Poitevin-Saintongeais
Encyclopedia
Poitevin-Saintongese or parlanjhe (Language, in ptv-stg), is the name of a oïl language
originating between the Loire
and the Gironde rivers, and includes the Poitevin
and Saintongese
dialects. The unity of these dialects was only recognized as recently as the beginning of the XIXth century[1], and was reaffirmed by other authors, especially Saintongese or Angoumois
in, during the rest of the XIXth century[2]. This unity has been confirmed throughout the XIXth and XXth centuries by the works of academics from the universities of Liverpool
[3], Angers
[4] Poitiers
[5], Lyon
[6], Nantes
[7], and Clermont-Ferrand
[8], and from the Institut national de la langue française in Nancy [9].
The term "poitevin-saintongeais", attested from 1905 [10], was popularized during the 1970s, giving a new dynamic to the language, particularly at the SEFCO, where we can find, in 1972, the term "potevin-saintongeais" in "Correspondances phonétiques morphologiques et lexicales entre le poitevin-saintongeais et l'occitan"‘‘ [13], by Pierre Bonnaud, an academic with Saintongese origins[12] specializing in the Auvergnat language [12].
The Poitevin-Saintongese language, following its introduction in 1999 in the Cerquiglini report[14], appeared on the official list of the languages of France. It was replaced, between the beginning of 2007 and the beginning of 2010, by "poitevin" and "saintongese", which were at that time considered separate languages in the Ministry of Culture classification. "Poitevin-saintongese" reappeared on the list at the beginning of 2010, under the following wording : "poitevin-saintongeais, dans ses deux variétés : poitevin et saintongeais" (Poitevin-Saintongese, in its two varieties : Poitevin and Saintongese)[15].
The Poitevin-Santongese language appears in the list of languages of the international Atlas 2009 of endangered languages, published by UNESCO
.[16]
The Poitevin-Saintongese language is taught at the University of Poitiers. [17]
The Poitevin-Saintongese language is spoken under its varieties Poitevin or Saintongese[18] in the administrative region Poitou-Charentes
, the departement of the Vendée
, in the north of Gironde
departement (Gabaye Country of Blayese and north Libournese), in the south of Loire-Atlantique
departement (Retz Country), in few municipalities of the Indre
departement(around Le Blanc
, Bélâbre
, Argenton-sur-Creuse
), in the far west of the Dordogne
departement around La Roche-Chalais
[19], and on the limit of the Lot-et-Garonne
departement next to the Saintongese enclave of Monségur
, in Gironde, as well as in Le Verdon's
tip[20]; all in all, in the old provinces of Poitou
, Aunis
, Angoumois
and Saintonge
, in France
. [21] The Poitevin-Saintongese language has had an influence in Quebec French
, Acadian and Cajun.
Références [modifier]
1.↑ Coquebert de Mombret : Essai d'un travail sur la géographie de la langue française, in Mélanges..., 1831 : « although the inhabitants of Upper Brittany (to whom the breton-speaking Bretons give the name "Gallots") do not speak a really pure French, we can not put theirs at the level of the strictly speaking patois
, because the expressions that caracterises it can be found in the works of the XVth and XVIth century authors like Rabelais […]. But few miles beyond the Loire river begins the Poitevin patois used in the departements of the Vendée, the Deux-Sèvres, and the Vienne, and followed, as a mere variety, by the Santongese patois used in the eastern part [sic : he obviously meant : western] of the two departements of the Charente [...]. East of the country occupied by the Poitevin patois lies Berri who does not have a distinctive patois .» http://books.google.fr/books?id=VD1AAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Essai+d'un+travail+sur+la+g%C3%A9ographie+de+la+langue+fran%C3%A7aise&source=bl&ots=W593_R8lRt&sig=TZ1ImPFSOJe4O-hoOVVe0m6ddcE&hl=fr&ei=QFRcS5ueH5Lv4gbOot34BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false [archive]
2.↑ The Santongese writer Pierre Jônain in his "Dictionnaire du patois saintongeais" published in 1869 (reamrk in intro page 4); the writer from the Charente Boucherie (born in Challignac near Barbezieux) in his book "Le dialecte poitevin au XIIIème siècle" published in 1873 : " Fallot has referred under the name of Poitevin dialect to the old written language of the South-Eastern provinces, located between the mouth of the Loire river and the one of the Gironde. It would be more exact to refer to it as Santongese dialect, because it is to Saintonge, and more specifically Aunis, that belongs most of the authentique documents conserving it. However, because Poitou was the most important of the South-Western provinces, and that the classification and the name of the oil language's, as established by Fallot, have been accepted by philologists, I thought that I had to conform with tradition. So I include under the name of Poitevin dialect the wrtien language of old Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge and Angoumois."; De Tourtoulon and Bringuier in "La limite de la langue d'oc et de la langue d'oïl" published in 1876 (remark page 22); le Charente specialist of folklore Jérôme Bujeaud (born in Angoulême) in its book "Chants et chansons populaires des provinces de l’Ouest, Poitou, Saintonge, Aunis et Angoumois" published in 1895 : « in this vast and fertile land formerly called Angoumois, Aunis, Saintonge and Lower-Poitou, you will see not many generic language, but only pronunciation diversity which will never be sharp enough to prevent a farmer from one of those provinces to understand the farmers from the other provinces, its neighbours".
