107-564: Frontignan ( French pronunciation: [fʁɔ̃tiɲɑ̃] ; Occitan : Frontinhan ) is a commune in the Hérault department in southern France . Frontignan is renowned for its AOC wine, the Muscat de Frontignan , a sweet wine made solely from the Muscat grape variety. Frontignan is located in the Languedoc coastal plain between the towns of Sète and Montpellier . The town
214-638: A Name" ( Ville sans Nom .) In Toulon, the opponents of the Revolution handed the city to a British and Spanish fleet on 28 August 1793. A Revolutionary Army laid siege to the British positions for four months (see the Siege of Toulon ) and finally, the enterprise of the young commander of artillery, Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the British and drove them out in December 1793. About 15,000 royalists escaped with
321-520: A base for a new French Mediterranean fleet. The base was greatly enlarged by Jean-Baptiste Colbert , the minister of Louis XIV, who also commissioned his chief military engineer Vauban to strengthen the fortifications around the city. At the beginning of the 17th century, Provence had a population of about 450,000 people. It was predominantly rural, devoted to raising wheat, wine, and olives, with small industries for tanning, pottery, perfume-making, and ship and boat building. Provençal quilts , made from
428-620: A cave above sea level. Inside, the walls of the Cosquer Cave are decorated with drawings of bison, seals, auks, horses and outlines of human hands, dating to between 27,000 and 19,000 BC. The end of the Paleolithic and beginning of the Neolithic period saw the sea settle at its present level, a warming of the climate and the retreat of the forests. The disappearance of the forests and the deer and other easily hunted game meant that
535-553: 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
642-643: 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
749-469: 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. Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France , which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to
856-746: 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
963-698: A prize in the complex rivalries between the Catalan rulers of Barcelona , the kings of Burgundy , the German rulers of the Holy Roman Empire , and the Angevin kings of France. The Bosonids (879–1112) were the descendants of the first king of Provence, Boson. His son, Louis the Blind (890–928), lost his sight trying to win the throne of Italy, after which his cousin, Hugh of Italy (died 947), became
1070-540: 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
1177-465: A series of small colonies and trading posts along the coast; which later became towns; they founded Citharista ( La Ciotat ); Tauroeis (Le Brusc); Olbia (near Hyères ); Pergantion (Breganson); Caccabaria ( Cavalaire ); Athenopolis ( Saint-Tropez ); Antipolis ( Antibes ); Nikaia ( Nice ), and Monoicos ( Monaco ). They established inland towns at Glanum ( Saint-Remy ) and Mastrabala ( Saint-Blaise ). The most famous citizen of Massalia
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#17327878665861284-542: 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
1391-476: 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
1498-625: 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
1605-410: 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
1712-631: 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
1819-464: 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
1926-492: Is so rocky that you cannot plant anything without striking stones. The men compensate for the lack of wheat by hunting... They climb the mountains like goats." They were also warlike; they invaded Italy and went as far as Rome in the 4th century BC, and they later aided the passage of Hannibal , on his way to attack Rome (218 BC). Traces of the Ligures remain today in the dolmens and other megaliths found in eastern Provence, in
2033-572: Is surrounded by the Gardiole hills to the north, the Ingril lagoon in the east, the Étang de Thau to the west and the Mediterranean shore (including the beach resort Frontignan-Plage) to the south. The Rhône-Sète canal separates the inland town centre and Frontignan-Plage. Frontignan station has rail connections ( TER Occitanie ) to Narbonne, Montpellier and Avignon. In 1800, Frontignan
2140-413: 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
2247-467: 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
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#17327878665862354-527: 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
2461-640: 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
2568-595: 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
2675-726: The Grotte du Vallonnet near Roquebrune-Cap-Martin , between Monaco and Menton . More sophisticated tools, worked on both sides of the stone and dating to 600,000 BC, were found in the Cave of Escale at Saint-Estève-Janson ; tools from 400,000 BC and some of the first fireplaces in Europe were found at Terra Amata in Nice. Tools dating to the Middle Paleolithic (300,000 BC) and Upper Paleolithic (30,000–10,000 BC) were discovered in
