This article describes the phonology of the Occitan language.
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.
Labial |
Dental/ Alveolar |
Palato- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar |
Uvular/ Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | lab. | ||||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ( ŋ) | |||
Plosive | p b | t d | k ɡ | ||||
Affricate | ts ( dz) | tʃ dʒ | |||||
Fricative | f ( v) β | s z ð | ( ʃ) ( ʒ) | ɣ | ( h) | ||
Approximant | j | ɥ | w | ||||
Lateral | l | ʎ | |||||
Trill | r | ( ʀ) | |||||
Tap | ɾ |
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Spelling | Stressed | Unstressed but not final | Unstressed and final | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pronunciation | Examples | Pronunciation | Examples | Pronunciation | Examples | |
a | /a/ or /ɔ/ | bala, cantaràs, occitan /a/
veniá /ɔ/ |
/a/ | partir /a/ | /ɔ/ | companhia /ɔ/ |
e | /e/ or /ɛ/ | pel /e/ (skin)
pèl /ɛ/ (hair) |
/e/ | esfòrç /e/ | /e/ | autre /e/ |
o | /u/ or /ɔ/ | rascós, informacion /u/
esfòrç /ɔ/ |
/u/ | portal /u/ | /u/ | basco /u/ |
Note:
In an unstressed position, some vowels cannot be realized and become more closed vowels:
One typical characteristic of Auvergnat (also a feature of some neighbouring dialects of Vivaro-Alpine) is the transformation of the following phonemes:
In an unstressed position, some vowels cannot be realized and become more closed vowels:
A strong characteristic of Limousin (also a feature of some neighbouring dialects of Vivaro-Alpine) is the neutralization of the phonemes /e/ and /ɛ/ in one single phoneme /e/, that can have various degrees of opening.
In words of popular formation, the sequences ⟨as, es, is, òs, os, us, ues⟩ [as, es, is, ɔs, us, ys, œs], when at the end of a syllable, first became [ah, eh, ih, ɔh, uh, yh, œh] and have now become long vowels, [aː, (ej), iː, ɔː, uː, yː, œː], 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,[ which?] and also occurred in the transition from Old to Middle French.
In unstressed positions, vowels /i, y, u/ become lax sounds [ɪ, ʏ, ʊ].
In an unstressed position, some vowels cannot be realized and become more closed vowels:
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Word stress has limited mobility. It can only fall on:
These proparoxytones are equivalent to paroxytones in all other dialects. For instance (stress underlined):
general pattern (no proparoxytones) |
Cisaupenc (some proparoxytones) |
Niçard (many proparoxytones) |
---|---|---|
pagina | pàgina | pàgina |
arma, anma | ànima, anma | ànima |
dimenge | diamenja | diménegue |
manja, marga | mània | mànega |
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).
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:
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The confusion of spellings, such as se for ce, voluntat for volontat, indicate the accomplishment of a phonetic evolution (here [t͡s] > [s] and atonic [o] > [u]).
Although z originally denoted the voiced affricate [dz], it simplified to [z], as [t͡s] simplified to [s], but at an earlier date. The spellings s and z alternate even in the earlier troubadours, indicating the pronunciation [z] in such words as cortesia/cortezia, rosa/roza, gilosa/giloza. In final position -z is pronounced [t͡s], also spelled -tz: toz/totz, maritz, amanz, parlatz, tertz.
When we note that tonic -a followed by unstable n does not rhyme with regular tonic -a, we have confirmation of two a-phonemes, the normal [a] (anterior a) and the posterior [ɑ], as well as confirmation that Old Occitan does not nasalize vowels followed by nasal consonants, as Old French does.
Les manuscrits ne distinguaient pas i intervocalique de j: on hésite donc sur la prononciation des mots suivants: veraia, aia, raia, saia, etc. Lienig, se fondant sur le témoignage et sur la graphie des Leys [d'Amor], admet comme vraisemblable une prononciation de i voyelle ou semi-consonne dans le Nord de l'Occitanie, et de j dans le Sud. La prononciation -aja (comme dans fr. âge) serait rare dans les rimes des troubadours.
...plusieurs dialectes de l'ancienne langue, y compris le limousin, comme le prouvent des textes de Limoges et de Périgueux, changeaient souvent l's dure suivant i, particulièrement i engagé dans une diphthongue, en une consonne probablement identique au ch français, et qu'on figurait sch, sh ou ch. Sur sh, voyez un passage des Leys d'amors, I, 62, qui prouve clairement que cette combinaison n'avait pas la valeur d'une s simple. Les trois notations, ou seulement deux d'entre elles, sont quelquefois employées concurremment dans les mêmes textes, ce qui démontre leur équivalence. Ainsi les Coutumes de Limoges ont ayschí, punischen, mais plus souvent, par ch, laychen, poicha, etc.
The Italian notation gl and the Catalanized ll, both indicating [ʎ], give evidence of the palatalized pronunciation of Occitan lh. Likewise, the transcription of Occitan words in non-Latin alphabets such as Hebrew or Greek may confirm their pronunciation with more precision.
This article describes the phonology of the Occitan language.