3.↑ In 1926, in "La rencontre des langues entre Loire et Dordogne", in : "Le Centre-Ouest de la France, encyclopédie régionale illustrée", the Charente linguist André-Louis Terracher (born in Vindelle near Angoulême), professor at the university of Liverpool and then chancellor of the university of Dijon, summarized the situation with these terms : « It's enough to cover the hundred first maps of the "Atlas linguistique de la France" of MM. Gilliéron and Edmont to notice that the Central-Western dialecs (Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge and Angoumois) keep, still today and collectively, a strinking originality. Like all originality, it asserts itself in what peculiar they have, in what is normally not found neither north of the Loire river (Touraine and Anjou), neither in the western edges of the Central Massif (Limousin and Perigord), neither south of the Gironde and Dordogne rivers (Gascony), namely : special terms (like brelière, basket andle, or borde, fish bone), very particular stress switching (for example, in the third persons of the verb plural : i devant, ils doivent (they have to) ; il avant, ils ont (they have)), etc. But this originality is made also – and for a part surely as important – from the agreement alternatively offered by these dialects, either with the ones from the west of the oil language ( from the English Channel to the Gironde river rules the type j’allons (nous allons, we go), while the Limousin language uses "n’" or "nous" as a pronoun subject for the first persons plural, that the South does not express ; "aller, avoine"… are opposed to "ana, civada"… from the south and the east, - either with the ones from the oc language (from the Pyrenees to the Loire river "abeille" contrasts with the "avette" from Touraine and Anjou and the "mouche à miel" from Berry and Orleanese ; fisson, (bee sting, aiguillon de guêpe), vergne (aulne, alder) are said also in Limousin and in the South, but don't pass the Loire river in the north; ie. as well the French forms "aile", "tel", "brebis"… which are, in the countries over the Loire, "ale", "tau", "oueille"...)"
Références [modifier]
1.↑ Coquebert de Mombret : Essai d'un travail sur la géographie de la langue française, in Mélanges..., 1831 : « although the inhabitants of Upper Brittany (to whom the breton-speaking Bretons give the name "Gallots") do not speak a really pure French, we can not put theirs at the level of the strictly speaking patois, because the expressions that caracterises it can be found in the works of the XVth and XVIth century authors like Rabelais […]. But few miles beyond the Loire river begins the Poitevin patois used in the departements of the Vendée, the Deux-Sèvres, and the Vienne, and followed, as a mere variety, by the Santongese patois used in the eastern part [sic : he obviously meant : western] of the two departements of the Charente [...]. East of the country occupied by the Poitevin patois lies Berri who does not have a distinctive patois .» http://books.google.fr/books?id=VD1AAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Essai+d'un+travail+sur+la+g%C3%A9ographie+de+la+langue+fran%C3%A7aise&source=bl&ots=W593_R8lRt&sig=TZ1ImPFSOJe4O-hoOVVe0m6ddcE&hl=fr&ei=QFRcS5ueH5Lv4gbOot34BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false [archive]
2.↑ The Santongese writer Pierre Jônain in his "Dictionnaire du patois saintongeais" published in 1869 (reamrk in intro page 4); the writer from the Charente Boucherie (born in Challignac near Barbezieux) in his book "Le dialecte poitevin au XIIIème siècle" published in 1873 : "Fallot has referred under the name of Poitevin dialect to the old written language of the South-Eastern provinces, located between the mouth of the Loire river and the one of the Gironde. It would be more exact to refer to it as Santongese dialect, because it is to Saintonge, and more specifically Aunis, that belongs most of the authentique documents conserving it. However, because Poitou was the most important of the South-Western provinces, and that the classification and the name of the oil language's, as established by Fallot, have been accepted by philologists, I thought that I had to conform with tradition. So I include under the name of Poitevin dialect the wrtien language of old Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge and Angoumois."; De Tourtoulon and Bringuier in "La limite de la langue d'oc et de la langue d'oïl" published in 1876 (remark page 22); le Charente specialist of folklore Jérôme Bujeaud (born in Angoulême) in its book "Chants et chansons populaires des provinces de l’Ouest, Poitou, Saintonge, Aunis et Angoumois" published in 1895 : « in this vast and fertile land formerly called Angoumois, Aunis, Saintonge and Lower-Poitou, you will see not many generic language, but only pronunciation diversity which will never be sharp enough to prevent a farmer from one of those provinces to understand the farmers from the other provinces, its neighbours".
3.↑ In 1926, in "La rencontre des langues entre Loire et Dordogne", in : "Le Centre-Ouest de la France, encyclopédie régionale illustrée", the Charente linguist André-Louis Terracher (born in Vindelle near Angoulême), professor at the university of Liverpool and then chancellor of the university of Dijon, summarized the situation with these terms : « It's enough to cover the hundred first maps of the "Atlas linguistique de la France" of MM. Gilliéron and Edmont to notice that the Central-Western dialecs (Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge and Angoumois) keep, still today and collectively, a strinking originality. Like all originality, it asserts itself in what peculiar they have, in what is normally not found neither north of the Loire river (Touraine and Anjou), neither in the western edges of the Central Massif (Limousin and Perigord), neither south of the Gironde and Dordogne rivers (Gascony), namely : special terms (like brelière, basket andle, or borde, fish bone), very particular stress switching (for example, in the third persons of the verb plural : i devant, ils doivent (they have to) ; il avant, ils ont (they have)), etc. But this originality is made also – and for a part surely as important – from the agreement alternatively offered by these dialects, either with the ones from the west of the oil language ( from the English Channel to the Gironde river rules the type j’allons (nous allons, we go), while the Limousin language uses "n’" or "nous" as a pronoun subject for the first persons plural, that the South does not express ; "aller, avoine"… are opposed to "ana, civada"… from the south and the east, - either with the ones from the oc language (from the Pyrenees to the Loire river "abeille" contrasts with the "avette" from Touraine and Anjou and the "mouche à miel" from Berry and Orleanese ; fisson, (bee sting, aiguillon de guêpe), vergne (aulne, alder) are said also in Limousin and in the South, but don't pass the Loire river in the north; ie. as well the French forms "aile", "tel", "brebis"… which are, in the countries over the Loire, "ale", "tau", "oueille"...)"
