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87-484: Languedoc-Roussillon ( French pronunciation: [lɑ̃ɡ(ə)dɔk ʁusijɔ̃] ; Occitan : Lengadòc-Rosselhon [ˌleŋɡɔˈðɔk ruseˈʎu] ; Catalan : Llenguadoc-Rosselló ) is a former administrative region of France . On 1 January 2016, it joined with the region of Midi-Pyrénées to become Occitania . It comprised five departments , and bordered the other French regions of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur , Rhône-Alpes , Auvergne , Midi-Pyrénées towards

174-526: A "Septimanie" region, would not support such plans, although political leaders in Béziers , Narbonne , and especially Nîmes , would probably support such a merger, hostile as they are to Montpellier , which was chosen as the capital of Languedoc-Roussillon instead of their own city, and which they accuse of hegemony . Prior to the 20th century, Occitan was the language spoken in Languedoc, and Catalan

261-641: A castle on the Mons Peregrinus ("Pilgrim's Mountain") which would help in his siege of Tripoli . He was aided by Alexius I, who preferred a friendly state in Tripoli to balance the hostile state in Antioch. The qadi of Tripoli, Fakhr al-Mulk ibn Ammar , led an attack on Mons Peregrinus in September 1104 and set a wing of the citadel on fire. Raymond himself managed to escape across a rooftop, but

348-584: A city of his own. He marched from Maarat, which had been captured in December 1098, into the emirate of Tripoli , and began the siege of Arqa on 14 February 1099, apparently with the intent of founding an independent territory in Tripoli that could limit the power of Bohemond to expand the Principality of Antioch to the south. The siege of Arqa, a town outside Tripoli, lasted longer than Raymond had hoped. Although he successfully captured Hisn al-Akrad,

435-553: 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

522-530: A complete overhaul of the region and its institutions. The flag of the region, which displayed the cross of Languedoc as well as the Flag of Roussillon (the Senyera ), was changed for a new flag with no reference to the old provinces, except in terms of the colors (red and yellow), which are the colors of both Languedoc and all the territories from the former Crown of Aragon . Georges Frêche also wanted to change

609-643: 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

696-828: 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. Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse Raymond was a son of Pons of Toulouse and Almodis de La Marche . He received Saint-Gilles with the title of "count" from his father and displaced his niece Philippa, Duchess of Aquitaine , his brother William IV 's daughter, in 1094 from inheriting Toulouse. In 1094, William Bertrand of Provence died and his margravial title to Provence passed to Raymond. A bull of Urban's dated 22 July 1096 names Raymond comes nimirum Tholosanorum ac Ruthenensium et marchio Provintie Raimundus ("Raymond, count of Toulouse and Rouergue, margrave of Provence"). Raymond

783-414: A fortress that would later become the important Krak des Chevaliers , his insistence on taking Tripoli delayed the march to Jerusalem , and he lost much of the support he had gained after Antioch. Raymond finally agreed to continue the march to Jerusalem on 13 May, and after months of siege the city was captured on 15 July. Raymond was offered the crown of the new Kingdom of Jerusalem , but refused, as he

870-746: 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

957-592: A region in its own right, under the proposed name of Catalunya Nord ( Northern Catalonia ), as part of the Països Catalans (Catalan Countries), a new country. This idea has minimal popular support. On the other hand, there are some who would like to merge the Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées regions, thus reunifying the old province of Languedoc , and creating a large region. It seems probable that Georges Frêche, with his idea of

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1044-540: 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

1131-542: 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

1218-476: 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

1305-625: 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

1392-410: 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

1479-631: 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

1566-520: Is a body of texts written in Occitan in what is nowadays the South of France. It originated in the poetry of the eleventh- and twelfth-century troubadours, and inspired the rise of vernacular literature throughout medieval Europe. Aimeric de Peguilhan , Giraut de Bornelh and Bertran de Born were major influences in troubadour composition, in the High Middle Ages . The troubadour tradition

1653-464: 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

1740-631: Is also present at the same time. Catharism appeared in the region in the middle of the 12th century, in Aude. The region is made up of the following historical provinces : Llívia is a town of Cerdanya, province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain, that forms a Spanish exclave surrounded by French territory (department of Pyrénées-Orientales). At the regional elections in March 2004, the socialist mayor of Montpellier Georges Frêche , defeated its center-right president. Since then, Georges Frêche has embarked on

1827-457: Is considered to have originated in the region. The Romantic music composer Déodat de Séverac was born in the region, and, following his schooling in Paris, returned to the region to compose. He sought to incorporate the music indigenous to the area in his compositions. The Languedoc-Roussillon region is dominated by 740,300 acres (2,996 km) of vineyards , three times the combined area of

