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80-466: Alpes-de-Haute-Provence or sometimes abbreviated as AHP , formerly until 1970 known as Bas-Alpes ( French pronunciation: [alp də ot pʁɔvɑ̃s] ; Occitan : Aups d'Auta Provença ; lit.   ' Alps of Upper Provence ' ), is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France , bordering Alpes-Maritimes and Italy to the east, Var to

160-533: A "simple aggregation"). For example, La Mure-Argens with Argens enjoying this status (with the Mayor delegated specifically for Argens, a city hall annex and an electoral district). In the 2021 departmental election , the Departmental Council of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence was elected as follows: The department has an electoral tradition markedly old left. There are strong republican traditions such as

240-529: A breeding ground for the political organization of the left in the department by the trade union movement. The power station at Sainte-Tulle also supplied many activists to leftist organizations. Exceptions in the department: the alpine areas of Barcelonnette and the upper valley of the Verdon , both territories of emigration but also with a garrison of Chasseurs Alpins in the first. These areas, deeply Catholic, have long opted for elected conservatives – one of

320-553: A common origin (see Occitano-Romance languages ). The language was one of the first to gain prestige as a medium for literature among Romance languages in the Middle Ages. Indeed, in the 12th and 13th centuries, Catalan troubadours such as Guerau de Cabrera , Guilhem de Bergadan, Guilhem de Cabestany, Huguet de Mataplana , Raimon Vidal de Besalú, Cerverí de Girona , Formit de Perpinhan, and Jofre de Foixà wrote in Occitan. At

400-643: A consonant), whereas the southernmost dialects have more features in common with the Ibero-Romance languages (e.g. betacism ; voiced fricatives between vowels in place of voiced stops; - ch - in place of - it -), and Gascon has a number of unusual features not seen in other dialects (e.g. /h/ in place of /f/ ; loss of /n/ between vowels; intervocalic -r- and final -t/ch in place of medieval - ll -). There are also significant lexical differences, where some dialects have words cognate with French, and others have Catalan and Spanish cognates. Nonetheless, there

480-508: A dialect of French spoken by Jews in southern France. Southern Jewish French is now estimated to only be spoken by about 50–100 people. Domergue Sumien proposes a slightly different supradialectal grouping. Observatoire de Haute-Provence The observatory lies at an altitude of about 650 m, on a plateau near the village of Saint-Michel-l'Observatoire in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence département . The site

560-451: A dreadful desert which will not have more inhabitants: this is the Sahara without the sun of Africa , with the snows of Siberia ." (P. Joanne). "On these steep slopes deforestation and flooding have resulted in a lack of fertile soil and agriculture has been the most miserable. There is a small harvest of wheat , wine in small quantities (but good), and truffles in large numbers. In

640-746: A part of a wider Occitano-Romanic group. One such classification posits three groups: According to this view, Catalan is an ausbau language that became independent from Occitan during the 13th century, but originates from the Aquitano-Pyrenean group. Occitan has 3 dialects spoken by Jewish communities that are all now extinct. A sociolect of the Gascon dialect spoken by Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Gascony . It, like many other Jewish dialects and languages, contained large amounts of Hebrew loanwords. It went extinct after World War 2 with

720-510: A particular dialect. These efforts are hindered by the rapidly declining use of Occitan as a spoken language in much of southern France, as well as by the significant differences in phonology and vocabulary among different Occitan dialects. According to the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages , four of the six major dialects of Occitan (Provençal, Auvergnat , Limousin and Languedocien) are considered severely endangered , whereas

800-462: A partly cloudy night sky and untouched by light pollution. Many amateur observatories have been built and the Observatoire de Haute-Provence is one of the largest observatories in continental Europe. It is an active astronomy research centre. The population was once fairly evenly distributed in the territory, including in the mountainous areas where mountain agriculture was well developed. From

880-540: A second Occitan immigration of this period was assimilated by the similar Navarro-Aragonese language , which at the same time was fostered and chosen by the kings of Aragon . In the 14th century, Occitan across the whole southern Pyrenean area fell into decay and became largely absorbed into Navarro-Aragonese first and Castilian later in the 15th century, after their exclusive boroughs broke up (1423, Pamplona 's boroughs unified). Gascon-speaking communities were called to move in for trading purposes by Navarrese kings in

