Occitan Language - History

History

One of the oldest written fragments of the language ever found dates back to the year 960, in an official text that was mixed with 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 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.

It is interesting to note that Carolinian litanies (ca 780), both written and sung in Latin, were answered to in Old Occitan by the audience (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 Consolation of Philosophy; the Waldensian La Nobla Leyczon (dated 1100), la Cançó de Santa Fe (ca 1054–1076), the Romance of Flamenca (13th c.), the Song of the Albigensian Crusade (1213–1219?), Daurel et Beton (12th or 13th c.), Las, qu'i non sun sparvir, astur (11th c.) and Tomida femina (9th or 10th c.).

Occitan was the vehicle for the influential poetry of the medieval troubadours and trobairises: At that time, the language was understood and celebrated throughout most of educated Europe. With the gradual imposition of French royal power over its territory, Occitan declined in status from the 14th century on. By the Edict of Villers-Cotterets (1539) it was decreed that the langue d'oïl (Northern French) should be used for all French administration. Occitan's greatest decline was during the French Revolution, during which diversity of language was considered a threat. The literary renaissance of the late 19th century (which included a Nobel Prize for Frédéric Mistral) was attenuated by the First World War, when Occitan speakers spent extended periods of time alongside French-speaking comrades.