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1914-423: Is mainly due to internal migration , natural increase being rather low. Pyrénées-Orientales has the largest proportion of elderly people (12.10% over 75). Gard and Hérault are the "youngest" departments, but they are destined to "age" considerably in the coming years. By 2020, the number of people aged over 75 is expected to increase by 12% across the region. Catholicism is the most represented religion in

2001-557: Is the largest contributor to the European Union's glut (dominance of supply over demand) of wine known as the wine lake . The Languedoc-Roussillon region has adopted a marque to help market its products, in particular, but not limited to, wine. The Sud de France ( Southern France ) marque was adopted in 2006 to help customers abroad not familiar with the Appellation system to recognise those wines that originated in

2088-413: 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

2175-585: Is well represented in the region, especially in the Huguenot stronghold of the Cévennes . The Cévennes-Languedoc-Roussillon region of the United Protestant Church includes Gard , Lozère , Hérault , Aude , Pyrénées-Orientales as well as the eastern part of Aveyron . It is an important region by its Protestant population (approximately 20,000 homes), but one of the least extensive of

2262-467: 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

2349-527: 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

2436-640: 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

2523-814: The Albigensian Crusade led to the extinction of the dynasty of the Counts of Toulouse. The province was united to the Kingdom of France in 1271, with the exception of Montpellier , which remained under the influence of the House of Barcelona and then of Majorca, and which was not attached to the Kingdom of France until 1349. From there was born the royal Languedoc which persisted until the French Revolution . The Treaty of Corbeil in 1258 ratified

2610-595: 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

2697-468: 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

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2784-582: 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

2871-644: The Vandals invaded the province and then the Visigoths settled there. The Narbonne region, like the Iberian Peninsula , remained Visigothic until its conquest by the Moors between 719 ( fall of Narbonne  [ fr ] ) and 725 (fall of Carcassonne and Nîmes). Narbonne then became the capital of one of the five provinces of Al-Andalus led by a wali for nearly forty years. The region

2958-490: The counties of Roussillon and Cerdanya passed into the orbit of the Crown of Aragon , while Bas-Languedoc passed under the domination of the house of Trencavel and their rivals the counts of Toulouse. Raymond IV (1042–1115) achieved through marriage the objective of reunification by enlarging his state to the county of Rouergue , Nîmes, Narbonne, Gévaudan , Agde , Béziers and Uzès . The fight against Catharism and

3045-518: The siege of Antioch . The crusaders heard a rumour that Antioch had been deserted by the Seljuk Turks , so Raymond sent his army ahead to occupy it, offending Bohemond of Taranto who wanted the city for himself. The city was, however, still occupied, and was taken by the crusaders only after a difficult siege in June 1098. Raymond took the palatium Cassiani (the palace of emir Yaghi-Siyan ) and

3132-529: The 1980s (Joseph 2005:190). Several entrepreneurs such as Robert Skalli and James Herrick drastically changed the face of the region, planting more commercially viable grape varieties and pushing for new AOC classifications. While the AOC system has origins in the 15th century, the Languedoc-Roussillon has some appellations like the Cabardès which have existed by law only since 1999 (Joseph 2005:190). The region

3219-732: The 3rd century BC, a Celtic people , the Volcae , took up residence in the region between the Rhône and the Garonne , from the Cévennes to the Pyrenees . Their capitals were Toulouse and Nîmes . They made a pact with the Romans from the 1st century BC. Narbonne was created to pacify the province in 118 BC and became the capital of the Narbonnaise . At the beginning of the 5th century,

3306-613: 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,

3393-455: The L-R area, but the marque is also used for other products, including cheeses , olive oils and pies. Languedoc-Roussillon has been a major center of Rugby league in France since the sport was introduced to the country in the 1930s. The region is also home to the rugby union teams AS Béziers Hérault , RC Narbonne and USA Perpignan . Since the following years of the retirement of this region,

3480-670: The United Protestant Church of France. In addition to this majority church, the region has since the 19th century a variety of Free , Reformed Evangelical , Baptist , Methodist and Pentecostal churches. Judaism has been present since the Middle Ages with significant communities fleeing the Almohads , in Narbonne and Béziers. The Jews are thus cited in the will of William V of Montpellier . Islam

3567-460: The aid of King Baldwin I of Jerusalem , finally captured Tripoli and established the County of Tripoli . William was deposed in the same year by Raymond's eldest son Bertrand, and the county remained in the possession of the counts of Toulouse throughout the 12th century. Raymond of Toulouse seems to have been driven both by religious and material motives. On the one hand he accepted the discovery of

