Occitan phonology

This article describes the phonology of the Occitan language.

Consonants

Below is a consonant chart that covers multiple dialects. Where symbols for consonants occur in pairs, the left represents a voiceless consonant and the right represents a voiced consonant.

; Notes:
* The phoneme is mostly found in Southern Occitan (written in Gascon, in Provençal, and in Languedocien).
* The distinction between and is general in Provençal, Vivaro-Alpine, Auvergnat and Limousin. However, in Languedocien and Gascon, the phonemes and are neutralized as (thus has disappeared).
* In Languedocien:
** the phonemes indicate three kinds of sounds, depending on what surrounds them:
*** a voiced plosive sound by default
*** devoiced to phrase-finally or before a voiceless sound
*** a voiced fricative when both preceded and followed by voiced continuants (i.e., vowels or ) within the same phrase.
** the phonemes and and the sequences are neutralized as (thus , and have disappeared).
* In Auvergnat and Limousin, and locally in other dialects,
** the phonemes and are neutralized as (thus has disappeared).
** the phonemes and are neutralized as (thus has disappeared).
* In Auvergnat, most of the consonants, except , can have a palatalized sound before ''i'' and ''u''. Consequently, the consonant phonemes have two kinds of sounds, one being not palatal (by default) and the other being palatal (before ''i'' and ''u''): → ; → ; → ; → ; → ; → ; → ; → ; → ; → ; → ; → ; → ; → ; → .
* In one part (and only one part) of Limousin, a transphonologization has occurred:
** The old phonemes , have now become , , less frequently , .
** The old phonemes , have now become , , less frequently , .
* In the Provençal in general, and partially in other dialects, the phonemes and are neutralized as (thus has disappeared).
* The original rhotic consonants, (tapped) and (trilled), have shown important evolutions:
** In Provençal and partially in other dialects, there is now an opposition between (tapped) and (uvular) (whereas has disappeared). This feature is shared with Portuguese. In the cases when the opposition is impossible between the two phonemes, the default realization is (it was in the original pattern).
** In most of Limousin, Auvergne, Vivarais and Niçard, the phonemes and are neutralized as (or even ).

Gascon consonants

* Gascon shares some traits with Languedocien:
** The phonemes have the same realization as described above for Languedocien.
** The phonemes and of the general pattern are neutralized as . It seems possible, however, that the phoneme never existed in Gascon.
* Gascon and Southern Languedocien do not have the semivowel (Gascon has , SL has ) and have the same distribution for the phonemes and .
* A glottal fricative sound is recognized among the dialects of Gascon.
* In one part of Gascon, the palatal affricates become plosive palatal consonants: .

Vowels

Vowel pronunciation according to position

Note:
* The grapheme , when in final position and after the word's stress, is pronounced in general (locally: , ).
* The grapheme is pronounced in general (locally: , ).
* Final is generally used in loanwords, especially from Catalan, Spanish and Italian.

General ablaut

In an unstressed position, some vowels cannot be realized and become more closed vowels:
* The stressed vowel becomes the unstressed vowel . For instance (stress underlined): ''tèrra'' → ''terrassa'' .
* The stressed vowel becomes the unstressed vowel . For instance (stress underlined): ''còde'' → ''codificar'' .
* In some local dialects, especially in the Languedocien variety of Guyenne, the stressed vowel becomes the unstressed vowel . For instance (stress underlined): ''bala'' → ''balon'' .
** Also in Guyenne, the vowel , when stressed, is pronounced when followed by a nasal consonant such as or a final that is silent: ''montanha, pan'' (instead of ). Javanese also similarly has such vowel rounding, although the penultimate vowel (< ) could occur before any consonant.
* In Limousin, Auvernhat, Vivaro-Alpine and in most of Provençal (though not in Niçard), the stressed diphthong becomes the unstressed diphthong . For instance (stress underlined): ''sauta'' → ''sautar'' .
* In Limousin, Auvernhat, Vivaro-Alpine and in most of Provençal (though not in Niçard), the stressed diphthong becomes the unstressed diphthong . For instance (stress underlined): ''laissa'' → ''laissar'' .

Vowel changes in Auvergnat

One typical characteristic of Auvergnat (also a feature of some neighbouring dialects of Vivaro-Alpine) is the transformation of the following phonemes:
* The old phoneme has become .
* The old phoneme has become or .

In an unstressed position, some vowels cannot be realized and become more closed vowels:
* The stressed vowel becomes the unstressed vowel . For instance (stress underlined): ''tèrra'' → ''terrassa'' .
* The stressed vowel becomes the unstressed vowel . For instance (stress underlined): ''còde'' → ''codificar'' .
* In the northern part of Auvergne, the stressed vowel (unrounded) becomes the unstressed vowel (rounded). For instance (stress underlined): ''bala'' → ''balon'' .
* The stressed diphthong becomes the unstressed diphthong . For instance (stress underlined): ''sauta'' → ''sautar'' .
* The stressed diphthong becomes the unstressed diphthong . For instance (stress underlined): ''laissa'' → ''laissar'' .

Vowel changes in Limousin

A strong characteristic of Limousin (also a feature of some neighbouring dialects of Vivaro-Alpine) is the neutralization of the phonemes and in one single phoneme , that can have various degrees of opening.

In words of popular formation, the sequences , when at the end of a syllable, first became and have now become long vowels, , which tends to create new phonemes with a relevant opposition between short vowels and long vowels. The same phenomenon exists in one part of Vivarais, and also occurred in the transition from Old to Middle French.

