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What language is this?

Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2017 9:22 pm
by DaveBee
I'm reading Régine Pernoud's french language biography of Aliénor d'Aquitaine. Each chapter starts with a quote, which is then translated into french. The example below is from chapter 2

Sant Jacme, membre us del baro Que denant vos jai pelegris. CERCAMON

Souvenez-vous, saint Jacques, du baron Qui, pèlerin, gît devant vous.

What language is the first line? An aquitaine dialect? Old french? Latin?

Re: What language is this?

Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2017 9:26 pm
by Speakeasy
I pasted the text into "Google Translate" which "detected" Catalan.

Re: What language is this?

Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2017 9:35 pm
by Arnaud
Cercamon was Gascon, so it's old french or gascon or a mix of both...

Re: What language is this?

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2017 4:39 pm
by Iversen
Cercamon is one of the authors who are represented in my one and only anthology of poetry in old Occitan, and I can't resist quoting his biography: "Cercamons si fo uns joglars de Gascoingna, e trobet vers e pastoretas a la usanza antiga. E cerquet tot lo mon lai on el poc anar, e per so fez se dire Cercamons". The text is from a lament called Planh6. I'm not capable of spotting Gascon dialecticisms in the text, but the Occitan language was basically spoken with minor variations from the Bay of Biscay to the Riviera until the French killed it.

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