4.↑ A.-D. Poirier, professor of romanic philology at the Catholic University of Angers, in "Eléments d’unité : Le parler, le folklore, l’art, in : La Revue du Bas-Poitou" wrote in 1941 : « In Upper-Poitou, as in Vendée, as in Aunis, Saintonge and Angoumois, the same terms, coming from the dialect, are found [...], with the same appearance, I could say, the same costume, in any case with an air of close kindship that a skilled person can catch easily. »
5.↑ In 1960, in his thesis intitled "L’évolution phonétique des parlers du Poitou", where he mentions «poitevino-santongese area », Jacques Pignon, Poitevin linguiste professor at the university of Poitiers (born in Latillé, Vienne), stated : « It is obvious that the phonetical evolution of the Poitevin dialects and these of the santongese dialects is roughly parallel. They make up, west of the of the gallo-romanic area, an original zone where meet, on one side, features oc and features oil, and on the other side, few particular developments, unknown in neighbouring provinces located to the North and to the South. ». Furthermore Liliane Jagueneau, Poitevin linguist (born in Ulcot near Thouars in the Deux-Sèvres) professor of Poitevin-Santongese and Occitan languages at the university of Poitiers, in "Les Traits linguistiques du poitevin-saintongeais", in : "La langue poitevine-saintongeaise : identité et ouverture", wrote in 1994 « First the Poitevin-Santongese corresponds to the five departments of Poitou-Charentes-Vendée, to which is added part of Northern Gironde, the Gabaye Country. […] the points of the Poitevin-santongese area are close enough in the analysis (small linguistic distance) to be considered as forming a coherent set. Indeed, no partition appears between the Vendée and Poitou-Charente, neither between the oceanic coast and the inland, neither between the North and the South[…]. […] they are differences between the North and the South, but they are less than the similarities. »
6.↑ Brigitte Horiot (linguist, specialist of the dialects between Loire and Gironde, CNRS and University of Lyon III) wrote (in “Les parlers du Sud-Ouest”, in : “Français de France et Français du Canada : Les parlers de l’Ouest de la France, du Québec et de l’Acadie”, Centre d’Etudes Linguistiques Jacques Goudet, Université Lyon III, 1995, p. 228) in 1995 : « The linguistic description of the ALO’s [Atlas linguistique de l’Ouest (Linguistic Atlas of the West): Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge, Angoumois] area clearly shows the existence between Loire and Gironde of an important linguistic area, created by its geographical situation and its history, and which particularity is to be a transition zone between North and South, between Breton lands and the central region [called “Centre”]. »
7.↑ Pierre Gauthier Vendean linguist (from Saint-Vincent-sur-Jar), professeur at the university of Nantes, (in Langue et littérature : La langue régionale : Les parlers vendéens dans l’espace linguistique poitevin-saintongeais, in : Vendée, Encyclopédie Bonneton : written with Guy Perraudeau), using the Vendean example, restates in 2003 : « Let’s recall first that the Vendée, before being a department, was under the Ancien Régime (pre-revolution monarchy), what we called « Bas-Poitou » (Lower Poitou) and to understand what are the Vendean dialects, their origins, their life, their future, it’s necessary to situate them in a bigger linguistic, cultural and historic area, the one bordered by the Loire and the Gironde on one part, the Atlantic Ocean and the Massif Central on another part, where are still alive in rural areas local dialects with a sufficient coherence to constitute a minority language, the Poitevin-Saintongese one.”
8.↑ In 2006 Pierre Bonnaud, history and geography professor at the university of Clermont-Ferrand, inside an article titeled "Esquisse géohistorique du Poitou médioroman", in the chapter titeled « La langue régionale » (in singular, and moreover called « poitevin-saintongeais » by him), explain to us the double reality (unity/diversity) : « It is impossible to analyze separately poitevin and saintongese, but they are at the same time interdependent and a bit distinct, as much in their origins as in their evolution. The almost totality of the Charentes and the southern Poitou spoke a language close to Limousin. From Aunis to Loudunese (area of the town ofLoudun], existed a language close to Limousin, but different […]. The Poitevin dialect[…] has been relatively resistant […]. In Saintonge, the perturbation has been more violent […]. So the Saintongese dialect gives at the same time a more Southern (because of its position ; there is even a Gasconian heritage in the southern Gavachery [enclave of Monségur] ) and a more frenchified feeling than Poitevin. In Poitou itself it’s in the east (transit corridor ; « Brandes » with less compact agricultural societies[…] ) where the frenchization is the heaviest, whereas, the “Plains” [Niortais, Mellois…] with more stable societies have kept a dialectal profile more original. » (N.B. : the parts between normal brackets are from the author, the parts between square brackets are explanation complements added here.)
