THE MODERN PROVENÇAL LANGUAGE
The language of the Félibres is based upon the dialect spoken in the
plain of Maillane, in and about the town of Saint-Rémy. This dialect is
one of the numerous divisions of the _langue d'oc_, which Mistral claims
is spoken by nearly twelve millions of people. The literary history of
these patois has been written by B. Noulet, and shows that at the close
of the terrible struggles of the Albigenses the language seemed dead. In
1324 seven poets attempted to found at Toulouse the competitions of the
_Gai Savoir_, and so to revive the ancient poetry and the ancient
language. Their attempt failed. There was literary production of varying
degree of merit throughout two or three centuries; but until the time of
Jasmin no writer attracted any attention beyond his immediate vicinity;
and it is significant that the Félibres themselves were long in
ignorance of Jasmin. It is then not difficult to demonstrate that the
Félibrige revival bears more the character of a creation than of an
evolution. It is not at all an evolution of the literature of the
Troubadours; it is in no way like it. The language of the Félibres is
not even the descendant of the special dialect that dominated as a
literary language in the days of the Troubadours; for it was the speech
of Limousin that formed the basis of that language, and only two of the
greater poets among the Troubadours, Raimond de Vaqueiras and Fouquet de
Marseille, were natives of Provence proper.
The dialect of Saint-Rémy is simply one of countless ramifications of
the dialects descended from the Latin. Mistral and his associates have
made their literary language out of this dialect as they found it, and
not out of the language of the Troubadours. They have regularized the
spelling, and have deliberately eliminated as far as possible words and
forms that appeared to them to be due to French influence, substituting
older and more genuine forms--forms that appeared more in accord with
the genius of the _langue d'oc_ as contrasted with the _langue d'oil_.
Thus, _glòri_, _istòri_, _paire_, replace _gloaro_, _istouèro_, _pèro_,
which are often heard among the people. This was the first step. The
second step taken arose from the necessity of making this speech of the
illiterate capable of elevated expression. Mistral claims to have used
no word unknown to the people or unintelligible to them, with the
exception that he has used freely of the stock of learned words common
to the whole Romance family of languages. These words, too, he
transforms more or less, keeping them in harmony with the forms peculiar
to the _langue d'oc_. Hence, it is true that the language of the
Félibres is a conventional, literary language, that does not represent
exactly the speech of any section of France, and is related to the
popular speech more or less as any official language is to the dialects
that underlie it. As the Félibres themselves have received all their
instruction and literary culture in the French language, they use it
among themselves, and their prose especially shows the influence of the
French to the extent that it may be said that the Provençal sentence, in
prose, appears to be a word-for-word translation of an underlying French
sentence.
Phonetically, the dialect offers certain marked differences when
contrasted with French. First of all is the forceful utterance of the
stressed syllable; the Provençal has post-tonic syllables, unlike the
sister-speech. Here it may be said to occupy a sort of middle position
between Italian and Spanish on the one hand, and French on the other;
for in the former languages the accent is found in all parts of the
word, in French practically only upon the final, and then it is
generally weak, so that the notion of a stress is almost lost. The
stress in Provençal is placed upon one of the last two syllables only,
and only three vowels, _e_, _i_, _o_, may follow the tonic syllable. The
language, therefore, has a cadence that affects the ear differently from
the French, and that resembles more that of the Italian or Spanish
languages.
The nasal vowels are again unlike those of the French language. The
vowel affected by the following nasal consonant preserves its own
quality of sound, and the consonant is pronounced; at the end of a word
both _m_ and _n_ are pronounced as _ng_ in the English word _ring_. The
Provençal utterance of _matin_, _tèms_, is therefore quite unlike that
of the French _matin_, _temps_. This change of the nasal consonants
into the _ng_ sound whenever they become final occurs also in the
dialects of northern Italy and northern Spain. This pronunciation of the
nasal vowels in French is, as is well known, an important factor in the
famous "accent du Midi."