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960-470: A significant impact on the population of towns: some were completely or almost completely abandoned by their inhabitants which led to the disappearance of fifty communes since the creation of the department. Some villages still exist and sometimes gave their name to a new commune created by mergers (e.g. La Mure-Argens ) and others are nothing more than a pile of stones (like Levens in the commune of Majastres ). They are sometimes listed on maps (e.g. Bédejun in

1040-476: A unitary language, as it lacks an official written standard . Like other languages that fundamentally exist at a spoken, rather than written, level (e.g. the Rhaeto-Romance languages , Franco-Provençal , Astur-Leonese , and Aragonese ), every settlement technically has its own dialect, with the whole of Occitania forming a classic dialect continuum that changes gradually along any path from one side to

1120-625: A written account in Occitan from Pamplona centered on the burning of borough San Nicolas from 1258, while the History of the War of Navarre by Guilhem Anelier (1276), albeit written in Pamplona, shows a linguistic variant from Toulouse . Things turned out slightly otherwise in Aragon, where the sociolinguistic situation was different, with a clearer Basque-Romance bilingual situation (cf. Basques from

1200-410: Is "probably not more divergent from Occitan overall than Gascon is". There is no general agreement about larger groupings of these dialects. Max Wheeler divides the dialects into two groups: Pierre Bec divides the dialects into three groups: In order to overcome the pitfalls of the traditional romanistic view, Bec proposed a "supradialectal" classification that groups Occitan with Catalan as

1280-464: Is a significant amount of mutual intelligibility . Gascon is the most divergent, and descriptions of the main features of Occitan often consider Gascon separately. Max Wheeler notes that "probably only its copresence within the French cultural sphere has kept [Gascon] from being regarded as a separate language", and compares it to Franco-Provençal, which is considered a separate language from Occitan but

1360-404: Is also one of the least populated." (Larousse Illustrated Atlas, Printing Larousse, Paris, 1900). Azure, a fleur de lys of Or surmounted by a Label of three points gules all over a terrace in base argent indented of three points. Alpes-de-Haute-Provence is subdivided into 4 arrondissements , 15 cantons and 198 communes . The rural exodus of the 19th and 20th centuries has had

1440-570: Is also spoken in Calabria ( Southern Italy ) in a linguistic enclave of Cosenza area (mostly Guardia Piemontese ). Some include Catalan in Occitan, as the linguistic distance between this language and some Occitan dialects (such as the Gascon language ) is similar to the distance between different Occitan dialects. Catalan was considered a dialect of Occitan until the end of the 19th century and still today remains its closest relative. Occitan

1520-632: Is an official language of Catalonia, Spain, where a subdialect of Gascon known as Aranese is spoken (in the Val d'Aran ). Since September 2010, the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be the officially preferred language for use in the Val d'Aran. Across history, the terms Limousin ( Lemosin ), Languedocien ( Lengadocian ), Gascon , in addition to Provençal ( Provençal , Provençau or Prouvençau ) later have been used as synonyms for

1600-581: Is concentrated mainly in the valleys of the Durance, the Bléone (up to Digne) and the nearby flat lands. The rest of the department is sparsely populated (less than 10 inhabitants per km over most of the territory). 83 (42%) of the communes have less than 200 inhabitants, 9 communes have less than 50 and many villages have been abandoned. The towns are small: only Digne-les-Bains and Manosque approach or exceed 20,000 people. The arrondissement of Barcelonnette

1680-519: Is often in autumn. The Durance, Verdon, Bléone and Buëch have had the construction of several dams and the diversion of parts of the river for irrigation and power generation in the 20th century. The climate of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department is a Mediterranean climate degrading by altitude and latitude. In fact, while in the lower valleys and flat lands of Haute-Provence an inland Mediterranean climate prevails, by contrast in

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1760-617: Is often used by visiting undergraduate astronomy students. Other telescopes at OHP are operated by other organizations, including a 1 m telescope belonging to Geneva Observatory , a 0.5 m telescope operated by the French Space Agency for satellite tracking, and the Berlin Exoplanet Search Telescope, a 0.2 m telescope used to search for exoplanets by observing transits across solar-type stars. While primarily an astronomical research facility,

1840-530: Is predominantly used for spectroscopic studies, using the high resolution spectrograph Aurélie . The 1.20 m telescope was the first to be installed at the site, and has been in use since 1943. It was originally installed at the Observatoire de Paris in 1872. It is now equipped with a direct charge-coupled device (CCD) camera at the f/6 Newton focus and is mainly used for studies of variability of X-ray sources, imaging of galaxies and H II regions and astrometry of faint solar system objects. The 0.80 m telescope