9.↑ Jean-Paul Chauveau from the National Institute of the French language of Nancy, (in Unity and lexical diversity in the West, in : Français de France et Français du Canada : Les parlers de l’Ouest de la France, du Québec et de l’Acadie, Centre d’Etudes Linguistiques Jacques Goudet, Université Lyon III, 1995, p. 81) wrote in 1995 : « More or less in parallel with the Loire appears in the south of Nantes region and Anjou a noticeable area of lexical discordances. A whole series of lexical types, which covers compactly and coherently Angoumois, Saintonge, Aunis and Poitou, abruptly cease to exist. »
10.↑ Mémoires et documents de la Société de l’École des chartes : « comme en Poitevin-Saintongeais » : http://books.google.fr/books?cd=6&id=L_PVAAAAMAAJ&dq=poitevin-saintongeais+%C3%A9cole+des+chartes&q=poitevin-saintongeais [archive], Phonétique historique du Français, volume 3, Pierre Fouché : « chai en poitevin-saintongeais" : http://books.google.fr/books?id=XytcAAAAMAAJ&q=chai+en+poitevin-saintongeais&dq=chai+en+poitevin-saintongeais&cd=2 [archive], La Revue du Bas Poitou et des provinces de l’Ouest : « notre parler poitevin-saintongeais » : http://books.google.fr/books?id=a_JLAAAAMAAJ&q=notre+parler+poitevin-saintongeais&dq=notre+parler+poitevin-saintongeais&cd=4 [archive]
11.↑ Presently professor at the University of Clermont-Ferrand. Author of a huge lexicographic work on Auvergnat language: http://books.google.fr/books?id=iIkx9IPwQD4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Pierre+Bonnaud+dictionnaire&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false [archive]
12.↑ In the book "Medioromanie : Etudes sur la France médiane : n°5 (2006) : Regards sur le Centre-Ouest" published in 2007 by le Groupe de Souvigny, Pierre Bonnaud writes on the endpaper : "With the group autorisation, the writer [himself so] dedicates the texts of this anthology to the memory of my paternal ancestors , dédie les textes de ce recueil à la mémoire de ses ancêtres paternels, natives of Coulonges-sur-l'Autize for some of them, of the Pays d'Arvert for the others, and to my father, born in Javrezac (Charente)."
13.↑ See the summary "Correspondances phonétiques morphologiques et lexicales entre le poitevin-saintongeais et l'occitan" from Pierre Bonnaud on the CNRS website : http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=21885957 [archive]
14.↑ http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/dglf/lang-reg/rapport_cerquiglini/langues-france.html [archive]
15.↑ See the website of the DGLFLF [Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France], service of the Ministry of Culture DGLF - Ministère de la Culture [archive]
16.↑ See article of the newspaper Le Monde : http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:iGWqofYM1sMJ:springclo.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/langues-en-peril/+poitevin-saintongeais+UNESCO&cd=14&hl=fr&ct=clnk&gl=fr [archive]
17.↑ See the presentation of the Poitevin-Saintongese language teaching at the University of Poitiers : http://www.metive.org/IMG/pdf/Langues_regionales_Faculte.pdf [archive]
18.↑ On the DGLFLF website, in the document "Méthodes d’apprentissage des langues de France", in the chaptrer "Langue(s) d’oïl", in the article "Poitevin et saintongeais", we read : "Like Picard, this oïl language [we notice the singular for "poitevin and saintongese together"] covers a vast region and is subdivided into several interunderstandable dialects. It concerns many speakers. It is divided as well between several administrative regions, Pays-de-la-Loire (département of the Vendée), Poitou-Charentes and Aquitania (North of the Gironde département)." See the webpage : http://www.dglf.culture.gouv.fr/lang-reg/methodes-apprentissage/Listes_d_ouvrages_d_apprentissage/Langues_d_oil.htm [archive]
19.↑ Ch. de Tourtoulon and O. Bringuier, « Étude sur la Limite de la langue d’oc et de la langue d’oïl », 1876. [First report to the minister of Public Education, the Religions and the Arts]
20.↑ Ch. de Tourtoulon and O. Bringuier, « Étude sur la Limite de la langue d’oc et de la langue d’oïl », 1876. [First report to the minister of Public Education, the Religions and the Arts]
21.↑ www.troospeanet.com/article.php3?id_article=148
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...
originating between the Loire
Loire (river)
The Loire is the longest river in France. With a length of , it drains an area of , which represents more than a fifth of France's land area. It is the 170th longest river in the world...
and the Gironde rivers, and includes the Poitevin
Poitevin language
Poitevin is a language spoken by the people in Poitou. It is one of the regional languages of France. It is now classified as one of the langues d'oïl but is distinguished by certain features of the langue d'oc...
and Saintongese
Saintongeais
Saintongeais is a dialect spoken halfway down the western coast of France in the former provinces of Saintonge, Aunis and Angoumois, all of which have been incorporated into the current départements of Charente and Charente-Maritime as well as in parts of their neighbouring départements of...
dialects. The unity of these dialects was only recognized as recently as the beginning of the XIXth century[1], and was reaffirmed by other authors, especially Saintongese or Angoumois
Angoumois
Angoumois was a county and province of France, nearly corresponding today to the Charente département. Its capital was Angoulême....
in, during the rest of the XIXth century[2]. This unity has been confirmed throughout the XIXth and XXth centuries by the works of academics from the universities of Liverpool
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...
[3], Angers
University of Angers
The University of Angers is an institution of higher learning situated in the town of the same name, in western France. It was founded in 1356, closed down in 1793, and reestablished in 1971....
[4] Poitiers
University of Poitiers
The University of Poitiers is a university in Poitiers, France. It is a member of the Coimbra Group.-History:Founded in 1431 by Pope Eugene IV and chartered by King Charles VII, the University of Poitiers was originally composed of five faculties: theology, canon law, civil law, medicine, and...
[5], Lyon
University of Lyon
The University of Lyon , located in Lyon and Saint Etienne, France, is a center for higher education and research comprising 16 institutions of higher education...
[6], Nantes
University of Nantes
The University of Nantes is a well-known French university, located in the city of Nantes. Currently, it is attended by approximately 34,000 students. 10% of them are international students coming from 110 countries.-History:...
[7], and Clermont-Ferrand
University of Clermont-Ferrand
The University of Clermont-Ferrand was officially founded in 1896, by merging of two existing faculties and a medical school. In 1976, due to political issues, the University split between University Clermont-Ferrand I - University of Auvergne and University Clermont-Ferrand II - Blaise Pascal...
[8], and from the Institut national de la langue française in Nancy [9].
