Editing Occitan language (section)

==Dialects==
[[File:Dialectes de l'occitan selon Pierre Bec.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.4|Occitan dialects according to [[Pèire Bèc|Pierre Bec]]]]
[[File:Bec supradialectal.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.4|Supradialectal classification of Occitan according to Bec]]
[[File:Sumien supradialectal.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.5|Supradialectal classification of Occitan according to Sumien]]

Occitan is fundamentally defined by its dialects, rather than being a unitary language, as it lacks an official [[Standard language|written standard]]. Like other languages that fundamentally exist at a spoken, rather than written, level (e.g. the [[Rhaeto-Romance languages]], [[Franco-Provençal language|Franco-Provençal]], [[Astur-Leonese languages|Astur-Leonese]], and [[Aragonese language|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 language|Gascon]]: includes the [[Béarnese dialect|Béarnese]] and [[Aranese dialect|Aranese]] (spoken in Spain).
** [[Judeo-Gascon]]
* [[Languedocien dialect|Languedocien]] (''lengadocian'')
* [[Limousin dialect|Limousin]] (''lemosin'')
* [[Auvergnat dialect|Auvergnat]] (''auvernhat'')
* [[Provençal dialect|Provençal]] (''provençau'' or ''prouvençau''), including the [[Niçois|Niçard]] subdialect.
** [[Judeo-Provençal]]
** [[Judeo-Niçard]]
* [[Vivaro-Alpine]] (''vivaroaupenc''), also known as "Alpine" or "Alpine Provençal", and sometimes considered a subdialect of Provençal

The northern and easternmost dialects have more morphological and phonetic features in common with the [[Gallo-Italic languages|Gallo-Italic]] and [[Oïl languages]] (e.g. [[nasal vowel]]s; loss of final consonants; initial ''cha/ja-'' instead of ''ca/ga-''; [[uvular R|uvular {{angbr|r}}]]; the front-rounded sound {{IPA|/ø/}} instead of a diphthong, {{IPA|/w/}} instead of {{IPA|/l/}} before a consonant), whereas the southernmost dialects have more features in common with the [[Ibero-Romance languages]] (e.g. [[betacism]]; voiced fricatives between vowels in place of voiced stops; -''ch''- in place of -''it''-), and Gascon has a number of unusual features not seen in other dialects (e.g. {{IPA|/h/}} in place of {{IPA|/f/}}; loss of {{IPA|/n/}} between vowels; intervocalic ''-r-'' and final ''-t/ch'' in place of medieval -{{sm|ll}}-).

There are also significant lexical differences, where some dialects have words cognate with French, and others have Catalan and Spanish cognates. Nonetheless, there is a significant amount of [[mutual intelligibility]] and some of the words with two cognates can be used in the same dialect as synonymous (''totjorn/sempre'' in provençal or ''maison/ostau'' in gascon for instance).

There is also no particular geographical distribution of the cognates, with some shared by distant dialects and other not shared with bordering foreign languages (for instance ''maison'' in both Gascon and Niçard, cognate of French but not of Spanish or Italian, although these dialects are geographically closer to these languages).

{| class=wikitable
|+ Occitan words and their French, Catalan and Spanish cognates
|-
!  scope="col" rowspan=2 | English
!! scope="col" colspan=2 | Cognate of French
!! scope="col" colspan=3 | Cognate of Catalan and Spanish
|-
!  scope="col" | Occitan
!! scope="col" | French
!! scope="col" | Occitan
!! scope="col" | Catalan
!! scope="col" | Spanish
|-
| house || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|maison}} || {{lang|fr|maison}} || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|casa}} || {{lang|ca|casa}} || {{lang|es|casa}}
|-
| head || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|testa}} || {{lang|fr|tête}} || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|cap}} || {{lang|ca|cap}} || {{lang|es|cabeza}}
|-
| to buy || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|achaptar}} || {{lang|fr|acheter}} || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|crompar}} || {{lang|ca|comprar}} || {{lang|es|comprar}}
|-
| to hear || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|entendre}} || {{lang|fr|entendre}} || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|ausir}} / {{lang|oc-gascon|audir}} || {{lang|ca|oir}} || {{lang|es|oír}}
|-
| to be quiet || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|se taire}} || {{lang|fr|se taire}} || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|calar}} || {{lang|ca|callar}} || {{lang|es|callar}}
|-
| to fall || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|tombar}} || {{lang|fr|tomber}} || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|caire}} || {{lang|ca|caure}} || {{lang|es|caer}}
|-
| more || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|pus}} || {{lang|fr|plus}} || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|mai}} || {{lang|ca|més}} || {{lang|es|más}}
|-
| always || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|totjorn}} || {{lang|fr|toujours}} || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|sempre}} || {{lang|ca|sempre}} || {{lang|es|siempre}}
|-
| broom || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|balaja}} || {{lang|fr|balai}} || style{{=}}"background: Gainsboro" | {{lang|oc|escoba}} || {{lang|ca|escombra}} || {{lang|es|escoba}}
|-
|}

Gascon is 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 [Gascon] 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".<ref name="wheeler">{{citation|contribution=Occitan|first=Max|last=Wheeler|title=The Romance Languages|editor1-first=Martin|editor1-last=Harris|editor2-first=Nigel|editor2-last=Vincent|year=1988|publisher=Oxford University Press|place=New York|pages=246–278}}</ref>

There is no general agreement about larger groupings of these dialects.