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.
Labial |
Dental/ Alveolar |
Palato- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar |
Uvular/ Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | lab. | ||||||
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ( ŋ) | |||
Plosive | p b | t d | k ɡ | ||||
Affricate | ts ( dz) | tʃ dʒ | |||||
Fricative | f ( v) β | s z ð | ( ʃ) ( ʒ) | ɣ | ( h) | ||
Approximant | j | ɥ | w | ||||
Lateral | l | ʎ | |||||
Trill | r | ( ʀ) | |||||
Tap | ɾ |
|
|
|
Spelling | Stressed | Unstressed but not final | Unstressed and final | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pronunciation | Examples | Pronunciation | Examples | Pronunciation | Examples | |
a | /a/ or /ɔ/ | bala, cantaràs, occitan /a/
veniá /ɔ/ |
/a/ | partir /a/ | /ɔ/ | companhia /ɔ/ |
e | /e/ or /ɛ/ | pel /e/ (skin)
pèl /ɛ/ (hair) |
/e/ | esfòrç /e/ | /e/ | autre /e/ |
o | /u/ or /ɔ/ | rascós, informacion /u/
esfòrç /ɔ/ |
/u/ | portal /u/ | /u/ | basco /u/ |
Note:
In an unstressed position, some vowels cannot be realized and become more closed vowels:
One typical characteristic of Auvergnat (also a feature of some neighbouring dialects of Vivaro-Alpine) is the transformation of the following phonemes:
In an unstressed position, some vowels cannot be realized and become more closed vowels:
A strong characteristic of Limousin (also a feature of some neighbouring dialects of Vivaro-Alpine) is the neutralization of the phonemes /e/ and /ɛ/ in one single phoneme /e/, that can have various degrees of opening.
In words of popular formation, the sequences ⟨as, es, is, òs, os, us, ues⟩ [as, es, is, ɔs, us, ys, œs], when at the end of a syllable, first became [ah, eh, ih, ɔh, uh, yh, œh] and have now become long vowels, [aː, (ej), iː, ɔː, uː, yː, œː], 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,[ which?] and also occurred in the transition from Old to Middle French.
In unstressed positions, vowels /i, y, u/ become lax sounds [ɪ, ʏ, ʊ].
In an unstressed position, some vowels cannot be realized and become more closed vowels:
|
|
|
|
|
Word stress has limited mobility. It can only fall on:
These proparoxytones are equivalent to paroxytones in all other dialects. For instance (stress underlined):
general pattern (no proparoxytones) |
Cisaupenc (some proparoxytones) |
Niçard (many proparoxytones) |
---|---|---|
pagina | pàgina | pàgina |
arma, anma | ànima, anma | ànima |
dimenge | diamenja | diménegue |
manja, marga | mània | mànega |
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).
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:
|
|
|
|
The confusion of spellings, such as se for ce, voluntat for volontat, indicate the accomplishment of a phonetic evolution (here [t͡s] > [s] and atonic [o] > [u]).
Although z originally denoted the voiced affricate [dz], it simplified to [z], as [t͡s] simplified to [s], but at an earlier date. The spellings s and z alternate even in the earlier troubadours, indicating the pronunciation [z] in such words as cortesia/cortezia, rosa/roza, gilosa/giloza. In final position -z is pronounced [t͡s], also spelled -tz: toz/totz, maritz, amanz, parlatz, tertz.
When we note that tonic -a followed by unstable n does not rhyme with regular tonic -a, we have confirmation of two a-phonemes, the normal [a] (anterior a) and the posterior [ɑ], as well as confirmation that Old Occitan does not nasalize vowels followed by nasal consonants, as Old French does.
Les manuscrits ne distinguaient pas i intervocalique de j: on hésite donc sur la prononciation des mots suivants: veraia, aia, raia, saia, etc. Lienig, se fondant sur le témoignage et sur la graphie des Leys [d'Amor], admet comme vraisemblable une prononciation de i voyelle ou semi-consonne dans le Nord de l'Occitanie, et de j dans le Sud. La prononciation -aja (comme dans fr. âge) serait rare dans les rimes des troubadours.
...plusieurs dialectes de l'ancienne langue, y compris le limousin, comme le prouvent des textes de Limoges et de Périgueux, changeaient souvent l's dure suivant i, particulièrement i engagé dans une diphthongue, en une consonne probablement identique au ch français, et qu'on figurait sch, sh ou ch. Sur sh, voyez un passage des Leys d'amors, I, 62, qui prouve clairement que cette combinaison n'avait pas la valeur d'une s simple. Les trois notations, ou seulement deux d'entre elles, sont quelquefois employées concurremment dans les mêmes textes, ce qui démontre leur équivalence. Ainsi les Coutumes de Limoges ont ayschí, punischen, mais plus souvent, par ch, laychen, poicha, etc.
The Italian notation gl and the Catalanized ll, both indicating [ʎ], give evidence of the palatalized pronunciation of Occitan lh. Likewise, the transcription of Occitan words in non-Latin alphabets such as Hebrew or Greek may confirm their pronunciation with more precision.