2782-886: The House of Orange-Nassau of the Netherlands, who inherited it in 1544 and which was not incorporated into France until 1673. An army of the Catholic League laid siege to the Protestant city of Mėnerbes in the Vaucluse between 1573 and 1578. The wars did not stop until the end of the 16th century, with the consolidation of power in Provence by the Bourbon kings. The semi-independent Parliament of Provence in Aix and some of
2889-468: 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
2996-582: 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
3103-820: The Vaucluse ; the Cavares in the Comtat; and the Salyens, from the Rhône river to the Var. The tribes began to trade their local products, iron, silver, alabaster, marble, gold, resin, wax, honey and cheese; with their neighbours, first by trading routes along the Rhône river, and later Etruscan traders visited the coast. Etruscan amphorae from the 7th and 6th centuries BC have been found in Marseille, Cassis, and in hilltop oppida in
3210-525: The comte de Mirabeau and figures of the far left such as the Marquis de Sade ; there was also the military figure Charles Barbaroux and the theorist Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès (1748–1836), who instigated the coup of 18 Brumaire which brought Napoleon to power. The revolutionary anthem La Marseillaise despite its origins on the Rhine got its name because revolutionary volunteers from Marseille sang it on
3317-514: The 12th century, three Cistercian monasteries were built in remote parts of Provence, far from the political intrigues of the cities. Sénanque Abbey was the first, established in the Luberon between 1148 and 1178. Thoronet Abbey was founded in a remote valley near Draguignan in 1160. Silvacane Abbey , on the Durance river at La Roque-d'Anthéron , was founded in 1175. In the 13th century,
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3424-570: The 5th century, Roman power in Provence had vanished, and an age of invasions, wars, and chaos began. There are many legends about the earliest Christians in Provence, but they are difficult to verify. It is documented that there were organised churches and bishops in the Roman towns of Provence as early as the 3rd and 4th centuries; in Arles in 254; Marseille in 314; Orange , Vaison and Apt in 314; Cavaillon , Digne , Embrun , Gap , and Fréjus at
3531-579: The Alps. Aix Cathedral was built on the site of the old Roman forum, and then rebuilt in the Gothic style in the 13th and 14th centuries. The Church of St. Trophime in Arles was a landmark of Romanesque architecture, built between the 12th and the 15th centuries. A vast fortress-like monastery, Montmajour Abbey , was built on an island just north of Arles and became a major destination for medieval pilgrims. In
3638-709: The British fleet, but five to eight hundred of the 7,000 who remained were shot on the Champ de Mars, and Toulon was renamed "Port la Montagne". The fall of the Montagnards in July 1794 was followed by a new White Terror aimed at the revolutionaries. Calm was not restored until the rise of the Directory to power in 1795. Provence produced some memorable figures in the French Revolution ; both moderates such as
3745-605: The Catalan Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona , who as a result became Raymond Berenguer I, Count of Provence. He ruled Provence from 1112 until 1131, and his descendants, the Catalan counts, ruled in Provence until 1246. In 1125, Provence was divided; the part of Provence north and west of the Durance river went to the Count of Toulouse , while the lands between the Durance and the Mediterranean, and from
3852-670: The Coast of Provence in the early 7th century. During the late 7th and the early 8th centuries, Provence was formally subject to the Frankish kings of the Merovingian dynasty , but it was in fact ruled by its own regional nobility of Gallo-Roman stock, which ruled themselves according to Roman, not Frankish, law. Actually, the region enjoyed more prestige than the northern Franks had, but the local aristocracy feared Charles Martel 's expansionist ambitions. In 737, Charles Martel headed down
3959-557: The French kings started to use marriage to extend their influence into the south of France. One son of King Louis VIII "the Lion", Alphonse, Count of Poitou , married the heiress of the Count of Toulouse, Joan . Another, Louis IX "the Saint" of France or Saint Louis (1214–1270), married Marguerite of Provence . Then, in 1246, Charles, Count of Anjou , the youngest son of Louis VIII, married
4066-613: 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,
4173-576: The Latin name oppidum . Today the traces of 165 oppida are found in the Var, and as many as 285 in the Alpes-Maritimes. They worshipped various aspects of nature, establishing sacred woods at Sainte-Baume and Gemenos, and healing springs at Glanum and Vernègues. Later, in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the different tribes formed confederations; the Voconces in the area from the Isère to
4280-534: The Ligurians, living in proximity to numerous Celtic mountain tribes, were a different people ( ἑτεροεθνεῖς ), but "were similar to the Celts in their modes of life". They did not have their own alphabet, but their language remains in place names in Provence ending in the suffixes - asc , - osc , - inc , - ates , and - auni . The ancient geographer Posidonius wrote of them: "Their country is savage and dry. The soil
