ _fĭdem_. Other Gascon peculiarities are less ancient, less general, or less important.

11. Some distinctions may be pointed out between the speech of the north and that of the south:--

(1) Latin ca and ga, either at the beginning of a word or after
a consonant, became respectively tša and dža in the northern
dialects[12], and remained unchanged in the southern: _canto_ ＞
_chan can_, _lŏnga_ ＞ _lonia longa_.

(2) Latin ct and gd became it and id in most of the north and
in the southwest[12], tš and dž in most of the south and in the
northwest[13]: _factum_ ＞ _fait fach_, _frig(i)da_ ＞ _freida
freia_. Nct became int, nt, n´, ntš in different regions:
_sanctum_ ＞ _saint sant sanh sanch_. Cs (Latin _x_) had various
local developments--is, itš, tš--somewhat similar to those of
ct: _exīre_ ＞ _eissir eichir ichir_.

(3) Latin d between vowels disappeared in some spots in the
north and northeast[12], and became z nearly everywhere else:
_audīre_ ＞ _auir auzir_.

(4) Latin ll became l´ in some parts of the south[13], and
usually l in other regions: _bĕlla_ ＞ _belha bela_.

(5) Provençal final ns remains in the southeast and east, and
is elsewhere generally reduced to s: _bŏnus_ ＞ _bons bos_.
Provençal final n also falls in a large region, but its history
is more intricate; the poets use indifferently forms with and
without _n_: _bĕne_ ＞ _ben be_.

12. Several Latin consonants, when combined with a following ḙ or i̭, give results that are widely different in various localities, but the geographical distribution of the respective forms is complicated and not always clear: _pŏdium_ ＞ _puech poi_; _basiare_ ＞ _baisar basar baiiar baiar_; _bassiare_ ＞ _baissar baichar bachar_; _potiōnem_ ＞ _poizon pozon poio_. The same thing may be said of intervocalic y (Latin _j_): _major_ ＞ _mager maier_. Also of intervocalic c, sc, g, ŋg, followed by e or i: _placēre_ ＞ _plazer plaizer plager_, _nascere_ ＞ _naisser nasser naicher nacher_, _lēgem_ ＞ _lei leg_, _ŭngere_ ＞ _onher onger_.

13. In the development of unstressed vowels there are very numerous local variations, which will be discussed later. Even among accented vowels there are some divergences:--

(1) Provençal ą, ę, ǫ before nasals become ạ, ẹ, ọ in some
dialects, especially in those belonging to or bordering on the
Limousin group: _canem_ ＞ cąn cạn, _vĕnit_ ＞ vęn vẹn, _bŏnum_
＞ bǫn bọn. The poets nearly always use the forms with close
vowels.

(2) The breaking of ę, ǫ, under certain conditions, into
diphthongs is not common to the whole territory, and the
resulting forms show local differences: _mĕum_ ＞ męu mięu,
_fŏcum_ ＞ fǫc fuǫc fuęc füc. Breaking is least common in the
southwest.