Gallo-Romance language spoken in France, Italy and Switzerland
"Romand" redirects here. For the Swiss Romand people, seeRomands. For Swiss Romand region, seeRomandy. For the variety of French used in said region, seeSwiss French. For other uses, seeRomand (disambiguation).
Not to be confused withProvençal, one of the dialects of the Occitan language.
Franco-Provençal (alsoFrancoprovençal,Patois orArpitan)[2] is aGallo-Romance language that originated and is spoken in easternFrance, westernSwitzerland, and northwesternItaly.
Even with all its distinct dialects counted together, the number of Franco-Provençal speakers has been declining significantly and steadily.[7] According toUNESCO, Franco-Provençal was already in 1995 a "potentially endangered language" in Italy and an "endangered language" in Switzerland and France.Ethnologue classifies it as "nearly extinct".[2]
The designationFranco-Provençal (Franco-Provençal:francoprovençâl;French:francoprovençal;Italian:francoprovenzale) dates to the 19th century. In the late 20th century, it was proposed that the language be referred to under the neologismArpitan (Franco-Provençal:arpetan;Italian:arpitano), and itsareal asArpitania.[8] The use of both neologisms remains very limited, with most academics using the traditional form (often written without the hyphen:Francoprovençal), while language speakers refer to it almost exclusively aspatois or under the names of its distinct dialects (Savoyard,Lyonnais,Gaga inSaint-Étienne, etc.).[9]
Formerly spoken throughout theDuchy of Savoy, Franco-Provençal is nowadays (as of 2016) spoken mainly in theAosta Valley as a native language by all age ranges.[10] All remaining areas of the Franco-Provençal language region show practice limited to higher age ranges, except forEvolène and other rural areas ofFrench-speaking Switzerland. It is also spoken in the Alpine valleys aroundTurin and in two isolated towns (Faeto andCelle di San Vito) inApulia.[5]
Franco-Provençal is first attested in manuscripts from the 12th century, possibly diverging from thelangues d'oïl as early as the eighth–ninth centuries (Bec, 1971). However, Franco-Provençal is consistently typified by a strict, myopic comparison to French, and so is characterized as "conservative". Thus, commentators such as Désormaux consider "medieval" the terms for many nouns and verbs, includingpâta "rag",bayâ "to give",moussâ "to lie down", all of which are conservative only relative to French. As an example, Désormaux, writing on this point in the foreword of hisSavoyard dialect dictionary, states:
The antiquated character of the Savoyard patois is striking. One can note it not only in phonetics and morphology, but also in the vocabulary, where one finds numerous words and directions that clearly disappeared from French.[12]
Franco-Provençal failed to garner the cultural prestige of its three more widely spoken neighbors: French, Occitan, and Italian. Communities where speakers lived were generally isolated from each other because of the mountains. In addition, the internal boundaries of the entire speech area were divided by wars and religious conflicts.
France, Switzerland, theFranche-Comté (part of theSpanish Monarchy), and the duchy, later kingdom, ruled by theHouse of Savoy politically divided the region. The strongest possibility for any dialect of Franco-Provençal to establish itself as a major language died when anedict, dated 6 January 1539, was confirmed in the parliament of theDuchy of Savoy on 4 March 1540 (the duchy was partially occupied by France since 1538). The edict explicitly replaced Latin (and by implication, any other language) with French as the language of law and the courts (Grillet, 1807, p. 65).
The nameFranco-Provençal (franco-provenzale) is due toGraziadio Isaia Ascoli (1878), chosen because the dialect group was seen as intermediate betweenFrench andProvençal. Franco-Provençal dialects were widely spoken in their speech areas until the 20th century. As French political power expanded and the "single-national-language" doctrine was spread through French-only education, Franco-Provençal speakers abandoned their language, which had numerous spoken variations and no standardorthography, in favor of the culturally prestigious French.
Franco-Provençal is an extremely fragmented language, with scores of highly peculiar local variations that never merged 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" and there is not 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 simplypatouès ("patois"). Only in recent years have speakers who are not specialists in linguistics become conscious of the language's collective identity.