1920-564: Is the Durance which runs in the west of the department. It is in the Durance valley that the most important traffic routes are found: the A51 autoroute and the railway main line. Almost all of the department is in the watershed of the Durance except for the extreme south-east (the cantons of Annot and Entrevaux ) which are drained by the Var . The main tributaries of the Durance in the department are

2000-618: Is the least populated arrondissement in France and the only one in France with less than 10,000 inhabitants. The city of Castellane is the smallest sub-prefecture in France. Among the 15 cantons in the department, 5 have a resident population of less than 10,000 inhabitants: Barcelonnette , Castellane , Riez , Seyne , and Valensole . The ten most populous communes are: In contrast, the three communes with less than 20 inhabitants in 2019 were Archail (14 inhabitants), Saint-Martin-lès-Seyne (13 inh.) and Majastres (4 inh.). Basses-Alpes

2080-413: Is the other native language. Up to seven million people in France understand the language, whereas twelve to fourteen million fully spoke it in 1921. In 1860 , Occitan speakers represented more than 39% of the whole French population (52% for francophones proper); they were still 26% to 36% in the 1920s and fewer than 7% in 1993. Occitan is fundamentally defined by its dialects, rather than being

2160-467: Is worthier and better suited for romances and pastourelles ; but [the language] from Limousin is of greater value for writing poems and cançons and sirventés ; and across the whole of the lands where our tongue is spoken, the literature in the Limousin language has more authority than any other dialect, wherefore I shall use this name in priority. The term Provençal , though implying a reference to

2240-527: The òc language (Occitan), the oïl language (French), and the sì language (Italian). The word òc came from Vulgar Latin hoc ("this"), while oïl originated from Latin hoc illud ("this [is] it"). Old Catalan and now the Catalan of Northern Catalonia also have hoc ( òc ). Other Romance languages derive their word for "yes" from the Latin sic , "thus [it is], [it

2320-640: The Romance of Flamenca (13th century), the Song of the Albigensian Crusade (1213–1219?), Daurel e Betó (12th or 13th century), Las, qu'i non-sun sparvir, astur (11th century) and Tomida femina (9th or 10th century). Occitan was the vehicle for the influential poetry of the medieval troubadours ( trobadors ) and trobairitz : At that time, the language was understood and celebrated throughout most of educated Europe. It

2400-406: The 2nd lost by LREM's Christophe Castaner to Léo Walter of La France insoumise . The department has, by its own characteristics (mountainous and low population), a character marked by a relatively weak industrial base and a move towards the creation of jobs in the areas of trades and services. Thus, according to the survey on labour needs by ASSEDIC, most of the jobs available are now from

2480-460: The Bas-Alpins (masculine) or Bas-Alpines (feminine) in reference to the department's former name, Basses-Alpes, which was in use until 1970. Although the prefecture is Digne-les-Bains, the largest city is Manosque. Alpes-de-Haute-Provence's INSEE and postal code is 04. The departmental can be divided into three zones depending on the terrain, climate, population and economy: The relief of

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2560-696: The PCF or, especially, the socialist movement – the SFIO or the PS , or by the radical left. A landmark of the Resistance during the Second World War , at Liberation the department deeply changed is roots to the left, a change that has not really been challenged since. A change, which may be temporary however, was recorded in 2007 when, for the first time in local political history, a right-wing deputy elected in

2640-707: The SOPHIE échelle spectrograph . Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz discovered the planet orbiting the star 51 Pegasi from observations made using ELODIE on the 1.93 m telescope. They won half of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2019 for this discovery. The 1.52 m is almost identical to the 1.52 m telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile , and has been in use at OHP since 1967. It

2720-790: The Ubaye , the Bléone , the Asse , the Verdon on the left bank, the Buëch , the Jabron, and the Largue on the right bank. The Durance and its tributaries have a torrential character, with a transition between the snow regime of the high valleys and the Mediterranean rainfall regime in the lower mountains and below. The summer low water levels are severe and violent floods occur when heavy rains fall which

2800-582: The Val d'Aran cited c.  1000 ), but a receding Basque language (Basque banned in the marketplace of Huesca, 1349). While the language was chosen as a medium of prestige in records and official statements along with Latin in the early 13th century, Occitan faced competition from the rising local Romance vernacular, the Navarro-Aragonese , both orally and in writing, especially after Aragon's territorial conquests south to Zaragoza , Huesca and Tudela between 1118 and 1134. It resulted that