The term "poitevin-saintongeais", attested from 1905 [10], was popularized during the 1970s, giving a new dynamic to the language, particularly at the SEFCO, where we can find, in 1972, the term "potevin-saintongeais" in "Correspondances phonétiques morphologiques et lexicales entre le poitevin-saintongeais et l'occitan"‘‘ [13], by Pierre Bonnaud, an academic with Saintongese origins[12] specializing in the Auvergnat language [12].
The Poitevin-Saintongese language, following its introduction in 1999 in the Cerquiglini report[14], appeared on the official list of the languages of France. It was replaced, between the beginning of 2007 and the beginning of 2010, by "poitevin" and "saintongese", which were at that time considered separate languages in the Ministry of Culture classification. "Poitevin-saintongese" reappeared on the list at the beginning of 2010, under the following wording : "poitevin-saintongeais, dans ses deux variétés : poitevin et saintongeais" (Poitevin-Saintongese, in its two varieties : Poitevin and Saintongese)[15].
The Poitevin-Santongese language appears in the list of languages of the international Atlas 2009 of endangered languages, published by UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
.[16]
The Poitevin-Saintongese language is taught at the University of Poitiers. [17]
The Poitevin-Saintongese language is spoken under its varieties Poitevin or Saintongese[18] in the administrative region Poitou-Charentes
Poitou-Charentes
Poitou-Charentes is an administrative region in central western France comprising four departments: Charente, Charente-Maritime, Deux-Sèvres and Vienne. The regional capital is Poitiers.-Politics:The regional council is composed of 56 members...
, the departement of the Vendée
Vendée
The Vendée is a department in the Pays-de-la-Loire region in west central France, on the Atlantic Ocean. The name Vendée is taken from the Vendée river which runs through the south-eastern part of the department.-History:...
, in the north of Gironde
Gironde
For the Revolutionary party, see Girondists.Gironde is a common name for the Gironde estuary, where the mouths of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers merge, and for a department in the Aquitaine region situated in southwest France.-History:...
departement (Gabaye Country of Blayese and north Libournese), in the south of Loire-Atlantique
Loire-Atlantique
Loire-Atlantique is a department on the west coast of France named after the Loire River and the Atlantic Ocean.-History:...
departement (Retz Country), in few municipalities of the Indre
Indre
Indre is a department in the center of France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are called Indriens.-History:Indre is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
departement(around Le Blanc
Le Blanc
Le Blanc is a commune and a sub-prefecture of the Indre department in central France.-Geography:Le Blanc is the main city of the Parc naturel régional de la Brenne, on the banks of the Creuse River.-Facilities:...
, Bélâbre
Bélâbre
Bélâbre is a commune in the Indre département in central France.-Geography:The commune is located in the parc naturel régional de la Brenne.The river Anglin flows northwestward through the commune and crosses the village.-References:*...
, Argenton-sur-Creuse
Argenton-sur-Creuse
Argenton-sur-Creuse is a commune in the Indre department in central France. It lies on the Creuse River, 19 m. SSW of Châteauroux, close to the A20 motorway.-History:...
), in the far west of the Dordogne
Dordogne
Dordogne is a départment in south-west France. The départment is located in the region of Aquitaine, between the Loire valley and the High Pyrénées named after the great river Dordogne that runs through it...
departement around La Roche-Chalais
La Roche-Chalais
La Roche-Chalais is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-Population:-References:*...
[19], and on the limit of the Lot-et-Garonne
Lot-et-Garonne
Lot-et-Garonne is a department in the southwest of France named after the Lot and Garonne rivers.-History:Lot-et-Garonne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
departement next to the Saintongese enclave of Monségur
Monségur, Gironde
Monségur is a commune in the Gironde department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-Population:-External links:*...
, in Gironde, as well as in Le Verdon's
Le Verdon-sur-Mer
Le Verdon-sur-Mer is a commune in the Gironde department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-Population:-References:*...
tip[20]; all in all, in the old provinces of Poitou
Poitou
Poitou was a province of west-central France whose capital city was Poitiers.The region of Poitou was called Thifalia in the sixth century....
, Aunis
Aunis
Aunis is a historical province of France, situated in the north-west of the department of Charente-Maritime. Its historic capital is La Rochelle, which took over from Castrum Allionis the historic capital which gives its name to the province....
, Angoumois
Angoumois
Angoumois was a county and province of France, nearly corresponding today to the Charente département. Its capital was Angoulême....
and Saintonge
Saintonge
Saintonge is a small region on the Atlantic coast of France within the département Charente-Maritime, west and south of Charente in the administrative region of Poitou-Charentes....
, in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. [21] The Poitevin-Saintongese language has had an influence in Quebec French
Quebec French
Quebec French , or Québécois French, is the predominant variety of the French language in Canada, in its formal and informal registers. Quebec French is used in everyday communication, as well as in education, the media, and government....
, Acadian and Cajun.
Références [modifier]
1.↑ Coquebert de Mombret : Essai d'un travail sur la géographie de la langue française, in Mélanges..., 1831 : « although the inhabitants of Upper Brittany (to whom the breton-speaking Bretons give the name "Gallots") do not speak a really pure French, we can not put theirs at the level of the strictly speaking patois
Patois
Patois is any language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. It can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects, and other forms of native or local speech, but not commonly to jargon or slang, which are vocabulary-based forms of cant...