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 pioneeringlinguist, analyzed the uniquephonetic and structural characteristics of numerous spokendialects. 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 thelangues d'oïl group of languages (Franco) and thelangues d'oc group (Provençal) and gave Franco-Provençal its name.
Ascoli (1878, p. 61) described the language in these terms in his defining essay on the subject:
Chiamo franco-provenzaleun tipo idiomatico, il quale insieme riunisce, con alcuni caratteri specifici, più altri caratteri, che parte son comuni al francese, parte lo sono al provenzale, e non proviene già da una confluenza di elementi diversi, ma bensì attesta sua propria indipendenza istorica, non guari dissimili da quella per cui fra di loro si distinguono gli altri principali tipi neo-latini.
I callFranco-Provençal a type of language that brings together, along with some characteristics which are its own, characteristics partly in common with French, and partly in common with Provençal, and are not caused by a late confluence of diverse elements, but on the contrary, attests to its own historical independence, little different from those by which the principal neo-Latin [Romance] languages distinguish themselves from one another.
Title page of a Franco-Provençal dictionary from Saint-Étienne, France (1896): "The Key to the Gaga Dialect".
Although the nameFranco-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 theUniversity of Neuchâtel in 1969;[13] however, most English-language journals continue to use the traditional spelling.
The nameRomand has been in use regionally in Switzerland at least since 1424, when notaries inFribourg were directed to write their minutes in bothGerman andRommant. 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".[14]
A proposal in the 1960s to call the languageBurgundian (French:"burgondien") did not take hold, mainly because of the potential for confusion with anOïl language known asBurgundian, which is spoken in a neighbouring area, known in English asBurgundy (French:Bourgogne). Other areas also had historical or political claims to such names, especially (Meune, 2007).
Some contemporary speakers and writers prefer the nameArpitan 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").[15] It was popularized in the 1980s by MouvementHarpitanya, a political organization in theAosta Valley.[16] In the 1990s, the term lost its particular political context.[17] TheAliance Culturèla Arpitana (Arpitan Cultural Alliance) is 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 inLausanne, Switzerland, and is now based in Fribourg.[18] In 2010SIL adopted the name "Arpitan" as the primary name of the language inISO 639-3, with "Francoprovençal" as an additional name form.[19]
Native speakers call this languagepatouès (patois) ornosta moda ("our way [of speaking]"). Some Savoyard speakers call their languagesarde. This is a colloquial term used because their ancestors were subjects of theKingdom of Sardinia ruled by theHouse of Savoy untilSavoie andHaute-Savoie were annexed by France in 1860. The language is calledgaga in France'sForez region and appears in the titles of dictionaries and other regional publications.Gaga (and the adjectivegagasse) comes from a local name for the residents ofSaint-Étienne, popularized by Auguste Callet's story "La légende des Gagats" published in 1866.
most of the officially French-speakingRomandie (Suisse-Romande) part of the country, including the followingcantons:Geneva (Genève/Genf),Vaud, the lower part ofValais (Wallis),Fribourg (Freiburg), andNeuchâtel.Note: the remaining parts of Romandie, namelyJura, and the northern valleys of the cantonBern linguistically belong to thelangues d'oïl.
TheAosta Valley is the only region of the Franco-Provençal area where this language is still widely spoken as native by all age ranges of the population. Since 1948 several events have combined to stabilize the language (Valdôtain dialect) in this region. The constitution of Italy was amended[22] to change the status of the former province to an autonomous region. This gives the Aosta Valley special powers to make its own decisions about certain matters. This resulted in growth in the region's economy and the population increased from 1951 to 1991, improving long-term prospects. Residents were encouraged to stay in the region and they worked to continue long-held traditions.
The language was explicitly protected by a 1991 Italian presidential decree[23] and a national law passed in 1999.[24] Further, a regional law[25] 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 theatre 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 theProvince of Turin because there Franco-Provençal speakers make up less than 15% of the population. Lack of jobs has resulted in their migration from the Piedmont's alpine valleys, and contributed to the language's decline.
