Franco-Provençal language
Encyclopedia
Franco-Provençal Arpitan, or Romand (in Switzerland) (Vernacular
: ; ; ) is a Romance language
with several distinct dialect
s that form a linguistic sub-group separate from Langue d'Oïl and Langue d'Oc. The name Franco-Provençal was given to the language by G.I. Ascoli
in the 19th century because it shared features with French
and Provençal without belonging to either. The neologism Arpitan is becoming a popular name for the language and the people who speak it.
Today, the largest number of Franco-Provençal speakers reside in the Aosta Valley, an autonomous region
of Italy. The language is also spoken in alpine valleys in the province of Turin
, two isolated towns in Foggia
, and rural areas of the Romandy region of Switzerland. It constitutes one of the Gallo-Romance languages
of France and is classified as a regional language of France, though its use is marginal. Organizations are attempting to preserve it through cultural events, education, scholarly research, and publishing.
The number of speakers of Franco-Provençal has been declining significantly. According to UNESCO
(1995), Franco-Provençal is a "potentially endangered language" in Italy and an "endangered language
" in Switzerland and France.
variety of Latin
. The linguistic region comprises east-central France, western portions of Switzerland, and the Aosta Valley of Italy with the adjacent alpine valleys of the Piedmont
. This area covers territories once occupied by pre-Roman Celt
ic peoples, including the Allobroges
, Sequani
, Helvetii
, Ceutrones, and Salassi
. By the 5th century, the region was controlled by Burgundian
tribes.
Early manuscripts reveal that Franco-Provençal has existed at least since the 12th century, possibly diverging from Langue d'Oïl as early as the 8th or 9th centuries (Bec, 1971). One writer has detected the influence of Basque
by analyzing "fossil words" ("mots fossiles") from toponyms and the dialect
in the Aosta Valley. However, Franco-Provençal adhered conservatively to Latin linguistic conventions as it developed, primarily remaining a spoken language. The modern speech of its speakers continues to reflect medieval terms for many nouns and verbs, including: pâta for "rag", bayâ for "to give", moussâ for "to lie down", etc. Désormaux, writing on this subject in the foreword of his Savoyard
dictionary states:
Franco-Provençal never achieved the greatness of its three larger neighbors: French, Occitan, and Italian. Communities where speakers lived were generally mountainous and isolated from one another. The internal boundaries of the entire linguistic domain were shattered by wars and religious conflicts. France, Switzerland, the Franche-Comté
(protected by Habsburg Spain
), and the duchy — later kingdom — ruled by the House of Savoy
politically divided the region. The strongest possibility for any dialect of Franco-Provençal to establish itself as a major language died when an edict
, dated 6 January 1539, was confirmed in the parliament of the Duchy of Savoy
on 4 March 1540. The edict explicitly replaced Latin (and by implication, any other language) with French as the language of civil law and the judiciary (Grillet, 1807, p. 65).
Franco-Provençal dialects were widely spoken in their domain until the 20th century. As French political power expanded, and communication and transportation improved, speakers abandoned their language, which had numerous spoken variations and no standard orthography
, in favor of so-called "educated" French.
Paradoxically, the same federal laws do not grant the language the same protection in the Province of Turin
because Franco-Provençal speakers make up less than 15% of the population. Lack of jobs has caused migration out of the Piedmont's alpine valleys, abetting the language's decline.
Switzerland does not recognize Franco-Provençal (Romand) as one of its official languages. (Romand should not be confused with Romansh.) Speakers live in western cantons
where Swiss French
predominates and converse in dialects mainly as a second language. Currently, its use in agrarian daily life is rapidly disappearing. However, in a few isolated places the decline is considerably less steep. This is most notably the case for Evolène
.
Franco-Provençal has had a precipitous decline in France. The official language of the French Republic is French (article 2 of the Constitution of France
). The French government officially recognizes Franco-Provençal as one of the "Languages of France" but it is constitutionally barred from ratifying the 1992 European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
(ECRML) that would guarantee it certain rights. Thus, Franco-Provençal has almost no political support. It also carries a generally low social status. This situation affects most regional languages that comprise the linguistic wealth of France. Speakers of regional languages are aging and mostly rural.
classification for Franco-Provençal published by the Linguasphere Observatory
(Dalby, 1999/2000, p. 402) follows:
A philological classification for Franco-Provençal published by Stanford University
(Ruhlen ,1987, pp. 325–326) also follows:
The language region was first recognized in the 19th century during advances in research into the nature and structure of human speech. Graziadio Isaia Ascoli
(1829–1907), a pioneering linguist
, analyzed the unique phonetic and structural characteristics of numerous spoken dialect
s. In an article written about 1873 and published later, he offered a solution to existing disagreements about dialect frontiers and proposed a new linguistic region. He placed it between the Langues d'oïl
group of languages, whence came the appellation Franco, and the Langues d'oc group, whence came the appellation Provençal, and gave Franco-Provençal its name.
Ascoli (1878, p. 61) described the language in these terms in his defining essay on the subject:
Although the name Franco-Provençal appears misleading, it continues to be used in most scholarly journals for the sake of continuity. Suppression of the hyphen between the two parts of the language name in French (francoprovençal) was generally adopted following a conference at the University of Neuchâtel
in 1969 however, most English journals continue to use the traditional spelling.
The name Romand has been in use regionally in Switzerland at least since 1494, when notaries in Fribourg
were directed to write their minutes in both German
and Rommant. It continues to appear in the names of many Swiss cultural organizations today. The term "Romand" is also used by some professional linguists who feel that the compound word "Franco-Provençal" is "inappropriate".
A proposal in the 1960s to call the language Burgundian (French: "burgondien") did not take hold because of confusion with historical, political, and geographic regions of the same name (Meune, 2007).
Some contemporary speakers and writers prefer the name Arpitan because it underscores the independence of the language and does not imply a union to any other established linguistic group. "Arpitan" is derived from an indigenous word meaning "alpine" ("mountain highlands"). It was popularized in the 1980s by Mouvement Harpitanya, a political organization in the Aosta Valley. In 1990s, the term lost its particular political context. The Aliance Culturèla Arpitana (Arpitan Cultural Alliance) is currently advancing the cause for the name "Arpitan" through the Internet, publishing efforts, and other activities. The organization was founded in 2004 by Stéphanie Lathion and Alban Lavy in Lausanne
, Switzerland, and is now based in Fribourg.
The language is called patouès (patois) or nosta moda ("our way [of speaking]") by native speakers. Some Savoyard speakers call their language sarde. This is a colloquial term, used because their ancestors were subjects of the Kingdom of Sardinia
ruled by the House of Savoy
. (Savoie
and Haute-Savoie
were annexed by France in 1860.) The language is called gaga in the Forez
region of France, and appears in the titles of dictionaries and other regional publications. Gaga (and the adjective gagasse) comes from a local name for the residents of Saint-Étienne
, popularized by Auguste Callet’s story "La légende des Gagats" published in 1866.
The historical linguistic domain of the Franco-Provençal language includes the following areas (also see: Jochnowitz, 1973):
. Approximately 68,000 people speak the language in the Aosta Valley region of Italy according to reports conducted after the 1981 census. The alpine valleys of the adjacent province of Turin have an estimated 22,000 speakers. The Faetar and Cigliàje dialect is spoken by just 1,400 speakers who live in an isolated pocket of the province of Foggia in the southern Italian Apulia region (figures for Italy: EUROPA, 2005).
Contrary to this official information reported by the European Commission, a poll by the Fondation Émile Chanoux in 2001 revealed that only 15% of all Aosta Valley residents claimed Franco-Provençal as their mother tongue. This is a substantial reduction to the figures reported on the Italian census 20 years earlier that was used in the commission report. Only 7% of the inhabitants (approximately 8,200 people) claimed to be able to speak any dialect. A report published by Laval University
in Quebec City
, which analyzed this data, reports that it is "probable" that the language will be "on the road to extinction" in this region in ten years. Note: The most recent edition of ethnologue.com (Lewis, 2009) reports that there are 70,000 Franco-Provençal speakers in Italy. However, these figures are derived from the 1971 census.
In rural areas of the cantons of Valais and Fribourg in Switzerland, various dialects are spoken as a second language by about 7,000 residents (figures for Switzerland: Lewis, 2009). In the other cantons of Romandy where Franco-Provençal dialects used to be spoken, they are now all but extinct.
Until the mid-19th century, Franco-Provençal dialects were the most widely spoken language in their domain in France. Today, regional vernaculars are limited to a small number of speakers in secluded towns. A 2002 report by the INED (Institut national d’études démographiques) states that the language loss by generation, that is, “the proportion of fathers who did not usually speak to their 5-year-old children in the language that their own father usually spoke in to them at the same age” was 90%. This was a greater loss than any language in France, a loss called "critical." The report estimated that fewer than 15,000 speakers in France were handing down some knowledge of Franco-Provençal to their children (figures for France: Héran, Filhon, & Deprez, 2002; figure 1, 1-C, p. 2.)
similar to that of other Romance languages.
. Most proposals use the Latin alphabet
and four diacritic
s: the acute accent
, grave accent
, circumflex
, and diaeresis (trema). (The cedilla
and the ligature ⟨œ
⟩ found in French are omitted.)
The table below compares a few words in each writing system, with French and English for reference. (Sources: Esprit Valdôtain (download 7 March 2007), C.C.S. Conflans (1995), and Stich (2003).
counting system. The numbers "1", "2", and "4" have masculine and feminine forms (Duplay, 1896; Viret, 2006).
0 ) zérô; 1 ) yon (masc.), yona / yena (fem.); 2 ) dos (masc.), does / doves / davè (fem.); 3 ) três; 4 ) quatro (masc.), quat / quatrè (fem.); 5 ) cinq; 6 ) siéx; 7 ) sèpt; 8 ) huét; 9 ) nô; 10 ) diéx; 11 ) onze; 12 ) doze; 13 ) trèze; 14 ) quatôrze; 15 ) quinze; 16 ) sèze; 17 ) dix-sèpt; 18 ) dix-huét; 19 ) dix-nou; 20 ) vengt; 21 ) vengt-yon / vengt-et-yona; 22 ) vengt-dos ... 30 ) trenta; 40 ) quaranta; 50 ) cinquanta; 60 ) souessanta; 70 ) sèptanta; 80 ) huétanta; 90 ) nonanta; 100 ) cent; 1000 ) mila; 1,000,000 ) on milyon / on milyona.
Many western dialects use a vigesimal
(base-20) form for "80," that is, quatro-vingt /katroˈvɛ̃/, possibly due to the influence of French.
Between vowels, the Latinate "p" became "v", "c" and "g" became "y", and "t" and "d" disappeared. Franco-Provençal also softened the hard palatized
"c" and "g" before "a". This led Franco-Provençal to evolve down a different path from Occitan and Gallo-Iberian languages, closer to the evolutionary direction taken by French.
Classification of Franco-Provençal dialect
divisions is challenging. Each canton and valley uses its own vernacular without standardization. Difficult intelligibility among dialects was noted as early as 1807 by Grillet.
The dialects are divided into eight distinct categories or groups. Six dialect groups comprising 41 dialect idioms for the Franco-Provençal language have been identified and documented by Linguasphere Observatory (Observatoire Linguistique)
(Dalby, 1999/2000, pp. 402–403). Only two dialect groups – Lyonnaise and Dauphinois-N. – were recorded as having fewer than 1,000 speakers each. Linguasphere has not listed any dialect idiom as "extinct," however, many are highly endangered. A seventh isolated dialect group, Faetar, has been analyzed by Nagy (2000). The Piedmont dialects need further study.
, Ain (département) west; Revermont, French Jura (département) southwest; Saône-et-Loire east), 2. Bugésien (Bugey
, Ain southeast), 3. Mâconnais (Mâcon
country), 4. Lyonnais-rural (Lyonnais mountains, Dombes
, & Balmes) 5. Roannais+Stéphanois (Roanne
country, Foréz plain, & Saint-Étienne
). 1. Dauphinois-Rhodanien (Rhône River
valley, Rhône (département) south, Loire (département) southeast, Ardèche north, Drôme north, Isère west), 2. Crémieu (Crémieu
, Isère north), 3. Terres-Froides (Bourbre
River valley, Isère central north), 4. Chambaran (Roybon
, Isère central south), 5. Grésivaudan [& Uissans] (Isère east). 1. Bessanèis (Bessans
), 2. Langrin (Lanslebourg), 3. Matchutin (Valloire
& Ma’tchuta) (1., 2. & 3.: Maurienne
country, Arc valley
, Savoie south), 4. Tartentaise [& Tignard] (Tarentaise country
, Tignes
, Savoie east, Isère upper valleys), 5. Arly (Arly valley, Savoie north), 6. Chambérien (Chambéry
), 7. Annecien [& Viutchoïs] (Annecy
, Viuz-la-Chiésaz
, Haute-Savoie southwest), 8. Faucigneran (Faucigny
, Haute-Savoie southeast), 9. Chablaisien+Genevois (Chablais
country & Geneva (canton) hinterlands). 1. Neuchâtelois (Neuchâtel (canton)), 2. Vaudois-NW. (Vaud northwest), 3. Pontissalien (Pontarlier
& Doubs (département) south), 4. Ain-N. (Ain upper valleys & French Jura), 5. Valserine (Bellegarde-sur-Valserine
, Valserine valley
, Ain northeast & adjacent French Jura). 1. Vaudois-Intracluster (Vaud west), 2. Gruyèrienne (Fribourg (canton) west), 3. Enhaut (Château-d'Œx
, Pays-d'Enhaut
, Vaud east), 4. Valaisan (Valais, Valaisan Romand). 1. Valdôtain du Valdigne (Dora Baltea
upper valley, similar to savoy
ard Franco-Provençal), 2. Aostois (Aosta
n valdôtain), 3. Valdôtain standard (Dora Baltea middle valley), 4. Valpellinois, bossolein and bionassin (Valpelline Great St. Bernard and Bionaz valleys), 5. Cognein (upper Cogne valley
), 6. Valtournain (in Valtournenche
valley), 7. Ayassin (upper Ayas valley
), 8. Valgrisein (Valgrisenche
valley), 9. Rhêmiard (Rhêmes valley
), 10. Valsavarein (Valsavarenche
valley), 11. Moyen valdôtain (middle-lower Dora Baltea valley), 12. Bas Valdôtain (lower Dora Baltea valley, similar to Piedmontese
), 13. Champorcherin (Champorcher
valley) 1. Faetar & Cigliàje (Faeto
& Celle di San Vito
, in Province of Foggia
). (Note: Comparative analyses of dialect idioms in the Piedmont basin of the Province of Turin
— from the Val Soana in the north to the Val Sangone in the south — have not been published.)
