established by poets like Frederi Mistral, and Languedocian, notably as codified by the
Institut d’Estudis Occitans in Toulouse.
Because the romanization of southern Gaul began so early and was nearly complete,
the form of Latin that came to be spoken in Occitania, the linguistic territory of Occitan,
was more conservative, that is, closer to the language of Rome, than in most other areas
of the empire. In addition, Occitania was less affected than northern France by the
Germanic influence that spread through Gaul in the 5th and 6th centuries, primarily by
the Visigoths (particularly in Aquitaine), Burgundians, and Franks, who at times
controlled all of what is now France and more.
Still, Occitan and French have enough in common, owing mainly to the common
Celtic influence, to be generally considered the two main components of the Gallo-
Romance family. That family also includes a group of “Franco-Provençal” dialects
around Geneva, Mâcon, Lyon, Saint-Étienne, and Grenoble, which comprise a separate
language showing linguistic traits of both Occitan and French. (Gallo-Romance,
according to many scholars, also includes the scattered Rheto-Romance areas of
Switzerland and northeastern Alpine Italy.)
Occitania is usually divided into three groups of dialects. The southwestern group,
Gascon, lies roughly between the Pyrénées, the Atlantic, and the Garonne River. Gascon,
considered a separate Romance language by a few specialists, includes the geographical
curiosity of Aranais, spoken in the Aran Valley on the southern slopes of the Pyrénées,
adjoining the Catalan domain. The southern Occitan dialects are (1) in the southeast,
Provençal, whose border runs roughly from the Alps slightly north of Menton, west to
include Digne and Orange, across the Rhône, then south to include Nîmes and the Rhône
delta; and (2) in the central south, Languedocian, whose large area includes Montpellier,
Béziers, Narbonne, Carcassonne, Toulouse, Albi, Agen, Cahors, Rodez, Aurillac, Mende,
and nearby points. The northern Occitan dialects are (1) Limousin in the areas of
Limoges, Périgueux, and Tulle; (2) Auvergnat in the center of the Massif Central,
including the areas of Clermont-Ferrand and Le Puy; and (3) Alpine Provençal from
slightly west of the Rhône (including Privas and Valence) east along the Isère River and
on farther east to encompass the Piedmontese slopes of the Alps.
Looking at a different set of linguistic traits, however, one can also attach
Languedocian to Gascon and Provençal to the northern Occitan dialects. Further debate is
fueled by some Occitanists who prefer to attach Occitan and Gascon to Catalan as a
“Occitano-Romance” family; it is certainly true that Occitan and Catalan, at least in the
Middle Ages, are far closer to each other linguistically than to French and Spanish.
An area of mingled French and Occitan dialect, known as the “Crescent,” includes
parts of the provinces of La Marche and Bourbonnais, north of Limoges and Clermont-
Ferrand. Debate continues as to whether the Occitan domain once included, or at least
influenced and was influenced by, southern Poitou, especially since the work of the first
troubadour, Guilhem IX of Aquitaine and VII of Poitiers, shows several traits of Poitevin,
which can be considered his native tongue.
Medieval Occitan is known through a wealth of deeds, charters, oaths, troubadour
poetry, and other literary texts, as well as through treatises on the language, beginning ca.
1200 with Raimon Vidal de Besalú’s Razos de trobar. These contemporary treatises, like
the documents, the troubadours’ use of rhyme, and other evidence, reveal greater
linguistic standardization than in the French of that period. It is usual to speak of literary
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