Poitevin-Saintongese (Fr.: poitevin-saintongeais, Ptv-stg.: poetevin-séntunjhaes), or parlanjhe (Language, in ptv-stg), is the name of a oïl language originating between the Loire and the Gironde rivers, and includes the Poitevin and Saintongese dialects. The unity of these dialects was only recognized as recently as the beginning of the XIXth century[1], and was reaffirmed by other authors, especially Saintongese or Angoumoisin, during the rest of the XIXth century[2]. This unity has been confirmed throughout the XIXth and XXth centuries by the works of academics from the universities of Liverpool[3], Angers [4] Poitiers [5], Lyon [6], Nantes [7], and Clermont-Ferrand [8], and from the Institut national de la langue française in Nancy [9].
The term "poitevin-saintongeais", attested from 1905 [10], was popularized during the 1970s, giving a new dynamic to the language, particularly at the SEFCO, where we can find, in 1972, the term "potevin-saintongeais" in "Correspondances phonétiques morphologiques et lexicales entre le poitevin-saintongeais et l'occitan"‘‘ [13], by Pierre Bonnaud, an academic with Saintongese origins[12] specializing in the Auvergnat language [12].
The Poitevin-Saintongese language, following its introduction in 1999 in the Cerquiglini report[14], appeared on the official list of the languages of France. It was replaced, between the beginning of 2007 and the beginning of 2010, by "poitevin" and "saintongese", which were at that time considered separate languages in the Ministry of Culture classification. "Poitevin-saintongese" reappeared on the list at the beginning of 2010, under the following wording : "poitevin-saintongeais, dans ses deux variétés : poitevin et saintongeais" (Poitevin-Saintongese, in its two varieties : Poitevin and Saintongese)[15].
The Poitevin-Santongese language appears in the list of languages of the international Atlas 2009 of endangered languages, published by UNESCO.[16]
The Poitevin-Saintongese language is taught at the University of Poitiers. [17]
The Poitevin-Saintongese language is spoken under its varieties Poitevin or Saintongese[18] in the administrative region Poitou-Charentes, the departement of the Vendée, in the north of Gironde departement (Gabaye Country of Blayese and north Libournese), in the south of Loire-Atlantique departement (Retz Country), in few municipalities of the Indre departement(around Le Blanc, Bélâbre, Argenton-sur-Creuse), in the far west of the Dordogne departement around La Roche-Chalais [19], and on the limit of the Lot-et-Garonne departement next to the Saintongese enclave of Monségur, in Gironde, as well as in Le Verdon's tip[20]; all in all, in the old provinces of Poitou, Aunis, Angoumois and Saintonge, in France. [21] The Poitevin-Saintongese language has had an influence in Quebec French, Acadian and Cajun.
Références [modifier] 1.↑ Coquebert de Mombret : Essai d'un travail sur la géographie de la langue française, in Mélanges..., 1831 : « although the inhabitants of Upper Brittany (to whom the breton-speaking Bretons give the name "Gallots") do not speak a really pure French, we can not put theirs at the level of the strictly speaking patois, because the expressions that caracterises it can be found in the works of the XVth and XVIth century authors like Rabelais […]. But few miles beyond the Loire river begins the Poitevin patois used in the departements of the Vendée, the Deux-Sèvres, and the Vienne, and followed, as a mere variety, by the Santongese patois used in the eastern part [sic : he obviously meant : western] of the two departements of the Charente [...]. East of the country occupied by the Poitevin patois lies Berri who does not have a distinctive patois .» http://books.google.fr/books?id=VD1AAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Essai+d'un+travail+sur+la+g%C3%A9ographie+de+la+langue+fran%C3%A7aise&source=bl&ots=W593_R8lRt&sig=TZ1ImPFSOJe4O-hoOVVe0m6ddcE&hl=fr&ei=QFRcS5ueH5Lv4gbOot34BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false [archive] 2.