Switzerland does not recognize Romand (not be confused withRomansh) as one of itsofficial languages. Speakers live in westerncantons whereSwiss French predominates; they converse in the dialects mainly as a second language. The 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 theEvolène dialect.[26]
Franco-Provençal has had a precipitous decline in France. The official language of the French Republic has been designated as French (article 2 of theConstitution of France). The French government officially recognizes Franco-Provençal as one of the "languages of France",[27] but its constitution bars it from ratifying the 1992European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) that would guarantee certain rights to Franco-Provencal. This language has almost no political support in France and it is associated with generally low social status. This situation affects most regional languages that comprise the linguistic wealth of France. Speakers of regional languages are aging and live in mostly rural areas.
Conference hall at the 37thFête internationale de l'arpitan, Saint-Etienne (France), 2016.
Franco-Provençal is currently most spoken in Aosta Valley, withValdôtain having the greatest population of active daily speakers. A 2001 survey of 7,250 people by the Fondation Émile Chanoux revealed that 15% of all Aosta Valley residents claimed Franco-Provençal as their mother tongue, a substantial reduction to the figures reported on the Italian census 20 years earlier (and used in the 2001 European Commission report).[28]
At the time, 55.77% of residents said they knew Franco-provençal and 50.53% said they knew French, Franco-provençal and Italian.[29] This opened a discussion about the concept of mother tongue when concerning a dialect. The Aosta Valley was confirmed as the only area where Franco-provençal is actively spoken in the early 21st century.[30] A report published byLaval University inQuebec City,[31] 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.
In 2005, the European Commission wrote that an approximate 68,000 people spoke the language in theAosta Valley region of Italy, according to reports compiled after the 2003 linguistic survey conducted by the Fondation Chanoux.[32][33] In 2010, anthropologist and ethnologist Christiane Dunoyer proposed a much more conservative estimate of speakers in Aosta Valley at 40,000, with 20,000 using the language on a daily basis.[34]
In 2018, other linguistic academics estimated the number of speakers of Franco-provençal in Aosta Valley to be between 21,000 and 70,000, depending on whether one would choose the number of speakers designating Franco-provençal as their native language, or whether one included all those declaring they knew the language, irrespective of native language considerations.[35] That same year, academic Riccardo Regis calculated that there were 50,000 Franco-provençal speakers in Aosta Valley.[36]
The 2009 edition of ethnologue.com[2] (Lewis, 2009) reported that there were 70,000 Franco-Provençal speakers in Italy. However, these figures are derived from the 1971 census. Outside of Aosta Valley, the alpine valleys of the adjacent province of Turin were estimated to be the home of another 22,000 speakers.[citation needed] Regis estimated the number of speakers in Piedmont in 2019 to be around 15,000.[36] TheFaetar andCigliàje dialect was thought to be spoken by 1,400 people in an isolated pocket of the province ofFoggia, in the southern ItalianApulia region.[33] Beginning in 1951, strong emigration from the town ofCelle Di San Vito to Canada established the Cigliàje variety of this dialect inBrantford,Ontario. At its peak, the language was used daily by several hundred people. As of 2012 this community has dwindled to fewer than 50 daily speakers across three generations.
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 Romandie 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 was 90%, made up of: "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". This was a greater loss than undergone by any other 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).
Note: The overview in this section follows Martin (2005), with all Franco-Provençal examples written in accordance withOrthographe de référence B (see "Orthography" section, below).
Franco-Provençal is asynthetic language, as areOccitan andItalian. Most verbs have different endings for person, number, and tenses, making the use of the pronoun optional; 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 issubject–verb–object (SVO) form in a declarativesentence, for example:Vos côsâds anglès. ("You speak English."), except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order issubject–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?")
Franco-Provençal hasgrammar similar to that of other Romance languages.
Articles have three forms: definite, indefinite, and partitive. Plural definite articlesagree in gender with the noun to which they refer, unlike French. Partitive articles are used withmass nouns.
Nouns areinflected by number and gender. Inflection bygrammatical number (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] (in Italy,codo is occasionally used for both singular and plural).
pôrta (feminine singular):[ˈpɔrtɑ][ˈpurtɑ],
pôrtas (feminine plural):[ˈpɔrte][ˈpurte][ˈpɔrtɛ][ˈpurtɛ][ˈpɔrtɑ][ˈpurtɑ] (in Italy,pôrte is occasionally seen).
