| Also Known As: Provencal language,Provenzale,Mistralien,Prouvençau,Provençal
Description:
Provençal (Provençal or Provençau in Occitan) is a dialect of Occitan spoken by a minority of people in southern France, mostly in Provence. In the English-speaking world, "Provençal" is often used to refer to all dialects of Occitan, but it actually refers specifically to the dialect spoken in Provence, as well as in the southern portion of the Dauphiné, the Nîmes region in Languedoc, and the upper valleys of Piedmont, Italy (Val Maira, Val Varacha, Val d'Estura, Entraigas, Limon, Vinai, Pignerol, Sestriera).
Outside Europe, the language is spoken mainly in California, with small Provençal-speaking communities found in the northern counties of Tehama, Siskiyou, Napa, Alpine. There are also small numbers of speakers found in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties in Southern California.
"Provençal" (with "Limousin") is also the customary name given to the older version of the langue d'oc used by the troubadours of medieval literature, corresponding to Old French or langue d'oil of the northern areas of France.
In 2007, the ISO 639-3 code changed from prv to oci, as prv was merged into oci.
The main sub-dialects of Provençal are:
Gavòt (in French Gavot), spoken in the Western..... full article at Wikipedia |