↑ The Santongese writer Pierre Jônain in his "Dictionnaire du patois saintongeais" published in 1869 (reamrk in intro page 4); the writer from the Charente Boucherie (born in Challignac near Barbezieux) in his book "Le dialecte poitevin au XIIIème siècle" published in 1873 : " Fallot has referred under the name of Poitevin dialect to the old written language of the South-Eastern provinces, located between the mouth of the Loire river and the one of the Gironde. It would be more exact to refer to it as Santongese dialect, because it is to Saintonge, and more specifically Aunis, that belongs most of the authentique documents conserving it. However, because Poitou was the most important of the South-Western provinces, and that the classification and the name of the oil language's, as established by Fallot, have been accepted by philologists, I thought that I had to conform with tradition. So I include under the name of Poitevin dialect the wrtien language of old Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge and Angoumois."; De Tourtoulon and Bringuier in "La limite de la langue d'oc et de la langue d'oïl" published in 1876 (remark page 22); le Charente specialist of folklore Jérôme Bujeaud (born in Angoulême) in its book "Chants et chansons populaires des provinces de l’Ouest, Poitou, Saintonge, Aunis et Angoumois" published in 1895 : « in this vast and fertile land formerly called Angoumois, Aunis, Saintonge and Lower-Poitou, you will see not many generic language, but only pronunciation diversity which will never be sharp enough to prevent a farmer from one of those provinces to understand the farmers from the other provinces, its neighbours". 3.↑ In 1926, in "La rencontre des langues entre Loire et Dordogne", in : "Le Centre-Ouest de la France, encyclopédie régionale illustrée", the Charente linguist André-Louis Terracher (born in Vindelle near Angoulême), professor at the university of Liverpool and then chancellor of the university of Dijon, summarized the situation with these terms : « It's enough to cover the hundred first maps of the "Atlas linguistique de la France" of MM. Gilliéron and Edmont to notice that the Central-Western dialecs (Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge and Angoumois) keep, still today and collectively, a strinking originality. Like all originality, it asserts itself in what peculiar they have, in what is normally not found neither north of the Loire river (Touraine and Anjou), neither in the western edges of the Central Massif (Limousin and Perigord), neither south of the Gironde and Dordogne rivers (Gascony), namely : special terms (like brelière, basket andle, or borde, fish bone), very particular stress switching (for example, in the third persons of the verb plural : i devant, ils doivent (they have to) ; il avant, ils ont (they have)), etc. But this originality is made also – and for a part surely as important – from the agreement alternatively offered by these dialects, either with the ones from the west of the oil language ( from the English Channel to the Gironde river rules the type j’allons (nous allons, we go), while the Limousin language uses "n’" or "nous" as a pronoun subject for the first persons plural, that the South does not express ; "aller, avoine"… are opposed to "ana, civada"… from the south and the east, - either with the ones from the oc language (from the Pyrenees to the Loire river "abeille" contrasts with the "avette" from Touraine and Anjou and the "mouche à miel" from Berry and Orleanese ; fisson, (bee sting, aiguillon de guêpe), vergne (aulne, alder) are said also in Limousin and in the South, but don't pass the Loire river in the north; ie. as well the French forms "aile", "tel", "brebis"… which are, in the countries over the Loire, "ale", "tau", "oueille"...)"