In general, inflection bygrammatical gender (masculine and feminine) is the same as for French nouns; however, there are many exceptions. A few examples follow:
Franco-Provençal
Occitan (Provençal)
French
Piedmontese
Italian
English
la sal (fem.)
la sau (fem.)
le sel (masc.)
la sal (fem.)
il sale (masc.)
the salt
l'ôvra (fem.),la besogne (fem.)
l'òbra (fem.),
lo trabalh (masc.)
l'œuvre (fem.),
la besogne (fem.),le travail (masc.),le labeur (masc.)
ël travaj (masc.)
il lavoro (masc.)
the work
l'ongla (fem.)
l'ongla (fem.)
l'ongle (masc.)
l'ongia (fem.)
l'unghia (fem.)
the fingernail
l'ôlyo (masc.)
l'òli (masc.)
l'huile (fem.)
l'euli (masc.)
l'olio (masc.)
the oil
lo crotâl (masc.),lo vipèro (masc.)
la vipèra (fem.)
la vipère (fem.)
la vipra (fem.)
la vipera (fem.)
the viper
Subject pronouns agree in person, number, gender, and case. Although the subject pronoun is usually retained in speech, Franco-Provençal – unlike French or English – is a partiallypro-drop language (null subject language), especially in the 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 pronouns 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 pronouns andpossessive adjectives 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).
Adjectives agree in gender and number with the nouns they modify.
Adverbs are invariable; that is, they are not inflected, unlike nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
Verbs form three grammatical conjugation classes, each of which are further split into two subclasses. Eachconjugation is different, formed by isolating theverb stem and adding an ending determined by mood, tense, voice, and number. Verbs are inflected in fourmoods:indicative,imperative,subjunctive, andconditional; and two impersonal moods:infinitive andparticiple, 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").
Affricate sounds[t͡ʃ] and[d͡ʒ] are mainly present in Fribourg and Valais dialects (often written aschi andgi/ji, occurring before a vowel).
In Arles, and in some dialects of Hauteville and Savoie, the/r/ phoneme is realized as[ʁ].
In the dialects of Savoie and Bresse, phonetic dental sounds[θ] and[ð] occur corresponding to palatal sounds/c/ and/ɟ/. These two sounds may also be realized in dialects of Valais, where they correspond to a succeeding/l/ after a voiceless or voiced stop (likecl,gl) they are then realized as[θ],[ð].
A nasal sound[ŋ] can occur when a nasal precedes a velar stop.
Palatalizations of/s,k/ can be realized as[ç,x~χ] in some Savoyard dialects.
In rare dialects, a palatal lateral/ʎ/ can be realized as a voiced fricative[ʝ].
A glottal fricative[h] occurs as a result of the softening of the allophones of[ç,x~χ] in Savoie and French-speaking Switzerland.
In the dialects of Valdôtien, Fribourg, Valais, Vaudois and in some dialects of Savoyard and Dauphinois, realizations of phonemes/c,ɟ/ often are heard as affricate sounds[t͡s,d͡z]. In the dialects of French-speaking Switzerland, Valle d'Aosta, and Neuchâtel, the two palatal stops are realized as the affricates,[t͡ʃ,d͡ʒ].[40]
The placement of stressedsyllables 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 wordportar is pronounced[pɔrˈtɑ] or[pɔrˈto], with accent on the final "a" or "o", butrousa is pronounced[ˈruːzɑ], with accent on the "ou".
Vowels followed bynasal consonants "m" and "n" are normally nasalized in a similar manner to those in French, for example,chantar andvin in Franco-Provençal, and "chanter" and "vin" in French. However, in the largest part of the Franco-Provençal domain,nasalized vowels retain a timbre that more closely approaches the un-nasalized vowel sound than in French, for example,pan[pɑ̃] andvent[vɛ̃] in Franco-Provençal, compared to "pain"[pɛ̃] and "vent"[vɑ̃] in French.