External links:
s, the Franco-Provençal legacy primarily survives in place names
. Many are immediately recognizable, ending in -az, -oz (-otz), -uz, -ax, -ex, -ux, -oux, and -ieux (-ieu). These suffixes indicate the stress syllables based on a historical orthographic system considered obsolete by modern scholars. The last letter is not pronounced. For multi-syllabic names, “z” indicates a paroxytone
(stress on the next-to-last syllable), and “x” indicates an oxytone
(stress on the last syllable), for example, Chanaz: /ˈʃɑ.nɑ/ (shana); Chênex: /ʃɛˈne/ (shèné). A selection of town names that demonstrates these characteristics follow:
A long tradition of Franco-Provençal literature exists, although no prevailing written form of the language materialized. An early 12th century fragment containing 105 verses from a poem about Alexander the Great may be the earliest known work in the language. Girart de Roussillon
, an epic with 10,002 lines from the mid-12th century, has been asserted to be Franco-Provençal. It certainly contains prominent Franco-Provençal features, although the editor of an authoritative edition of this work claims that the language is a mixture of French and Occitan forms. A significant document from the same period containing a list of vassals in the County of Forez also is not without literary value.
Among the first historical writings in Franco-Provençal are legal texts by civil law notaries
that appeared in the 13th century as Latin was being abandoned for official administration. These include a translation of the Corpus Juris Civilis
(known as the Justinian Code) in the vernacular spoken in Grenoble. Religious works also were translated and conceived in Franco-Provençal dialects at some monasteries in the region. The Legend of Saint Bartholomew
is one such work that survives in Lyonnais patois from the 13th century.
Marguerite d'Oingt
(ca. 1240–1310), prioress of a Carthusian
nunnery near Mionnay
(France), composed two remarkable sacred texts in her native Lyonnais dialect, in addition to her writings in Latin. The first, entitled Speculum ("The Mirror"), describes three miraculous
visions
and their meanings. The other work, Li Via seiti Biatrix, virgina de Ornaciu ("The Life of the Blessed Virgin Beatrix d'Ornacieux
"), is a long biography of a nun
and mystic
consecrated to the Passion
whose faith lead to a devout cult. This text contributed to the beatification
of the nun more than 500 years later by Pope Pius IX
in 1869. A line from the work in her dialect follows:
Religious conflicts in Geneva
between Calvinist
Reformers and staunch Catholics, supported by the Duchy of Savoy, brought forth many texts in Franco-Provençal during the early 17th century. One of the best known is Cé qu'è lainô ("The One Above"), which was composed by an unknown writer in 1603. The long narrative poem describes l'Escalade
, a raid by the Savoyard army that generated patriotic sentiments. It became the unofficial national anthem of the Republic of Geneva
. The first three verses follow below (in Genevois
dialect) with a translation:
Several writers created satirical
, moralistic
, poetic, comic
, and theatrical texts during the era that followed, which indicates the vitality of the language at that time. These include: Bernardin Uchard (1575–1624), author
and playwright
from Bresse
; Henri Perrin, comic playwright from Lyon; Jean Millet (1600?–1675), author of pastoral
s, poems, and comedies from Grenoble; Jacques Brossard de Montaney (1638–1702), writer of comedies and carol
s from Bresse; Jean Chapelon (1647–1694), priest and composer of more than 1,500 carols, songs, epistles, and essays from Saint-Étienne
; and François Blanc dit la Goutte (1690–1742), writer of prose
poems, including Grenoblo maléirou about the great flood of 1733 in Grenoble. 19th century authors include Guillaume Roquille (1804–1860), working-class poet from Rive-de-Gier near Saint-Chamond, Joseph Béard dit l'Éclair (1805–1872), physician, poet, and songwriter from Rumilly
, and Louis Bornet (1818–1880) of Gruyères. Clair Tisseur
(1827–1896), architect of Bon-Pasteur Church
in Lyon, published many writings under the pen name "Nizier du Puitspelu". These include a popular dictionary and humorous works in Lyonnaise dialect that have reprinted for more than 100 years.
Amélie Gex
(1835–1883) wrote in her native patois as well as French
. She was a passionate advocate for her language. Her literary efforts encompassed lyrical themes, work, love, tragic loss, nature, the passing of time, religion, and politics, and are considered by many to be the most significant contributions to the literature. Among her works are: Reclans de Savoué ("Echos from Savoy", 1879), Lo cent ditons de Pierre d'Emo ("One Hundred Sayings by Pierre du Bon-Sens", 1879), Poesies ("Poems", 1880), Vieilles gens et vieilles choses: Histoires de ma rue et de mon village ("Old people and old things: Stories from my street and from my village", 1889), Fables (1898), and Contio de la Bova ("Tales from the Cowshed").
The writings of Jean-Baptiste Cerlogne (1826–1910), abbot
, are credited with reestablishing the cultural identity of the Aosta Valley. His early poetry includes: L'infan prodeggo (1855), Marenda a Tsesalet (1856) and La bataille di vatse a Vertosan (1858); among his scholarly works are: Petite grammaire du dialecte valdotain (1893), Dictionnaire du dialecte valdôtain (1908) and Le patois valdotain: son origine litéraire et sa graphie (1909). The Concours Cerlogne - an annual event named in his honor - has focused thousands of Italian students on preserving the region's language, literature, and heritage since 1963.
At the end of the 19th century, regional dialects of Franco-Provençal were disappearing due to the expansion of the French language into all walks of life and the emigration of rural people to urban centers. Cultural and regional savant
societies began to collect oral folk tales, proverb
s, and legend
s from native speakers in an effort that continues to today. Numerous works have been published.
Prosper Convert (1852–1934), the bard of Bresse; Louis Mercier (1870–1951), folk singer
and author of more than twelve volumes of prose from Coutouvre near Roanne
; Just Songeon (1880–1940), author, poet, and activist from La Combe, Sillingy near Annecy
; Eugénie Martinet (1896–1983), poet from Aosta
; and Joseph Yerly (1896–1961) of Gruyères
whose complete works were published in Kan la têra tsantè ("When the earth sang"), are well-known for their use of patois in the 20th century.
The first comic book in a Franco-Provençal dialect, Le rebloshon que tyouè! ("The cheese that killed!"), from the Fanfoué des Pnottas series by Félix Meynet, appeared in 2000. Two popular works from The Adventures of Tintin
and one from the Lucky Luke
series were published in Franco-Provençal translations for young readers in 2006 and 2007.
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
: ; ; ) is a Romance language
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
with several distinct dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s that form a linguistic sub-group separate from Langue d'Oïl and Langue d'Oc. The name Franco-Provençal was given to the language by G.I. Ascoli
Graziadio Isaia Ascoli
Graziadio Isaia Ascoli was an Italian linguist.- Life and work :Ascoli was born in an Italian-speaking Jewish family in the multiethnic town of Gorizia, then part of the Austrian Empire...
in the 19th century because it shared features with French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and Provençal without belonging to either. The neologism Arpitan is becoming a popular name for the language and the people who speak it.
Today, the largest number of Franco-Provençal speakers reside in the Aosta Valley, an autonomous region
Autonomous area
An autonomous area or autonomous entity is an area of a country that has a degree of autonomy, or freedom from an external authority. Typically it is either geographically distinct from the rest of the country or populated by a national minority. Countries that include autonomous areas are often...
of Italy. The language is also spoken in alpine valleys in the province of Turin
Province of Turin
The Province of Turin is a province in the Piedmont region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Turin.It has an area of 6,830 km², and a total population of 2,277,686 . There are 315 comuni in the province – the most of any province in Italy...
, two isolated towns in Foggia
Province of Foggia
The Province of Foggia is a province in the Apulia region of Italy.This province is also known as Capitanata, originally Catapanata, because during the Middle Ages it was governed by a catapan, as part of the Catapanate of Italy...
, and rural areas of the Romandy region of Switzerland. It constitutes one of the Gallo-Romance languages
Gallo-Romance languages
The Gallo-Romance branch of Romance languages include French and the other langue d'oïl dialects, Occitan , Catalan, Franco-Provençal, Gallo-Italic, and other languages - Other possible classifications :...
of France and is classified as a regional language of France, though its use is marginal. Organizations are attempting to preserve it through cultural events, education, scholarly research, and publishing.
The number of speakers of Franco-Provençal has been declining significantly. According to UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
(1995), Franco-Provençal is a "potentially endangered language" in Italy and an "endangered language
Endangered language
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use. If it loses all its native speakers, it becomes a dead language. If eventually no one speaks the language at all it becomes an "extinct language"....
" in Switzerland and France.
History
Franco-Provençal emerged from a Gallo-RomanGallo-Roman culture
The term Gallo-Roman describes the Romanized culture of Gaul under the rule of the Roman Empire. This was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman mores and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context...
variety of Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
. The linguistic region comprises east-central France, western portions of Switzerland, and the Aosta Valley of Italy with the adjacent alpine valleys of the Piedmont
Piedmont
Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
. This area covers territories once occupied by pre-Roman Celt
Celt
The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
ic peoples, including the Allobroges
Allobroges
The Allobroges were a Celtic tribe of ancient Gaul, located between the Rhône River and the Lake of Geneva in what later became Savoy, Dauphiné, and Vivarais. Their cities were in the areas of modern-day Annecy, Chambéry and Grenoble, the modern of Isère, and modern Switzerland...
, Sequani
Sequani
Sequani, in ancient geography, were a Gallic people who occupied the upper river basin of the Arar , the valley of the Doubs and the Jura Mountains, their territory corresponding to Franche-Comté and part of Burgundy.-Etymology:...
, Helvetii
Helvetii
The Helvetii were a Celtic tribe or tribal confederation occupying most of the Swiss plateau at the time of their contact with the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC...
, Ceutrones, and Salassi
Salassi
The Salassi were an Alpine tribe whose lands lay on the Italian side of the Little St Bernard Pass across the Graian Alps to Lyons, and the Great St Bernard Pass over the Pennine Alps...
. By the 5th century, the region was controlled by Burgundian
Burgundians
The Burgundians were an East Germanic tribe which may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose old form in Old Norse still was Burgundarholmr , and from there to mainland Europe...
tribes.
Early manuscripts reveal that Franco-Provençal has existed at least since the 12th century, possibly diverging from Langue d'Oïl as early as the 8th or 9th centuries (Bec, 1971). One writer has detected the influence of Basque
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
by analyzing "fossil words" ("mots fossiles") from toponyms and the dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
in the Aosta Valley. However, Franco-Provençal adhered conservatively to Latin linguistic conventions as it developed, primarily remaining a spoken language. The modern speech of its speakers continues to reflect medieval terms for many nouns and verbs, including: pâta for "rag", bayâ for "to give", moussâ for "to lie down", etc. Désormaux, writing on this subject in the foreword of his Savoyard
Savoyard
Savoyard is a Romance language group with several distinct varieties that form a linguistic subgroup from the Arpitan language family. It is spoken in some territories of the historical Duchy of Savoy, nowadays a geographic area spanning France , Switzerland , and Italy...
dictionary states:
Franco-Provençal never achieved the greatness of its three larger neighbors: French, Occitan, and Italian. Communities where speakers lived were generally mountainous and isolated from one another. The internal boundaries of the entire linguistic domain were shattered by wars and religious conflicts. France, Switzerland, the Franche-Comté
Franche-Comté
Franche-Comté the former "Free County" of Burgundy, as distinct from the neighbouring Duchy, is an administrative region and a traditional province of eastern France...
(protected by Habsburg Spain
Habsburg Spain
Habsburg Spain refers to the history of Spain over the 16th and 17th centuries , when Spain was ruled by the major branch of the Habsburg dynasty...
), and the duchy — later kingdom — ruled by the House of Savoy
House of Savoy
The House of Savoy was formed in the early 11th century in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small county in that region to eventually rule the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 until the end of World War II, king of Croatia and King of Armenia...
politically divided the region. The strongest possibility for any dialect of Franco-Provençal to establish itself as a major language died when an edict
Edict
An edict is an announcement of a law, often associated with monarchism. The Pope and various micronational leaders are currently the only persons who still issue edicts.-Notable edicts:...
, dated 6 January 1539, was confirmed in the parliament of the Duchy of Savoy
Duchy of Savoy
From 1416 to 1847, the House of Savoy ruled the eponymous Duchy of Savoy . The Duchy was a state in the northern part of the Italian Peninsula, with some territories that are now in France. It was a continuation of the County of Savoy...
on 4 March 1540. The edict explicitly replaced Latin (and by implication, any other language) with French as the language of civil law and the judiciary (Grillet, 1807, p. 65).
Franco-Provençal dialects were widely spoken in their domain until the 20th century. As French political power expanded, and communication and transportation improved, speakers abandoned their language, which had numerous spoken variations and no standard orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
, in favor of so-called "educated" French.
Present status
Several events have combined to stabilize the language in the Aosta Valley since 1948. An amendment to the constitution of Italy changed the status of the former province to an autonomous region which gives the Aosta Valley special powers to make its own decisions. Residents saw the region's economy expand and the population increase from 1951 to 1991, encouraging them to stay and continue long-held traditions. The language is now explicitly protected by an Italian presidential decree and a federal law. Further, a regional law passed by the government in Aosta requires educators to promote knowledge of Franco-Provençal language and culture in the school curriculum. Several cultural groups, libraries, and theater companies are fostering a sense of ethnic pride with their active use of the Valdôtain dialect as well (EUROPA, 2005).Paradoxically, the same federal laws do not grant the language the same protection in the Province of Turin
Province of Turin
The Province of Turin is a province in the Piedmont region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Turin.It has an area of 6,830 km², and a total population of 2,277,686 . There are 315 comuni in the province – the most of any province in Italy...
because Franco-Provençal speakers make up less than 15% of the population. Lack of jobs has caused migration out of the Piedmont's alpine valleys, abetting the language's decline.
Switzerland does not recognize Franco-Provençal (Romand) as one of its official languages. (Romand should not be confused with Romansh.) Speakers live in western cantons
Cantons of Switzerland
The 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...
where Swiss French
Swiss French
Swiss French is the name used for the variety of French spoken in the French-speaking area of Switzerland known as Romandy. Swiss French is not to be confused with Franco-Provençal/Arpitan or Romansh, two other individual Romance languages spoken in areas not far from Romandy.The differences...
predominates and converse in dialects mainly as a second language. Currently, its use in agrarian daily life is rapidly disappearing. However, in a few isolated places the decline is considerably less steep. This is most notably the case for Evolène
Evolène
Evolène is a municipality in the district of Hérens in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.-History:Evolène is first mentioned in 1250 as Ewelina. In 1444 it was mentioned as in loco de Evolena.- Avalanches of the 21st of February, 1999 :...