2880-716: The Durance valley. Occitan language Italy Occitan ( English: / ˈ ɒ k s ɪ t ən , - t æ n , - t ɑː n / ; Occitan pronunciation: [utsiˈta, uksiˈta] ), also known as lenga d'òc ( Occitan: [ˈleŋɡɒ ˈðɔ(k)] ; French : langue d'oc ) by its native speakers, sometimes also referred to as Provençal , is a Romance language spoken in Southern France , Monaco , Italy 's Occitan Valleys , as well as Spain 's Val d'Aran in Catalonia ; collectively, these regions are sometimes referred to as Occitania . It

2960-613: The Judeo-Occitan dialects, Judeo-Niçard was spoken by the community of Jews living in Nice , who were descendants of Jewish immigrants from Provence, Piedmont, and other Mediterranean communities. Its existence is attested from a few documents from the 19th century. It contained significant influence in both vocabulary and grammar from Hebrew. All three of these dialects have some influence in Southern Jewish French,

3040-452: The cities in southern France is unlikely to hear a single Occitan word spoken on the street (or, for that matter, in a home), and is likely to only find the occasional vestige, such as street signs (and, of those, most will have French equivalents more prominently displayed), to remind them of the traditional language of the area. Occitan speakers, as a result of generations of systematic suppression and humiliation (see Vergonha ), seldom use

3120-410: The cold Mistral wind blows from the northwest. This happens on about 45 days per year on average, mostly during winter. Good weather conditions often follow a Mistral . On average, atmospheric absorption at OHP is roughly twice that seen at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) at La Silla, Chile . The main-belt asteroid 7755 Haute-Provence , discovered by Belgian astronomer Eric Elst in 1989,

3200-682: The commune of Chaudon-Norante ). At its formation, the department had 270 communes (262 after changing the limits of the department) but it is now 198. Apart from eight communes which were attached either to Hautes-Alpes (the three communes of the Barcillonnette canton, or to Vaucluse (the canton of Sault ) many communes have disappeared. In 1854, the state of communes in the department was as follows: in total 256 towns and 30 townships. Also some other noteworthy atypical cases: There are still some cases of communal associations since 1973 (some have also gone more or less quickly in favour of

3280-480: The department had 150 years earlier, the distribution and activity of the population are very different. The population is now concentrated in the valley of the Durance and the South West of the department, and agriculture employs less than ever before. Services, mainly tourism and local services, is now the main industry. In 2016 it had 162,565 inhabitants and a density of 23.5 inhabitants/km². The population of

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3360-742: The department has voted "No" during the consultation on the Maastricht Treaty at 51.6% (majority of 2238 votes) and "No" during the consultation on the European Constitutional Treaty at 60.3% (majority 16,575 votes). Both of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence's seats in the National Assembly changed hands in the 2022 legislative election with the 1st constituency lost by the New Democrats' Delphine Bagarry to Christian Girard of National Rally and

3440-440: The department is sightly similar to Guam . The department has never really developed: in 1870 there were 27 small mines (one lead , four oil shale and 22 lignite ). According to the general census of the population, 32.8% of available housing in the department are second homes. The department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence is one of the least densely populated of France with barely more than 20 inhabitants per km. The population

3520-490: The early 12th century to the coastal fringe extending from San Sebastian to the river Bidasoa , where they settled down. The language variant they used was different from the ones in Navarre, i.e. a Béarnese dialect of Gascon. Gascon remained in use in this area far longer than in Navarre and Aragon, until the 19th century, thanks mainly to the fact that Donostia and Pasaia maintained close ties with Bayonne . Though it

3600-921: The end of the 11th century, the Franks , as they were called at the time, started to penetrate the Iberian Peninsula through the Ways of St. James via Somport and Roncesvalles , settling in various locations in the Kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon enticed by the privileges granted them by the Navarrese kings . They settled in large groups, forming ethnic boroughs where Occitan was used for everyday life, in Pamplona , Sangüesa , and Estella-Lizarra , among others. These boroughs in Navarre may have been close-knit communities that tended not to assimilate with

3680-534: The geographical territory in which Occitan is spoken is surrounded by regions in which other Romance languages are used, external influences may have influenced its origin and development. Many factors favored its development as its own language. Catalan in Spain's northern and central Mediterranean coastal regions and the Balearic Islands is closely related to Occitan, sharing many linguistic features and

