Landese (Maritime Gascon, or ''parlar negre'', which means "black speech" in English) is a dialect of the

Gascon language Gascon (; , ) is the name of the vernacular Romance languages, Romance variety spoken mainly in the region of Gascony, France. It is often considered a variety (linguistics), variety of Occitan language, Occitan, although some authors consider ...

, spoken in the south-west part of

Landes of Gascony The Landes de Gascogne (in Gascon, classic spelling ''las Lanas de Gasconha'', Fébusienne spelling ''leus Lanes de Gascougne''), or Gascony Moors, is a natural region of France of nearly . It extends over three departments: Gironde, Landes and ...

, part of

Chalosse Chalosse (; oc-gsc, Shalòssa or ) is a wine-growing area in Gascony, in south-west France. It lies in the ''departement'' of Landes and is centred on the town of Dax. Chalosse also gives its name to ''coteaux de Chalosse'', the wine of the area, ...

and around

Bayonne Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine re ...

(

Aquitaine Aquitaine ( , , ; oc, Aquitània ; eu, Akitania; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne ( oc, Guiana), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former administrative region of the country. Since 1 January ...

, metropolitan

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

). Landese is an endangered dialect as are several other

Occitan language Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Ital ...

Reorganization of vowel phonemes

The main feature of Landese is its propensity to pronounce certain

vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...

s with more

roundedness In phonetics, vowel roundedness is the amount of rounding in the lips during the articulation of a vowel. It is labialization of a vowel. When a ''rounded'' vowel is pronounced, the lips form a circular opening, and ''unrounded'' vowels are pron ...

(and if necessary, in a more closed or more centralized manner). Thus there is a migration of

phoneme In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...

s from the general Gascon to new phonemes in Landese.

Works

The poet,

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

and

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

Bernat Manciet Bernat Manciet (; 27 September 1923, Sabres, Landes, France – 3 June 2005, Mont-de-Marsan) was a famous Occitan author. Biography Manciet attended school first in his native Sabres and then spent three years in the '' lycée'' of Talence where he ...

(1923 - 2005) remained faithful to the local Gascon speaking of his native

Landes ''Landes'', or ''Lanas'' in Gascon, means moorland or heath. ''Landes'' and ''Lanas'' come from the Latin ''plānus'' meaning “‘flat, even, level, plain’”. They are therefore cognate with the English plain (and plane), the Spanish word '' ...

region where he lived a large part of his life. The erudite Vincent Foix (1857 - 1932) has written a dictionary on the Gascon from

and other parts of Landes.

Sources

Part of content in this edit is based on a partial translation from the existing French Wikipedia article at :fr:Parlar negre (see its history for attribution) which cites the following sources: * Philippe Lartigue, ''Le vocalisme du gascon maritime'', D.E.A. de Sciences du Langage,

University of Toulouse-Le Mirail A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

, June 2004 * Pierre Moureau, ''Dictionnaire du patois de La Teste'', 1870; 2nd edition: ''Dictionnaire gascon-français, français-gascon: suivant les parlers maritimes'', Princi Negre, 1997, * Pierre Rectoran, ''Le gascon maritime de Bayonne et du Bas-Adour'', Jean Curutchet, 1996,

References

Gascon language Landes (department) {{romance-lang-stub

Reorganization of vowel phonemes

Works

Sources

See also

References