The oral vowels are in general like the French. It is curious that the
close _o_ is heard only in the infrequent diphthong _óu_, or as an
obscured, unaccented final. This absence of the close _o_ in the modern
language has led Mistral to believe that the close _o_ of Old Provençal
was pronounced like _ou_ in the modern dialect, which regularly
represents it. A second element of the "accent du Midi" just referred to
is the substitution of an open for a close _o_. The vowel sound of the
word _peur_ is not distinguished from the close sound in _peu_. In the
orthography of the Félibres the diagraph _ue_ is used as we find it in
Old French to represent this vowel. Probably the most striking feature
of the pronunciation is the unusual number of diphthongs and
triphthongs, both ascending and descending. Each vowel preserves its
proper sound, and the component vowels seem to be pronounced more slowly
and separately than in many languages. It is to be noted that _u_ in a
diphthong has the Italian sound, whereas when single it sounds as in
French. The unmarked _e_ represents the French _é_, as the _e_ mute is
unknown to the Provençal.
The _c_ has come to sound like _s_ before _e_ and _i_, as in French.
_Ch_ and _j_ represent the sounds _ts_ and _dz_ respectively, and _g_
before _e_ and _i_ has the latter sound. There is no aspirate _h_. The
_r_ is generally uvular. The _s_ between vowels is voiced. Only _l_,
_r_, _s_, and _n_ are pronounced as final consonants, _l_ being
extremely rare. Mistral has preserved or restored other final consonants
in order to show the etymology, but they are silent except in _liaison_
in the elevated style of reading.
The language is richer in vowel variety than Italian or Spanish, and the
proportion of vowel to consonant probably greater than in either.
Fortunately for the student, the spelling represents the pronunciation
very faithfully. A final consonant preceded by another is mute; among
single final consonants only _l_, _m_, _n_, _r_, _s_ are sounded;
otherwise all the letters written are pronounced. The stressed syllable
is indicated, when not normal, by the application of practically the
same principles that determine the marking of the accent in Spanish.
The pronunciation of the Félibres is heard among the people at Maillane
and round about. Variations begin as near as Avignon.[5]
Koschwitz' Grammar treats the language historically, and renders
unnecessary here the presentation of more than its most striking
peculiarities. Of these, one that evokes surprise upon first
acquaintance with the dialect is the fact that final _o_ marks the
feminine of nouns, adjectives, and participles. It is a close _o_,
somewhat weakly and obscurely pronounced, as compared, for instance,
with the final _o_ in Italian. In this respect Provençal is quite
anomalous among Romance languages. In some regions of the Alps, at Nice,
at Montpellier, at Le Velay, in Haute-Auvergne, in Roussillon, and in
Catalonia the Latin final _a_ is preserved, as in Italian and Spanish.
The noun has but one form for the singular and plural. The distinction
of plural and singular depends upon the article, or upon the
demonstrative or possessive adjective accompanying the noun. In
_liaison_ adjectives take _s_ as a plural sign. So that, for the ear,
the Provençal and French languages are quite alike in regard to this
matter. The Provençal has not even the formal distinction of the nouns
in _al_, which in French make their plural in _aux_. _Cheval_ in
Provençal is _chivau_, and the plural is like the singular. A curious
fact is the use of _uni_ or _unis_, the plural of the indefinite
article, as a sign of the dual number; and this is its exclusive use.
The subject pronoun, when unemphatic, is not expressed, but understood
from the termination of the verb. _Iéu_ (je), _tu_ (tu), and _éu_ (il)
are used as disjunctive forms, in contrast with the French. The
possessive adjective _leur_ is represented by _si_; and the reflective
_se_ is used for the first plural as well as for the third singular and
third plural.
The moods and tenses correspond exactly to those of the French, and the
famous rule of the past participle is identical with the one that
prevails in the sister language.