4387-551: The Observatory Cave, in the Jardin Exotique of Monaco . The Paleolithic period in Provence saw great changes in the climate. Two ice ages came and went, and the sea level changed dramatically. At the beginning of the Paleolithic, the sea level in western Provence was 150 meters higher than today. By the end of the Paleolithic, it had dropped to 100 to 150 metres below the sea level today. The cave dwellings of
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4494-405: The Piedmont in Italy. By the end of the 18th century, Marseille had a population of 120,000 people, making it the third largest city in France. Most of Provence, with the exception of Marseille, Aix and Avignon, was rural, conservative and largely royalist, and the Revolution was as violent and bloody in Provence as it was in other parts of France. On 30 April 1790, Fort Saint-Nicolas in Marseille
4601-411: The Pope. In 1545, the Parlement of Aix-en-Provence ordered the destruction of the villages of Lourmarin, Mérindol, Cabriéres in the Luberon, because their inhabitants were Vaudois , of Italian Piedmontese origin, and were not considered sufficiently orthodox Catholics. Most of Provence remained strongly Catholic, though Protestants controlled the Principality of Orange , an enclave ruled by William of
4708-401: The Rhône Valley after subduing Burgundy. He attacked Avignon and Arles , garrisoned by the Umayyads , and came back in 739 to capture for a second time Avignon and chase the duke Maurontus to his stronghold of Marseille. The city was brought to heel and the duke had to flee to an island. The region was thereafter under the rule of Carolingian kings, descended from Charles Martel, and then
4815-402: The Rhône river to the Alps, belonged to the counts of Provence. The capital of Provence was moved from Arles to Aix-en-Provence , and later to Brignoles . Under the Catalan counts, the 12th century saw the construction of important cathedrals and abbeys in Provence, in a harmonious new style, the Romanesque , which united the Gallo-Roman style of the Rhône Valley with the Lombard style of
4922-543: The Romans suppressed Ligurian uprisings near Genoa; in 154 BC the Roman Consul Optimus defeated the Oxybii and the Deciates , who were attacking Antibes; and in 125 BC, the Romans put down an uprising of a confederation of Celtic tribes. After this battle, the Romans decided to establish permanent settlements in Provence. In 122 BC, next to the Celtic town of Entremont, the Romans built a new town, Aquae Sextiae , later called Aix-en-Provence . In 118 BC they founded Narbo ( Narbonne ). The Roman general Gaius Marius crushed
5029-409: The ancient world. At its height, in the 4th century BC, it had a population of about 6,000 inhabitants, living on about fifty hectares surrounded by a wall. It was governed as an aristocratic republic, by an assembly of the 600 wealthiest citizens. It had a large temple of the cult of Apollo of Delphi on a hilltop overlooking the port, and a temple of the cult of Artemis of Ephesus at the other end of
5136-408: The battle were baptised and enslaved, and the remaining Saracens in Provence fled the region. Meanwhile, dynastic quarrels continued. A war between Rudolph III of Burgundy and his rival, German emperor Conrad the Salic led in 1032 to Provence becoming a fiefdom of the Holy Roman Empire , which it remained until 1246. In 1112, the last descendant of Boson, Douce I, Countess of Provence , married
5243-452: 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
5350-434: The cities of Provence, particularly Marseille, continued to rebel against the authority of the Bourbon king. After uprisings in 1630–31 and 1648–1652, the young King Louis XIV had two large forts, fort St. Jean and Fort St. Nicholas, built at the harbour entrance to control the city's unruly population. At the beginning of the 17th century, Cardinal Richelieu began to build a naval arsenal and dockyard at Toulon to serve as
5457-458: The city. The Drachma coins minted in Massalia were found in all parts of Ligurian-Celtic Gaul. Traders from Massalia ventured inland deep into France on the Rivers Durance and Rhône, and established overland trade routes deep into Gaul, and to Switzerland and Burgundy, and as far north as the Baltic Sea. They exported their own products; local wine, salted pork and fish, aromatic and medicinal plants, coral and cork. The Massalians also established
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#17327878665865564-448: The duke of Provence and the count of Vienne . Hugh moved the capital of Provence from Vienne to Arles and made Provence a fief of Rudolph II of Burgundy . In the 9th century, Arab pirates (called Saracens by the French) and then the Normans invaded Provence. The Normans pillaged the region and then left, but the Saracens built castles and began raiding towns and holding local residents for ransom. The conquering Arabs established
5671-435: 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
5778-410: The early inhabitants of Provence were regularly flooded by the rising sea or left far from the sea and swept away by erosion. The changes in the sea level led to one of the most remarkable discoveries of signs of early man in Provence. In 1985, a diver named Henri Cosquer discovered the mouth of a submarine cave 37 metres below the surface of the Calanque de Morgiou near Marseille. The entrance led to