, because the expressions that caracterises it can be found in the works of the XVth and XVIth century authors like Rabelais […]. But few miles beyond the Loire river begins the Poitevin patois used in the departements of the Vendée, the Deux-Sèvres, and the Vienne, and followed, as a mere variety, by the Santongese patois used in the eastern part [sic : he obviously meant : western] of the two departements of the Charente [...]. East of the country occupied by the Poitevin patois lies Berri who does not have a distinctive patois .» http://books.google.fr/books?id=VD1AAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Essai+d'un+travail+sur+la+g%C3%A9ographie+de+la+langue+fran%C3%A7aise&source=bl&ots=W593_R8lRt&sig=TZ1ImPFSOJe4O-hoOVVe0m6ddcE&hl=fr&ei=QFRcS5ueH5Lv4gbOot34BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false [archive]
2.↑ The Santongese writer Pierre Jônain in his "Dictionnaire du patois saintongeais" published in 1869 (reamrk in intro page 4); the writer from the Charente Boucherie (born in Challignac near Barbezieux) in his book "Le dialecte poitevin au XIIIème siècle" published in 1873 : " Fallot has referred under the name of Poitevin dialect to the old written language of the South-Eastern provinces, located between the mouth of the Loire river and the one of the Gironde. It would be more exact to refer to it as Santongese dialect, because it is to Saintonge, and more specifically Aunis, that belongs most of the authentique documents conserving it. However, because Poitou was the most important of the South-Western provinces, and that the classification and the name of the oil language's, as established by Fallot, have been accepted by philologists, I thought that I had to conform with tradition. So I include under the name of Poitevin dialect the wrtien language of old Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge and Angoumois."; De Tourtoulon and Bringuier in "La limite de la langue d'oc et de la langue d'oïl" published in 1876 (remark page 22); le Charente specialist of folklore Jérôme Bujeaud (born in Angoulême) in its book "Chants et chansons populaires des provinces de l’Ouest, Poitou, Saintonge, Aunis et Angoumois" published in 1895 : « in this vast and fertile land formerly called Angoumois, Aunis, Saintonge and Lower-Poitou, you will see not many generic language, but only pronunciation diversity which will never be sharp enough to prevent a farmer from one of those provinces to understand the farmers from the other provinces, its neighbours".
3.↑ In 1926, in "La rencontre des langues entre Loire et Dordogne", in : "Le Centre-Ouest de la France, encyclopédie régionale illustrée", the Charente linguist André-Louis Terracher (born in Vindelle near Angoulême), professor at the university of Liverpool and then chancellor of the university of Dijon, summarized the situation with these terms : « It's enough to cover the hundred first maps of the "Atlas linguistique de la France" of MM. Gilliéron and Edmont to notice that the Central-Western dialecs (Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge and Angoumois) keep, still today and collectively, a strinking originality. Like all originality, it asserts itself in what peculiar they have, in what is normally not found neither north of the Loire river (Touraine and Anjou), neither in the western edges of the Central Massif (Limousin and Perigord), neither south of the Gironde and Dordogne rivers (Gascony), namely : special terms (like brelière, basket andle, or borde, fish bone), very particular stress switching (for example, in the third persons of the verb plural : i devant, ils doivent (they have to) ; il avant, ils ont (they have)), etc. But this originality is made also – and for a part surely as important – from the agreement alternatively offered by these dialects, either with the ones from the west of the oil language ( from the English Channel to the Gironde river rules the type j’allons (nous allons, we go), while the Limousin language uses "n’" or "nous" as a pronoun subject for the first persons plural, that the South does not express ; "aller, avoine"… are opposed to "ana, civada"… from the south and the east, - either with the ones from the oc language (from the Pyrenees to the Loire river "abeille" contrasts with the "avette" from Touraine and Anjou and the "mouche à miel" from Berry and Orleanese ; fisson, (bee sting, aiguillon de guêpe), vergne (aulne, alder) are said also in Limousin and in the South, but don't pass the Loire river in the north; ie. as well the French forms "aile", "tel", "brebis"… which are, in the countries over the Loire, "ale", "tau", "oueille"...)"
Références [modifier]
1.↑ Coquebert de Mombret : Essai d'un travail sur la géographie de la langue française, in Mélanges..., 1831 : « although the inhabitants of Upper Brittany (to whom the breton-speaking Bretons give the name "Gallots") do not speak a really pure French, we can not put theirs at the level of the strictly speaking patois, because the expressions that caracterises it can be found in the works of the XVth and XVIth century authors like Rabelais […]. But few miles beyond the Loire river begins the Poitevin patois used in the departements of the Vendée, the Deux-Sèvres, and the Vienne, and followed, as a mere variety, by the Santongese patois used in the eastern part [sic : he obviously meant : western] of the two departements of the Charente [...]. East of the country occupied by the Poitevin patois lies Berri who does not have a distinctive patois .» http://books.google.fr/books?id=VD1AAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Essai+d'un+travail+sur+la+g%C3%A9ographie+de+la+langue+fran%C3%A7aise&source=bl&ots=W593_R8lRt&sig=TZ1ImPFSOJe4O-hoOVVe0m6ddcE&hl=fr&ei=QFRcS5ueH5Lv4gbOot34BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false [archive]
2.↑ The Santongese writer Pierre Jônain in his "Dictionnaire du patois saintongeais" published in 1869 (reamrk in intro page 4); the writer from the Charente Boucherie (born in Challignac near Barbezieux) in his book "Le dialecte poitevin au XIIIème siècle" published in 1873 : "Fallot has referred under the name of Poitevin dialect to the old written language of the South-Eastern provinces, located between the mouth of the Loire river and the one of the Gironde. It would be more exact to refer to it as Santongese dialect, because it is to Saintonge, and more specifically Aunis, that belongs most of the authentique documents conserving it. However, because Poitou was the most important of the South-Western provinces, and that the classification and the name of the oil language's, as established by Fallot, have been accepted by philologists, I thought that I had to conform with tradition. So I include under the name of Poitevin dialect the wrtien language of old Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge and Angoumois."; De Tourtoulon and Bringuier in "La limite de la langue d'oc et de la langue d'oïl" published in 1876 (remark page 22); le Charente specialist of folklore Jérôme Bujeaud (born in Angoulême) in its book "Chants et chansons populaires des provinces de l’Ouest, Poitou, Saintonge, Aunis et Angoumois" published in 1895 : « in this vast and fertile land formerly called Angoumois, Aunis, Saintonge and Lower-Poitou, you will see not many generic language, but only pronunciation diversity which will never be sharp enough to prevent a farmer from one of those provinces to understand the farmers from the other provinces, its neighbours".