3760-537: The hills it is more mixed with the valley of the Ubaye characteristic of the inner Alps, with a marked continentality: winters are very harsh with stormy summers. In between, the two influences mingle in the area of the Lower Alps. The characteristics of both climate trends are found throughout the department to a greater or lesser extent: Haute-Provence is therefore very interesting for European astronomers looking for

3840-623: The land compartmentalises the region: the enclosed valleys are difficult to access, so dividing the country into as many local areas which communicate very little with the outside. In 1877, 55 communes only had access to trails or mule paths. The seismic hazard is moderate (zone 3) to medium (zone 4) with different faults such as the Durance located in the department. The main cities are Manosque , Digne-les-Bains , Sisteron , Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban , Oraison , Forcalquier , Les Mées , Pierrevert , Villeneuve , Sainte-Tulle , Gréoux-les-Bains , Barcelonnette and Castellane . The main river

3920-476: The language at the beginning of the 13th century by Catalan troubadour Raimon Vidal de Besalú(n) in his Razós de trobar : La parladura Francesca val mais et [es] plus avinenz a far romanz e pasturellas; mas cella de Lemozin val mais per far vers et cansons et serventés; et per totas las terras de nostre lengage son de major autoritat li cantar de la lenga Lemosina que de negun'autra parladura, per qu'ieu vos en parlarai primeramen. The French language

4000-460: The language in the presence of strangers, whether they are from abroad or from outside Occitania (in this case, often merely and abusively referred to as Parisiens or Nordistes , which means northerners ). Occitan is still spoken by many elderly people in rural areas, but they generally switch to French when dealing with outsiders. Occitan's decline is somewhat less pronounced in Béarn because of

4080-480: The language. Following the pattern of language shift , most of this remainder is to be found among the eldest populations. Occitan activists (called Occitanists ) have attempted, in particular with the advent of Occitan-language preschools (the Calandretas ), to reintroduce the language to the young. Nonetheless, the number of proficient speakers of Occitan is thought to be dropping precipitously. A tourist in

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4160-528: The larger collection of dialects grouped under the name langues d'oïl ) should be used for all French administration. Occitan's greatest decline occurred during the French Revolution , in which diversity of language was considered a threat. In 1903, the four Gospels ( "Lis Evangèli" , i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were translated into Provençal as spoken in Cannes and Grasse. The translation

4240-515: The last speakers being elderly Jews in Bayonne . About 850 unique words and a few morphological and grammatical aspects of the dialect were transmitted to Southern Jewish French. Judeo-Provençal was a dialect of Occitan spoken by Jews in Provence . The dialect declined in usage after Jews were expelled from the area in 1498, and was probably extinct by the 20th century. The least attested of

4320-410: The last two cases it was 53% of the vote. In 1995, Jacques Chirac was leading the second round of the presidential election with just over 52% but less than the national score. In 2002 it was Jean Marie Le Pen who topped the first round. Finally, in 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy , who reached the top in the first round, with nearly 30% of the votes, gained 53.2% in the second round. In European referendums,

4400-772: The latter term for the language as a whole. Many non-specialists, however, continue to refer to the language as Provençal . One of the oldest written fragments of the language found dates back to 960, shown here in italics mixed with non-italicized Latin: De ista hora in antea non decebrà Ermengaus filius Eldiarda Froterio episcopo filio Girberga ne Raimundo filio Bernardo vicecomite de castello de Cornone ... no·l li tolrà ni no·l li devedarà ni no l'en decebrà  ... nec societatem non aurà , si per castellum recuperare non o fa , et si recuperare potuerit in potestate Froterio et Raimundo lo tornarà , per ipsas horas quæ Froterius et Raimundus l'en comonrà . Carolingian litanies ( c.  780 ), though

4480-664: The leader sang in Latin , were answered to in Old Occitan by the people ( Ora pro nos ; Tu lo juva ). Other famous pieces include the Boecis , a 258-line-long poem written entirely in the Limousin dialect of Occitan between the year 1000 and 1030 and inspired by Boethius 's The Consolation of Philosophy ; the Waldensian La nobla leyczon (dated 1100), Cançó de Santa Fe ( c.  1054 –1076),