There is no single official standard that covers Franco-Provençal as a whole. The orthographies in use include the following:
The one used by Aimé Chenal andRaymond Vautherin, who wrote the first comprehensive grammar and dictionary for any variety of Franco-Provençal. Their landmark effort greatly expands upon the work byJean-Baptiste Cerlogne begun in the 19th century on theValdôtain (Valdotèn) dialect of theAosta Valley. It was published in twelve volumes from 1967 to 1982.
The one used by theBureau régional pour l'ethnologie et la linguistique (BREL) inAosta and theCentre d'études franco-provençales « René Willien » (CEFP) inSaint-Nicolas, Italy. It is based on the work ofJean-Baptiste Cerlogne, albeit with several modifications.
TheGraphie de Conflans, which has achieved fairly wide acceptance among speakers residing in Bresse and Savoy. Since it was first proposed by theGroupe de Conflans in 1983, it has appeared in many published works. This method perhaps most closely follows theInternational Phonetic Alphabet, omitting extraneous letters found in other historical and contemporary proposals. It features the use of acombining low line (underscore) as a diacritic to indicate a stressed vowel in thepenult when it occurs, for example:toma,déssanta.
TheOrthographe de référence B, or ORB, devised by linguist Dominique Stich. It is the only orthography intended to represent all Franco-Provençal dialects. It strays from a close representation of various local pronunciations, instead opting for morediaphonemic and etymological spellings, with frequent influence from French. There are two subtypes of ORB:large ("broad"), namely spellings intended to represent all dialects; andserrée ("narrow"), namely spellings modified to represent certain local features. For instance the descendant of Latinfesta is given asféta in "broad" spelling andfétha in "narrow" spelling for a number of dialects where Latin [st] underwent metathesis to *[ts] and then developed to modern [θ].[41]
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).
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 hardpalatized "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-Provençaldialect 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. Sixdialect groups comprising 41dialect idioms for the Franco-Provençal language have been identified and documented byLinguasphere 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, consisting ofFaetar (also known as "Cigliàje" or "Cellese"), has been analyzed by Nagy (2000). The Piedmont dialects need further study.
(Note: Comparative analyses of dialect idioms in the Piedmont basin of theMetropolitan City of Turin — from theVal Soana in the north to theVal Sangone in the south — have not been published).
Several modern orthographic variations exist for all dialects of Franco-Provençal. The spellings and IPA equivalents listed below appear in Martin (2005).
Other than infamily names, the Franco-Provençal legacy survives primarily inplacenames. Many are immediately recognizable, ending in-az, -o(t)z, -uz, -ax, -ex, -ux, -ou(l)x, -aulx, and -ieu(x). These suffixes are vestiges of an old medieval orthographic practice indicating the stressed syllable of a word. In polysyllables, 'z' indicates aparoxytone (stress on penultimate syllable) and 'x' indicates anoxytone (stress on last syllable). So, Chanaz[ˈʃɑnɑ] (shana) but Chênex[ʃɛˈne] (shèné). The following is a list of all such toponyms:
Bilingual road sign (French-Valdôtain) inIntrod,Aosta Valley.Road sign for Charvex (La Balme de Thuy), Haute-Savoie, France after a name change in the 1990s to a historicalSavoyard spelling. (Former village name: Charvet.)
Text of a carol about the appearance of a comet in 1682 by Jean Chapelon.
A long tradition of Franco-Provençal literature exists, although no prevailing written form of the language has materialized. An early 12th-century fragment containing 105 verses from a poem aboutAlexander 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,[contradictory] 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.[42] 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 bycivil law notaries that appeared in the 13th century as Latin was being abandoned for official administration. These include a translation of theCorpus Juris Civilis (known as theJustinian 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 (c. 1240–1310),prioress of aCarthusian nunnery nearMionnay (France), composed two remarkable sacred texts in her native Lyonnais dialect, in addition to her writings in Latin. The first, entitledSpeculum("The Mirror"), describes threemiraculousvisions and their meanings. The other work,Li Via seiti Biatrix, virgina de Ornaciu ("The Life of the Blessed VirginBeatrix d'Ornacieux"), is a long biography of anun andmystic consecrated to thePassion whose faith lead to a devout cult. This text contributed to thebeatification of the nun more than 500 years later byPope Pius IX in 1869.[43] A line from the work in her dialect follows:[44]
§ 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 inGeneva betweenCalvinist Reformers and staunchCatholics, supported by the Duchy of Savoy, brought forth many texts in Franco-Provençal during the early 17th century. One of the best known isCé qu'è lainô ("The One Above"), which was composed by an unknown writer in 1603. The long narrative poem describesl'Escalade, a raid by the Savoyard army that generated patriotic sentiments. It became the unofficial national anthem of theRepublic of Geneva. The first three verses follow below (inGenevois dialect)[45] with a translation:
Amélie Gex (1835–1883) wrote in her nativepatois as well asFrench. 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), andContio de la Bova ("Tales from the Cowshed").