.
Franco-Provençal has had a precipitous decline in France. The official language of the French Republic is French (article 2 of the Constitution of France
Constitution of France
The current Constitution of France was adopted on 4 October 1958. It is typically called the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, and replaced that of the Fourth Republic dating from 1946. Charles de Gaulle was the main driving force in introducing the new constitution and inaugurating the Fifth...
). The French government officially recognizes Franco-Provençal as one of the "Languages of France" but it is constitutionally barred from ratifying the 1992 European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is a European treaty adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe...
(ECRML) that would guarantee it certain rights. Thus, Franco-Provençal has almost no political support. It also carries a generally low social status. This situation affects most regional languages that comprise the linguistic wealth of France. Speakers of regional languages are aging and mostly rural.
Classification
The philologicalPhilology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
classification for Franco-Provençal published by the Linguasphere Observatory
Linguasphere Observatory
The Linguasphere Observatory is a transnational linguistic research network...
(Dalby, 1999/2000, p. 402) follows:
- Indo-European phylosector > Romanic phylozone > Italiano+Româneasca (Romance) set > Italiano+Româneasca chain > Romance-West net > Lyonnais+Valdôtain (Franco-Provençal) reference name.
- Note: The Linguasphere language code for Franco-Provençal is: 51-AAA-j
A philological classification for Franco-Provençal published by Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
(Ruhlen ,1987, pp. 325–326) also follows:
- Indo-Hittite > Indo-European > Italic > Latino-Faliscan > Romance > Continental > Western > Gallo-Iberian-Romance > Gallo-Romance > North > Franco-Provençal.
Origin of the name
Franco-Provençal is an extremely fragmented language with scores of highly peculiar local variations that never merged together over time. The range of dialect diversity is far greater than that found in the Langue d’Oïl and Occitan regions. Comprehension of one dialect by speakers of another is often difficult. Nowhere is it spoken in a "pure form," nor is there a "standard reference language" that the modern generic label used to identify the language may indicate. This explains why speakers use local terms to name it, such as Bressan, Forèzien, or Valdôtain, or simply patouès ("patois"). It has only been in recent years that speakers, who are not specialists in linguistics, have become conscious of the language’s collective identity.Graziadio Isaia Ascoli
Graziadio Isaia Ascoli was an Italian linguist.- Life and work :Ascoli was born in an Italian-speaking Jewish family in the multiethnic town of Gorizia, then part of the Austrian Empire...
(1829–1907), a pioneering linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, analyzed the unique phonetic and structural characteristics of numerous spoken dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s. In an article written about 1873 and published later, he offered a solution to existing disagreements about dialect frontiers and proposed a new linguistic region. He placed it between the Langues d'oïl
Langues d'oïl
The langues d'oïl or langues d'oui , in English the Oïl or Oui languages, are a dialect continuum that includes standard French and its closest autochthonous relatives spoken today in the northern half of France, southern Belgium, and the Channel Islands...
group of languages, whence came the appellation Franco, and the Langues d'oc group, whence came the appellation Provençal, and gave Franco-Provençal its name.
Ascoli (1878, p. 61) described the language in these terms in his defining essay on the subject:
University of Neuchâtel
The University of Neuchâtel is a French-speaking university in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The University has five faculties and more than a dozen institutes, including arts and human sciences, natural sciences, law, economics and theology. The Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences is the largest...
in 1969 however, most English journals continue to use the traditional spelling.
The name Romand has been in use regionally in Switzerland at least since 1494, when notaries in Fribourg
Fribourg
Fribourg is the capital of the Swiss canton of Fribourg and the district of Sarine. It is located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss plateau, and is an important economic, administrative and educational center on the cultural border between German and French Switzerland...
were directed to write their minutes in both German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
and Rommant. It continues to appear in the names of many Swiss cultural organizations today. The term "Romand" is also used by some professional linguists who feel that the compound word "Franco-Provençal" is "inappropriate".
A proposal in the 1960s to call the language Burgundian (French: "burgondien") did not take hold because of confusion with historical, political, and geographic regions of the same name (Meune, 2007).
Some contemporary speakers and writers prefer the name Arpitan because it underscores the independence of the language and does not imply a union to any other established linguistic group. "Arpitan" is derived from an indigenous word meaning "alpine" ("mountain highlands"). It was popularized in the 1980s by Mouvement Harpitanya, a political organization in the Aosta Valley. In 1990s, the term lost its particular political context. The Aliance Culturèla Arpitana (Arpitan Cultural Alliance) is currently advancing the cause for the name "Arpitan" through the Internet, publishing efforts, and other activities. The organization was founded in 2004 by Stéphanie Lathion and Alban Lavy in Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
, Switzerland, and is now based in Fribourg.
The language is called patouès (patois) or nosta moda ("our way [of speaking]") by native speakers. Some Savoyard speakers call their language sarde. This is a colloquial term, used because their ancestors were subjects of the Kingdom of Sardinia
Kingdom of Sardinia
The Kingdom of Sardinia consisted of the island of Sardinia first as a part of the Crown of Aragon and subsequently the Spanish Empire , and second as a part of the composite state of the House of Savoy . Its capital was originally Cagliari, in the south of the island, and later Turin, on the...
ruled by the House of Savoy
House of Savoy
The House of Savoy was formed in the early 11th century in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, it grew from ruling a small county in that region to eventually rule the Kingdom of Italy from 1861 until the end of World War II, king of Croatia and King of Armenia...
. (Savoie
Savoie
Savoie is a French department located in the Rhône-Alpes region in the French Alps.Together with the Haute-Savoie, Savoie is one of the two departments of the historic region of Savoy that was annexed by France on June 14, 1860, following the signature of the Treaty of Turin on March 24, 1860...
and Haute-Savoie
Haute-Savoie
Haute-Savoie is a French department in the Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. It borders both Switzerland and Italy. The capital is Annecy. To the north is Lake Geneva and Switzerland; to the south and southeast are the Mont Blanc and Aravis mountain ranges and the French entrance to the Mont...
were annexed by France in 1860.) The language is called gaga in the Forez
Forez
Forez is a former province of France, corresponding approximately to the central part of the modern Loire département and a part of the Haute-Loire and Puy-de-Dôme départements....
region of France, and appears in the titles of dictionaries and other regional publications. Gaga (and the adjective gagasse) comes from a local name for the residents of Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne is a city in eastern central France. It is located in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Rhône-Alpes region, along the trunk road that connects Toulouse with Lyon...
, popularized by Auguste Callet’s story "La légende des Gagats" published in 1866.
Geographic distribution
Italy
- the Aosta Valley (place name in Franco-Provençal: Val d'Outa; in Italian: Valle d'Aosta; in French: Vallée d'Aoste), with the exception of the WalserWalserThe Walser are German-speaking people who live in the Alps of Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein and Austria. The Walser people are named after the Wallis , the uppermost Rhône River valley...
valley in Gressoney-Saint-JeanGressoney-Saint-JeanGressoney-Saint-Jean is a town and comune in the Aosta Valley region of north-western Italy.- Points of interest :* Giardino Botanico Alpino "Castel Savoia", an alpine botanical garden...
, Gressoney-La-TrinitéGressoney-La-TrinitéGressoney-La-Trinité is a town and comune in the Aosta Valley region of north-western Italy.-Geography:...
and IssimeIssimeIssime is a town and comune in the Aosta Valley region of north-western Italy. About a third of its population speak Walser German....
(Lys valleyLys (torrente)The Lys is a small 40 km river which flows from the Lys glacier on the Monte Rosa massif, at the foot of Vincent-Pyramide , and runs through the Lys Valley, flanked by a road, before converging with the Dora Baltea as a right tributary at Pont-Saint-Martin.Its left-side tributaries are Avant-Cir,...
). - the alpine heights of the Province of TurinProvince of TurinThe Province of Turin is a province in the Piedmont region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Turin.It has an area of 6,830 km², and a total population of 2,277,686 . There are 315 comuni in the province – the most of any province in Italy...
in the PiedmontPiedmontPiedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
basin which includes the following 43 communities: Ala di Stura, Alpette, Balme, Cantoira (Cantoire), Carema (Carême), Castagnole Piemonte, Ceres, Ceresole Reale (Cérisoles), Chialamberto (Chalambert), Chianocco (Chanoux), Coassolo, Coazze (Couasse), Condove (Condoue), Corio (Corio), Frassinetto, Germagnano (Saint-Germain), Giaglione (Jaillons), Giaveno, Gravere (Gravière), Groscavallo (Groscaval), Ingria, Lanzo Torinese (Lans), Lemie, Locana, Mattie, Meana di Susa (Méan), Mezzenile (Mesnil), Monastero di Lanzo (Moutier), Noasca, Novalesa (Novalaise), Pessinetto, Pont Canavese, Ribordone (Ribardon), Ronco Canavese (Ronc), Rubiana (Rubiane), Sparone (Esparon), Susa (Suse), Traves, Usseglio (Ussel), Valgioie (Valjoie), Valprato Soana (Valpré), Vénaus (Vénaux), Viù (Vieu).
- Note: The southernmost valleys of Piedmont speak Occitan.
- two enclaves in the Province of FoggiaProvince of FoggiaThe Province of Foggia is a province in the Apulia region of Italy.This province is also known as Capitanata, originally Catapanata, because during the Middle Ages it was governed by a catapan, as part of the Catapanate of Italy...
, ApuliaApuliaApulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...
(Puglia) region in the southern Apennine MountainsApennine mountainsThe Apennines or Apennine Mountains or Greek oros but just as often used alone as a noun. The ancient Greeks and Romans typically but not always used "mountain" in the singular to mean one or a range; thus, "the Apennine mountain" refers to the entire chain and is translated "the Apennine...
: the villages of FaetoFaetoFaeto is a town and comune in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region of southeast Italy.Residents of this comune and the neighboring one of Celle di San Vito are speakers of the Franco-Provençal language, otherwise found in northern Italy, France and Switzerland....
and Celle di San VitoCelle di San VitoCelle di San Vito is a town and comune in the province of Foggia of the Apulia region in central southeast Italy.Residents of Celle and the neighboring village of Faeto speak a rare dialect of the Arpitan language called Faetar, which has fewer than 1,400 known speakers.-External links:* Celle di...
.
France
- the major part of Rhône-AlpesRhône-AlpesRhône-Alpes is one of the 27 regions of France, located on the eastern border of the country, towards the south. The region was named after the Rhône River and the Alps mountain range. Its capital, Lyon, is the second-largest metropolitan area in France after Paris...
and Franche-ComtéFranche-ComtéFranche-Comté the former "Free County" of Burgundy, as distinct from the neighbouring Duchy, is an administrative region and a traditional province of eastern France...
regions, which includes the following départements: Jura (southern two-thirds), DoubsDoubsDoubs is a department the Franche-Comté region of eastern France named after the Doubs River.-History:As early as the 13th century, inhabitants of the northern two-thirds of Doubs spoke the Franc-Comtois language, a dialect of Langue d'Oïl. Residents of the southern third of Doubs spoke a dialect...
(southern third), Haute-SavoieHaute-SavoieHaute-Savoie is a French department in the Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. It borders both Switzerland and Italy. The capital is Annecy. To the north is Lake Geneva and Switzerland; to the south and southeast are the Mont Blanc and Aravis mountain ranges and the French entrance to the Mont...
, SavoieSavoieSavoie is a French department located in the Rhône-Alpes region in the French Alps.Together with the Haute-Savoie, Savoie is one of the two departments of the historic region of Savoy that was annexed by France on June 14, 1860, following the signature of the Treaty of Turin on March 24, 1860...
, IsèreIsèreIsère is a department in the Rhône-Alpes region in the east of France named after the river Isère.- History :Isère is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Dauphiné...
(except the southern edge), RhôneRhône (département)Rhône is a French department located in the central Eastern region of Rhône-Alpes. It is named after the Rhône River.- History :The Rhône department was created on August 12, 1793 when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire was split into two departments: Rhône and Loire.Originally, the eastern...
, DrômeDrômeDrôme , a department in southeastern France, takes its name from the Drôme River.-History:The French National Constituent Assembly set up Drôme as one of the original 83 departments of France on March 4, 1790, during the French Revolution...
(extreme north), ArdècheArdècheArdèche is a department in south-central France named after the Ardèche River.- History :The area has been inhabited by humans at least since the Upper Paleolithic, as attested by the famous cave paintings at Chauvet Pont d'Arc. The plateau of the Ardeche River has extensive standing stones ,...
(extreme north), LoireLoireLoire is an administrative department in the east-central part of France occupying the River Loire's upper reaches.-History:Loire was created in 1793 when after just 3½ years the young Rhône-et-Loire department was split into two. This was a response to counter-Revolutionary activities in Lyon...
, AinAinAin is a department named after the Ain River on the eastern edge of France. Being part of the region Rhône-Alpes and bordered by the rivers Saône and Rhône, the department of Ain enjoys a privileged geographic situation...
, and Saône-et-LoireSaône-et-LoireSaône-et-Loire is a French department, named after the Saône and the Loire rivers between which it lies.-History:When it was formed during the French Revolution, as of March 4, 1790 in fulfillment of the law of December 22, 1789, the new department combined parts of the provinces of southern...
(southern edge).
Switzerland
- most of Romandy (Suisse-Romande) area including the following cantonsCantons of SwitzerlandThe 26 cantons of Switzerland are the member states of the federal state of Switzerland. Each canton was a fully sovereign state with its own borders, army and currency from the Treaty of Westphalia until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848...
: GenevaCanton of GenevaThe Republic and Canton of Geneva is the French speaking westernmost canton or state of Switzerland, surrounded on almost all sides by France. As is the case in several other Swiss cantons The Republic and Canton of Geneva is the French speaking westernmost canton or state of Switzerland,...
(Genève/Genf), VaudVaudVaud is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and is located in Romandy, the French-speaking southwestern part of the country. The capital is Lausanne. The name of the Canton in Switzerland's other languages are Vaud in Italian , Waadt in German , and Vad in Romansh.-History:Along the lakes,...