Max Wheeler divides the dialects into two groups:<ref name="wheeler"/>
* Southwestern (Gascon and Languedocien), more conservative
* Northeastern (Limousin, Auvergnat, Provençal and Vivaro-Alpine), more innovative

[[Pèire Bèc|Pierre Bec]] divides the dialects into three groups:{{sfn|Bec|1973}}
* Gascon, standing alone
* Southern Occitan (Languedocien and Provençal)
* Northern Occitan (Limousin, Auvergnat, Vivaro-Alpine)

In order to overcome the pitfalls of the traditional romanistic view, Bec proposed a "supradialectal" classification that groups Occitan with [[Catalan language|Catalan]] as a part of a wider Occitano-Romanic group. One such classification posits three groups:{{sfn|Bec|1971|p=472}}<ref name="MoRS">{{cite book
|language=en
|author2=Janice Carruthers
|author1=Wendy Ayres-Bennett
|title=Manual of Romance Sociolinguistics
|editor=[[De Gruyter]]
|year=2018
|page=157
|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
|isbn=9783110365955
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EOR8DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Occitano-Romance%22&pg=PA157
|access-date=10 July 2023
|archive-date=18 August 2023
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230818174608/https://books.google.com/books?id=EOR8DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Occitano-Romance%22&pg=PA157
|url-status=live
}}</ref><ref name="OG">{{cite book|date=2016|isbn=978-0--19-967710-8|language=en|location=Oxford|pages=63–65|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|title=The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L3p9DAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Occitano-Romance%22&pg=PA64|access-date=10 July 2023|archive-date=18 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230818174608/https://books.google.com/books?id=L3p9DAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Occitano-Romance%22&pg=PA64|url-status=live}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>
* "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.<ref name="sumien2006">Domergue Sumien (2006), ''La standardisation pluricentrique de l'occitan: nouvel enjeu sociolinguistique, développement du lexique et de la morphologie'', Publications de l'Association Internationale d'Études Occitanes, Turnhout: Brepols</ref>
* 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.

=== Jewish dialects ===
Occitan has 3 dialects spoken by Jewish communities that are all now extinct.

==== Judeo-Gascon ====
A [[sociolect]] of the Gascon dialect spoken by [[Spanish and Portuguese Jews]] in [[Gascony]].<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2018 |title=Notes on Contributors |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/clrjames2018241/267 |journal=The CLR James Journal |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=353–355 |doi=10.5840/clrjames2018241/267 |issn=2167-4256}}</ref> It, like many other Jewish dialects and languages, contained large amounts of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] loanwords.<ref>{{Citation |last=Costandi |first=Moheb |title=Persönlichkeit |date=2015 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44191-6_18 |work=50 Schlüsselideen Hirnforschung |pages=68–71 |access-date=2023-12-17 |place=Berlin, Heidelberg |publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg |doi=10.1007/978-3-662-44191-6_18 |isbn=978-3-662-44190-9}}</ref> It went extinct after [[World War II|World War 2]] with the last speakers being elderly Jews in [[Bayonne]]. About 850 unique words and a few morphological and grammatical aspects of the dialect were transmitted to Southern Jewish French.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Judeo-Provençal |url=https://www.jewishlanguages.org/judeo-provencal |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170817181038/http://www.jewish-languages.org/judeo-provencal.html |archive-date=17 August 2017 |access-date=2023-12-17 |website=Jewish Languages |language=en}}</ref>

==== Judeo-Provençal ====
[[Judeo-Provençal]] was a dialect of Occitan spoken by Jews in [[Provence]]. The dialect declined in usage after Jews were expelled from the area in 1498, and was probably extinct by the 20th century.

==== Judeo-Niçard ====
The least attested of the Judeo-Occitan dialects, Judeo-Niçard was spoken by the community of Jews living in [[Nice]], who were descendants of Jewish immigrants from Provence, Piedmont, and other Mediterranean communities. Its existence is attested from a few documents from the 19th century. It contained significant influence in both vocabulary and grammar from Hebrew.<ref name=":0" />

==== Southern Jewish French ====
All three of these dialects have some influence in Southern Jewish French, a dialect of French spoken by Jews in southern France. Southern Jewish French is now estimated to only be spoken by about 50–100 people.<ref name=":0" />

===IETF dialect tags===
*{{code|pro}}: Old Occitan (until the 14th century).
*{{code|sdt}}: Judeo-Occitan

Several [[IETF language tag|IETF language variant tags]] have been registered:<ref name="IETF"/>
* {{code|oc-aranese}}: Aranese.
* {{code|oc-auvern}}: Auvergnat.
* {{code|oc-cisaup}}: Cisalpine, northwestern Italy.
* {{code|oc-creiss}}: Croissant
* {{code|oc-gascon}}: Gascon.
* {{code|oc-lemosin}}: Leimousin.
* {{code|oc-lengadoc}}: Languedocien. 
* {{code|oc-nicard}}: Niçard.
* {{code|oc-provenc}}: Provençal.
* {{code|oc-vivaraup}}: Vivaro-Alpine.