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83-631: Aurillac ( French pronunciation: [oʁijak] ; Occitan : Orlhac [uɾˈʎak] ) is the prefecture of the Cantal department , in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France . Aurillac is at 600 m (2,000 ft) above sea level and located at the foot of the Cantal mountains in a small sedimentary basin . The city is built on the banks of the Jordanne,

166-456: A clause to his deed of gift from twenty years before, he gave possession to the abbey, dividing its usufruct rights in part among some of his servants and his nephew (who simultaneously inherited the rights of justice and protection over the monastery); it was for Aurillac the beginning of an economic rise that reached its peak in the 16th century. After the founder's death, except for the biography of him compiled by Odo of Cluny , very little

249-553: 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

332-643: 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

415-707: 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. Aurillac Abbey The abbey was also a leading intellectual center in the Middle Ages , the cradle of the French cultural and literary renewal of the 10th century: it formed among others Gerbert, later Pope Sylvester II , who maintained strong ties with his monastery of origin until his death. Count Gerald, considering that his vast domains, which stretched between

498-655: A garrison town with the 139th Infantry Regiment, who are noted for their feats during the Battle of the Somme . They have a remarkable chronology and a cabinet of trophies were displayed in the Hall of Honour of the Departmental Military Delegation who have since moved, forgetting to preserve and safeguard this part of history. The military square is wide and airy and a feature of military architecture of

581-637: A letter of exemption from Charles the Simple , which was issued in Bourges on June 2, 899, and sanctioned for the abbey to be free and exempt from all civil and episcopal jurisdictions; the abbot of Aurillac could therefore wear - like a bishop - the symbols of the miter and crosier . The consecration of the first abbey church took place in 907, in honor of St. Peter and St. Clement; in 909 Gerald of Aurillac wished to dispose of his remaining property and possessions, which were nonetheless substantial, and with

664-409: A library and scriptorium , was a very important intellectual and cultural center for the 10th century: it is known from Gerbert's correspondence with his old master that he procured ancient manuscripts for his old abbey; there is also John of Salisbury 's testimony about the monks of Luxeuil: “They are masters, not only of eloquent men, but of eloquence itself, for [they are] equal in many respects to

747-573: A network of priories serving travelers such as the hospice of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, at the hill of Mont-Cébro in Cerdanya . In 1061, by Pope Nicholas II, and then again in 1068 by Pope Alexander II , Aurillac saw its privileges confirmed before the sovereign, bishops and local lords: right of justice, free election of the abbot, direct dependence on the Holy See, etc. At that time at least five priories depended on Aurillac. Pope Urban II , after

830-759: A painting in the Art and Archaeology Museum. When the National Stud moved the stables were transformed into an exhibition hall / gallery and a range of exhibitions is held every year including the Salon des Métiers d'Art d'Aurillac. 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 ,

913-746: 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

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996-483: A period of alternating with Saint-Flour , Aurillac definitively became the capital of Cantal . The arrival of the railway in 1866 accelerated the development of the city. At the first census in 1759 there were 6,268 people in Aurillac, it now has about 28,000. Blazon: Gules, three escallops of Argent 2 and 1, in chief Azure, three fleurs-de-lis of Or. Blazon: Party per pale, Or and Vert,

1079-540: 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

1162-542: 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 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

1245-633: A tributary of the Cère . It is 558 km (347 mi) south of Paris and 223 km (139 mi) north of Toulouse . Aurillac was part of a former Auvergne province called Haute-Auvergne and is only 20 km (12 mi) away from the heart of the Auvergne Volcano Park. Access to the commune is by numerous roads including the D922 from Naucelles in the north, the D17 from Saint-Simon in

1328-476: 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

1411-551: A very large number of items which are registered as historical objects in various locations. Some of the most interesting sites are: The commune has several religious buildings and structures that are registered as historical monuments: Aurillac has several dance centres: In 2011 Aurillac hosted the start of the Tour de France in the 10th stage. Two military units are garrisoned in Aurillac: Aurillac has long been

1494-625: 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

1577-410: 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

1660-631: 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 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