, the lower part of ValaisValaisThe Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
(Wallis), FribourgCanton of FribourgThe Canton of Fribourg is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the west of the country. The capital of the canton is Fribourg. The name Fribourg is French, whereas is the German name for both the canton and the town.-History:...
(Freiburg), and NeuchâtelCanton of NeuchâtelNeuchâtel is a canton of French speaking western Switzerland. In 2007, its population was 169,782 of which 39,654 were foreigners. The capital is Neuchâtel.-History:...
. Note: JuraCanton of JuraThe Republic and Canton of the Jura , also known as the Canton of Jura or Canton Jura, is one of the cantons of Switzerland. It is the newest of the 26 Swiss cantons, located in the northwestern part of Switzerland. The capital is Delémont...
, and the northern valleys of the non-German-speaking parts of BerneCanton of BerneThe Canton of Bern is the second largest of the 26 Swiss cantons by both surface area and population. Located in west-central Switzerland, it borders the Canton of Jura and the Canton of Solothurn to the north. To the west lie the Canton of Neuchâtel, the Canton of Fribourg and Vaud. To the south...
linguistically belong to the Langue d'Oïl.
Number of speakers
The Franco-Provençal dialect with the greatest population of active daily speakers is ValdôtainValdôtain
The Valdôtain, or Valdotans, are an ethnic group that lives in the far northwest Aosta Valley Autonomous Region of Italy. They speak several dialects of the Franco-Provençal language ....
. Approximately 68,000 people speak the language in the Aosta Valley region of Italy according to reports conducted after the 1981 census. The alpine valleys of the adjacent province of Turin have an estimated 22,000 speakers. The Faetar and Cigliàje dialect is spoken by just 1,400 speakers who live in an isolated pocket of the province of Foggia in the southern Italian Apulia region (figures for Italy: EUROPA, 2005).
Contrary to this official information reported by the European Commission, a poll by the Fondation Émile Chanoux in 2001 revealed that only 15% of all Aosta Valley residents claimed Franco-Provençal as their mother tongue. This is a substantial reduction to the figures reported on the Italian census 20 years earlier that was used in the commission report. Only 7% of the inhabitants (approximately 8,200 people) claimed to be able to speak any dialect. A report published by Laval University
Université Laval
Laval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...
in Quebec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, which analyzed this data, reports that it is "probable" that the language will be "on the road to extinction" in this region in ten years. Note: The most recent edition of ethnologue.com (Lewis, 2009) reports that there are 70,000 Franco-Provençal speakers in Italy. However, these figures are derived from the 1971 census.
In rural areas of the cantons of Valais and Fribourg in Switzerland, various dialects are spoken as a second language by about 7,000 residents (figures for Switzerland: Lewis, 2009). In the other cantons of Romandy where Franco-Provençal dialects used to be spoken, they are now all but extinct.
Until the mid-19th century, Franco-Provençal dialects were the most widely spoken language in their domain in France. Today, regional vernaculars are limited to a small number of speakers in secluded towns. A 2002 report by the INED (Institut national d’études démographiques) states that the language loss by generation, that is, “the proportion of fathers who did not usually speak to their 5-year-old children in the language that their own father usually spoke in to them at the same age” was 90%. This was a greater loss than any language in France, a loss called "critical." The report estimated that fewer than 15,000 speakers in France were handing down some knowledge of Franco-Provençal to their children (figures for France: Héran, Filhon, & Deprez, 2002; figure 1, 1-C, p. 2.)
Linguistic structure
Note: The overview in this section follows Martin (2005), with all Franco-Provençal examples written in accordance with Orthographe de référence B (see "Orthography" section, below).Typology and syntax
- Franco-Provençal is a synthetic languageSynthetic languageIn linguistic typology, a synthetic language is a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio, as opposed to a low morpheme-per-word ratio in what is described as an isolating language...
, as are Occitan and Italian. Most verbs have different endings for person, number, and tenses, making the use of the pronoun unnecessary; thus, two grammatical functions are bound together. However, the second person singular verb form regularly requires an appropriate pronoun for distinction. - The standard word order for Franco-Provençal is subject–verb–object (SVO) form in a declarative sentenceSentence (linguistics)In the field of linguistics, a sentence is an expression in natural language, and often defined to indicate a grammatical unit consisting of one or more words that generally bear minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it...
, for example: Vos côsâds anglès. (You speak English.), except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is subject–object–verb (SOV). verb–subject–object (VSO) form is standard word order for an interrogative sentence, for example: Côsâds-vos anglès ? (Do you speak English?)
Morphology
Franco-Provençal has grammarGrammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
similar to that of other Romance languages.
- ArticlesArticle (grammar)An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
have three forms: definite, indefinite, and partitive. Plural definite articles agreeAgreement (linguistics)In languages, agreement or concord is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. Agreement happens when a word changes form depending on the other words to which it relates....
in gender with the noun to which they refer, unlike French. Partitive articles are used with mass nounMass nounIn linguistics, a mass noun is a noun that refers to some entity as an undifferentiated unit rather than as something with discrete subsets. Non-count nouns are best identified by their syntactic properties, and especially in contrast with count nouns. The semantics of mass nouns are highly...
s.
| Articles: | Masculine Definite | Feminine Definite | Masculine Indefinite | Feminine Indefinite |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | lo | la | on | na |
| Plural | los | les | des / de | des / de |
- Articles precede women’s given nameGiven nameA given name, in Western contexts often referred to as a first name, is a personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name...
s during conversationConversationConversation is a form of interactive, spontaneous communication between two or more people who are following rules of etiquette.Conversation analysis is a branch of sociology which studies the structure and organization of human interaction, with a more specific focus on conversational...
: la Foëse (Françoise/Frances), la Mya (Marie), la Jeânna (Jeanne/Jane), la Peronne (Pierrette), la Mauriza (Mauricette/Maurisa), la Daude (Claude/Claudia), la Génie (Eugénie/Eugenia); however, articles never precede men’s names: Fanfoué (François), Dian (Jean/John), Guste (Auguste), Zèbe (Eusèbe/Eusebius), Ouiss (Louis), Mile (Émile).
- NounNounIn linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s are inflectedInflectionIn grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
by number and gender. Inflection by grammatical numberGrammatical numberIn linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
(singular and plural) is clearly distinguished in feminine nouns, but not masculine nouns, where pronunciation is generally identical for those words ending with a vowel.
- To assist comprehension of written words, modern orthographers of the language have added an “s” to most plural nouns that is not reflected in speech. For example:
- codo (masculine singular): [ˈkodo] [ˈkodu] [ˈkodə],
- codos (masculine plural): [ˈkodo] [ˈkodu] [ˈkodə].
- pôrta (feminine singular): [ˈpɔrtɑ] [ˈpurtɑ],
- pôrtas (feminine plural): [ˈpɔrte] [ˈpurte] [ˈpɔrtɛ] [ˈpurtɛ] [ˈpɔrtɑ] [ˈpurtɑ]. (Note: In Italy, pôrte is occasionally seen.)
- In general, inflection by grammatical genderGrammatical genderGrammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
(masculine and feminine) is the same as for French nouns, however, there are many exceptions. A few examples follow:
| Franco-Provençal | French | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| la sal (fem.) | le sel (masc.) | the salt | |
| l'ôvra (fem.), la besogne (fem.) | le travail (masc.) | the work | |
| l'ongla (fem.) | l'ongle (masc.) | the fingernail | |
| l'ôlyo (masc.) | l'huile (fem.) | the oil | |
| lo crotâl (masc.), lo vipèro (masc.) | la vipère (fem.) | the viper | |
- Subject pronounsPronounIn linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
agree in person, number, gender, and case. Although the subject pronoun is usually retained in speech, Franco-Provençal - unlike French or English - is a partially pro-drop languagePro-drop languageA pro-drop language is a language in which certain classes of pronouns may be omitted when they are in some sense pragmatically inferable...
(null subject languageNull subject languageIn linguistic typology, a null-subject language is a language whose grammar permits an independent clause to lack an explicit subject. Such a clause is then said to have a null subject. Typically, null subject languages express person, number, and/or gender agreement with the referent on the verb,...
), especially in first-person singular. Masculine and feminine third-person singular pronouns are notable for the extremely wide variation in pronunciation from region to region. Impersonal subjects, such as weather and time, take the neuter pronoun "o" (and/or "el", a regional variant used before a word beginning with a vowel), which is analogous to "it" in English. - Direct and indirect object pronounsObject (grammar)An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
also agree in person, number, gender, and case. However, unlike subject pronouns, third person singular and plural have neuter forms, in addition to masculine and feminine forms. - Possessive pronounPossessive pronounA possessive pronoun is a part of speech that substitutes for a noun phrase that begins with a possessive determiner . For example, in the sentence These glasses are mine, not yours, the words mine and yours are possessive pronouns and stand for my glasses and your glasses, respectively...
s and possessive adjectivePossessive adjectivePossessive adjectives, also known as possessive determiners, are a part of speech that modifies a noun by attributing possession to someone or something...
s agree in person, number, gender, and case. (Masculine singular and plural forms are noteworthy because of their extremely wide variation in pronunciation from area to area.) - Relative pronounRelative pronounA relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause within a larger sentence. It is called a relative pronoun because it relates the relative clause to the noun that it modifies. In English, the relative pronouns are: who, whom, whose, whosever, whosesoever, which, and, in some...
s have one invariable form. - AdjectiveAdjectiveIn grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify. - AdverbAdverbAn adverb is a part of speech that modifies verbs or any part of speech other than a noun . Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentences, and other adverbs....
s are invariable; that is, they are not inflected, unlike nouns, verbs, and adjectives. - VerbVerbA verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
s form three grammatical conjugation classes, each of which are further split into two subclasses. Each conjugationGrammatical conjugationIn linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
is different, formed by isolating the verbVerbA verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
stem and adding an ending determined by mood, tense, voice, and number. Verbs are inflected in four moods: (indicative, imperativeImperative moodThe imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
, subjunctiveSubjunctive moodIn grammar, the subjunctive mood is a verb mood typically used in subordinate clauses to express various states of irreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred....
, and conditionalConditionalConditional may refer to:*Causal conditional, if X then Y, where X is a cause of Y*Conditional mood , a verb form in many languages*Conditional probability, the probability of an event A given that another event B has occurred...
), and two impersonal moods: (infinitiveInfinitiveIn grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
and participleParticipleIn linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...
), which includes verbal adjectives.
-
- Verbs in Group 1a end in -ar (côsar, "to speak"; chantar, "to sing"); Group 1b end in -ier (mengier, "to eat"); Groups 2a & 2b end in -ir (finir, "to finish"; venir, "to come"), Group 3a end in -êr (dêvêr, "to owe"), and Group 3b end in -re (vendre, "to sell").
- Auxiliary verbs are: avêr (to have) and étre (to be).
Phonology
- The placement of stressed syllableSyllableA syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
s in the spoken language is a primary characteristic of Franco-Provençal that distinguishes it from French and Occitan. Franco-Provençal words take stress on the last syllable, as in French, or on the penultimate syllable, unlike French. - Franco-Provençal also preserves final vowel sounds, in particular "a" in feminine forms and "o" in masculine forms (where it is pronounced "ou" in some regions.) The word portar is pronounced [pɔrˈtɑ] or [pɔrˈto], with accent on the final "a" or "o", but rousa is pronounced [ˈruːzɑ], with accent on the "ou".
- VowelVowelIn phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s followed by nasal consonantNasal consonantA nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
s "m" and "n" are normally nasalized in a similar manner to those in French, for example, chantar and vin in Franco-Provençal, and "chanter" and "vin" in French. However, in the largest part of the Franco-Provençal domain, nasalized vowelsNasal vowelA nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation...
retain a timbre that more closely approaches the un-nasalized vowel sound than in French, for example, pan [pɑ̃] and vent [vɛ̃] in Franco-Provençal, compared to "pain" [pɛ̃] and "vent" [vɑ̃] in French.
Orthography
Franco-Provençal does not have a standard orthographyOrthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
. Most proposals use the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
and four diacritic
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
s: the acute accent
Acute accent
The acute accent is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts.-Apex:An early precursor of the acute accent was the apex, used in Latin inscriptions to mark long vowels.-Greek:...
, grave accent
Grave accent
The grave accent is a diacritical mark used in written Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Dutch, French, Greek , Italian, Mohawk, Norwegian, Occitan, Portuguese, Scottish Gaelic, Vietnamese, Welsh, Romansh, and other languages.-Greek:The grave accent was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient...
, circumflex
Circumflex
The circumflex is a diacritic used in the written forms of many languages, and is also commonly used in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from Latin circumflexus —a translation of the Greek περισπωμένη...
, and diaeresis (trema). (The cedilla
Cedilla
A cedilla , also known as cedilha or cédille, is a hook added under certain letters as a diacritical mark to modify their pronunciation.-Origin:...
and the ligature ⟨œ
Œ
Œ œŒ is a Latin alphabet grapheme, a ligature of o and e. In medieval and early modern Latin, it was used to represent the Greek diphthong οι, a usage which continues in English and French...
⟩ found in French are omitted.)
- Aimé Chenal and Raymond Vautherin wrote the first comprehensive grammar and dictionary for any variety of Franco-Provençal. Their landmark effort greatly expands upon the work by Jean-Baptiste Cerlogne begun in the 19th century on the ValdôtainValdôtainThe Valdôtain, or Valdotans, are an ethnic group that lives in the far northwest Aosta Valley Autonomous Region of Italy. They speak several dialects of the Franco-Provençal language ....
(Valdotèn) dialect of the Aosta Valley. It was published in twelve volumes from 1967 to 1982. - The Regional Bureau of Ethnology and Linguistics (BREL) and the René Willien Center for Franco-Provençal Studies, both of Aosta, Italy, have created a similar orthography that is actively promoted by their organizations. It is also based on work by Cerlogne, with several modifications.
- An orthographic method called La Graphie de Conflans has achieved fairly wide acceptance among speakers residing in Bresse and Savoy. Since it was first proposed by the Groupe de Conflans of Albertville, France in 1983, it has appeared in many published works. This method perhaps most closely follows the International Phonetic AlphabetInternational Phonetic AlphabetThe International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
, omitting extraneous letters found in other historical and contemporary proposals. It features the use of a combining low line (underscore) as a diacritic to indicate a stressed vowel in the penult when it occurs, for example: toma, déssanta. - A recent standard entitled Orthographe de référence B (ORB) was proposed by linguist Dominique Stich with his dictionary published by Editions Le Carré in 2003. (This is an emendation of his previous work published by Editions l'Harmattan in 1998.) His standard strays from close representation of Franco-Provençal phonology in favor of following French orthographic conventions, with silent letters and clear vestiges of Latin roots. However, it attempts to unify several written forms and is easiest for French speakers to read. — Note: Stich's dictionary for ORB is noteworthy because it includes neologisms by Xavier Gouvert for things found in modern life, such as: encafâblo for "cell phone" (from encafar, "to put into a pocket"), pignochière for "fast-food" (from pignochiér, "to nibble"), panètes for "corn flakes" (from panet, "maize, corn"), and mâchelyon for "chewing gum".