Aside from the omission of the pronoun subject, and the use of one or
two constructions not unknown to French, but not admitted to use in the
literary language, the syntax of the Provençal is identical with that of
the French. The inversions of poetry may disguise this fact a little,
but the lack of individuality in the sentence construction is obvious in
prose. Translation of Provençal prose into French prose is practically
mere word substitution.
Instances of the constructions just mentioned are the following. The
relative object pronoun is often repeated as a personal pronoun, so that
the verb has its _object_ expressed twice. The French continually offers
redundancy of subject or complement, but not with the relative.
"Estre, iéu, lou marran que tóuti L'estrangisson!
Estre, iéu, l'estrangié que tóuti LOU fugisson!"
"Être, moi, le paria, que tous rebutent!
Être, moi, l'étranger que tout le monde fuit!"
(_La Rèino Jano_, Act I, Scene III.)
The particle _ti_ is added to a verb to make it interrogative.
E.g. soun-ti? sont-ils? Petrarco ignoro-ti?
èro-ti? était-il? Petrarque ignore-t-il?
This is the regular form of interrogative in the third person. It is, of
course, entirely due to the influence of colloquial French.
The French indefinite statement with the pronoun _on_ may be represented
in Provençal by the third plural of the verb; _on m'a demandé_ is
translated _m'an demanda_, or _on m'a demanda_.
The negative _ne_ is often suppressed, even with the correlative _que_.
The verb _estre_ is conjugated with itself, as in Italian.
The Provençal speech is, therefore, not at all what it would have been
if it had had an independent literary existence since the days of the
Troubadours. The influence of the French has been overwhelming, as is
naturally to be expected. A great number of idioms, that seem to be pure
gallicisms, are found, in spite of the deliberate effort, referred to
above, to eliminate French forms. In _La Rèino Jano_, Act III, Scene IV,
we find _Ié vai de nòstis os_,--_Il y va de nos os_. _Vejan_, _voyons_,
is used as a sort of interjection, as in French. The partitive article
is used precisely as in French. We meet the narrative infinitive with
_de_. In short, the French reader feels at home in the Provençal
sentence; it is the same syntax and, to a great degree, the same
rhetoric. Only in the vocabulary does he feel himself in a strange
atmosphere.
The strength, the originality, the true _raison d'être_ of the Provençal
speech resides in its rich vocabulary. It contains a great number of
terms denoting objects known exclusively in Provence, for which there is
no corresponding term in the sister speech. Many plants have simple,
familiar names, for which the French must substitute a name that is
either only approximate, or learned and pedantic. Words of every
category exist to express usages that are exclusively Provençal.
The study of the modern language confirms the results, as regards
etymology, reached by Diez and Fauriel and others, who have busied
themselves with the Old Provençal. The great mass of the words are
traceable to Latin etyma, as in all Romance dialects a large portion of
Germanic words are found. Greek and Arabic words are comparatively
numerous. Basque and Celtic have contributed various elements, and, as
in French, there is a long list of words the origin of which is
undetermined.
The language shares with the other southern Romance languages a fondness
for diminutives, augmentatives, and pejoratives, and is far richer than
French in terminations of these classes. Long suffixes abound, and the
style becomes, in consequence, frequently high-sounding and exaggerated.
One of the most evident sources of new words in the language of Mistral
is in its suffixes. Most of these are common to the other Romance
languages, and have merely undergone the phonetic changes that obtain
in this form of speech. In many instances, however, they differ in
meaning and in application from their corresponding forms in the sister
languages, and a vast number of words are found the formation of which
is peculiar to the language under consideration. These suffixes
contribute largely to give the language its external appearance; and
while a thorough and scientific study of them cannot be given here,
enough will be presented to show some of the special developments of
Mistral's language in this direction.
-a.
This suffix marks the infinitive of the first conjugation, and also the
past participle. It answers to the French forms in -er and -é. As the
first conjugation is a so-called "living" conjugation, it is the
termination of many new verbs.