Références [modifier] 1.↑ Coquebert de Mombret : Essai d'un travail sur la géographie de la langue française, in Mélanges..., 1831 : « although the inhabitants of Upper Brittany (to whom the breton-speaking Bretons give the name "Gallots") do not speak a really pure French, we can not put theirs at the level of the strictly speaking patois, because the expressions that caracterises it can be found in the works of the XVth and XVIth century authors like Rabelais […]. But few miles beyond the Loire river begins the Poitevin patois used in the departements of the Vendée, the Deux-Sèvres, and the Vienne, and followed, as a mere variety, by the Santongese patois used in the eastern part [sic : he obviously meant : western] of the two departements of the Charente [...]. East of the country occupied by the Poitevin patois lies Berri who does not have a distinctive patois .» http://books.google.fr/books?id=VD1AAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Essai+d'un+travail+sur+la+g%C3%A9ographie+de+la+langue+fran%C3%A7aise&source=bl&ots=W593_R8lRt&sig=TZ1ImPFSOJe4O-hoOVVe0m6ddcE&hl=fr&ei=QFRcS5ueH5Lv4gbOot34BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false [archive] 2.↑ The Santongese writer Pierre Jônain in his "Dictionnaire du patois saintongeais" published in 1869 (reamrk in intro page 4); the writer from the Charente Boucherie (born in Challignac near Barbezieux) in his book "Le dialecte poitevin au XIIIème siècle" published in 1873 : "Fallot has referred under the name of Poitevin dialect to the old written language of the South-Eastern provinces, located between the mouth of the Loire river and the one of the Gironde. It would be more exact to refer to it as Santongese dialect, because it is to Saintonge, and more specifically Aunis, that belongs most of the authentique documents conserving it. However, because Poitou was the most important of the South-Western provinces, and that the classification and the name of the oil language's, as established by Fallot, have been accepted by philologists, I thought that I had to conform with tradition. So I include under the name of Poitevin dialect the wrtien language of old Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge and Angoumois."; De Tourtoulon and Bringuier in "La limite de la langue d'oc et de la langue d'oïl" published in 1876 (remark page 22); le Charente specialist of folklore Jérôme Bujeaud (born in Angoulême) in its book "Chants et chansons populaires des provinces de l’Ouest, Poitou, Saintonge, Aunis et Angoumois" published in 1895 : « in this vast and fertile land formerly called Angoumois, Aunis, Saintonge and Lower-Poitou, you will see not many generic language, but only pronunciation diversity which will never be sharp enough to prevent a farmer from one of those provinces to understand the farmers from the other provinces, its neighbours". 3.↑ In 1926, in "La rencontre des langues entre Loire et Dordogne", in : "Le Centre-Ouest de la France, encyclopédie régionale illustrée", the Charente linguist André-Louis Terracher (born in Vindelle near Angoulême), professor at the university of Liverpool and then chancellor of the university of Dijon, summarized the situation with these terms : « It's enough to cover the hundred first maps of the "Atlas linguistique de la France" of MM. Gilliéron and Edmont to notice that the Central-Western dialecs (Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge and Angoumois) keep, still today and collectively, a strinking originality. Like all originality, it asserts itself in what peculiar they have, in what is normally not found neither north of the Loire river (Touraine and Anjou), neither in the western edges of the Central Massif (Limousin and Perigord), neither south of the Gironde and Dordogne rivers (Gascony), namely : special terms (like brelière, basket andle, or borde, fish bone), very particular stress switching (for example, in the third persons of the verb plural : i devant, ils doivent (they have to) ; il avant, ils ont (they have)), etc. But this originality is made also – and for a part surely as important – from the agreement alternatively offered by these dialects, either with the ones from the west of the oil language ( from the English Channel to the Gironde river rules the type j’allons (nous allons, we go), while the Limousin language uses "n’" or "nous" as a pronoun subject for the first persons plural, that the South does not express ; "aller, avoine"… are opposed to "ana, civada"… from the south and the east, - either with the ones from the oc language (from the Pyrenees to the Loire river "abeille" contrasts with the "avette" from Touraine and Anjou and the "mouche à miel" from Berry and Orleanese ; fisson, (bee sting, aiguillon de guêpe), vergne (aulne, alder) are said also in Limousin and in the South, but don't pass the Loire river in the north; ie. as well the French forms "aile", "tel", "brebis"… which are, in the countries over the Loire, "ale", "tau", "oueille"...)" 