The writings of theabbéJean-Baptiste Cerlogne (1826–1910) are credited with reestablishing the cultural identity of the Aosta Valley. His early poetry includes:L'infan prodeggo (1855),Marenda a Tsesalet (1856) andLa bataille di vatse a Vertosan (1858); among his scholarly works are:Petite grammaire du dialecte valdotain (1893),Dictionnaire du dialecte valdôtain (1908) andLe patois valdotain: son origine littéraire et sa graphie (1909). TheConcours CerlogneArchived 9 January 2006 at theWayback Machine – 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 oralfolk tales,proverbs, andlegends from native speakers in an effort that continues to today. Numerous works have been published.
Prosper Convert [fr] (1852–1933), the bard of Bresse;Louis Mercier (1870–1951),folk singer and author of more than twelve volumes of prose from Coutouvre nearRoanne;Just Songeon (1880–1940), author, poet, and activist from La Combe, Sillingy nearAnnecy;Eugénie Martinet [fr] (1896–1983), poet fromAosta; andJoseph Yerly [de] (1896–1961) ofGruyères whose complete works were published inKan la têra tsantè ("When the earth sang"), are well known for their use of patois in the 20th century.Louis des Ambrois de Nevache, from Upper Susa Valley, transcribed popular songs and wrote some original poetry in localpatois.There are compositions in the current language on the album Enfestar, an artistic project from Piedmont[47]
The first comic book in a Franco-Provençal dialect,Le rebloshon que tyouè! ("The cheese that killed!"), from theFanfoué des Pnottas series by Félix Meynet, appeared in 2000.[48] Two popular works fromThe Adventures of Tintin[49][50] and one from theLucky Luke series[51] were published in Franco-Provençal translations for young readers in 2006 and 2007.
^abEnrico Allasino; Consuelo Ferrier; Sergio Scamuzzi; Tullio Telmon (2005)."LE LINGUE DEL PIEMONTE"(PDF).IRES.113: 71.Archived(PDF) from the original on 16 February 2022. Retrieved4 March 2020 – via Gioventura Piemontèisa.
^"f"(PDF).The Linguasphere Register. p. 165.Archived(PDF) from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved1 March 2013.
^"Paesaggio Linguistico in Svizzera" [Switzerland's Linguistic Landscape].Ufficio Federale di Statistica (in Italian). 2000.Archived from the original on 28 February 2020. Retrieved28 February 2020.
^Krutwig, F. (1973). Les noms pré-indoeuropéens en Val-d'Aoste.Le Flambeau, no. 4, 1973., in: Henriet, Joseph (1997). La Lingua Arpitana.Quaderni Padani, Vol. III, no. 11, May–June 1997. pp. 25–30..pdf (in Italian).
^There are various hypotheses about their origins, possibly dating from 1200–1400, e.g. remnants of troops ofCharles d'Anjou, according to Michele Melillo, "Intorno alle probabili sedi originarie delle colonie francoprovenzali di Celle e Faeto",Revue de Linguistique Romaine, XXIII, (1959), pp. 1–34, orWaldensian refugees according to Pierre Gilles,Histoire ecclesiastique des églises reformées recueillies en quelques Valées de Piedmont, autrefois appelées Vaudoises, Paris, 1643, p. 19.