-a, -ado.
-ado is the termination of the feminine of the past participle. This
often becomes an abstract feminine noun, answering to the French
termination -ée; _armée_ in Mistral's language is _armado_. Examples of
forms peculiar to Provençal are:
óulivo, _an olive_.
óuliva, _to gather olives_.
óulivado, _olive gathering_.
pié, _foot_.
piado, _footprint_.
-age (masc.).
This suffix is the equivalent of the French -age, and is a suffix of
frequent occurrence in forming new words. _Óulivage_ is a synonym of
_óulivado_, mentioned above. A rather curious word is the adverb arrage,
meaning _at random, haphazard_. It appears to represent a Latin adverb,
_erratice_.
Mourtau, mourtalo, _mortal_, gives the noun mourtalage,
_a massacre_.
-agno (fem.).
An interesting example of the use of this suffix is seen in the word
eigagno, _dew_, formed from aigo, _water_, as though there had been a
Latin word _aquanea_.
-aio (fem.).
This ending corresponds to the French -aille.
poulo, _a hen_.
poulaio, _a lot of hens_, _poultry_.
-aire (masc.).
This represents the Latin -ator (_one who_). The corresponding feminine
in Mistral's works has always the diminutive form -arello.
toumba, _to fall_.
toumbaire, toumbarello, _one who falls_ or _one who fells_.
óuliva, _to gather olives_.
óulivaire, óulivarello, _olive gatherer_.
canta, _to sing_.
cantaire, cantarello, _singer_.
panié, _basket_.
panieraire, _basket maker_.
caligna, _to court_.
calignaire, _suitor_.
paternostriaire, _one who is forever praying_.
Like the corresponding French nouns in -eur, these nouns in -aire, as
well as those in -èire, are also used as adjectives.
-aire = -arium.
The suffix sometimes represents the Latin -arium. A curious word is
_vejaire_, meaning opinion, manner of seeing, as though there had been a
Latin word _videarium_. It sometimes has the form _jaire_ or _chaire_,
through the loss of the first syllable.
-an, -ano.
This suffix is common in the Romance languages. Fihan, _filial_, seems
to be peculiar to the Provençal.
-ànci (fem.).
This is the form corresponding to the French -ance. _Abundance_ is in
Mistral's dialect _aboundànci_.
-ant, -anto.
This is the termination of the present participle and verbal adjective
derived from verbs in -a. These words sometimes have a special meaning,
as toumbant, _declivity_.
-ard, -ardo.
Gaiard is Provençal for the French _gaillard_.
-àri.
This represents the Latin -arius. Abouticàri is Provençal for
_apothecary_.
-as.
This is an augmentative suffix of very frequent use.
porc, _hog_.
pourcas, _great hog_.
serp, _snake_.
serpatas, _great serpent_.
castèu, _fort_.
castelas, _fortress_.
rouco, _rock_.
roucas, _great rock_.
-asso.
This is a pejorative suffix.
vido, _life_.
vidasso, _wretched life_.
-astre.
In French this suffix has the form -âtre.
óulivastre (Fr. olivâtre), _olive in color_.
-at.
Coustat is in French _côté_ (side).
The suffix is often diminutive.
auc, _a gander_.
aucat, _gosling_.
passero, _sparrow_.
passerat, _small sparrow_.
-au, -alo.
This is the form of the widely used suffix -al. Mistral uses paternau
for _paternal_, and also the adjective formed upon paire, _father_,
peirenau, peirenalo, _fatherly_.
bourg, _city_.
bourgau, bourgalo, _civil_.
-edo (fem.).
pin, _pine_.
pinedo, _pine-grove_.
clapo, _stone_.
claparedo, _stony plain_.
óulivo, _olive_.
óulivaredo, _olive-orchard_.
-èire, -erello.