4560-474: The middle of the 19th century, however, it began to decline due to a strong rural exodus . There were more than 150,000 inhabitants in 1850 but it fell to less than 100,000 after the First World War . It was not until 1960 that the trend changed upwards quite strongly from less than 90,000 in 1954 to nearly 140,000 in 1999 and 162,565 in 2016. However, if this figure is close to the number of inhabitants

4640-415: The modern Occitan-speaking area. After Frédéric Mistral 's Félibrige movement in the 19th century, Provençal achieved the greatest literary recognition and so became the most popular term for Occitan. According to Joseph Anglade , a philologist and specialist of medieval literature who helped impose the then archaic term Occitan as the standard name, the word Lemosin was first used to designate

4720-594: The most famous being the former Minister of the Third Republic , Paul Reynaud . A definition of the political choices of the county population is often translated as: the higher the altitude rises, the more the popular vote looks to the right. Since the end of the First World War the department has been most often depicted, both by the Senate and the National Assembly, as an electoral issue of either

4800-422: The negative sense: for example, "Vous n'avez pas de frères?" "Si, j'en ai sept." ("You have no brothers?" "But yes, I have seven."). The name "Occitan" was attested around 1300 as occitanus , a crossing of oc and aquitanus ( Aquitanian ). For many centuries, the Occitan dialects (together with Catalan ) were referred to as Limousin or Provençal , after the names of two regions lying within

4880-427: The number of Political clubs during the French Revolution and the resistance to the coup of Napoleon III in 1851. The tradition of the left is also manifested in rural areas since all cantons devoted to agriculture very early showed an inclination to vote for Republican candidates. The installation of the large chemical plant at Saint-Auban also had a favorable effect on the vote for the left (see below) and has been

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4960-484: The other. Nonetheless, specialists commonly divide Occitan into six main dialects: The northern and easternmost dialects have more morphological and phonetic features in common with the Gallo-Italic and Oïl languages (e.g. nasal vowels ; loss of final consonants; initial cha/ja- instead of ca/ga- ; uvular ⟨r⟩ ; the front-rounded sound /ø/ instead of a diphthong, /w/ instead of /l/ before

5040-549: The predominantly Basque -speaking general population. Their language became the status language chosen by the Navarrese kings, nobility, and upper classes for official and trade purposes in the period stretching from the early 13th century to the late 14th century. Written administrative records were in a koiné based on the Languedocien dialect from Toulouse with fairly archaic linguistic features. Evidence survives of

5120-495: The previous election (in 2002) was re-elected to the National Assembly. The other seat is occupied by the President of the Departmental Council, Jean-Louis Bianco , a former minister with François Mitterrand . In the Senate, the department is represented by Claude Domeizel , a former Socialist Mayor of Volx . François Mitterrand won the majority of votes of the inhabitants of the department in 1974, 1981, and 1988 although in

5200-458: The professions of sociocultural and sports activities (1031 offers listed out of 4752 total in the department), hotel (968 offers), cleaning (438 offers), catering (345 offers). Of all these offers at least three-quarters were for seasonal jobs. However, significant changes in the sociological situation of the department are to be expected from the implementation of the ITER project at the mouth of

5280-555: The province's history (a late addition to the Kingdom of France), though even there the language is little spoken outside the homes of the rural elderly. The village of Artix is notable for having elected to post street signs in the local language. The area where Occitan was historically dominant has approximately 16 million inhabitants. Recent research has shown it may be spoken as a first language by approximately 789,000 people in France , Italy , Spain and Monaco . In Monaco, Occitan coexists with Monégasque Ligurian , which

5360-466: The region of Provence , historically was used for Occitan as a whole, for "in the eleventh, the twelfth, and sometimes also the thirteenth centuries, one would understand under the name of Provence the whole territory of the old Provincia romana Gallia Narbonensis and even Aquitaine ". The term first came into fashion in Italy . Currently, linguists use the terms Provençal and Limousin strictly to refer to specific varieties within Occitan, using

5440-740: The remaining two ( Gascon and Vivaro-Alpine ) are considered definitely endangered . The name Occitan comes from the term lenga d'òc ("language of òc "), òc being the Occitan word for yes. While the term would have been in use orally for some time after the decline of Latin, as far as historical records show, the Italian medieval poet Dante was the first to have recorded the term lingua d'oc in writing. In his De vulgari eloquentia , he wrote in Latin, "nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil" ("for some say òc , others sì , yet others say oïl "), thereby highlighting three major Romance literary languages that were well known in Italy, based on each language's word for "yes",