3.↑ In 1926, in "La rencontre des langues entre Loire et Dordogne", in : "Le Centre-Ouest de la France, encyclopédie régionale illustrée", the Charente linguist André-Louis Terracher (born in Vindelle near Angoulême), professor at the university of Liverpool and then chancellor of the university of Dijon, summarized the situation with these terms : « It's enough to cover the hundred first maps of the "Atlas linguistique de la France" of MM. Gilliéron and Edmont to notice that the Central-Western dialecs (Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge and Angoumois) keep, still today and collectively, a strinking originality. Like all originality, it asserts itself in what peculiar they have, in what is normally not found neither north of the Loire river (Touraine and Anjou), neither in the western edges of the Central Massif (Limousin and Perigord), neither south of the Gironde and Dordogne rivers (Gascony), namely : special terms (like brelière, basket andle, or borde, fish bone), very particular stress switching (for example, in the third persons of the verb plural : i devant, ils doivent (they have to) ; il avant, ils ont (they have)), etc. But this originality is made also – and for a part surely as important – from the agreement alternatively offered by these dialects, either with the ones from the west of the oil language ( from the English Channel to the Gironde river rules the type j’allons (nous allons, we go), while the Limousin language uses "n’" or "nous" as a pronoun subject for the first persons plural, that the South does not express ; "aller, avoine"… are opposed to "ana, civada"… from the south and the east, - either with the ones from the oc language (from the Pyrenees to the Loire river "abeille" contrasts with the "avette" from Touraine and Anjou and the "mouche à miel" from Berry and Orleanese ; fisson, (bee sting, aiguillon de guêpe), vergne (aulne, alder) are said also in Limousin and in the South, but don't pass the Loire river in the north; ie. as well the French forms "aile", "tel", "brebis"… which are, in the countries over the Loire, "ale", "tau", "oueille"...)"
4.↑ A.-D. Poirier, professor of romanic philology at the Catholic University of Angers, in "Eléments d’unité : Le parler, le folklore, l’art, in : La Revue du Bas-Poitou" wrote in 1941 : « In Upper-Poitou, as in Vendée, as in Aunis, Saintonge and Angoumois, the same terms, coming from the dialect, are found [...], with the same appearance, I could say, the same costume, in any case with an air of close kindship that a skilled person can catch easily. »
5.↑ In 1960, in his thesis intitled "L’évolution phonétique des parlers du Poitou", where he mentions «poitevino-santongese area », Jacques Pignon, Poitevin linguiste professor at the university of Poitiers (born in Latillé, Vienne), stated : « It is obvious that the phonetical evolution of the Poitevin dialects and these of the santongese dialects is roughly parallel. They make up, west of the of the gallo-romanic area, an original zone where meet, on one side, features oc and features oil, and on the other side, few particular developments, unknown in neighbouring provinces located to the North and to the South. ». Furthermore Liliane Jagueneau, Poitevin linguist (born in Ulcot near Thouars in the Deux-Sèvres) professor of Poitevin-Santongese and Occitan languages at the university of Poitiers, in "Les Traits linguistiques du poitevin-saintongeais", in : "La langue poitevine-saintongeaise : identité et ouverture", wrote in 1994 « First the Poitevin-Santongese corresponds to the five departments of Poitou-Charentes-Vendée, to which is added part of Northern Gironde, the Gabaye Country. […] the points of the Poitevin-santongese area are close enough in the analysis (small linguistic distance) to be considered as forming a coherent set. Indeed, no partition appears between the Vendée and Poitou-Charente, neither between the oceanic coast and the inland, neither between the North and the South[…]. […] they are differences between the North and the South, but they are less than the similarities. »
6.↑ Brigitte Horiot (linguist, specialist of the dialects between Loire and Gironde, CNRS and University of Lyon III) wrote (in “Les parlers du Sud-Ouest”, in : “Français de France et Français du Canada : Les parlers de l’Ouest de la France, du Québec et de l’Acadie”, Centre d’Etudes Linguistiques Jacques Goudet, Université Lyon III, 1995, p. 228) in 1995 : « The linguistic description of the ALO’s [Atlas linguistique de l’Ouest (Linguistic Atlas of the West): Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge, Angoumois] area clearly shows the existence between Loire and Gironde of an important linguistic area, created by its geographical situation and its history, and which particularity is to be a transition zone between North and South, between Breton lands and the central region [called “Centre”]. »
7.↑ Pierre Gauthier Vendean linguist (from Saint-Vincent-sur-Jar), professeur at the university of Nantes, (in Langue et littérature : La langue régionale : Les parlers vendéens dans l’espace linguistique poitevin-saintongeais, in : Vendée, Encyclopédie Bonneton : written with Guy Perraudeau), using the Vendean example, restates in 2003 : « Let’s recall first that the Vendée, before being a department, was under the Ancien Régime (pre-revolution monarchy), what we called « Bas-Poitou » (Lower Poitou) and to understand what are the Vendean dialects, their origins, their life, their future, it’s necessary to situate them in a bigger linguistic, cultural and historic area, the one bordered by the Loire and the Gironde on one part, the Atlantic Ocean and the Massif Central on another part, where are still alive in rural areas local dialects with a sufficient coherence to constitute a minority language, the Poitevin-Saintongese one.”