This suffix corresponds to the suffix -aire, mentioned above. It is
appended to the stem of verbs not of the first conjugation.
courre, _to run_.
courrèire, courerello, _runner_.
legi, _to read_.
legèire, legerello, _reader_.
-eja.
This is an exceedingly common verb-suffix, corresponding to the Italian
-eggiare.
toumbarèu, _kind of cart_.
toumbaraleja, _to cart_.
farandolo, _farandole_.
farandouleja, _to dance the farandole_.
poutoun, _kiss_.
poutouneja, _to kiss_.
poumpoun, _caress_.
poumpouneja, _to caress_.
segnour, _lord_.
segnoureja, _to lord it over_.
mistral, _wind of the Rhone valley_.
mistraleja, _to roar like the mistral_.
poudro, _powder_.
poudreja, _to fire a gun_.
clar, _bright_.
clareja, _to brighten_.
-en (masc.), -enco (fem.).
This is a common adjective-suffix.
souleu, _sun_.
souleien, souleienco, _sunny_.
mai, _May_.
maien, maienco, _relating to May_.
Madaleno, _Magdalen_.
madalenen, madalenenco, _like Magdalen_.
-ès (masc.), -esso (fem.).
This suffix corresponds to the French -ais, -aise. Liounès = lyonnais.
-et (masc.), -eto (fem.).
This is perhaps the commonest of the diminutive suffixes.
ome, _man_.
oumenet, _little man_.
fiho, _daughter_.
fiheto, _dear daughter_.
enfan, _child_.
enfantounet, _little child_.
vènt, _wind_.
ventoulet, _breeze_.
toumba, _to fall_.
toumbaraleto, _little leaps_.
chato, _girl_.
chatouneto, _little girl_
malaut, _ill_.
malautounet, _sickly_.
It will be observed that the double diminutive termination is the most
frequent.
Sometimes the -et is not diminutive. _Óuliveto_ may mean a small olive
or a field planted with olives.
-èu (masc.), -ello (fem.).
This suffix is often diminutive.
paurin, _poor chap_.
paurinèu paurinello, _poor little fellow or girl_.
pin, _pine_.
pinatèu, _young pine_.
pinatello, _forest of young pines_.
sauvage, _wild_.
sauvagèu, sauvagello, _somewhat wild_.
Sometimes it is not.
toumba, _to fall_.
toumbarèu, -ello, _likely to fall_.
canta, _to sing_.
cantarèu, -ello, _songful_.
crese, _to believe_.
creserèu, -ello, _inclined to belief_.
-i.
This is a verb-suffix, marking the infinitive of a "living" conjugation.
bourgau, _civil_.
abourgali, _to civilize_.
-ié (fem.).
Carestié, _dearness_, stands in contrast to the Italian _carestia_.
priva, _to train_, _to tame_.
privadié, _sweet food given in training animals_.
-ié (masc.), -iero (fem.).
This is the equivalent of the French -ier.
óulivié, _olive tree_.
bouchié, _butcher_.
pinatié, } _a dwelling_
pinatiero,} _among pines_.
-ièu (masc.), -ivo (fem.).
This is the form corresponding to the French -if, -ive.
ablatièu, _ablative_.
vièu, vivo, _lively_.
-ige (m.).
According to Mistral, this represents the Latin -ities. We incline to
think rather that it corresponds to -age, being added chiefly to words
in _e_. -age fits rather upon stems in _a_.
gounfle, _swollen_.
gounflige, _swelling_.
Felibre.
Felibrige.
paure, _poor_.
paurige, _poverty_.
-iho (fem.).
This suffix makes collective nouns.
pastre, _shepherd_.
pastriho, _company of shepherds_.
paure, _poor_.
pauriho, _the poor_.
-in (m.), -ino (fem.).
This is usually diminutive or pejorative.
paurin, _poor wretch_.
-ioun (fem.).