The table below compares a few words in each writing system, with French and English for reference. (Sources: Esprit Valdôtain (download 7 March 2007), C.C.S. Conflans (1995), and Stich (2003).
| IPA | Chenal | BREL | Conflans | ORB | French | English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /kɑ̃/ | quan | can | kan | quand | quand | when | |
| /ˈtʃikɑ/ | tsëca | tchica | tchika | chica | un peu | a little | |
| /tsɑ̃/ | tsan | tsan | tsan | champ | champ | field | |
| /djwa/ | dzoà | djouà | djoua | giuè | jeu | game | |
| /ˈtʃøvrɑ/ | tseuvra | tcheuvra | tseûvra | chèvra | chèvre | goat | |
| /ˈfɔʎə/ | foille | foille | fòye | fôlye | feuille | leaf | |
| /ˈføʎə/ | faille | feuille | feûye | filye | fille | daughter | |
| /fɔ̃ˈtɑ̃.ɑ/ | fontana | fontan-a | fontana | fontana | source | wellspring | |
| /ˈlɑ̃.ɑ/ | lana | lan-a | lana | lana | laine | wool | |
| /siˈlɑ̃sə/ | silence | silanse | silanse | silence | silence | silence | |
| /rəpəˈbløk.ə/ | repeublecca | repebleucca | repebleûke | rèpublica | république | republic | |
Numerals
Franco-Provençal uses a decimalDecimal
The decimal numeral system has ten as its base. It is the numerical base most widely used by modern civilizations....
counting system. The numbers "1", "2", and "4" have masculine and feminine forms (Duplay, 1896; Viret, 2006).
0 ) zérô; 1 ) yon (masc.), yona / yena (fem.); 2 ) dos (masc.), does / doves / davè (fem.); 3 ) três; 4 ) quatro (masc.), quat / quatrè (fem.); 5 ) cinq; 6 ) siéx; 7 ) sèpt; 8 ) huét; 9 ) nô; 10 ) diéx; 11 ) onze; 12 ) doze; 13 ) trèze; 14 ) quatôrze; 15 ) quinze; 16 ) sèze; 17 ) dix-sèpt; 18 ) dix-huét; 19 ) dix-nou; 20 ) vengt; 21 ) vengt-yon / vengt-et-yona; 22 ) vengt-dos ... 30 ) trenta; 40 ) quaranta; 50 ) cinquanta; 60 ) souessanta; 70 ) sèptanta; 80 ) huétanta; 90 ) nonanta; 100 ) cent; 1000 ) mila; 1,000,000 ) on milyon / on milyona.
Many western dialects use a vigesimal
Vigesimal
The vigesimal or base 20 numeral system is based on twenty .- Places :...
(base-20) form for "80," that is, quatro-vingt /katroˈvɛ̃/, possibly due to the influence of French.
Word comparisons
The chart below compares words in Franco-Provençal to those in selected Romance languages, with English for reference.Between vowels, the Latinate "p" became "v", "c" and "g" became "y", and "t" and "d" disappeared. Franco-Provençal also softened the hard palatized
Palatalization
In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
"c" and "g" before "a". This led Franco-Provençal to evolve down a different path from Occitan and Gallo-Iberian languages, closer to the evolutionary direction taken by French.
| Latin | Franco-Provençal | French | Occitan | Catalan | Italian | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| clavis | clâ | clef / clé | clau | clau | chiave | key |
| cantare | chantar | chanter | cantar / chantar | cantar | cantare | to sing |
| capra | cabra / chèvra | chèvre | cabra / chabra | cabra | capra | goat |
| caseus (formaticus) | tôma / fromâjo | fromage | formatge | formatge | formaggio | cheese |
| dies Martis | demârs / demonre | mardi | dimars | dimarts | martedì | Tuesday |
| ecclesia | églésé | église | glèisa | església | chiesa | church |
| fratrem germanum | frâre | frère | fraire | germà | fratello | brother |
| hospitalis | hèpetâl | hôpital | espital / espitau | hospital | ospedale | hospital |
| lingua | lenga | langue | lenga / lengua | llengua | lingua | language |
| manum sinistram | man gôcho | main gauche | man esquèrra / man senèstra | mà esquerra | mano sinistra | left hand |
| nihil | ren | rien | ren / res | res | niente / nulla | nothing |
| nox, noctis | nuet | nuit | nuèch / nuèit | nit | notte | night |
| pacare | payér | payer | pagar / paiar | pagar | pagare | to pay |
| sudor | suar | sueur | susar / suar | suor | sudore | sweat |
| vita | via | vie | vida | vida | vita | life |
Franco-Provençal dialects
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
divisions is challenging. Each canton and valley uses its own vernacular without standardization. Difficult intelligibility among dialects was noted as early as 1807 by Grillet.
The dialects are divided into eight distinct categories or groups. Six dialect groups comprising 41 dialect idioms for the Franco-Provençal language have been identified and documented by Linguasphere Observatory (Observatoire Linguistique)
Linguasphere Observatory
The Linguasphere Observatory is a transnational linguistic research network...
(Dalby, 1999/2000, pp. 402–403). Only two dialect groups – Lyonnaise and Dauphinois-N. – were recorded as having fewer than 1,000 speakers each. Linguasphere has not listed any dialect idiom as "extinct," however, many are highly endangered. A seventh isolated dialect group, Faetar, has been analyzed by Nagy (2000). The Piedmont dialects need further study.
- Dialect Group : Dialect Idiom: (Epicenters / Regional locations)
- Lyonnais: (France)
Bresse
Bresse is a former French province. It is located in the regions of Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne, and Franche-Comté of eastern France. The geographical term Bresse has two meanings: Bresse bourguignonne , which is situated in the east of the department of Saône-et-Loire, and Bresse, which is located...
, Ain (département) west; Revermont, French Jura (département) southwest; Saône-et-Loire east), 2. Bugésien (Bugey
Bugey
The Bugey is a historical region in the département of Ain , France. It is located in a loop of the Rhône River in the southeast of the département...
, Ain southeast), 3. Mâconnais (Mâcon
Mâcon
Mâcon is a small city in central France. It is prefecture of the Saône-et-Loire department, in the region of Bourgogne, and the capital of the Mâconnais district. Mâcon is home to over 35,000 residents, called Mâconnais.-Geography:...
country), 4. Lyonnais-rural (Lyonnais mountains, Dombes
Dombes
The Dombes is an area in South-Eastern France, once an independent municipality, formerly part of the province of Burgundy, and now a district comprised in the département of Ain, and bounded W. by the Saône River, by the Rhône, E. by the Ain and N...
, & Balmes) 5. Roannais+Stéphanois (Roanne
Roanne
Roanne is a commune in the Loire department in central France.It is located northwest of Lyon on the Loire River.-Economy:...
country, Foréz plain, & Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne is a city in eastern central France. It is located in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Rhône-Alpes region, along the trunk road that connects Toulouse with Lyon...
).
- Dauphinois-N.: (France)
Rhône River
The Rhone is one of the major rivers of Europe, rising in Switzerland and running from there through southeastern France. At Arles, near its mouth on the Mediterranean Sea, the river divides into two branches, known as the Great Rhone and the Little Rhone...
valley, Rhône (département) south, Loire (département) southeast, Ardèche north, Drôme north, Isère west), 2. Crémieu (Crémieu
Crémieu
Crémieu is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France.It is located near Bourgoin-Jallieu, about 25 miles east of Lyon.-Early history:...
, Isère north), 3. Terres-Froides (Bourbre
Bourbre
The Bourbre is a long river in the Isère and Rhône départements, central eastern France. Its source is in Burcin. It flows generally north-northwest...
River valley, Isère central north), 4. Chambaran (Roybon
Roybon
Roybon is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France, population 1,231 in 1999....
, Isère central south), 5. Grésivaudan [& Uissans] (Isère east).
- Savoyard: (France)
Bessans
Bessans is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.-Geography:Located on the Haute-Maurienne plateau, at an altitude of 1750 meters, the area is known for its sporting activities. Bessans is located in a valley, ideal for Nordic skiing...
), 2. Langrin (Lanslebourg), 3. Matchutin (Valloire
Valloire
Valloire is a commune in the Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.The ski resort Valloire-Galibier is located in the commune, at the foot of the Col du Galibier and next to the ski resort of Valmeinier, France....
& Ma’tchuta) (1., 2. & 3.: Maurienne
Maurienne
Maurienne is one of the provinces of Savoy, corresponding to the arrondissement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in France. It is also the original name of the capital of the province, now Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne.-Location:...
country, Arc valley
Arc (Savoie)
The Arc is a 128 km long river in the Savoie département of south-eastern France. It is a left tributary of the Isère River, which it joins at Chamousset, approximately 15 km downstream from Albertville. Its source is near the border with Italy, in the Graian Alps, northeast of Bonneval-sur-Arc...
, Savoie south), 4. Tartentaise [& Tignard] (Tarentaise country
Tarentaise Valley
The Tarentaise Valley is a valley of the Isère River in the heart of the French Alps, located in the Savoy region of France. The valley is named for the ancient town of Darantasia, the capital of the pre-Roman Centrones tribe.-Description:...
, Tignes
Tignes
Tignes is a commune in the Tarentaise Valley, Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.It is also a ski resort near Val d'Isère, that are linked together as the "Espace Killy" region...
, Savoie east, Isère upper valleys), 5. Arly (Arly valley, Savoie north), 6. Chambérien (Chambéry
Chambéry
Chambéry is a city in the department of Savoie, located in the Rhône-Alpes region in southeastern France.It is the capital of the department and has been the historical capital of the Savoy region since the 13th century, when Amadeus V of Savoy made the city his seat of power.-Geography:Chambéry...
), 7. Annecien [& Viutchoïs] (Annecy
Annecy
Annecy is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.It lies on the northern tip of Lake Annecy , 35 kilometres south of Geneva.-Administration:...
, Viuz-la-Chiésaz
Viuz-la-Chiésaz
Viuz-la-Chiésaz is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.-References:*...
, Haute-Savoie southwest), 8. Faucigneran (Faucigny
Faucigny
Faucigny is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.Historically, Faucigny was a region in Savoy which included the area of the modern département of Haute Savoie and the municipalities of Chamonix, Argentière, and Les Houches.-Geography:In the...
, Haute-Savoie southeast), 9. Chablaisien+Genevois (Chablais
Chablais
Chablais was a province of the Duchy of Savoy. Its capital was Thonon-les-Bains.This region is currently divided into three territories, the Chablais savoyard, the Chablais valaisan, and the Chablais vaudois, and is now split across two countries: France and Switzerland...
country & Geneva (canton) hinterlands).
- Franc-Comtois (FrP) [Jurassien-Méridional]: (Switzerland & France)
Pontarlier
Pontarlier is a commune and one of the two sub-prefectures of the Doubs department in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France.-History:...
& Doubs (département) south), 4. Ain-N. (Ain upper valleys & French Jura), 5. Valserine (Bellegarde-sur-Valserine
Bellegarde-sur-Valserine
Bellegarde-sur-Valserine is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France.-Geography:Bellegarde is located at the confluence of the Valserine and the Rhône....
, Valserine valley
River Valserine
The river Valserine is a tributary of the Rhone that flows for from the Col de la Faucille in the Jura Mountains to its confluence with the Rhone at Bellegarde-sur-Valserine...
, Ain northeast & adjacent French Jura).
- Vaudois: (Switzerland)
Château-d'Œx
Château-d'Œx is a municipality in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is in the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut.-Prehistoric settlements:...
, Pays-d'Enhaut
Pays-d'Enhaut (district)
Pays-d'Enhaut District was a district in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. The seat of the district was the town of Château-d'Œx.Three municipalities are located within the district: Château-d'Œx, Rossinière, and Rougemont...
, Vaud east), 4. Valaisan (Valais, Valaisan Romand).
- ValdôtainValdôtainThe Valdôtain, or Valdotans, are an ethnic group that lives in the far northwest Aosta Valley Autonomous Region of Italy. They speak several dialects of the Franco-Provençal language ....
: (Aosta Valley, Italy)
Dora Baltea
Dora Baltea or Doire Baltée , is a river in northern Italy. It is a left-hand tributary of the Po River, and is about 160 km long...
upper valley, similar to savoy
Savoy
Savoy is a region of France. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps situated between Lake Geneva in the north and Monaco and the Mediterranean coast in the south....
ard Franco-Provençal), 2. Aostois (Aosta
Aosta
Aosta is the principal city of the bilingual Aosta Valley in the Italian Alps, north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, at the confluence of the Buthier and the Dora Baltea, and at the junction of the Great and Little St. Bernard routes...
n valdôtain), 3. Valdôtain standard (Dora Baltea middle valley), 4. Valpellinois, bossolein and bionassin (Valpelline Great St. Bernard and Bionaz valleys), 5. Cognein (upper Cogne valley
Val di Cogne
thumb|260px|Position of the Val di Cogne in Valle d'Aosta.Val di Cogne is a valley in the Aosta Valley, northern Italy. It takes its name from Cogne, the largest town in its area. Most of the valley is included in the Gran Paradiso National Park....
), 6. Valtournain (in Valtournenche
Valtournenche
Valtournenche is a town and comune in the Aosta Valley region of north-western Italy.-Notable people:* Jean-Antoine Carrel , mountain climber* Jean-Joseph Maquignaz , mountain climber...
valley), 7. Ayassin (upper Ayas valley
Ayas, Italy
Ayas is a comune in the Aosta Valley region of north-western Italy.- Geography :It is made up of several frazioni , the two major ones being Antagnod which holds the town hall and the main parish, and Champoluc...
), 8. Valgrisein (Valgrisenche
Valgrisenche
Valgrisenche is a town and comune in the Aosta Valley region of north-western Italy....
valley), 9. Rhêmiard (Rhêmes valley
Rhêmes-Saint-Georges
Rhêmes-Saint Georges is a town and comune in the Aosta Valley region of north-western Italy.-References:...