8.↑ In 2006 Pierre Bonnaud, history and geography professor at the university of Clermont-Ferrand, inside an article titeled "Esquisse géohistorique du Poitou médioroman", in the chapter titeled « La langue régionale » (in singular, and moreover called « poitevin-saintongeais » by him), explain to us the double reality (unity/diversity) : « It is impossible to analyze separately poitevin and saintongese, but they are at the same time interdependent and a bit distinct, as much in their origins as in their evolution. The almost totality of the Charentes and the southern Poitou spoke a language close to Limousin. From Aunis to Loudunese (area of the town ofLoudun], existed a language close to Limousin, but different […]. The Poitevin dialect[…] has been relatively resistant […]. In Saintonge, the perturbation has been more violent […]. So the Saintongese dialect gives at the same time a more Southern (because of its position ; there is even a Gasconian heritage in the southern Gavachery [enclave of Monségur] ) and a more frenchified feeling than Poitevin. In Poitou itself it’s in the east (transit corridor ; « Brandes » with less compact agricultural societies[…] ) where the frenchization is the heaviest, whereas, the “Plains” [Niortais, Mellois…] with more stable societies have kept a dialectal profile more original. » (N.B. : the parts between normal brackets are from the author, the parts between square brackets are explanation complements added here.)
9.↑ Jean-Paul Chauveau from the National Institute of the French language of Nancy, (in Unity and lexical diversity in the West, in : Français de France et Français du Canada : Les parlers de l’Ouest de la France, du Québec et de l’Acadie, Centre d’Etudes Linguistiques Jacques Goudet, Université Lyon III, 1995, p. 81) wrote in 1995 : « More or less in parallel with the Loire appears in the south of Nantes region and Anjou a noticeable area of lexical discordances. A whole series of lexical types, which covers compactly and coherently Angoumois, Saintonge, Aunis and Poitou, abruptly cease to exist. »
10.↑ Mémoires et documents de la Société de l’École des chartes : « comme en Poitevin-Saintongeais » : http://books.google.fr/books?cd=6&id=L_PVAAAAMAAJ&dq=poitevin-saintongeais+%C3%A9cole+des+chartes&q=poitevin-saintongeais [archive], Phonétique historique du Français, volume 3, Pierre Fouché : « chai en poitevin-saintongeais" : http://books.google.fr/books?id=XytcAAAAMAAJ&q=chai+en+poitevin-saintongeais&dq=chai+en+poitevin-saintongeais&cd=2 [archive], La Revue du Bas Poitou et des provinces de l’Ouest : « notre parler poitevin-saintongeais » : http://books.google.fr/books?id=a_JLAAAAMAAJ&q=notre+parler+poitevin-saintongeais&dq=notre+parler+poitevin-saintongeais&cd=4 [archive]
11.↑ Presently professor at the University of Clermont-Ferrand. Author of a huge lexicographic work on Auvergnat language: http://books.google.fr/books?id=iIkx9IPwQD4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Pierre+Bonnaud+dictionnaire&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false [archive]
12.↑ In the book "Medioromanie : Etudes sur la France médiane : n°5 (2006) : Regards sur le Centre-Ouest" published in 2007 by le Groupe de Souvigny, Pierre Bonnaud writes on the endpaper : "With the group autorisation, the writer [himself so] dedicates the texts of this anthology to the memory of my paternal ancestors , dédie les textes de ce recueil à la mémoire de ses ancêtres paternels, natives of Coulonges-sur-l'Autize for some of them, of the Pays d'Arvert for the others, and to my father, born in Javrezac (Charente)."
13.↑ See the summary "Correspondances phonétiques morphologiques et lexicales entre le poitevin-saintongeais et l'occitan" from Pierre Bonnaud on the CNRS website : http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=21885957 [archive]
14.↑ http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/dglf/lang-reg/rapport_cerquiglini/langues-france.html [archive]
15.↑ See the website of the DGLFLF [Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France], service of the Ministry of Culture DGLF - Ministère de la Culture [archive]
16.↑ See article of the newspaper Le Monde : http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:iGWqofYM1sMJ:springclo.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/langues-en-peril/+poitevin-saintongeais+UNESCO&cd=14&hl=fr&ct=clnk&gl=fr [archive]
17.↑ See the presentation of the Poitevin-Saintongese language teaching at the University of Poitiers : http://www.metive.org/IMG/pdf/Langues_regionales_Faculte.pdf [archive]
18.↑ On the DGLFLF website, in the document "Méthodes d’apprentissage des langues de France", in the chaptrer "Langue(s) d’oïl", in the article "Poitevin et saintongeais", we read : "Like Picard, this oïl language [we notice the singular for "poitevin and saintongese together"] covers a vast region and is subdivided into several interunderstandable dialects. It concerns many speakers. It is divided as well between several administrative regions, Pays-de-la-Loire (département of the Vendée), Poitou-Charentes and Aquitania (North of the Gironde département)." See the webpage : http://www.dglf.culture.gouv.fr/lang-reg/methodes-apprentissage/Listes_d_ouvrages_d_apprentissage/Langues_d_oil.htm [archive]
19.↑ Ch. de Tourtoulon and O. Bringuier, « Étude sur la Limite de la langue d’oc et de la langue d’oïl », 1876. [First report to the minister of Public Education, the Religions and the Arts]
20.↑ Ch. de Tourtoulon and O. Bringuier, « Étude sur la Limite de la langue d’oc et de la langue d’oïl », 1876. [First report to the minister of Public Education, the Religions and the Arts]
21.↑ www.troospeanet.com/article.php3?id_article=148