This corresponds to the French -ion.
nacioun, _nation_.
abdicacioun, _abdication_.
erme, _desert_.
asserma, _to dry up_.
assermacioun, _thirst_, _dryness_.
-is (masc.), -isso (fem.).
Crida, _to cry_.
cridadisso, _cries of woe_.
chapla, _to slay_.
chapladis, _slaughter_.
coula, _to flow_.
couladis or couladisso, _flowing_.
abareja, _to throw pell-mell_.
abarejadis, _confusion_.
toumba, _to fall_.
toumbadis, -isso, _tottering_ (adj.).
This suffix is added to the past participle stem.
-isoun (fem.).
This suffix forms nouns from verbs in -i.
abalauvi, _to make dizzy_, _to confound_.
abalauvisoun, _vertigo_.
-men (masc.).
This corresponds to the French -ment; bastimen = bâtiment, _ship_.
abouli, _to abolish_.
aboulimen, _abolition_.
toumba, _to fall_.
toumbamen, _fall_.
-men (adverb).
urous, urouso, _happy_.
urousamen, _happily_.
It is to be noted here that the adverb has the vowel of the old feminine
termination _a_, and not the modern _o_.
-ot (masc.), -oto (fem.).
A diminutive suffix.
vilo, _town_.
viloto, _little town_.
Sometimes the stem no longer exists separately.
mignot, mignoto, _darling_.
pichot, pichoto, _little boy_, _little girl_.
-oto (fem.).
passa, _to pass_.
passaroto, _passing to and fro_.
-ou (masc.).
This is a noun-suffix of very frequent use. It seems to be for Latin -or
and -orium.
jouga, _to play_.
jougadou, _player_.
abla, _to brag_ (cf. Fr. _hâbler_).
abladou, _braggart_.
abausi, _to abuse, to exaggerate_.
abausidou, _braggart_.
courre, _to run_.
courredou, _corridor_.
lava, _to wash_.
lavadou, _lavatory_.
espande, _to expand_.
espandidou, _expanse, panorama_.
escourre, _to flow out_.
escourredou, _passage_, _hollow_.
toumba, _to fall_.
toumbadou, _water-fall_.
abeura, _to water_.
abeuradou, _drinking-trough_.
passa, _to sift_.
passadou, _sieve_.
mounda, _to winnow_.
moundadou, _sieve_.
-ouge.
This is an adjective suffix.
iver, _winter_.
ivernouge, _wintry_.
-oun (masc.), -ouno (fem.).
A diminutive suffix.
enfan, _child_.
enfantoun, enfantouno, _little child_.
pauriho, _the poor_.
paurihoun, _poor wretch_.
-ounge (masc.).
A suffix forming nouns from adjectives.
vièi, _old_.
vieiounge, _old age_.
-our (fem.).
This is like the above.
vièi, _old_.
vièiour, _old age_.
-ous, -ouso.
This is the Latin -osus; French -eux, -euse. It forms many new words in
Mistral.
urous (Fr. heureux), _happy_.
pouderous (It. and Sp. poderoso), _powerful_.
aboundous, _abundant_.
pin, _pine_.
pinous, _covered with pines_.
escalabra, _to climb_.
escalabrous, _precipitous_.
-ta (fem.).
This is the equivalent of the Latin -tas, French -té. In Mistral's
language it is usually preceded by a connecting vowel _e_.
moundaneta, _worldliness_.
soucieta, _society_.
paureta, _poverty_.
-u (masc.), -udo (fem.).
This ending terminates the past participles of verbs whose infinitive
ends in _e_. It also forms many new adjectives.
astre, _star_.
malastru, _ill-starred_.
sabé, _to know_.
saberu, _learned_.
The feminine form often becomes a noun.
escourre, _to run out_.
escourregudo, _excursion_.
-un (masc.).