5520-435: The south, Vaucluse to the west, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes to the north. Formerly part of the province of Provence , it had a population of 164,308 in 2019, which makes it the 8th least populated department and the 94th most populated French department . Alpes-de-Haute-Provence's main cities are Digne-les-Bains ( prefecture ), Manosque , Sisteron , Barcelonnette , Castellane and Forcalquier . Inhabitants are called

5600-413: The southern part, which has the climate of Provence, there are olive trees , mulberry trees , and orange trees . Aromatic plants abound, and there are 250,000 beehives. Manosque because its location is by far the second largest city of the department (with 5,500 inhabitants). Near Manosque are the lignite and gypsum mines. Despite a fairly active trade in olive oil, wine and raw silk, this department

5680-459: The whole of Occitan; nowadays, the term "Provençal" is understood mainly as the Occitan dialect spoken in Provence , in southeast France. Unlike other Romance languages such as French or Spanish , Occitan does not have a single written standard form, nor does it have official status in France, home to most of its speakers. Instead, there are competing norms for writing Occitan, some of which attempt to be pan-dialectal, whereas others are based on

5760-401: Was chosen for an observatory because of its generally very favourable observing conditions. On average, 60% of nights are suitable for astronomical observations, with the best seasons being summer and autumn. About 170 nights per year on average are completely cloudless . The seeing is usually around 2" but can reach 1" or lower on occasion. Seeing degrades severely, sometimes to over 10", when

5840-444: Was done], etc.", such as Spanish sí , Eastern Lombard sé , Italian sì , or Portuguese sim . In modern Catalan, as in modern Spanish, sí is usually used as a response, although the language retains the word oi , akin to òc , which is sometimes used at the end of yes–no questions and also in higher register as a positive response. French uses si to answer "yes" in response to questions that are asked in

5920-413: Was first used during site testing at nearby Forcalquier in 1932 before the construction of the observatory, where it was later moved in 1945. The telescope is equipped with CCD cameras allowing high quality observations to be made using it, but unlike the other telescopes on site which have computer-controlled pointing systems, the 0.80 m telescope must still be pointed manually, using setting circles . It

6000-484: Was given the official Roman Catholic Imprimatur by vicar general A. Estellon. The literary renaissance of the late 19th century (in which the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Frédéric Mistral, among others, was involved) was attenuated by World War I , when (in addition to the disruption caused by any major war) many Occitan speakers spent extended periods of time alongside French-speaking comrades. Because

6080-413: Was named for the region where the discovering observatory is located. The four main telescopes at OHP are reflecting telescopes with primary mirrors of diameters 1.93 m, 1.52 m, 1.20 m and 0.80 m. The 1.93 m telescope was built by Grubb-Parsons and installed at the site in 1958. One of the instruments available on the 1.93 m telescope was the high resolution ELODIE spectrograph , replaced in 2006 by

6160-536: Was occupied by fascist Italy from November 1942 to September 1943. On 13 April 1970, the department of Basses-Alpes was renamed to Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. Here is an unflattering excerpt from an article called "Basse Alpes" from the Atlas Larousse published at the beginning of the 20th century: "Scattered whitish rocks stand out like bones, a thin topsoil where bushes languish, some mountain flowers and stunted trees ... these mountains form almost everywhere

6240-520: Was one of the 83 original departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790 under the Act of 22 December 1789. On 12 August 1793, the department of Vaucluse was created from parts of the departments of Bouches-du-Rhône , Drôme, and Basses-Alpes. Basses-Alpes lost the canton of Sault to Vaucluse at this point. Seventeen years later, in 1810, the canton of Barcillonnette was transferred over to Hautes-Alpes . The department of Basses-Alpes

6320-543: Was still an everyday language for most of the rural population of southern France well into the 20th century, it is now spoken by about 100,000 people in France according to 2012 estimates. There is a movement in regions of France where Occitan was widely spoken to introduce educational programs to encourage young people in these regions to learn the language. According to the 1999 census, there were 610,000 native speakers (almost all of whom were also native French speakers) and perhaps another million people with some exposure to

6400-521: Was the maternal language of the English queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and kings Richard I (who wrote troubadour poetry) and John . With the gradual imposition of French royal power over its territory, Occitan declined in status from the 14th century on. The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) decreed that the langue d'oïl (French – though at the time referring to the Francien language and not

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