4.↑ A.-D. Poirier, professor of romanic philology at the Catholic University of Angers, in "Eléments d’unité : Le parler, le folklore, l’art, in : La Revue du Bas-Poitou" wrote in 1941 : « In Upper-Poitou, as in Vendée, as in Aunis, Saintonge and Angoumois, the same terms, coming from the dialect, are found [...], with the same appearance, I could say, the same costume, in any case with an air of close kindship that a skilled person can catch easily. » 5.↑ In 1960, in his thesis intitled "L’évolution phonétique des parlers du Poitou", where he mentions «poitevino-santongese area », Jacques Pignon, Poitevin linguiste professor at the university of Poitiers (born in Latillé, Vienne), stated : « It is obvious that the phonetical evolution of the Poitevin dialects and these of the santongese dialects is roughly parallel. They make up, west of the of the gallo-romanic area, an original zone where meet, on one side, features oc and features oil, and on the other side, few particular developments, unknown in neighbouring provinces located to the North and to the South. ». Furthermore Liliane Jagueneau, Poitevin linguist (born in Ulcot near Thouars in the Deux-Sèvres) professor of Poitevin-Santongese and Occitan languages at the university of Poitiers, in "Les Traits linguistiques du poitevin-saintongeais", in : "La langue poitevine-saintongeaise : identité et ouverture", wrote in 1994 « First the Poitevin-Santongese corresponds to the five departments of Poitou-Charentes-Vendée, to which is added part of Northern Gironde, the Gabaye Country. […] the points of the Poitevin-santongese area are close enough in the analysis (small linguistic distance) to be considered as forming a coherent set. Indeed, no partition appears between the Vendée and Poitou-Charente, neither between the oceanic coast and the inland, neither between the North and the South[…]. […] they are differences between the North and the South, but they are less than the similarities. » 6.↑ Brigitte Horiot (linguist, specialist of the dialects between Loire and Gironde, CNRS and University of Lyon III) wrote (in “Les parlers du Sud-Ouest”, in : “Français de France et Français du Canada : Les parlers de l’Ouest de la France, du Québec et de l’Acadie”, Centre d’Etudes Linguistiques Jacques Goudet, Université Lyon III, 1995, p. 228) in 1995 : « The linguistic description of the ALO’s [Atlas linguistique de l’Ouest (Linguistic Atlas of the West): Poitou, Aunis, Saintonge, Angoumois] area clearly shows the existence between Loire and Gironde of an important linguistic area, created by its geographical situation and its history, and which particularity is to be a transition zone between North and South, between Breton lands and the central region [called “Centre”]. » 7.↑ Pierre Gauthier Vendean linguist (from Saint-Vincent-sur-Jar), professeur at the university of Nantes, (in Langue et littérature : La langue régionale : Les parlers vendéens dans l’espace linguistique poitevin-saintongeais, in : Vendée, Encyclopédie Bonneton : written with Guy Perraudeau), using the Vendean example, restates in 2003 : « Let’s recall first that the Vendée, before being a department, was under the Ancien Régime (pre-revolution monarchy), what we called « Bas-Poitou » (Lower Poitou) and to understand what are the Vendean dialects, their origins, their life, their future, it’s necessary to situate them in a bigger linguistic, cultural and historic area, the one bordered by the Loire and the Gironde on one part, the Atlantic Ocean and the Massif Central on another part, where are still alive in rural areas local dialects with a sufficient coherence to constitute a minority language, the Poitevin-Saintongese one.” 8.↑ In 2006 Pierre Bonnaud, history and geography professor at the university of Clermont-Ferrand, inside an article titeled "Esquisse géohistorique du Poitou médioroman", in the chapter titeled « La langue régionale » (in singular, and moreover called « poitevin-saintongeais » by him), explain to us the double reality (unity/diversity) : « It is impossible to analyze separately poitevin and saintongese, but they are at the same time interdependent and a bit distinct, as much in their origins as in their evolution. The almost totality of the Charentes and the southern Poitou spoke a language close to Limousin. From Aunis to Loudunese (area of the town ofLoudun], existed a language close to Limousin, but different […]. The Poitevin dialect[…] has been relatively resistant […]. In Saintonge, the perturbation has been more violent […]. So the Saintongese dialect gives at the same time a more Southern (because of its position ; there is even a Gasconian heritage in the southern Gavachery [enclave of Monségur] ) and a more frenchified feeling than Poitevin. In Poitou itself it’s in the east (transit corridor ; « Brandes » with less compact agricultural societies[…] ) where the frenchization is the heaviest, whereas, the “Plains” [Niortais, Mellois…] with more stable societies have kept a dialectal profile more original. » (N.B. : the parts between normal brackets are from the author, the parts between square brackets are explanation complements added here.) 9.