5885-406: The east; it is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south. It largely corresponds with the modern administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and includes the departments of Var , Bouches-du-Rhône, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence , as well as parts of Alpes-Maritimes and Vaucluse . The largest city of the region and its modern-day capital is Marseille . The Romans made the region
5992-401: The emirate of Fraxinet in 887. Early in 973, the Saracens captured Maieul , the abbot of the monastery at Cluny , and held him for ransom. The ransom was paid and the abbot was released, but the people of Provence, led by Count William I , rose up and defeated the Saracens near their most powerful fortress ( La Garde-Freinet ) at the Battle of Tourtour . The Saracens who were not killed in
6099-586: 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
6206-575: The end of the 20th century, modern fisheries and high-tech plastics take over. Seasonal tourism is a dominant part of the local economy. Important businesses in Frontignan include: Frontignan is twinned with: 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 ,
6313-409: The end of the 4th century; Aix-en-Provence in 408; Carpentras , Avignon , Riez , Cimiez (today part of Nice ) and Vence in 439; Antibes in 442; Toulon in 451; Senez in 406, Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux in 517; and Glandèves in 541. The oldest Christian structure still surviving in Provence is the baptistery of the Fréjus Cathedral , dating from the 5th century. At about the same time,
6420-452: The end of the reign of Louis XIV . The plague struck the region between 1720 and 1722, beginning in Marseille, killing some 40,000 people. Still, by the end of the century, many artisanal industries began to flourish; making perfumes in Grasse ; olive oil in Aix and the Alpilles ; textiles in Orange, Avignon and Tarascon; and faience pottery in Marseille, Apt, Aubagne , and Moustiers-Sainte-Marie . Many immigrants arrived from Liguria and
6527-406: The first Roman province beyond the Alps and called it Provincia Romana , which evolved into the present name. Until 1481 it was ruled by the counts of Provence from their capital in Aix-en-Provence , then became a province of the kings of France . While it has been part of France for more than 500 years, it still retains a distinct cultural and linguistic identity, particularly in the interior of
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#17327878665866634-534: The first pottery made in France. Around 6000 BC, a wave of new settlers from the east, the Chasséens , arrived in Provence. They were farmers and warriors, and gradually displaced the earlier pastoral people from their lands. They were followed about 2500 BC by another wave of people, also farmers, known as the Courronniens, who arrived by sea and settled along the coast of what is now the Bouches-du-Rhône. Traces of these early civilisations can be found in many parts of Provence. A Neolithic site dating to about 6,000 BC
6741-460: The first two monasteries in Provence were founded: Lérins Abbey , on the island of Saint-Honorat near Cannes, and Abbey of St Victor in Marseille. Beginning in the second half of the 5th century, as Roman power waned, successive waves of Germanic tribes entered Provence: first the Visigoths (480), then the Ostrogoths , then the Burgundians , finally, the Franks in the 6th century. Arab invaders and Berber pirates came from North Africa to
6848-416: 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
6955-497: The heiress of Provence, Beatrice . Provence's fortunes became tied to the Angevin Dynasty and the Kingdom of Naples. In 1309, Pope Clement V , who was originally from Bordeaux, moved the Papal Curia to Avignon, a period known as the Avignon Papacy . From 1309 until 1377, seven popes reigned in Avignon before the Schism between the Roman and Avignon churches, which led to the creation of rival popes in both places. After that, three antipopes reigned in Avignon until 1423, when
7062-439: The inhabitants of Provence had to survive on rabbits , snails and wild sheep. In about 6000 BC, the Castelnovian people, living around Châteauneuf-les-Martigues , were among the first people in Europe to domesticate wild sheep, and to cease moving constantly from place to place. Once they settled in one place they were able to develop new industries. Inspired by pottery from the eastern Mediterranean, in about 6000 BC they created
7169-476: 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
7276-409: 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
7383-422: 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
7490-408: 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
7597-411: The last serious resistance in 102 BC by defeating the Cimbri and the Teutons . He then began building roads to facilitate troop movements and commerce between Rome, Spain and Northern Europe; one from the coast inland to Apt and Tarascon , and the other along the coast from Italy to Spain, passing through Fréjus and Aix-en-Provence. In 49 BC, Massalia had the misfortune to choose the wrong side in