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3654-522: The autumn of 1098. Raymond led them out to besiege Maarat al-Numan , although he left a small detachment of his troops in Antioch, where Bohemond also remained. As Adhemar had died in Antioch, Raymond, along with the prestige given to him by the Holy Lance, became the new leader of the crusade. Bohemond however, expelled Raymond's detachment from Antioch in January 1099. Raymond then began to search for

3741-459: The central area of France was referred to as Languedoil , there the word for yes was oil in Old French , later becoming oui . These old place names referred to the areas where Occitan and Old French were spoken. The Edict of Villers-Cotterets made French the official national language in 1539. Roussillon was the name of the medieval County of Roussillon . Towards the end of

3828-452: 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

3915-501: The city to Bohemond, reminding Bohemond that he was obligated to return Antioch to the court of Emperor Alexios, as he had sworn to do. A struggle then arose between Raymond's supporters and the supporters of Bohemond, partly over the genuineness of the Lance, but mostly over the possession of Antioch. Many of the minor knights and foot soldiers preferred to continue their march to Jerusalem , and they convinced Raymond to lead them there in

4002-482: The crusaders, Raymond left Toulouse at the end of October 1096, with a large company that included his wife Elvira of Castile , his infant son (who would die on the journey) and Adhemar, bishop of Le Puy , the papal legate . He ignored requests by his niece, Philippa (the rightful heiress to Toulouse) to grant the rule of Toulouse to her in his stead; instead, he left Bertrand, his eldest son, to govern. He marched to Dyrrhachium , and then east to Constantinople along

4089-465: The daughter of Godfrey I, Count of Arles . Married in 1066, she was repudiated in 1076. Their son was Bertrand . His second wife was Matilda (Mafalda), the daughter of Count Roger I of Sicily . Married in 1080, Mafalda died in 1094. Raymond's third wife was Elvira , the illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso VI of León . They married in 1094. Together they had Alfonso Jordan . Following Raymond's death, his nephew William-Jordan in 1109, with

4176-642: The division with the southern territories of the region. The Corbières formed the border between the Kingdom of France and the Principality of Catalonia in the Crown of Aragon. In 1659, the Treaty of the Pyrenees led to the annexation of Roussillon and northern Cerdanya to the Kingdom of France. The region is experiencing the strongest demographic growth in France, and could have around 3,300,000 inhabitants by 2030, an increase of 36% compared to 2000. This increase

4263-571: The early Middle Ages for the area. This name, however, has not been in use since the 9th century, and it sounded quite odd to French people. Strong opposition of the population led to Georges Frêche giving up on his idea. He declared that he still believed in it but could not go ahead without a mandate. Catalan nationalists in Roussillon would like the Pyrénées-Orientales department to secede from Languedoc-Roussillon and become

4350-490: 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

4437-854: 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

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4524-534: 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

4611-476: 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

4698-460: 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

4785-480: 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

4872-461: 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

4959-515: 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

5046-772: 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

5133-440: 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),

5220-415: 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

5307-399: The name of the region, wishing to erase its duality (Languedoc vs. Roussillon) and strengthen its unity. Thus, he wanted to rename the region Septimanie ( Septimania ). Septimania was the name created by the Romans at the end of the Roman Empire for the coastal area corresponding quite well to present day Languedoc-Roussillon (including Roussillon, but not including Gévaudan), and used in

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5394-422: 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

5481-407: The north, and Spain , Andorra and the Mediterranean Sea towards the south. It was the southernmost region of mainland France. The first part of the name of the province of Languedoc-Roussillon comes from the French langue d'oc ("language of oc "), and is also a historical region . In southern France, the word for yes was the Occitan language word oc . Prior to the 16th century,

5568-488: 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

5655-424: 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

5742-808: The popularity has gone down. Montpellier is home to Montpellier HSC , which was founded in 1974 and plays in the Ligue 1 , the French top division. It won the French Championship after the 2011/12 season. Home matches are played at the Stade La Mosson, named after the area where it is located, with a capacity of 31,250. It was built in 1998. 43°40′N 3°10′E  /  43.667°N 3.167°E  / 43.667; 3.167 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 ,

5829-431: 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

5916-555: 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

6003-466: 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

6090-457: The region, particularly at the level of historical monuments and associations. The Ecclesiastical Province of Montpellier ( French : Province ecclésiastique de Montpellier ) corresponds to the administrative region. The region has 16 cathedrals ( Agde , Alès , Alet , Béziers , Carcassonne , Elne , Lodève , Maguelone , Mende , Montpellier , Narbonne , Nîmes , Perpignan , Saint-Papoul , Saint-Pons-de-Thomières , Uzès ). Protestantism

