Pierre Bec (; oc, Pèire Bèc; 11 December 1921 – 30 June 2014) was a French Occitan-language poet and linguist. Born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, he spent his childhood in Comminges, where he learnt

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...

. He was deported to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

between 1943 and 1945. After returning, he studied in Paris, where he graduated in 1959. He was one of the founders of the IEO or

Institut d'Estudis Occitans The Institut d'Estudis Occitans (English: Occitan Studies Institute or Institute for Occitan Studies; ), or IEO, is a cultural association that was founded in 1945 by a group of Occitan and French writers including Jean Cassou, Tristan Tzara, Isma ...

(Institute of Occitan Studies) as well as its president from 1962 to 1980.

Life

Pierre Bec spent his childhood in Cazères-sur-Garonne where he learned Gascon. In 1938, he was an interpreter for the Spanish Republican refugees who had crossed the Pyrenees, and he discovered Catalan. He was deported in March 1943 to

as part of the compulsory labor service. Bec was titular professor at Poitiers university and assistant director of the ''Centre d'Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale'' (Centre for high studies in medieval civilisation). He is considered one of the most important specialists in Occitan

dialectology Dialectology (from Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , '' -logia'') is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. It studies variations in language based primarily on geographic distribution and their ass ...

and in mediaeval Occitan literature. His activity is distributed among Occitanist politics, philological research and literary creation. He collaborated with publications like ''Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale'', ''Revue de Linguistique Romane'', ''Estudis Romànics'', ''Oc''. In 1982 he took part in the Linguistic Normalisation commission for

Aranese Aranese ( oc, aranés) is a standardized form of the Pyrenean Gascon variety of the Occitan language spoken in the Val d'Aran, in northwestern Catalonia close to the Spanish border with France, where it is one of the three official languag ...

, with Jacme Taupiac and Miquèu Grosclaude: they established some linguistics norms, officialised in 1983, following IEO's indications for Gascon. Bec died in Poitiers on 30 June 2014, at the age of 92.

Importance for Gallo-Cisalpine language(s)

As a linguist, Pierre Bec stated, within his ''Manuel pratique de Philologie romane'' (2nd volume, p. 316) that some kind of diachronical unity holds between

Rhaeto-Romance Rhaeto-Romance, Rheto-Romance, or Rhaetian, is a purported subfamily of the Romance languages that is spoken in south-eastern Switzerland and north-eastern Italy. The name "Rhaeto-Romance" refers to the former Roman province of Raetia. The questi ...

languages (i.e. Romansh, Friulian and

Ladin Ladin may refer to: * Ladin language, a language in northern Italy, often classified as a Rhaeto-Romance language *Ladin people, the inhabitants of the Dolomite Alps region of northern Italy See also *Laden (disambiguation) * Ladino (disambigua ...

) and

Northern Italian Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...

or Cisalpine ones (

Western Lombard Western Lombard is a group of dialects of Lombard, a Romance language spoken in Italy. It is widespread in the Lombard provinces of Milan, Monza, Varese, Como, Lecco, Sondrio, a small part of Cremona (except Crema and its neighbours), Lo ...

Eastern Lombard Eastern Lombard is a group of closely related variants of Lombard, a Gallo-Italic dialect spoken in Lombardy, mainly in the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia and Mantua, in the area around Cremona and in parts of Trentino. Its main variants are Be ...

Piedmontese Piedmontese (; autonym: or , in it, piemontese) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, northwestern region of Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly reg ...

, Venetan, Emiliano-Romagnolo and Ligurian). This issue has been further investigated by the

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

linguist

Geoffrey Hull Geoffrey Stephen Hull (born 6 September 1955) is an Australian linguist, ethnologist and historian who has made contributions to the study of Romance, Celtic, Slavonic, Semitic, Austronesian and Papuan languages, in particular to the relationshi ...

Works

Literature

* ''Petite anthologie de la lyrique occitane du Moyen Âge'' (1954) * ''Les saluts d'amour du troubadour Arnaud de Mareuil'' (1961) (editor) * ''La langue occitane'' (1963) * ''Burlesque et obscénité chez les troubadours'' (1984) * ''Chants d'amour des femmes troubadours'' (1995) (

Anthologist In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically catego ...

) * ''Au briu de l'estona'' (1955) poetry * ''Sonets barròcs entà Iseut'' (1979) poetry * ''Lo hiu tibat'' (1978) Novel * ''Sebastian'' (1980) Novel * ''Raconte d’una mort tranquilla'' (1993) Short Story * ''Contes de l'unic'' (1977) Short Story

Linguistics

* ''Manuel pratique d'occitan moderne'' (Picard, 1973; 2e édition 1983) * ''Manuel pratique de philologie romane'' (Picard, 1970 (vol. 1), 1971 (vol. 2) - reedit. 2000) * ''Les Interférences linguistiques entre gascon et languedocien dans les parlers du Comminges et du Couserans'' (PUF, 1968): Essai d'aréologie systématique.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bec, Pierre Occitan-language writers Occitan linguists 2014 deaths 1921 births 20th-century French poets University of Poitiers faculty French male poets 20th-century French male writers