This is a very common noun-suffix.
clar, _bright_.
clarun, _brightness_.
rat, _rat_.
ratun, _lot of rats_, _smell of rats_.
paure, _poor_.
paurun, _poverty_.
dansa, _to dance_.
dansun, _love of dancing_.
plagne, _to pity_.
plagnun, _complaining_.
vièi, _old_.
vieiun, _old age_.
-uro (fem.).
toumba, _to fall_.
toumbaduro, _a fall_.
escourre, _to flow away_.
escourreduro, _what flows away_.
bagna, _to wet_.
bagnaduro, _dew_.
This partial survey of the subject of the suffixes in Mistral's dialect
will suffice to show that it is possible to create words indefinitely.
There is no academy to check abuse, no large, cultivated public to
disapprove of the new forms. The Félibres have been free. A fondness for
diminutives marks all the languages of southern Europe, and a love of
long terminations generally distinguished Spanish latinity. The language
of the Félibres is by no means free from the grandiloquence and
pomposity that results from the employment of these high-sounding and
long terminations. _Toumbarelado_, _toumbarelaire_, are rather big in
the majesty of their five syllables to denote a cart-load and its driver
respectively. The abundance of this vocabulary is at any rate manifest.
We have here not a poor dialect, but one that began with a large
vocabulary and in possession of the power of indefinite development and
recreation out of its own resources. It forms compounds with greater
readiness than French, and the learner is impressed by the unusual
number of compound adverbs, some of very peculiar formation.
_Tourna-mai_ (again) is an example. Somewhat on the model of the French
_va-et-vient_ is the word _li mounto-davalo_, the ups and downs. _Un
regardo-veni_ means a look-out. _Noun-ren_ is nothingness. _Ped-terrous_
(earthy foot) indicates a peasant.
Onomatopoetic words, like _zounzoun_, _vounvoun_, _dindánti_, are
common.
Very interesting as throwing light upon the Provençal temperament are
the numerous and constantly recurring interjections. This trait in the
man of the _Midi_ is one that Daudet has brought out humorously in the
Tartarin books. It is often difficult in serious situations to take
these explosive monosyllables seriously.
In his study of Mistral's poetry, Gaston Paris calls attention to the
fact that the Provençal vocabulary offers many words of low association,
or at least that these words suggest what is low or trivial to the
French reader; he admits that the effect upon the Provençal reader may
not be, and is likely not to be, the same; but even the latter must
occasionally experience a feeling of surprise or slight shock to find
such words used in elevated style. For the English reader it is even
worse. Many such expressions could not be rendered literally at all.
Mistral resents this criticism, and maintains that the words in question
are employed in current usage without calling up the image of the low
association. This statement, of course, must be accepted. It is true of
all languages that words rise and fall in dignity, and their origin and
association are momentarily or permanently forgotten.
The undeniably great success of this new Provençal literature justifies
completely the revival of the dialect. As Burns speaks from his soul
only in the speech of his mother's fireside, so the Provençal nature can
only be fully expressed in the home-dialect. Roumanille wrote for
Provençals only. Mistral and his associates early became more ambitious.
His works have been invariably published with French translations, and
more readers know them through the translations than through the
originals. But they are what they are because they were conceived in the
patois, and because their author was fired with a love of the language
itself.
As to the future of this rich and beautiful idiom, nothing can be
predicted. The Félibrige movement appears to have endowed southern
France with a literary language rivalling the French; it appears to have
given an impulse toward the unification of the dialects and subdialects
of the _langue d'oc_. But the _patoisants_ are numerous and powerful,
and will not abdicate their right to continue to speak and write their
local dialects in the face of the superiority of the Félibrige
literature. Is it to be expected that Frenchmen in the south will
hereafter know and use three languages and three literatures--the local
dialect, the language of the Félibres, and the national language and
literature? One is inclined to think not. The practical difficulties are
very great; two literatures are more than most men can become familiar
with.