↑ Jean-Paul Chauveau from the National Institute of the French language of Nancy, (in Unity and lexical diversity in the West, in : Français de France et Français du Canada : Les parlers de l’Ouest de la France, du Québec et de l’Acadie, Centre d’Etudes Linguistiques Jacques Goudet, Université Lyon III, 1995, p. 81) wrote in 1995 : « More or less in parallel with the Loire appears in the south of Nantes region and Anjou a noticeable area of lexical discordances. A whole series of lexical types, which covers compactly and coherently Angoumois, Saintonge, Aunis and Poitou, abruptly cease to exist. » 10.↑ Mémoires et documents de la Société de l’École des chartes : « comme en Poitevin-Saintongeais » : http://books.google.fr/books?cd=6&id=L_PVAAAAMAAJ&dq=poitevin-saintongeais+%C3%A9cole+des+chartes&q=poitevin-saintongeais [archive], Phonétique historique du Français, volume 3, Pierre Fouché : « chai en poitevin-saintongeais" : http://books.google.fr/books?id=XytcAAAAMAAJ&q=chai+en+poitevin-saintongeais&dq=chai+en+poitevin-saintongeais&cd=2 [archive], La Revue du Bas Poitou et des provinces de l’Ouest : « notre parler poitevin-saintongeais » : http://books.google.fr/books?id=a_JLAAAAMAAJ&q=notre+parler+poitevin-saintongeais&dq=notre+parler+poitevin-saintongeais&cd=4 [archive] 11.↑ Presently professor at the University of Clermont-Ferrand. Author of a huge lexicographic work on Auvergnat language: http://books.google.fr/books?id=iIkx9IPwQD4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Pierre+Bonnaud+dictionnaire&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false [archive] 12.↑ In the book "Medioromanie : Etudes sur la France médiane : n°5 (2006) : Regards sur le Centre-Ouest" published in 2007 by le Groupe de Souvigny, Pierre Bonnaud writes on the endpaper : "With the group autorisation, the writer [himself so] dedicates the texts of this anthology to the memory of my paternal ancestors , dédie les textes de ce recueil à la mémoire de ses ancêtres paternels, natives of Coulonges-sur-l'Autize for some of them, of the Pays d'Arvert for the others, and to my father, born in Javrezac (Charente)." 13.↑ See the summary "Correspondances phonétiques morphologiques et lexicales entre le poitevin-saintongeais et l'occitan" from Pierre Bonnaud on the CNRS website : http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=21885957 [archive] 14.↑ http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/dglf/lang-reg/rapport_cerquiglini/langues-france.html [archive] 15.↑ See the website of the DGLFLF [Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France], service of the Ministry of Culture DGLF - Ministère de la Culture [archive] 16.↑ See article of the newspaper Le Monde : http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:iGWqofYM1sMJ:springclo.wordpress.com/2009/02/18/langues-en-peril/+poitevin-saintongeais+UNESCO&cd=14&hl=fr&ct=clnk&gl=fr [archive] 17.↑ See the presentation of the Poitevin-Saintongese language teaching at the University of Poitiers : http://www.metive.org/IMG/pdf/Langues_regionales_Faculte.pdf [archive] 18.↑ On the DGLFLF website, in the document "Méthodes d’apprentissage des langues de France", in the chaptrer "Langue(s) d’oïl", in the article "Poitevin et saintongeais", we read : "Like Picard, this oïl language [we notice the singular for "poitevin and saintongese together"] covers a vast region and is subdivided into several interunderstandable dialects. It concerns many speakers. It is divided as well between several administrative regions, Pays-de-la-Loire (département of the Vendée), Poitou-Charentes and Aquitania (North of the Gironde département)." See the webpage : http://www.dglf.culture.gouv.fr/lang-reg/methodes-apprentissage/Listes_d_ouvrages_d_apprentissage/Langues_d_oil.htm [archive] 19.↑ Ch. de Tourtoulon and O. Bringuier, « Étude sur la Limite de la langue d’oc et de la langue d’oïl », 1876. [First report to the minister of Public Education, the Religions and the Arts] 20.↑ Ch. de Tourtoulon and O. Bringuier, « Étude sur la Limite de la langue d’oc et de la langue d’oïl », 1876. [First report to the minister of Public Education, the Religions and the Arts] 21.↑ www.troospeanet.com/article.php3?id_article=148