1743-411: 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

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1826-409: Is known about the abbey until the 12th century: it is through an anonymous chronicle written around 1137 by a monk from Aurillac that the succession of the first abbots is known. Gerald died in the odor of sanctity on October 13, 909; only a few days before him in the tomb was the first abbot, Adelgarius: he was succeeded by Jean, a relative of the count, on good terms with Pope John X , who confirmed

1909-413: 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

1992-467: 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

2075-527: 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

2158-640: 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

2241-653: The Council of Clermont in which Abbot Pierre II de Cisières had also taken part, visited Aurillac in December 1095 and consecrated the renovated abbey church; in the following March he confirmed Aurillac's status with a bull . According to a bull of Pope Nicholas IV issued around 1290, the abbey of Aurillac owned more than a hundred priories, which later became as many parishes, then communes , located in 17 different dioceses. Their estates produced more than 80,000 livres of income at that date. The abbey, which possessed

2324-595: 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 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

2407-468: 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 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

2490-582: 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

2573-688: The Couderc distillery with its famous gentian liqueur and famous establishments such as the Leroux and Bonal cheese factories, the Morin refinery, MAS charcuteries , Teil cured by the Altitude group, refrigerated transport operator Olano Ladoux etc.). Aurillac is best known for its Cheese centre based on the heights of Aurillac close to the Chateau Saint-Étienne. It was established in 1993,

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2656-613: 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,

2739-647: The Monts of Auvergne, Rouergue , Périgueux and Tulle were allodial , never wanted to pay homage to any lord for his own lands, except for those of Talizat because, as explains Odo of Cluny in his biography of Gerald, his isolated position in the Planèze, outside the Monts of Auvergne, did not allow him to defend it. In vain his cousin William the Pious , Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Auvergne, proposed that he take

2822-495: The abbey Gerald turned to the Benedictine abbey of Vabres, where he sent a group of his young followers, eager to take up the monastic life, to be formed. The first abbot was Adalgarius (or Adelgarius), chosen by Gerald himself by virtue of papal privilege. Gerald, wishing to take the abbey away from local powers (whether secular or religious), placed Aurillac under the direct protection of the sovereign, obtaining to this end

2905-667: The abbey declined with its secularization and its implementation of orders. In 1569 the city was delivered by treason to the Protestants : people were tortured and held to ransom and the Abbey was sacked. The library and archives were all burned. Before the French Revolution Aurillac had a Présidial and carried the title of capital of the Haute-Auvergne . In 1790 on the creation of departments, after

2988-405: The abbey of Martin de Beaune, chancellor of Queen Catherine de' Medici , who had appointed him against the advice of the monks, the abbots became commendatories and ceased to be elected by the chapter and to reside in the abbey, while enjoying its prebends. Shortly afterwards, under the abbey of Cardinal Luigi Pisani, a Venetian nobleman who stayed there only for investiture, the town of Aurillac

3071-455: The abbey, according to Gerald's intentions, was placed by Pope Formosus directly under the dependencies of the Holy See. In the following years Gerald began the construction of the abbey church, initially ex novo on the plain below the castle of Aurillac, then, abandoning this first project following a collapse, renovating and enlarging the pre-existing church of St. Clement, built by his father and in which his parents rested. To populate

3154-582: The border engrailed of one on the other. Aurillac is the capital of the department of Cantal (seat of the prefecture ) and of the Arrondissement of Aurillac as well as for three cantons (INSEE names): List of Successive Mayors Aurillac has twinning associations with: The inhabitants of the commune are known as Aurillacois or Aurillacoises in French. Aurillac has hundreds of boutiques, shops, and artisans. Also found in Aurillac are different players in various food fields (e.g.