However, this much is certain: a rich, harmonious language has been
saved forever and crystallized in works of great beauty; its revival has
infused a fresh, intellectual activity into the people whose birthright
it is; it has been studied with delight by many who were not born in
sunny Provence; a very great contribution is made through it to
philological study. Enthusiasts have dreamed of its becoming an
international language, on account of its intermediary position, its
simplicity, and the fact that it is not the language of any nation.
Enthusiasm has here run pretty high, as is apt to be the case in the
south.
In connection with the revival of all these dialects the opinion of two
men, eminent in the science of education, is of the greatest interest.
Eugène Lintilhac approves the view of a professor of Latin, member of
the Institute, who had often noticed the superiority of the peasants of
the frontier regions over those from the interior, and who said, "It is
not surprising, do they not pass their lives translating?" Michel Bréal
considers the patois a great help in the study of the official language,
on the principle that a term of comparison is necessary in the study of
a language. As between Provençal and French this comparison would be
between words, rather than in syntax. Often the child's respect for his
home would be increased if he sees the antiquity of the speech of his
fireside; if, as Bréal puts it, he is shown that his dialect conforms
frequently to the speech of Henri IV or St. Louis. "If the province has
authors like Jasmin, Roumanille, or Mistral, let the child read their
books from time to time along with his French books; he will feel proud
of his province, and will love France only the more. The clergy is well
aware of this power of the native dialect, and knows how to turn it to
account, and your culture is often without root and without depth,
because you have not recognized the strength of these bonds that bind to
a locality. The school must be fast to the soil and not merely seem to
be standing upon it. There need be no fear of thereby shaking the
authority of the official language; the necessity of the latter is
continually kept in sight by literature, journalism, the administration
of government."
The revival of this speech could not fail to interest lovers of
literature. If not a lineal descendant, it is at least a descendant, of
the language that centuries ago brought an era of beauty and light to
Europe, that inspired Dante and Petrarch, and gave to modern literatures
the poetic forms that still bear their Provençal names. The modern
dialect is devoted to other uses now; it is still a language of
brightness and sunshine, graceful and artistic, but instead of giving
expression to the conventionalities of courtly love, or tending to
soften the natures of fierce feudal barons, it now sings chiefly of the
simple, genuine sentiments of the human heart, of the real beauties of
nature, of the charm of wholesome, outdoor life, of healthy toil and
simple living, of the love of home and country, and brings at least a
message of hope and cheer at a time when greater literatures are
burdened with a weight of discouragement and pessimism.
[Footnote 5: The edition of _Mirèio_ published by Lemerre in 1886
contains an _Avis sur la prononciation provençale_ wherein numerous
errors are to be noted. Here the statement is made that _all the letters
are pronounced_; that _ch_ is pronounced _ts_, as in the Spanish word
_muchacho_. The fact about the pronunciation of the _ch_ is that it
varies in different places, having at Maillane the sound _ts_, at
Avignon, for instance, the sound in the English _chin_. It is stated
further on that _ferramento_, _capello_, _fèbre_, are pronounced exactly
like the Italian words _ferramento_, _capello_, _febbre_. The truth is
that they are each pronounced somewhat differently from the Italian
words. Provençal knows nothing of double consonants in pronunciation,
and the vowels are not precisely alike in each pair of words.
Later this sentence occurs: "Dans les triphthongues, comme _biais_,
_pièi_, _vuei_, _niue_, la voix doit dominer sur la voyelle
intermédiaire, tout en faisant sentir les autres." Only the first two of
these four words contain a triphthong. _Vuei_ is a descending diphthong,
the _ue_ representing the French _eu_. _Niue_ offers the same two vowel
sounds inverted, with the stress on the second.
Lastly, the example is given of the name Jéuse. It is spelled without
the accent mark, and the reader is led to infer that it is pronounced as
though it were a French name. Here the _éu_ is a diphthong. The first
vowel is the French _é_, the second the Italian _u_. The stress is on
the first vowel.]