In an unstressed position, some vowels cannot be realized and become more closed vowels:
* The stressed vowel becomes the unstressed vowel . For instance (stress underlined): ''còde'' → ''codificar'' .
* The stressed vowel (unrounded) becomes the unstressed vowel (rounded). For instance (stress underlined): ''bala'' → ''balon'' .
* The stressed diphthong becomes the unstressed diphthong . For instance (stress underlined): ''sauta'' → ''sautar'' .
* The stressed diphthong becomes the unstressed diphthong . For instance (stress underlined): ''laissa'' → ''laissar'' .

Regional variation

* In Limousin and Auvergnat, final consonants, except for and , are generally muted when not directly followed by a word with a vocalic initial: ''filh'' , ''potz'' , ''fach'' , ''limon'' but ''estelum'' , ''estanh'' , ''un fach ancian'' .
* In Limousin and Auvergnat, when a diphthong starts in or , it is always a rising diphthong: ''boisson'' (Auvergnat) and (Limousin) versus (Languedocien) or ( Provençal).
* In all dialects but Languedocien, final is heavily velarized ("dark l") and therefore usually spelled : ''especial'' / ''especiau'' but ''especiala'' in the feminine (except in Gascon where it stays as ''especiau'').

Word stress

Word stress has limited mobility. It can only fall on:
* the last syllable (oxytones or ''mots aguts'' 'acute words')
* the penultimate syllable (paroxytones or ''mots plans'' 'plain words').
* However, in Niçard, and less commonly in the Cisaupenc dialect of the Occitan Valleys, the stress can also fall on the antepenultimate (third from last) syllable (proparoxytones or ''mots esdrúchols'' 'slip words'). These were regarded as irregular stress in the orthography and they marked by diacritics (see below).

These proparoxytones are equivalent to paroxytones in all other dialects. For instance (stress underlined):

The stress is oxytone if the last syllable ending in a consonant or a diphthong ending in ''-u'' or ''-i'' (''occitan'' /utsiˈta/, ''verai''); while the stress is penultimate if the last syllable ending in a vowel (or vowel + ''-s'') and vowel + ''-n'' when in the case of third-person plural verb forms (''libre'', ''libres'', ''parlan''), the stress is also penultimate when the syllable ending in two different vowels (''estatua''). Irregular stresses is normally marked orthographically by acutes (''á'', ''é'', ''í'', ''ó'', ''ú'') and graves (''à'', ''è'', ''ò'').

Historical development

As a Romance language, Occitan developed from Vulgar Latin. Old Occitan (around the eighth through the fourteenth centuries) had a similar pronunciation to present-day Occitan; the major differences were:
* Before the 13th century, had softened before front vowels to , not yet to .
* In the early Middle Ages, between vowels represented the affricate , not yet .
* In early Old Occitan, represented in final position.
* In the late Middle Ages, the letter went from to in unaccented position and in stressed syllables followed by a nasal consonant.
* When not part of a diphthong, the vowel spelled was probably pronounced as , not yet .
* Between vowels, the letter or represented, for most speech in Occitania, . However, this could become , especially down south: it later became , which, in turn, would locally depalatalize to in Middle Occitan.
* In words where was preceded by a diphthong whose second element was , it was sometimes palatalized to .
* In earlier times, some dialects used instead of the more common : despite their similarity, this often led to contrasting spellings ( or vs. ; or vs. ) before it became commonly across the language ( , ).
* In the pre-literary period of early Old Occitan had not been fronted to , although strong doubts exist as to when the change actually happened.
* When between vowels, lenited to , though this is still true for only Gascon and Languedocien dialects; elsewhere, it eventually turned to or was deleted.
* In Gascon, there was one voiced labial phoneme that was in the beginning of a word and between vowels. This still happens today and has spread to the neighbouring Languedocien dialect.
* The phoneme was exclusively pronounced (it is now in intervocalic or final position in some dialects).McGee, Timothy James, Rigg, A. G. and Klausner, David N. 1996. ''Singing Early Music: The Pronunciation of European Languages in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, Volume 1'', p. 105:

Old Occitan phonology

See also

* Catalan phonology
* Occitan conjugation
* Occitan alphabet

Notes

References

*
*Balaguer, Claudi & Patrici Pojada: ''Diccionari Català - Occità / Occitan - Catalan''
*Fettuciari, Jòrgi, Guiu Martin & Jaume Pietri: ''Diccionari Provençau - Francés''
*
*
* Bèc, Pèire. (1973). ''Manuel pratique d’occitan moderne'', coll. Connaissance des langues, Paris: Picard.
* Bianchi, Andriu & Alan Viaut. (1995). ''Fiches de grammaire d’occitan gascon normé'', vol. 1. Bordeaux: Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux
* Romieu, Maurici & Andriu Bianchi. (2005). ''Gramatica de l’occitan gascon contemporanèu'', Bordèu: Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux.
* Ronjat, Juli. (1930–1941). ''Grammaire istorique icdes parlers provençaux modernes'', 4 vol. eprint, 1980, Marselha: Laffitte Reprints, 2 vol.

Further reading

*Lavalade, Yves. ''Dictionnaire Occitan - Français''
*Omelhièr, Cristian. ''Petiòt diccionari Occitan d'Auvèrnhe - Francés''
{{Language phonologies

Occitan language
Languages of France
Italic phonologies

it:Pronuncia dell'occitano