3237-452: 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

3320-421: The construction of a new church, which was brought to completion by his successor Géraud de Saint-Céré, and dedicated in 962. At the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries, the cult of St. Gerald spread rapidly, partly due to the intervention of the various pontiffs, from Nicholas II onward, who in the course of time took charge of the abbey, gratifying its founder with the titles of blessed and saint. Aurillac

3403-490: 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

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3486-666: The east and west of the urban area. Aurillac – Tronquières Airport is located in the south of the commune with its runway extending beyond the commune boundary. It is connected to Paris by two daily flights by the Air France subsidiary HOP! . The commune was awarded three flowers by the National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom in the Competition of cities and villages in Bloom. The Jordanne river flows through

3569-921: 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

3652-463: The following years the two of them made a decisive impact on the destiny of the abbey: by introducing to Aurillac the customs of Cluny they elevated its prestige, then founded a school of theology, grammar and music later renowned for centuries. Pilgrimages began, and the abbey's enclosure soon proved too cramped. In 936 Count Raymond Pons I of Toulouse founded the abbey of Saint-Pons-de-Thomières , and asked Aurillac for some monks to populate it. In

3735-455: The former oppidum and the old Gallo-Roman city where the Chateau of Saint-Étienne is today. The history of the city is really only known from 856, the year of the birth of Count Gerald of Aurillac at the castle where his father, also named Gerald, was lord. In 885 he founded a Benedictine monastery which later bore his name. It was in this monastery that Gerbert, the first French pope under

3818-534: 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

3901-620: The great clock that adorns this building. It is also commonly called the House of unions and associations . Originally these buildings were the former Convent of the Visitation, built in 1682. The Convent was converted into a barracks for infantry in 1792 and occupied half of the buildings until 1922, hence the transformation of buildings to equestrian use. Today the Pierre-Mendès-France Cultural Centre occupies

3984-499: The heart of the commune from north to south where it joins the Cère just south of the commune. Influenced by its altitude, Aurillac features an oceanic climate (Cfb), closely bordering on a warm-summer humid continental climate (Dfb) under the Köppen system . In spite of this, the city enjoys more than 2,100 hours of sunshine per year on average, but also a high amount of precipitations per year on average. The record low temperature

4067-476: 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

4150-460: 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

4233-480: 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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4316-528: 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

4399-470: The last centuries of the Middle Ages, in Aurillac as in many other Benedictine foundations, partly because of the long crisis brought about by the Hundred Years' War ; with the modern era a slow and imperceptible secularization took place with the abandonment of the cloister and the communal dormitory, and the allocation of prebends . Beginning with a bull of Pope Pius IV dated May 13, 1561, under

4482-515: 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

4565-772: 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

4648-664: 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),

4731-415: 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

4814-550: The monks of Aurillac, who have acquired great skill and long practice in a great number of sciences.” The following people have stayed or lived in Aurillac: The abbey retained a very important patrimony in which income in kind gradually declined, with most priories being secularized to become parishes. The strict application of the Benedictine Rule according to Cluniac observance gradually diminished during

4897-404: The name of Sylvester II , studied. The city was made in a Sauveté area which was located between four crosses and was founded in 898 by Gerald shortly after the abbey. The first urban area was circular and built close to the Abbey of Aurillac . Gerald died around 910 but his influence was such that over the centuries Gerald was always a baptismal name prevalent in the population of Aurillac and

4980-422: 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

5063-426: The north-east, Route nationale N122 from Polminhac in the east which continues to Sansac-de-Marmiesse in the south-west, the D920 to Arpajon-sur-Cère in the south-east, and the D18 to Ytrac in the west. Aurillac station , in the centre of town, lies on the Figeac -Arvant railway. It has rail connections to Clermont-Ferrand, Brive-la-Gaillarde and Toulouse. About 50% of the commune is urbanised with farmland to

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5146-488: 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 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

5229-402: The old monastery: the Romanesque facade of the old hospice, a few square towers that were part of the defensive system, a few walls of the church of Saint Peter incorporated into the church of Saint-Géraud, a new 17th-century reconstruction by Charles de Noailles, abbot of Aurillac in 1606, then bishop of Saint-Flour in 1610 (the work was finished in 1643). The last reconstruction of the church

5312-405: The original site of the city was on the heights overlooking the current city at Saint-Jean-de-Dône ("Dône" from dunum ) and, like most oppida , it was abandoned after the Roman conquest in favour of a new city established on the plain. With the return of instability in the Lower Roman Empire there was a movement towards Encastellation and a new fortified site was established in mid-slope between