^Italian presidential decree:Decreto presidenziale della Repubblica del 20 novembre 1991, "Norme in materia di tutela delle minoranze linguistiche", Articolo 2.
^Italian federal law:Legge 15 dicembre 1999, n. 482, "Norme in materia di tutela delle minoranze linguistiche storiche", pubblicata nella Gazzetta Ufficiale n. 297 del 20 dicembre 1999, Articolo 2, (Parlamento Italiano,Legge 482Archived 29 January 2008 at theWayback Machine).
^Assessorat de l'éducation et la culture - Département de la surintendance des écoles,Profil de la politique linguistique éducative, Le Château éd., 2009, p. 20.
^Alessandro Barbero,Une Vallée d'Aoste bilingue dans une Europe plurilingue, Aoste (2003).
^Bauer, Roland (25 September 2017), Reutner, Ursula (ed.),"Vallée d'Aoste",Manuel des francophonies (in French), De Gruyter, pp. 246–274,doi:10.1515/9783110348217-012,ISBN978-3-11-034821-7, retrieved26 July 2024. "Actuellement, le nombre des patoisants valdôtains est estimé à environ 40.000, dont la moitié pratiquerait le francoprovençal quotidiennement (cf. Dunoyer 2010, 17)."
^Zulato, Alessia; Kasstan, Jonathan; Nagy, Naomi (20 December 2017)."An overview of Francoprovençal vitality in Europe and North America".International Journal of the Sociology of Language (249):11–29.doi:10.1515/ijsl-2017-0038.ISSN1613-3668.According to the largest sociolinguistic survey conducted by the Fondation Emile Chanoux in 2001 on a sample of 7,250 Aosta Valley residents, the number of speakers is between 21,000-70,000 (i.e., 40% to 56% of the overall regional population of 128,000 inhabitants). The count depends on whether estimates are inferred from responses to the questions concerning the informants' L1, or the language(s) and dialect(s) known, or the language first learnt (Chanoux 2003).
^Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Renate (1997).The Writings of Margaret of Oingt, Medieval Prioress and Mystic. (From series: Library of Medieval Women). Cambridge: D.S. Brewer.ISBN0-85991-442-9.
^Meynet, Félix (Illustrations) & Roman, Pascal (Text).Le rebloshon que tyouè !. (Translation in Savoyard dialect.) Editions des Pnottas, 2000.ISBN2-940171-14-9.
^"Hergé" (Remi, Georges) (2006).Lé Pèguelyon de la Castafiore ("The Castafiore Emerald", fromThe Adventures of Tintin series). Meune, Manuel & Josine, Trans. (Translation in Bressan dialect, Orthography:La Graphie de Conflans). Brussels, Belgium: Casterman Editions.ISBN2-203-00930-6.
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. Bern: 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.ISBN0-87840-089-3
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.ISBN2-7084-0288-9 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.ISBN2-902709-68-4
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..pdfArchived 10 January 2006 at theWayback Machine(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.ISBN88-7032-232-7
Chenal, Aimé & Vautherin, Raymond (1967–1982).Nouveau dictionnaire de patois valdôtain. (12 vol.). Aoste : Éditions Marguerettaz.
Chenal, Aimé & Vautherin, Raymond (1984).Nouveau dictionnaire de patois valdôtain; Dictionnaire français-patois. Quart: Musumeci.ISBN88-7032-534-2
Constantin, Aimé & Désormaux, Joseph (1982).Dictionnaire savoyard. Marseille: Éditions Jeanne Laffitte. (Originally published, Annecy: Société florimontane, 1902).ISBN2-7348-0137-X
Cuaz-Châtelair, René (1989).Le Franco-provençal, mythe ou réalité'. Paris, la Pensée universelle, pp. 70.ISBN2-214-07979-3
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.ISBN0-9532919-2-8 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.ISBN2-85023-076-6
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.ISBN2-84310-011-9
Dunoyer, Christiane (2016).Le francoprovençal. Transmission, revitalisation et normalisation. Introduction aux travaux. "Actes de la conférence annuelle sur l’activité scientifique du Centre d’études francoprovençales René Willien de Saint-Nicolas, le 7 novembre 2015". Aosta, pp. 11–15.