), 10. Valsavarein (Valsavarenche
Valsavarenche
Valsavarenche is an Italian comune with a population of 186. It is located in the Aosta Valley, and is part of the Grand-Paradis Mountain Community....
valley), 11. Moyen valdôtain (middle-lower Dora Baltea valley), 12. Bas Valdôtain (lower Dora Baltea valley, similar to Piedmontese
Piedmontese language
Piedmontese is a Romance language spoken by over 2 million people in Piedmont, northwest Italy. It is geographically and linguistically included in the Northern Italian group . It is part of the wider western group of Romance languages, including French, Occitan, and Catalan.Many European and...
), 13. Champorcherin (Champorcher
Champorcher
Champorcher is a comune in the Aosta Valley region of north-western Italy, the main town in the Champorcher Valley....
valley)
- Faetar: (Italy)
Faeto
Faeto is a town and comune in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region of southeast Italy.Residents of this comune and the neighboring one of Celle di San Vito are speakers of the Franco-Provençal language, otherwise found in northern Italy, France and Switzerland....
& Celle di San Vito
Celle di San Vito
Celle di San Vito is a town and comune in the province of Foggia of the Apulia region in central southeast Italy.Residents of Celle and the neighboring village of Faeto speak a rare dialect of the Arpitan language called Faetar, which has fewer than 1,400 known speakers.-External links:* Celle di...
, in Province of Foggia
Province of Foggia
The Province of Foggia is a province in the Apulia region of Italy.This province is also known as Capitanata, originally Catapanata, because during the Middle Ages it was governed by a catapan, as part of the Catapanate of Italy...
).
- Piedmont Dialects: (Italy)
Province of Turin
The Province of Turin is a province in the Piedmont region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Turin.It has an area of 6,830 km², and a total population of 2,277,686 . There are 315 comuni in the province – the most of any province in Italy...
— from the Val Soana in the north to the Val Sangone in the south — have not been published.)
Dialect examples
Several modern orthographic variations exist for all dialects of Franco-Provençal. The spellings and IPA equivalents listed below appear in Martin (2005).| English | Franco-Provençal | Savoyard dialect | Bressan dialect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hello! | Bonjor ! | /bɔ̃ˈʒu/ | /bɔ̃ˈʒø/ |
| Good night! | Bôna nuet ! | /bunɑˈne/ | /bunɑˈnɑ/ |
| Goodbye! | A revêr ! | /arˈvi/ | /a.rɛˈvɑ/ |
| Yes | Ouè | /ˈwɛ/ | /ˈwɛ/ |
| No | Nan | /ˈnɑ/ | /ˈnɔ̃/ |
| Maybe | T-èpêr / Pôt-étre | /tɛˈpɛ/ | /pɛˈtetrə/ |
| Please | S'el vos plét | /sivoˈple/ | /sevoˈplɛ/ |
| Thank you! | Grant marci ! | /ɡrɑ̃maˈsi/ | /ɡrɑ̃marˈsi/ |
| A man | On homo | /on ˈomo/ | /in ˈumu/ |
| A woman | Na fena | /nɑ ˈfɛnɑ/ | /nɑ ˈfɛnɑ/ |
| The clock | Lo relojo | /lo rɛˈloʒo/ | /lo rɛˈlodʒu/ |
| The clocks | Los relojos | /lu rɛˈloʒo/ | /lu rɛˈlodʒu/ |
| The rose | La rousa | /lɑ ˈruzɑ/ | /lɑ ˈruzɑ/ |
| The roses | Les rouses | /lɛ ˈruzɛ/ | /lɛ ˈruze/ |
| He is eating. | Il menge. | /il ˈmɛ̃ʒɛ/ | /il ˈmɛ̃ʒɛ/ |
| She is singing. | Le chante. | /lə ˈʃɑ̃tɛ/ | /ɛl ˈʃɑ̃tɛ/ |
| It is raining. | O pluvinye. | /o ploˈvɛɲə/ | |
| It is raining. | O brolyasse. | /u brulˈjasə/ | |
| What time is it? | Quint' hora est ? | /kɛ̃t ˈørɑ ˈjɛ/ | |
| What time is it? | Quâl' hora est ? | /tjel ˈoʒɑ ˈjə/ | |
| It is 6:30. | (El) est siéx hores et demi. | /ˈjɛ siz ˈørɑ e dɛˈmi/ | |
| It is 6:30. | El est siéx hores demi. | /ˈɛjɛ siʒ ˈoʒə dɛˈmi/ | |
| What is your name? | Tè que vos éds niom ? | /ˈtɛk voz i ˈɲɔ̃/ | |
| What is your name? | Coment que vos vos apelâds ? | /kɛmˈe kɛ ˈvu vu apaˈlo/ | |
| I am happy to see you. | Je su bonéso de vos vér. | /ʒə sɛ buˈnezə də vo vi/ | |
| I am happy to see you. | Je su content de vos vére. | /ʒɛ si kɔ̃ˈtɛ də vu vɑ/ | |
| Do you speak Patois? | Prègiéds-vos patouès ? | /prɛˈʒi vo patuˈe/ | |
| Do you speak Patois? | Côsâds-vos patouès ? | /koˈʒo vu patuˈɑ/ | |
External links:
- ALMURA: Atlas linguistique multimédia de la région Rhône-Alpes et des régions limitrophes — Multimedia website from Stendhal University-Grenoble 3 with mp3 audio-clips of more than 700 words and expressions by native speakers grouped in 15 themes by village. The linguistic atlas demonstrates the transition from Franco-Provençal phonologyPhonologyPhonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
in the north to Occitan phonology in the south. (select: ATLAS) - ALAVAL: L'Atlas linguistique audiovisuel du Valais romand — Multimedia website from the University of NeuchâtelUniversity of NeuchâtelThe University of Neuchâtel is a French-speaking university in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. The University has five faculties and more than a dozen institutes, including arts and human sciences, natural sciences, law, economics and theology. The Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences is the largest...
with audio and video clips of Franco-Provençal speakers from the canton of ValaisValaisThe Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
, SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. - Les Langues de France en chansons: N'tra Linga e Chanfon — Multimedia website with numerous audio clips of native Franco-Provençal speakers singing traditional songs. Select: TRAINS DIRECTS > scroll to: Francoprovençal.
Toponyms
Other than in family nameFamily name
A family name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. The use of family names is widespread in cultures around the world...
s, the Franco-Provençal legacy primarily survives in place names
Toponymy
Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
. Many are immediately recognizable, ending in -az, -oz (-otz), -uz, -ax, -ex, -ux, -oux, and -ieux (-ieu). These suffixes indicate the stress syllables based on a historical orthographic system considered obsolete by modern scholars. The last letter is not pronounced. For multi-syllabic names, “z” indicates a paroxytone
Paroxytone
Paroxytone is a linguistic term for a word with stress on the penultimate syllable, that is, the syllable before the last syllable, e.g, the English word potato...
(stress on the next-to-last syllable), and “x” indicates an oxytone
Oxytone
An oxytone is a word with the stress on the last syllable, such as the English words correct and reward. A paroxytone is stressed on the penultimate syllable. A proparoxytone is stressed on the antepenultimate syllable.-See also:*Barytone...
(stress on the last syllable), for example, Chanaz: /ˈʃɑ.nɑ/ (shana); Chênex: /ʃɛˈne/ (shèné). A selection of town names that demonstrates these characteristics follow:
Italy
- Aosta Valley: Arbaz, Bionaz, Champdepraz, Charvaz, Chérolinaz, Clusaz, Éléyaz, Runaz, Lillaz, Lyveroulaz, Péroulaz, Véreytaz, Dzovennoz, Échevennoz, Morgex, Planpincieux.
- PiedmontPiedmontPiedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...
: Sauze d'Oulx
France
- AinAinAin is a department named after the Ain River on the eastern edge of France. Being part of the region Rhône-Alpes and bordered by the rivers Saône and Rhône, the department of Ain enjoys a privileged geographic situation...
: Lompnaz, Ordonnaz, Outriaz, Seillonnaz, Contrevoz, Culoz, Marboz, Niévroz, Oyonnax, Sonthonnax-la-Montagne, Gex, Echenevex, Perrex, Versonnex, Chevroux, Lescheroux, Civrieux, Jujurieux, Misérieux, Toussieux, Ceyzérieu, Lagnieu, Lompnieu, Pugieu. - DoubsDoubsDoubs is a department the Franche-Comté region of eastern France named after the Doubs River.-History:As early as the 13th century, inhabitants of the northern two-thirds of Doubs spoke the Franc-Comtois language, a dialect of Langue d'Oïl. Residents of the southern third of Doubs spoke a dialect...
: Saraz, Bolandoz, Éternoz, Granges-Narboz, Reculfoz, Le Barboux, La Cluse-et-Mijoux, Montmahoux. - Jura: Fraroz, Marnoz, Molamboz, Pagnoz, Saffloz, Vertamboz, Vulvoz, Morez, Lajoux, Le Vaudioux.
- SavoieSavoieSavoie is a French department located in the Rhône-Alpes region in the French Alps.Together with the Haute-Savoie, Savoie is one of the two departments of the historic region of Savoy that was annexed by France on June 14, 1860, following the signature of the Treaty of Turin on March 24, 1860...
: Barberaz, Chanaz, Drumettaz, La Giettaz, Sonnaz, Motz, Lovettaz, Séez, Cohennoz, La Motte-Servolex, Ontex, Verthemex, Avrieux, Champagneux, Chindrieux, Loisieux, Ruffieux. - Haute-SavoieHaute-SavoieHaute-Savoie is a French department in the Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. It borders both Switzerland and Italy. The capital is Annecy. To the north is Lake Geneva and Switzerland; to the south and southeast are the Mont Blanc and Aravis mountain ranges and the French entrance to the Mont...
: La Clusaz, Viuz-en-Sallaz, Marcellaz, Aviernoz, Chevenoz, Les Carroz, Saint-Jorioz, Servoz, Charvonnex, Chênex, Seythenex, Combloux, Seytroux. - RhôneRhône (département)Rhône is a French department located in the central Eastern region of Rhône-Alpes. It is named after the Rhône River.- History :The Rhône department was created on August 12, 1793 when the former département of Rhône-et-Loire was split into two departments: Rhône and Loire.Originally, the eastern...
: Sermenaz, Jarnioux, Ouroux, Rillieux-la-Pape, Grézieu-la-Varenne, Vénissieux, Meyzieu. - LoireLoireLoire is an administrative department in the east-central part of France occupying the River Loire's upper reaches.-History:Loire was created in 1793 when after just 3½ years the young Rhône-et-Loire department was split into two. This was a response to counter-Revolutionary activities in Lyon...
: La Tour-en-Jarez, Razoux, Chénieux, Écullieux, Aveizieux. - IsèreIsèreIsère is a department in the Rhône-Alpes region in the east of France named after the river Isère.- History :Isère is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Dauphiné...
: Vernioz, Proveysieux, Ornacieux, Brussieu, Courzieu, Monsteroux-Milieu.
Switzerland
- GenevaCanton of GenevaThe Republic and Canton of Geneva is the French speaking westernmost canton or state of Switzerland, surrounded on almost all sides by France. As is the case in several other Swiss cantons The Republic and Canton of Geneva is the French speaking westernmost canton or state of Switzerland,...
: Athenaz, Bernex, Choulex, Onex, Laconnex, Saconnex, Troinex, Certoux. - FribourgCanton of FribourgThe Canton of Fribourg is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the west of the country. The capital of the canton is Fribourg. The name Fribourg is French, whereas is the German name for both the canton and the town.-History:...
: La Brillaz, La Sonnaz, Chesopelloz, Neyruz, Pont-en-Ogoz. - NeuchâtelCanton of NeuchâtelNeuchâtel is a canton of French speaking western Switzerland. In 2007, its population was 169,782 of which 39,654 were foreigners. The capital is Neuchâtel.-History:...
: Val-de-Ruz, Brot-Plamboz, Peseux, Le Prévoux. - ValaisValaisThe Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
: Arbaz, Dorénaz, Nendaz, Vérossaz, Mazembroz, Vétroz, Nax, Bex, Mex, Vex, Massongex. - VaudVaudVaud is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and is located in Romandy, the French-speaking southwestern part of the country. The capital is Lausanne. The name of the Canton in Switzerland's other languages are Vaud in Italian , Waadt in German , and Vad in Romansh.-History:Along the lakes,...
: Saubraz, Cerniaz, Penthaz, Tolochenaz, La Vraconnaz, Château-d'Œx, Cheserex, Trelex, Paudex, Mutrux.
Literature
Girart de Roussillon
Girart de Roussillon, also called Girard, Gérard II, Gyrart de Vienne, and Girart de Fraite, was a Burgundian chief who became Count of Paris in 837, and embraced the cause of Lothair I against Charles the Bald...
, an epic with 10,002 lines from the mid-12th century, has been asserted to be Franco-Provençal. It certainly contains prominent Franco-Provençal features, although the editor of an authoritative edition of this work claims that the language is a mixture of French and Occitan forms. A significant document from the same period containing a list of vassals in the County of Forez also is not without literary value.
Among the first historical writings in Franco-Provençal are legal texts by civil law notaries
Civil law notary
Civil-law notaries, or Latin notaries, are lawyers of noncontentious private civil law who draft, take, and record legal instruments for private parties, provide legal advice and give attendance in person, and are vested as public officers with the authentication power of the State...
that appeared in the 13th century as Latin was being abandoned for official administration. These include a translation of the Corpus Juris Civilis
Corpus Juris Civilis
The Corpus Juris Civilis is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Eastern Roman Emperor...
(known as the Justinian Code) in the vernacular spoken in Grenoble. Religious works also were translated and conceived in Franco-Provençal dialects at some monasteries in the region. The Legend of Saint Bartholomew
Bartholomew
Bartholomew was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, and is usually identified as Nathaniel . He was introduced to Christ through St. Philip, another of the twelve apostles as per , where the name Nathaniel first appears. He is also mentioned as “Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee” in...
is one such work that survives in Lyonnais patois from the 13th century.
Marguerite d'Oingt
Marguerite d'Oingt
Marguerite d'Oingt was a French Carthusian nun and celebrated mystic. She was also among the earliest identified women writers of France.- Life :...
(ca. 1240–1310), prioress of a Carthusian
Carthusian
The Carthusian Order, also called the Order of St. Bruno, is a Roman Catholic religious order of enclosed monastics. The order was founded by Saint Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns...
nunnery near Mionnay
Mionnay
Mionnay is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France.-Population:...