7704-515: 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
7811-527: The last ten years of his life, from 1470 to 1480, and his political policies of territorial expansion were costly and unsuccessful. Provence benefitted from population growth and economic expansion, and René was a generous patron of the arts, sponsoring painters Nicolas Froment , Louis Bréa , and other masters. He also completed one of the finest castles in Provence at Tarascon , on the Rhône river. When René died in 1480, his title passed to his nephew Charles du Maine . One year later, in 1481, when Charles died,
7918-772: 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
8025-664: 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),
8132-605: The local tribes, who were still armed with bronze weapons. One tribe, called the Segobriga , settled near modern-day Marseille. The Caturiges, Tricastins, and Cavares settled to the west of the Durance river. Celts and Ligurians spread throughout the area and the Celto-Ligures eventually shared the territory of Provence, each tribe in its own alpine valley or settlement along a river, each with its own king and dynasty. They built hilltop forts and settlements, later given
8239-577: The main river of Provence, the Rhodanos, today known as the Rhône. The first permanent Greek settlement was Massalia , established at modern-day Marseille in about 600 BC by colonists coming from Phocaea (now Foça , on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor ). A second wave of colonists arrived in about 540 BC, when Phocaea was destroyed by the Persians . Massalia became one of the major trading ports of
8346-415: The mid-17th century onwards, were successfully exported to England, Spain, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. There was considerable commerce along the coast, and up and down the Rhône river. The cities: Marseille, Toulon , Avignon and Aix-en-Provence, saw the construction of boulevards and richly decorated private houses. At the beginning of the 18th century, Provence suffered from the economic malaise of
8453-415: 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
8560-456: The name County of Nice . The 15th century saw a series of wars between the kings of Aragon and the counts of Provence. In 1423 the army of Alphonse of Aragon captured Marseille, and in 1443 they captured Naples, and forced its ruler, King René I of Naples , to flee. He eventually settled in one of his remaining territories, Provence. History and legend has given René the title "Good King René of Provence", though he only lived in Provence in
8667-422: 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
8774-537: 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
8881-484: 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
8988-555: The papacy finally returned to Rome. Between 1334 and 1363 the old and new Papal Palaces of Avignon were built by Popes Benedict XII and Clement VI respectively; together the Palais des Papes was the largest Gothic palace in Europe. The 14th century was a terrible time in Provence, and all of Europe: the population of Provence had been about 400,000 people; the Black Death (1348–1350) killed fifteen thousand people in Arles, half
9095-538: The population of the city, and greatly reduced the population of the whole region. The defeat of the French Army during the Hundred Years' War forced the cities of Provence to build walls and towers to defend themselves against armies of former soldiers who ravaged the countryside. The Angevin rulers of Provence also had a difficult time. An assembly of nobles, religious leaders, and town leaders of Provence
9202-906: The power struggle between Pompey and Julius Caesar . Pompey was defeated, and Massalia lost its territories and political influence. Roman veterans, in the meantime, populated two new towns, Arles and Fréjus, at the sites of older Greek settlements. In 8 BC the Emperor Augustus built a triumphal monument at La Turbie to commemorate the pacification of the region, and he began to Romanize Provence politically and culturally. Roman engineers and architects built monuments, theatres, baths, villas, fora, arenas and aqueducts , many of which still exist. (See Architecture of Provence .) Roman towns were built at Cavaillon ; Orange ; Arles ; Fréjus ; Glanum (outside Saint-Rémy-de-Provence ); Carpentras ; Vaison-la-Romaine ; Nîmes ; Vernègues ; Saint-Chamas and Cimiez (above Nice). The Roman province, which
9309-549: 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
9416-462: The primitive stone shelters called 'Bories' found in the Luberon and Comtat , and in the rock carvings in the Valley of Marvels near Mont Bégo in the Alpes-Maritimes, at an altitude of 2,000 meters. Between the 8th and 5th centuries BC, tribes of Celtic peoples, probably coming from Central Europe, also began moving into Provence. They had weapons made of iron, which allowed them to easily defeat
9523-662: 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
9630-517: 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