Duraffour, Antonin; Gardette, P.; Malapert, L. & Gonon, M. (1969).Glossaire des patois francoprovençaux. Paris: CNRS Éditions.ISBN2-222-01226-0
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.
Favre, Christophe & Balet, Zacharie (1960). Lexique du Parler de Savièse.Romanica Helvetica, Vol. 71, 1960. Bern: 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.ISBN2-86677-036-6
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).ISBN2-7348-0399-2
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.ISBN2-84206-338-4
Grillet, Jean-Louis (1807).Dictionnaire historique, littéraire et statistique des départements du Mont-Blanc et du Léman. Chambéry: Librairie J.F. Puthod.
Joze Harietta (Seudónimo de Joseph Henriet),La lingua arpitana : con particolare riferimento alla lingua della Val di Aosta, Tip. Ferrero & Cie. die Romano Canavese, 1976, 174 p.
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.ISSN0184-7783. Monthly newsletter in English, fromINEDArchived 22 May 2010 at theWayback Machine
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).ISBN2-8321-0172-0
Jochnowitz, George (1973).Dialect Boundaries and the Question of Franco-Provençal. Paris & The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter & Co.ISBN90-279-2480-5
Kattenbusch, Dieter (1982),Das Frankoprovenzalische in Süditalien: Studien zur synchronischen und diachronischen Dialektologie (Tübinger Beiträge zur Linguistik), Tübingen, Germany: Gunter Narr Verlag.ISBN3-87808-997-X
Kasstan, Jonathan and Naomi Nagy, eds. 2018. Special issue: "Francoprovencal: Documenting Contact Varieties in Europe and North America."International Journal of the Sociology of Language 249.
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.ISBN2-222-02192-8 (cf.Savoyard dialect).
Martin, Jean-Baptiste (2005).Le Francoprovençal de poche. Chennevières-sur-Marne: Assimil.ISBN2-7005-0351-1
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 fromTLFQArchived 7 June 2012 at theWayback Machine
Minichelli, Vincenzo (1994).Dizionario francoprovenzale di Celle di San Vito e Faeto. (2nd ed.). (Telmon, Tullio, Intro.). Alessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso.ISBN88-7694-166-5
Morosi, Giacomo (1890–92),Il dialetto franco-provenzale di Faeto e Celle, nell'Italia meridionale, "Archivio Glottologico Italiano", XII. pp. 33–75
Nelde, Peter H. (1996).Euromosaic: The production and reproduction of the minority language groups in the European Union. Luxembourg: European Commission.ISBN92-827-5512-6 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.ISBN2-84147-196-9 (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.ISBN0-631-19286-7
Ursula Reutner: 'Minor' Gallo-Romance Languages. In: Lebsanft, Franz/Tacke, Felix:Manual of Standardization in the Romance Languages. Berlin: de Gruyter (Manuals of Romance Linguistics 24), 773–807, ISBN 9783110455731.
Ruhlen, Merritt (1987).A Guide to the World's Languages. (Vol. 1:Classification). Stanford: Stanford University Press.ISBN0-8047-1250-6 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.ISBN2-908150-15-8 This work includes the current orthographic standard for the language.
Stich, Dominique (1998).Parlons francoprovençal : une langue méconnue. Paris: L'Harmattan.ISBN2-7384-7203-6. 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.ISBN2-84310-029-1
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 savoyard-français (2e éd ed.). Cran-Gevrier: L'Echevé du Val-de-Fier.ISBN2-9512146-2-6. Dictionary and grammar for the dialect in the Albanais region, which includes Annecy and Aix-les-Bains.
Wartburg, Walter von (1928–2003).Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. ("FEW"). (25 vol.). Bonn, Basel & Nancy: Klopp, Helbing & Lichtenhahn, INaLF/ATILF. Etymological dictionary of Gallo-Roman languages and dialects.
^Venetian is either grouped with the rest of the Italo-Dalmatian or the Gallo-Italic languages, depending on the linguist, but the major consensus among linguists is that in the dialectal landscape of northern Italy, Veneto dialects are clearly distinguished from Gallo-Italic dialects.
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