Occitan Language - Dialects

Dialects

Occitan is fundamentally defined by its dialects, rather than being a unitary language. Like other languages that fundamentally exist at a spoken, rather than written, level (e.g. Rhaeto-Romance, 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 the other. Nonetheless, specialists commonly divide Occitan into six main dialects:

• Gascon: includes the Béarnese (sub-)dialect and Aranese (spoken in Spain).
• Languedocien (lengadocian)
• Limousin (lemosin)
• Auvergnat (auvernhat)
• Provençal (provençau or prouvençau), including the Niçard subdialect.
  • Shuadit language
• Vivaro-Alpine (vivaroaupenc), also known as "Alpine" or "Alpine Provençal", and sometimes considered a subdialect of Provençal

Gascon is generally considered 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 from being regarded as a separate language", and compares it to Franco-Provençal, which is considered a separate language from Occitan but 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:

• Southwestern (Gascon and Languedocien), more conservative
• Northeastern (Limousin, Auvergnat, Provençal and Vivaro-Alpine), more innovative

Pierre Bec divides the dialects into three groups:

• Gascon, standing alone
• Southern Occitan (Languedocien and Provençal)
• Northern Occitan (Limousin, Auvergnat, Vivaro-Alpine)

Bec also notes that some linguists prefer a "supradialectal" classification that groups Occitan with Catalan as a part of a wider Occitano-Romanic diasystem. One such classification posits three groups:

• "Arverno-Mediterranean" (arvèrnomediterranèu), same as Wheeler's northeastern group, i.e. Limousin, Auvergnat, Provençal and Vivaro-Alpine
• "Central Occitan" (occitan centrau), Languedocien, excepting the Southern Languedocien subdialect
• "Aquitano-Pyrenean" (aquitanopirenenc), Southern Languedocien, Gascon and Catalan

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.

Domergue Sumien proposes a slightly different supradialectal grouping.

• Arverno-Mediterranean (arvèrnomediterranèu), same as in Bec and Wheeler, divided further:
  • Niçard-Alpine (niçardoaupenc), Vivaro-Alpine along with the Niçard subdialect of Provençal
  • Trans-Occitan (transoccitan), the remainder of Provençal along with Limousin and Auvergnat
• Pre-Iberian (preïberic)
  • Central Occitan (occitan centrau), same as in Bec
  • Aquitano-Pyrenean (aquitanopirenenc), same as in Bec