(France), composed two remarkable sacred texts in her native Lyonnais dialect, in addition to her writings in Latin. The first, entitled Speculum ("The Mirror"), describes three miraculous
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
visions
Vision (religion)
In spirituality, a vision is something seen in a dream, trance, or ecstasy, especially a supernatural appearance that conveys a revelation.Visions generally have more clarity than dreams, but traditionally fewer psychological connotations...
and their meanings. The other work, Li Via seiti Biatrix, virgina de Ornaciu ("The Life of the Blessed Virgin Beatrix d'Ornacieux
Beatrix d'Ornacieux
Blessed Beatrix d'Ornacieux was a Carthusian nun. Her feast day is 13 February.Beatrice was a Carthusian nun who founded a settlement of the order at Eymieux in the department of Drôme...
"), is a long biography of a nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
and mystic
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
consecrated to the Passion
Passion (Christianity)
The Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...
whose faith lead to a devout cult. This text contributed to the beatification
Beatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
of the nun more than 500 years later by Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX
Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...
in 1869. A line from the work in her dialect follows:
- § 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. »
Religious conflicts in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
between Calvinist
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
Reformers and staunch Catholics, supported by the Duchy of Savoy, brought forth many texts in Franco-Provençal during the early 17th century. One of the best known is Cé qu'è lainô ("The One Above"), which was composed by an unknown writer in 1603. The long narrative poem describes l'Escalade
L'Escalade
L'Escalade, or Fête de l'Escalade is an annual festival held in December in Geneva, Switzerland, celebrating the defeat of the surprise attack by troops sent by Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy during the night of 11–12 December 1602...
, a raid by the Savoyard army that generated patriotic sentiments. It became the unofficial national anthem of the Republic of Geneva
Canton of Geneva
The Republic and Canton of Geneva is the French speaking westernmost canton or state of Switzerland, surrounded on almost all sides by France. As is the case in several other Swiss cantons The Republic and Canton of Geneva is the French speaking westernmost canton or state of Switzerland,...
. The first three verses follow below (in Genevois
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
dialect) with a translation:
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Several writers created satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
, moralistic
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
, poetic, comic
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
, and theatrical texts during the era that followed, which indicates the vitality of the language at that time. These include: Bernardin Uchard (1575–1624), author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and playwright
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
from Bresse
Bresse
Bresse is a former French province. It is located in the regions of Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne, and Franche-Comté of eastern France. The geographical term Bresse has two meanings: Bresse bourguignonne , which is situated in the east of the department of Saône-et-Loire, and Bresse, which is located...
; Henri Perrin, comic playwright from Lyon; Jean Millet (1600?–1675), author of pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
s, poems, and comedies from Grenoble; Jacques Brossard de Montaney (1638–1702), writer of comedies and carol
Carol (music)
A carol is a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with church worship, and often with a dance-like or popular character....
s from Bresse; Jean Chapelon (1647–1694), priest and composer of more than 1,500 carols, songs, epistles, and essays from Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne
Saint-Étienne is a city in eastern central France. It is located in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Rhône-Alpes region, along the trunk road that connects Toulouse with Lyon...
; and François Blanc dit la Goutte (1690–1742), writer of prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
poems, including Grenoblo maléirou about the great flood of 1733 in Grenoble. 19th century authors include Guillaume Roquille (1804–1860), working-class poet from Rive-de-Gier near Saint-Chamond, Joseph Béard dit l'Éclair (1805–1872), physician, poet, and songwriter from Rumilly
Rumilly
Rumilly is the name or part of the name of several communes in France:* Rumilly, in the Pas-de-Calais département* Rumilly, in the Haute-Savoie département* Rumilly-en-Cambrésis, in the Nord département...
, and Louis Bornet (1818–1880) of Gruyères. Clair Tisseur
Clair Tisseur
Clair Tisseur , was a French architect whose best known work is Église du Bon-Pasteur, a prominent Romanesque Revival church in the 1st arrondissement of Lyon...
(1827–1896), architect of Bon-Pasteur Church
Église du Bon-Pasteur
The Église du Bon-Pasteur is located rue Neyret on the slopes of La Croix-Rousse, near the montée de la Grande Côte, in the 1st arrondissement of Lyon. Cardinal Barbarin described the church as "highly symbolic for Lyon Christians".-History:...
in Lyon, published many writings under the pen name "Nizier du Puitspelu". These include a popular dictionary and humorous works in Lyonnaise dialect that have reprinted for more than 100 years.
Amélie Gex
Amélie Rose Françoise Gex, was a Savoyard writer and poet who created works in French and Franco-Provençal . Until 1880, she published most of her writings under the pen name Dian de la Jeânna.-Biography:Amélie Gex was the daughter of the physician and winemaker Marc-Samuel Gex...
(1835–1883) wrote in her native patois as well as French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
. She was a passionate advocate for her language. Her literary efforts encompassed lyrical themes, work, love, tragic loss, nature, the passing of time, religion, and politics, and are considered by many to be the most significant contributions to the literature. Among her works are: Reclans de Savoué ("Echos from Savoy", 1879), Lo cent ditons de Pierre d'Emo ("One Hundred Sayings by Pierre du Bon-Sens", 1879), Poesies ("Poems", 1880), Vieilles gens et vieilles choses: Histoires de ma rue et de mon village ("Old people and old things: Stories from my street and from my village", 1889), Fables (1898), and Contio de la Bova ("Tales from the Cowshed").
The writings of Jean-Baptiste Cerlogne (1826–1910), abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
, are credited with reestablishing the cultural identity of the Aosta Valley. His early poetry includes: L'infan prodeggo (1855), Marenda a Tsesalet (1856) and La bataille di vatse a Vertosan (1858); among his scholarly works are: Petite grammaire du dialecte valdotain (1893), Dictionnaire du dialecte valdôtain (1908) and Le patois valdotain: son origine litéraire et sa graphie (1909). The Concours Cerlogne - an annual event named in his honor - has focused thousands of Italian students on preserving the region's language, literature, and heritage since 1963.
At the end of the 19th century, regional dialects of Franco-Provençal were disappearing due to the expansion of the French language into all walks of life and the emigration of rural people to urban centers. Cultural and regional savant
Savant
Savant may refer to:* An expert or wise person* Savant syndrome* Marilyn vos Savant* Savant publications* Doug SavantIn popular culture:* Characters in the Noble Warriors Trilogy...
societies began to collect oral folk tales, proverb
Proverb
A proverb is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim...
s, and legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
s from native speakers in an effort that continues to today. Numerous works have been published.
Prosper Convert (1852–1934), the bard of Bresse; Louis Mercier (1870–1951), folk singer
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and author of more than twelve volumes of prose from Coutouvre near Roanne
Roanne
Roanne is a commune in the Loire department in central France.It is located northwest of Lyon on the Loire River.-Economy:...
; Just Songeon (1880–1940), author, poet, and activist from La Combe, Sillingy near Annecy
Annecy
Annecy is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France.It lies on the northern tip of Lake Annecy , 35 kilometres south of Geneva.-Administration:...
; Eugénie Martinet (1896–1983), poet from Aosta
Aosta
Aosta is the principal city of the bilingual Aosta Valley in the Italian Alps, north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, at the confluence of the Buthier and the Dora Baltea, and at the junction of the Great and Little St. Bernard routes...
; and Joseph Yerly (1896–1961) of Gruyères
Gruyères
Gruyères is a town in the district of Gruyère in the canton of Fribourg in Switzerland. Its German name is Greyerz.The medieval town is an important tourist location in the upper valley of the Saane river, and gives its name to the well-known cheese. In this town, a trackless train is the only...
whose complete works were published in Kan la têra tsantè ("When the earth sang"), are well-known for their use of patois in the 20th century.
The first comic book in a Franco-Provençal dialect, Le rebloshon que tyouè! ("The cheese that killed!"), from the Fanfoué des Pnottas series by Félix Meynet, appeared in 2000. Two popular works from The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
and one from the Lucky Luke
Lucky Luke
Lucky Luke is a Belgian comics series created by Belgian cartoonist, Maurice De Bevere better known as Morris, the original artist, and was for one period written by René Goscinny...
series were published in Franco-Provençal translations for young readers in 2006 and 2007.
See also
- Language policy in FranceLanguage policy in FranceFrance has one official language, the French language. The French government does not regulate the choice of language in publications by individuals but the use of French is required by law in commercial and workplace communications...
- Languages of Italy
- Languages of France
- Languages of Switzerland
- VergonhaVergonhaLa vergonha is what Occitans call the effects of various policies of the government of France on its citizens whose mother tongue was a so-called patois, specifically langue d'oc...
Sources
- Abry, Christian et al. "Groupe de Conflans" (1994). Découvrir les parlers de Savoie. Conflans (Savoie): Centre de la Culture Savoyarde. This work presents of one of the commonly used orthographic standards
- Aebischer, Paul (1950). Chrestomathie franco-provençale. Berne: Éditions A. Francke S.A.
- Agard, Frederick B. (1984). A Course in Romance Linguistics: A Diachronic View. (Vol. 2). Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press. ISBN 0-87840-089-3
- Ascoli, Graziadio Isaia (1878). Schizzi franco-provenzali. Archivio glottologico italiano, III, pp. 61–120. Article written about 1873.
- Bec, Pierre (1971). Manuel pratique de philologie romane. (Tome 2, pp. 357 et seq.). Paris: Éditions Picard. ISBN 2-7084-0288-9 A philological analysis of Franco-Provençal; the Alpine dialects have been particularly studied.
- Bessat, Hubert & Germi, Claudette (1991). Les mots de la montagne autour du Mont-Blanc. Grenoble: Ellug. ISBN 2-902709-68-4
- Bjerrome, Gunnar (1959). Le patois de Bagnes (Valais). Stockholm: Almkvist and Wiksell.
- Brocherel, Jules (1952). Le patois et la langue francaise en Vallée d’Aoste. Neuchâtel: V. Attinger.
- Centre de la Culture Savoyard, Conflans (1995). Écrire le patois: La Graphie de Conflans pour le Savoyard. Taninges: Éditions P.A.O. .pdf (in French)
- Cerlogne, Jean-Baptiste (1971). Dictionnaire du patois valdôtain, précédé de la petite grammaire. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints. (Original work published, Aosta: Imprimérie Catholique, 1907)
- Chenal, Aimé (1986). Le franco-provençal valdôtain: Morphologie et syntaxe. Quart: Musumeci. ISBN 88-7032-232-7
- Chenal, Aimé & Vautherin, Raymond (1967–1982). Nouveau dictionnaire de patois valdôtain. (12 vol.). Aosta: Éditions Marguerettaz.
- Chenal, Aimé & Vautherin, Raymond (1984). Nouveau dictionnaire de patois valdôtain; Dictionnaire français-patois. Quart: Musumeci. ISBN 88-7032-534-2
- Constantin, Aimé & Désormaux, Joseph (1982). Dictionnaire savoyard. Marseille: Éditions Jeanne Laffitte. (Originally published, Annecy: Société florimontane, 1902). ISBN 2-7348-0137-X
- Cuaz-Châtelair, René (1989). Le Franco-provençal, mythe ou réalité. Paris, la Pensée universelle, pp. 70. ISBN 2-214-07979-3
- Cuisenier, Jean (Dir.) (1979). Les sources régionales de la Savoie: une approche ethnologique. Alimentation, habitat, élevage, agriculture.... (re: Abry, Christian: Le paysage dialectal.) Paris: Éditions Fayard.
- Dalby, David (1999/2000). The Linguasphere Register of the World's Languages and Speech Communities. (Vol. 2). (Breton, Roland, Pref.). Hebron, Wales, UK: Linguasphere Press. ISBN 0-9532919-2-8 See p. 402 for the complete list of 6 groups and 41 idioms of Franco-Provençal dialects.
- Dauzat, Albert & Rostaing, Charles (1984). Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de lieux en France. (2nd ed.). Paris: Librairie Guénégaud. ISBN 2-85023-076-6
- Devaux, André; Duraffour, A.; Dussert, A.-S.; Gardette, P.; & Lavallée, F. (1935). Les patois du Dauphiné. (2 vols.). Lyon: Bibliothèque de la Faculté catholique des lettres. Dictionary, grammar, & linguistic atlas of the Terres-Froides region.
- Duch, Célestin & Bejean, Henri (1998). Le patois de Tignes. Grenoble: Ellug. ISBN 2-84310-011-9
- Duraffour, Antonin; Gardette, P.; Malapert, L. & Gonon, M. (1969). Glossaire des patois francoprovençaux. Paris: CNRS Éditions. ISBN 2-222-01226-0
- Elsass, Annie (Ed.) (1985). Jean Chapelon 1647-1694, Œuvres complètes. Saint-Étienne: Université de Saint-Étienne.
- Escoffier, Simone (1958). La rencontre de la langue d'Oïl, de la lange d'Oc, et de francoprovençal entre Loire et Allier. Publications de l'Institut linguistique romane de Lyon, XI, 1958.
- Escoffier, Simone & Vurpas, Anne-Marie (1981). Textes littéraires en dialecte lyonnais. Paris: CNRS Éditions. ISBN 2-222-02857-4
- EUROPA (European Commission) (2005). Francoprovençal in Italy, The Euromosaic Study. Last update: 4 February 2005.
- Favre, Christophe & Balet, Zacharie (1960). Lexique du Parler de Savièse. Romanica Helvetica, Vol. 71, 1960. Berne: Éditions A. Francke S.A.
- Gardette, l'Abbé Pierre, (1941). Études de géographie morphologique sur les patois du Forez. Mâcon: Imprimerie Protat frères.
- Gex, Amélie (1986). Contes et chansons populaires de Savoie. (Terreaux, Louis, Intro.). Aubenas: Curandera. ISBN 2-86677-036-6
- Gex, Amélie (1999). Vieilles gens et vieilles choses: Histoires de ma rue et de mon village. (Bordeaux, Henry, Pref.). Marseille: Éditions Jeanne Laffitte. (Original work published, Chambéry: Dardel, 1924). ISBN 2-7348-0399-2
- Gossen, Charles Théodore (1970). La scripta para-francoprovençale, Revue de linguistique romane 34, p. 326-348.