6177-439: The same route used by Bohemond of Taranto . At the end of April 1097, he was the only crusade leader not to swear an oath of fealty to Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos . Instead, Raymond swore an oath of friendship, and offered his support against Bohemond, mutual enemy of both Raymond and Alexios. He was present at the siege of Nicaea and the Battle of Dorylaeum in 1097, but his first major role came in October 1097 at

6264-632: 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",

6351-646: The tower over the Bridge Gate. He was ill during the second siege of Antioch by Kerbogha which culminated in a controversial rediscovery of the Holy Lance by a monk named Peter Bartholomew . The "miracle" raised the morale of the crusaders, and to their surprise they were able to rout Kerbogha outside Antioch. The Lance itself became a valuable relic among Raymond's followers, despite Adhemar of Le Puy's skepticism and Bohemond's disbelief and occasional mockery. Raymond also refused to relinquish his control of

6438-523: The vineyards in Bordeaux and the region has been an important winemaking centre for several centuries. Grapevines are said to have existed in the South of France since the Pliocene period - before the existence of Homo sapiens . The first vineyards of Gaul developed around two towns: Béziers and Narbonne . The Mediterranean climate and plentiful land with soil ranging from rocky sand to thick clay

6525-494: The winter of 1099–1100, his first act was one of hostility against Bohemond, capturing Laodicea from him (Bohemond had himself recently taken it from Alexios). From Laodicea he went to Constantinople , where he allied with Alexios I, Bohemond's most powerful enemy. Bohemond was at the time attempting to expand Antioch into Byzantine territory, and blatantly refused to fulfill his oath to the Byzantine Empire . Raymond

6612-459: Was able to take it from him. Raymond participated in the battle of Ascalon soon after the capture of Jerusalem, during which an invading army from Egypt was defeated. However, Raymond wanted to occupy Ascalon himself rather than give it to Godfrey, and in the resulting dispute Ascalon remained unoccupied. It was not taken by the crusaders until 1153. Godfrey also blamed him for the failure of his army to capture Arsuf . When Raymond went north, in

6699-400: Was badly burned and spent his final months in agony. He died of his injuries on February 28, 1105, before Tripoli was captured. Raymond IV of Toulouse was married three times, and twice excommunicated for marrying within forbidden degrees of consanguinity by Pope Gregory VII in 1076 and in 1078. These excommunications were lifted in 1080, on the death of his first wife. His first wife was

6786-653: Was conquered by Pépin the Short ( fall of Narbonne in 759 ), who made it the marquisate of Gothia , included in the kingdom of Aquitaine created in 778. This vast territory encompassed all of the south of the Rhône to the Atlantic and was bequeathed by Charlemagne to his son Louis the Pious in 781. The administration was entrusted to the counts of Toulouse . During the feudal era, a great political fragmentation took place:

6873-689: Was deeply religious, and wished to die in the Holy Land, and so when the call was raised for the First Crusade , he was one of the first to take the cross. He is sometimes called "the one-eyed" ( monoculus in Latin) after a rumour that he had lost an eye in a scuffle with the doorkeeper of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during an earlier pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The oldest and the richest of

6960-444: 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

7047-484: 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

7134-605: Was part of the doomed Crusade of 1101 , where he was defeated at the Battle of Mersivan in Anatolia . He escaped and returned to Constantinople. In 1102, he travelled by sea from Constantinople to Antioch, where he was imprisoned by Tancred , regent of Antioch during the captivity of Bohemond, and was only dismissed after promising not to attempt any conquests in the country between Antioch and Acre . He immediately broke his promise, attacking and capturing Tartus , and began to build

7221-525: Was reluctant to rule in the city in which Jesus had suffered. He said that he shuddered to think of being called "King of Jerusalem". It is also likely that he wished to continue the siege of Tripoli rather than remain in Jerusalem. However, he was also reluctant to give up the Tower of David in Jerusalem, which he had taken after the fall of the city, and it was only with difficulty that Godfrey of Bouillon

7308-543: 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

7395-663: Was the language spoken in Roussillon. Both have been under pressure from French. In 2004, research conducted by the Government of Catalonia showed that 65% of adults over the age of 15 in Roussillon could understand Catalan whereas 37% stated they were able to speak it. In recent years there have been attempts at reviving of both languages, including Catalan-medium schooling through the La Bressola schools. Occitan literature – still sometimes called Provençal literature –

7482-521: 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

7569-422: Was very suitable for the production of wine , and it is estimated that one in ten bottles of the world's wine was produced in this region during the 20th century (Robinson 1999:395). Despite this enormous quantity, the area's significance was often overlooked by scholarly publications and commercial journals, largely because very little of the wine being produced was classified under an appellation contrôlée until

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