5395-424: 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

5478-431: 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

5561-405: The premises including the Museum of Art and Archaeology, the County Conservatory of Music and Dance, the youth service activities of the town of Aurillac, and a crèche for children. The Stables were then used by the national stud established by Napoleon in 1806; a depot of stallions was created in Aurillac. At the Battle of Austerlitz Napoleon rode Cantal , a speckled gray horse which is visible in

5644-555: 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

5727-466: 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

5810-510: The relationship of dependence with Aurillac in exchange for an annual obolus of 12 solidi . Odo of Cluny was abbot of Aurillac around 924, for a short time (in 926 he was called to Cluny upon the death of Berno ). It was during that time that the cult of Gerald probably began, to which an impetus certainly came from Odo himself, who later wrote his biography. Odo, after taking over the leadership of Cluny, did not abandon Aurillac altogether, leaving Arnulf as his own coadjutor and co-abbot; in

5893-438: The same year, with the involvement of the count himself, the monastery of Saint-Sauveur was founded, still as an emanation of Aurillac, on the lands of the lord of Chanteuge. The following year it was the bishop of Puy, Godescalc, who submitted the monastery of Saint Théofrède at Le Monastier-sur-Gazeille to Arnulf for reform. From then on, foundations and dependencies multiplied. The fifth abbot of Aurillac, Adralde, initiated

5976-464: The structure consists of an association bringing together many organisations to develop scientific programs. It develops scientific programs relating to the cheese sector. Aurillac hosts several websites: Aurillac has also been the headquarters of the ERP vendor Qualiac since 1979. The commune has a very large number of buildings and structures that are registered as historical monuments. There are also

6059-528: The surrounding area. It was in the 13th century that municipal conflict began between consuls and abbots. After taking the Chateau of Saint-Étienne in 1255 and two negotiated agreements called the Peace of Aurillac, relations were normalised. In the 13th and 14th centuries Aurillac withstood several sieges by the English and in the 16th century continued to suffer from civil and religious wars. The influence of

6142-632: 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",

6225-470: The time. It is now known as the Zone of Peace and is now converted into a parking lot leaving a clear view of the 3 buildings that surround it. The entrance to the barracks was destroyed and replaced by a modern building. It houses administrative services, treasury, CABA, Mortgages, Cadastre etc. In the 1950s the old military buildings became the "Cité Administrative". The clock building is called so because of

6308-527: The vassal oath: Gerald would answer only to the sovereign. During one of his frequent pilgrimages to Rome (893-894), he formalized by public deed his willingness to donate his seigniorial estates and benefices of Aurillac to St. Peter the Apostle , for the purpose of building an abbey dedicated to him and maintaining “an abbot, 39 monks and some persons, lay or regular, in the service of the house,” and to pay an obolus of five solidi to St. Peter each year;

6391-488: Was attacked, on September 6, 1569, by a band of Calvinists: church, convent, abbey palace, sculptures, tombs, everything was destroyed and set on fire. Precious metals were melted down and taken to Geneva, books, manuscripts, and archives were burned in the square. In the name of the princes of Navarre and Condé all the abbey's property was sold at auction. During 14 months the townspeople were cut up, tortured, sometimes murdered, to extort their money. Today not much remains of

6474-444: 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

6557-484: 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

6640-519: Was rapidly enriched through the liberality of illustrious devotees, such as the Counts of Toulouse , the Counts of Poitiers , and the Viscounts of Narbonne , but also through the offerings of simple believers and pilgrims, which were numerous given its strategic location along the pilgrimage route to Rome (as well as to Catalonia and Santiago de Compostela ), and to the possession, on these routes, of

6723-543: 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

6806-466: 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

6889-519: Was −24.5 °C (−12 °F) on 9 January 1985 and the record high was 38.0 °C (100 °F) on 30 July 1983. The origin of the name Aurillac is from Aureliacum meaning "Villa of Aurelius" and dates back to the Gallo-Roman era. It is attested in the polygonal Fanum d'Aron which was built in the 1st century and discovered in 1977 at Lescudillier. It is thought that in the Gallic era

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