9737-460: The region. The region got its name in Roman times, when it was known as Provincia Romana , simply "the Roman province". This name eventually was shortened to Provincia (the province), and as the language evolved from Latin to Provençal , so did the pronunciation and spelling. The coast of Provence has some of the earliest known sites of human habitation in Europe. Primitive stone tools dating back 1 to 1.05 million years BC have been found in
9844-417: The region. Traders from the island of Rhodes were visiting the coast of Provence in the 7th century BC. Rhodes pottery from that century has been found in Marseille, near Martigues and Istres, and at Mont Garou and Evenos near Toulon . The traders from Rhodes gave their names to the ancient town of Rhodanousia ( Ancient Greek : 'Ροδανουσίαν ) (now Trinquetaille , across the Rhône river from Arles), and to
9951-481: The streets of Paris. Napoleon restored the belongings and power of the families of the Ancien Régime in Provence. The British fleet of Admiral Horatio Nelson blockaded Toulon, and almost all maritime commerce was stopped, causing hardship and poverty. When Napoleon was defeated, his fall was celebrated in Provence. When he escaped from Elba on 1 March 1815, and landed at Golfe-Juan , he detoured to avoid
10058-632: 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",
10165-449: The title passed to Louis XI of France . Provence was legally incorporated into the French royal domain in 1486. Soon after Provence became part of France, it became involved in the Wars of Religion that swept the country in the 16th century. Between 1493 and 1501, many Jews were expelled from their homes and sought sanctuary in the region of Avignon, which was still under the direct rule of
10272-810: Was besieged, and many of the soldiers inside were massacred. On 17 October 1791, a massacre of royalists and religious figures took place in the ice storage rooms ( glacières ) of the prison of the Palace of the Popes in Avignon. When the radical Montagnards seized power from the Girondins in May 1793, a real counter-revolution broke out in Avignon, Marseille and Toulon. A revolutionary army under General Carteaux recaptured Marseille in August 1793 and renamed it "City without
10379-509: Was called Gallia Narbonensis , for its capital, Narbo (modern Narbonne), extended from Italy to Spain, from the Alps to the Pyrenees . The Pax Romana in Provence lasted until the middle of the 3rd century. Germanic tribes invaded Provence in 257 and 275. At the beginning the 4th century, the court of Roman Emperor Constantine (ca. 272–337) was forced to take refuge in Arles. By the end of
10486-573: Was discovered in Marseille near the Saint-Charles railway station . and a dolmen from the Bronze Age (2500–900 BC) can be found near Draguignan . Between the 10th and 4th century BC, the Ligures were found in Provence from Massilia as far as modern Liguria . They were of uncertain origin; they may have been the descendants of the indigenous Neolithic peoples. According to Strabo ,
10593-444: 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
10700-484: 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
10807-421: Was home to around 1400 individuals. Until the 20th century, Frontignan had a population of less than 4000. In 2007, there were over 23,000. Until the early 20th century the local economy was based on the production of marine salt and wine. Later petro-chemical and chemical industries predominate with a steady decline in the 1980s. The oil refinery that opened in 1900 was converted to a simple depot in 1986. Since
10914-548: Was organised to resist the authority of Queen Joan I of Naples (1343–1382). She was murdered in 1382 by her cousin and heir, Charles of Durazzo , who started a new war, leading to the separation of Nice , Puget-Théniers and Barcelonnette from Provence in 1388, and their attachment to the County of Savoy . From 1388 up to 1526, the area acquired by the Savoy was known as Terres Neuves de Provence ; after 1526 it officially took on
11021-515: Was part of the empire of Charlemagne (742–814). In 879, after the death of the Carolingian ruler Charles the Bald , Boso of Provence (also known as Boson), his brother-in-law, broke away from the Carolingian kingdom of Louis III and was elected the first ruler of an independent state of Provence. Three different dynasties of counts ruled Provence during the Middle Ages, and Provence became
11128-543: 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
11235-452: Was the first scientist to describe drift ice and the midnight sun. Though he hoped to establish a sea trading route for tin from Cornwall , his trip was not a commercial success, and it was not repeated. The Massalians found it cheaper and simpler to trade with Northern Europe over land routes. In the 2nd century BC the people of Massalia appealed to Rome for help against the Ligures. Roman legions entered Provence three times; first in 181 BC
11342-521: 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
11449-480: Was the mathematician, astronomer and navigator Pytheas . Pytheas made mathematical instruments which allowed him to establish almost exactly the latitude of Marseille, and he was the first scientist to observe that the tides were connected with the phases of the moon. Between 330 and 320 BC he organised an expedition by ship into the Atlantic and as far north as England, and to visit Iceland , Shetland, and Norway. He
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