- Grasset, Pierre & Viret, Roger (2006). Joseph Béard, dit l'Eclair : Médecin des pauvres, Poète patoisant, Chansonnier savoyard. (Terreaux, Louis, Pref.). Montmelian: La Fontaine de Siloé. ISBN 2-84206-338-4
- Grillet, Jean-Louis (1807). Dictionnaire historique, littéraire et statistique des départements du Mont-Blanc et du Léman. Chambéry: Librairie J.F. Puthod.
- Héran, François; Filhon, Alexandra; & Deprez, Christine (2002). Language transmission in France in the course of the 20th century. Population & Sociétés. No. 376, February 2002. Paris: INED-Institut national d’études démographiques. ISSN 0184-77-83. Monthly newsletter in English, from INED
- Hoyer, Gunhild & Tuaillon, Gaston (2002). Blanc-La-Goutte, poète de Grenoble: Œuvres complètes. Grenoble: Centre alpin et rhodanien d'ethnologie.
- Humbert, Jean (1983). Nouveau glossaire genevois. Genève: Slatkine Reprints. (Original work published, Geneva: 1852). ISBN 2-8321-0172-0
- Jochnowitz, George (1973). Dialect Boundaries and the Question of Franco-Provençal. Paris & The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter & Co. ISBN 90-279-2480-5
- Kattenbusch, Dieter (1982), Das Frankoprovenzalische in Süditalien: Studien zur synchronischen und diachronischen Dialektologie (Tübinger Beiträge zur Linguistik), Tübingen, Germany: Gunter Narr Verlag. ISBN 3-87808-997-X
- Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: ethnologue.com Online page for Franco-Provençal.
- Martin, Jean-Baptiste & Tuaillon, Gaston (1999). Atlas linguistique et ethnographique du Jura et des Alpes du nord (Francoprovençal Central) : La maison, l'homme, la morphologie. (Vol. 3). Paris: CNRS Éditions. ISBN 2-222-02192-8 (cf. SavoyardSavoyardSavoyard is a Romance language group with several distinct varieties that form a linguistic subgroup from the Arpitan language family. It is spoken in some territories of the historical Duchy of Savoy, nowadays a geographic area spanning France , Switzerland , and Italy...
). - Martin, Jean-Baptiste (2005). Le Francoprovençal de poche. Chennevières-sur-Marne: Assimil. ISBN 2-7005-0351-1
- Martinet, André (1956). La Description phonologique avec application au parler franco-provençal d'Hauteville (Savoie). Genève: Librairie Droz / M.J. Minard.
- Marzys, Zygmunt (Ed.) (1971). Colloque de dialectologie francoprovençale. Actes. Neuchâtel & Genève: Faculté des Lettres, Droz.
- Melillo, Michele (1974), Donde e quando vennero i francoprovenzali di Capitanata, "Lingua e storia in Puglia"; Siponto, Italy: Centro di Studi pugliesi. pp. 80–95
- Meune, Manuel (2007). Le franco(-)provençal entre morcellement et quête d’unité : histoire et état des lieux. Québec: Laval University. Article in French from TLFQ
- Minichelli, Vincenzo (1994). Dizionario francoprovenzale di Celle di San Vito e Faeto. (2nd ed.). (Telmon, Tullio, Intro.). Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso. ISBN 88-7694-166-5
- Morosi, Giacomo (1890–92), Il dialetto franco-provenzale di Faeto e Celle, nell'Italia meridionale, "Archivio Glottologico Italiano", XII. pp. 33–75
- Nagy, Naomi (2000). Faetar. Munich: Lincom Europa. ISBN 3-89586-548-6
- Nelde, Peter H. (1996). Euromosaic: The production and reproduction of the minority language groups in the European Union. Luxembourg: European Commission. ISBN 92-827-5512-6 See: EUROPA, 2005.
- Nizier du Puitspelu (pen name of Tisseur, Clair) (2008). Le Littré de la Grand'Côte : à l'usage de ceux qui veulent parler et écrire correctement. Lyon: Éditions Lyonnaises d'Art et d'Histoire. ISBN 2-84147-196-9 (Original work published, Lyon: Juré de l'Académie/Académie du Gourguillon, 1894, reprint 1903). Lyonnaise dialect dictionary and encyclopedia of anecdotes and idiomatic expressions, pp. 353.
- Pierrehumbert, William (1926). Dictionnaire historique du parler neuchâtelois et suisse romand. Neuchâtel: Éditions Victor Attinger.
- Price, Glanville (1998). Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-631-19286-7
- Ruhlen, Merritt (1987). A Guide to the World's Languages. (Vol. 1: Classification). Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-1250-6 Author of numerous articles on language and linguistics; Language Universals Project, Stanford University.
- Schüle, Ernest (1978), Histoire et évolution des parler francoprovençaux d'Italie, in: AA. VV, "Lingue e dialetti nell'arco alpino occidentale; Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Torino", Torino, Italy: Centro Studi Piemontesi.
- Stich, Dominique (2003). Dictionnaire francoprovençal / français, français / francoprovençal : Dictionnaire des mots de base du francoprovençal : Orthographe ORB supradialectale standardisée. (Walter, Henriette, Preface). Thonon-les-Bains: Éditions Le Carré. ISBN 2-908150-15-8 This work includes the current orthographic standard for the language.
- Stich, Dominique (1998). Parlons francoprovençal: Une langue méconnue. Paris: Éditions l'Harmattan. ISBN 2-7384-7203-6 This work includes the former orthographic standard, Orthographe de référence A (ORA).
- Tuaillon, Gaston (1988). Le franco-provençal, Langue oubliée. in: Vermes, Geneviève (Dir.). Vingt-cinq communautés linguistiques de la France. (Vol. 1: Langues régionales et langues non territorialisées). Paris: Éditions l’Harmattan. pp. 188–207.
- Tuallion, Gaston (2002). La littérature en francoprovençal avant 1700. Grenoble: Ellug. ISBN 2-84310-029-1
- Villefranche, Jacques Melchior (1891). Essai de grammaire du patois Lyonnais. Bourg: Imprimerie J. M. Villefranche.
- Viret, Roger (2001). Patois du pays de l'Albanais: Dictionnaire savoyarde-français. (2nd ed.). Cran-Gévrier: L'Echevé du Val-de-Fier. ISBN 2-9512146-2-6 Dictionary and grammar for the dialect in the Albanais region, which includes Annecy and Aix-les-Bains.
- Vurpas, Anne-Marie (1993). Le Parler lyonnais. (Martin, Jean-Baptiste, Intro.) Paris: Éditions Payot & Rivages. ISBN 2-86930-701-2
- Wartburg, Walter von (1928–2003). Französisches Etymologisches WörterbuchFranzösisches Etymologisches WörterbuchThe Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch or FEW is the principal etymological dictionary of the Gallo-Romance languages . It was the brainchild of the Swiss philologist Walther von Wartburg.- History :...
. ("FEW"). (25 vol.). Bonn, Basel & Nancy: Klopp, Helbing & Lichtenhahn, INaLF/ATILF. Etymological dictionary of Gallo-Roman languages and dialects.
External links
- On-line directory regularly updated
- Google Maps, Precise Map of Arpitania
- http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=115570914925694292683.00047ce9d35f29abcf6f0 Precise Map of Arpitania and Occitania in Italy and Switzerland
Dictionaries & glossaries
- Liga de la Savouè: Lexique Two glossaries: French/Francoprovençal and Francoprovençal/French based on the standard ORA of Dominique Stich, in zip files containing MS Word docs.
- Pierre-Moïse Callet: Glossaire vaudois (1861) Glossary: Vaudois dialect/French, digitized book (complete); also available from: Gallica (BnF)
- Pierre Duplay: La Clà do Parlâ Gaga (1896) Dictionary & grammar: Stéphanois dialect/French, digitized book (complete).
- Jean-Baptiste Onofrio: Essai d'un glossaire des patois de Lyonnais, Forez et Beaujolais (1864) Glossary: Lyonnaise region dialects/French, digitized book (complete).
- Roger Viret: Dikchonéro Fransé-Savoyâ / Dictionnaire français-savoyard (2006) Dictionary: French to Savoyard, pp. 1,754, PDF.
- Louis-Pierre Gras: Le dictionnaire du patois forézien (1863) Dictionary and grammar: Forezian dialect/French, database.
- Parler Lyon Glossary: Lyonnais dialect/French.
- Le nouveau Lexique Dauphinois Glossary: Northern Dauphinois dialect/French.
- Particularités du langage de Mignovillard et des environs Glossary: Jurassian dialect/French.
- Topio.ch: Un petit lexique Vaudois Glossary: Vaudois dialect/French.
- Patois Vivant Language and traditions of Forez.
- Burgundia Dictionnaires: Bressan Glossaries, grammar, texts, expressions: Bressan Oïl & Bressan Franco-Provençal/French .
- Lexilogos Project Babel: Dictionnaire bressan francoprovençal Glossary: French/Bressan dialect.
- Atelier-Musée du Chapeau: Notre “Patois”, 1,000 words and expressions from Chazelles-sur-Lyon (Loire). Select: Patrimoine > patois chazellois.
- Dictionnaire Freelang: Arpitan Savoyard-Français Glossary: Savoyard dialect/French (database).
- Dialettando.com Italian to Italian dialects, including Franco-Provençal of Valle d’Aosta, dictionary and proverbs.
- Henry Suter: Termes régionaux de Suisse romande et de Savoie Dictionary: Suisse-Romande and Savoyard/French.
- Henry Suter: Noms de lieux de Suisse romande, Savoie et environs Etymology of place names.
Language, literature, & analysis
- Patwe.ch: Le Patois de Savièse Virtual classes for learning the dialect of Savièse, Valais (Switzerland).
- Liga de la Savouè: Apprendre le francoprovençal 15 lessons for learning the dialect of Savoy (France).
- Amis de Lyon et de Guignol: Parler Lyonnaise Friends of Lyon and Guignol. Course offerings and "certificates of learning" for the Lyonnaise dialect since 1998.
- University of New Hampshire (USA): Parlanne Faitare! Lessons and topics for learning the Faetar dialect, (Italy).
- Provencia di Torino: 1000 Proverbi in 4 versioni 1,000 proverbs in 4 languages.
- Région autonome Vallée d’Aoste: La littérature orale Proverbs, songs, and legends in Valdôtain dialect (Italy).
- Robert Ferraris: Toutes les littératures des pays de l’Ain Historical & contemporary authors of Ain (France); includes Franco-Provençal writers.
- Giuseppe Zoppelli: Jean-Baptiste Cerlogne CUNY, Brooklyn (USA). Article about Cerlogne with his poetry.
- Naomi Nagy: What I didn't know about working in an endangered language community: Some fieldwork issues University of New Hampshire (USA).
- René Merle: Études historiques-Études sociolinguistiques (domaine occitan et francoprovençal) Abstracts of published works by René Merle on Franco-Provençal topics.
- Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Romania Minor: Biblio francoprovençal Complutensian University of Madrid (Spain). 'Romania Minor' (European minor languages project), a comprehensive Franco-Provençal bibliography.
- Tintin parle gaga, survol de cinq siècles de littérature en parler forézien. Exposition catalogue in PDF, Musée des Amis du Vieux Saint-Étienne (France).
- Google Books search: Francoprovençal
Institutional sites
- Centre d’Études francoprovençales “René Willien” (CEFP) Center for Franco-Provençal Studies, Saint-Nicolas, Aosta (Italy).
- Le BREL un éventail de ressources BREL: Regional Bureau of Ethnology and Linguistics (Italy). Article by the director.
- Ce.S.Do.Me.O., Centro Studi e Documentazione della Memoria Orale Study Center for the Documentation of Oral Memory, Giaglione/Jaillons (Italy).
- Fondation Émile Chanoux: Sondage linguistique Émile Chanoux Foundation, Aosta (Italy). Minority ethnolinguistics poll of the Aosta Valley.
- Université Laval: Val-d'Aoste Laval University, Québec (Canada). Expansive article about minority languages in the Aosta Valley, including links to full texts of language laws and statutes.
- Université de Neuchâtel, Centre de dialectologie et d'étude du français régional University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland), Center for dialectology and regional languages. Information via keyword search on: "francoprovençal".
- Université Stendhal-Grenoble 3, Centre de Dialectologie de Grenoble (CDG) Stendhal University-Grenoble 3 (France), Dialectology Center of Grenoble.
- Archives des parlers patois de la Suisse Romande et des régions voisines Radio Suisse Romande (RSR) sound archive of more than 1,500 radio broadcasts from 1952 to 1992 in Franco-Provençal.
- UNESCO Red Book on Endangered Languages: Europe, compiled by Tapani Salminen. Last update: 31 December 1995.
- Mercator-Media: Italy University of Wales, Aberystwyth (UK). Publishing report, minority languages in Italy; Francoprovençal.
- Mercator-Legislation: Linguistic Rights and Legislation CIEMEN, Barcelona (Spain). Go to: General Information about Languages > (by language) Francoprovençal.
Ethnic & cultural sites
- Le Portail de l'Arpitanie, Fribourg (Switzerland) and Rochetaillée (France).
- Aliance Culturèla Arpitana, Fribourg (Switzerland) and Rochetaillée (France).
- Forum.Arpitania.eu Forum Arpitan message boards. Aliance culturèla arpitana, Fribourg (Switzerland) and Rochetaillée (France).
- Francoprovenzale.it EFFEPI: Association of the Franco-Provençal Minority in Piedmont, Ronco Canavese (Italy).
- Liga de la Savouè (La Ligue savoisienne) Savoy League, Annecy-le-Vieux, Haute-Savoie (France). Political outreach group. General information about history and culture of Savoy.
- Esprit Valdôtain: Notre pays Association for the promotion of Valdôtain identity, Aosta (Italy).
- Tapazovaldoten Traditional popular music of Aosta valley - scores & sound files.
- Le Musée de la Maison de Barberine: Patois/Etymologie Musée Vallorcin, Vallorcine, Haute-Savoie (France). Articles in Savoyard (Chamoniard) dialect and on ethnographic topics.
- Lyoba.ch: Rencontre du patois Articles in Fribourgeois/Gruyèrienne dialect (Switzerland), general topics, and message board.
- Association "Les Amis du francoprovençal en Pays lyonnais" : Nontra lingua Publisher of Lo Creuseu, Yzeron, Rhône (France). Links to quarterly publications since April 2003 appear at bottom of page.
- Comune di Giaglione Town of Giaglione/Dzalhoun (Torino, Italy), language, history, and traditions.
- Pro Loco Faeto Language and culture of Faeto (Italy).
- Associazione Culturale Francoprovenzale di Puglia in Piemonte, cultural Association, Franco-Provençal orthography guide, history, and local information.