Langues d'oïl

Oïl
Langues d'oïl
Geographic distribution:	Northern and central France, Belgium, Switzerland
Linguistic classification:	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Gallo-Romance Oïl
Proto-language:	Old French
Subdivisions:	see below
The geographical spread of the Oïl languages (other than French) can be seen in shades of green and yellow on this map

The langues d'oïl [lɑ̃ɡᵊdɔjl]^[1] or langues d'oui [lɑ̃ɡᵊdwi], in English the Oïl /ˈwiːl/ or Oui /ˈwiː/ languages, are a dialect continuum that includes standard French and its closest autochthonous relatives spoken today in the northern half of France, southern Belgium, and the Channel Islands. They belong to the larger Gallo-Romance group of languages, which also covers most of southern France (Occitania), northern Italy and east Spain (Catalan Countries).

Linguists divide the Romance languages of France, and especially of Medieval France, into three geographical subgroups: Langues d'oïl and Langues d'oc, named after their words for 'yes', with Franco-Provençal (Arpitan) considered transitional.

Meanings and disambiguation

Langue d'oïl (in the singular), Oïl dialects and Oïl languages (in the plural) designate the ancient northern Gallo-Romance languages as well as their modern-day descendants. They share many linguistic features, a prominent one being the word oïl for yes. (Oc was and still is the southern word for yes, hence the langues d'oc or Occitan languages). The most widely spoken modern Oïl language is French (oïl was pronounced [o.il] or [o.i], which has become [wi], in modern French oui).

There are three uses of the term oïl:

1. Langue d'oïl
2. Oïl dialects
3. Oïl languages

Langue d'oïl

In the singular, Langue d'oïl refers to the mutually intelligible linguistic variants of romana lingua spoken since the 9th century in northern France and southern Belgium (Wallonia), since the 10th century in the Channel Islands, and between the 11th and 14th centuries in England, (the Anglo-Norman language). Langue d'oïl, the term itself, has been used in the singular since the 12th century to denote this ancient linguistic grouping as a whole. With these qualifiers, langue d'oïl sometimes is used to mean the same as Old French (see History below).

Oïl dialects

In the plural, Oïl dialects refer to the varieties of the ancient langue d'oïl.

Oïl languages

In the plural, Oïl languages refer to those modern-day descendants that evolved separately from the varieties of the ancient langue d'oïl. Consequently langues d'oïl today may apply either: to all the modern-day languages of this family except the French language; or to this family including French. "Oïl dialects" or "French dialects" are also used to refer to the Oïl languages except French—as some extant Oïl languages are very close to modern French. Because the term dialect is sometimes considered pejorative, there is a trend today among French linguists to refer to these languages as langues d'oïl rather than dialects.

Varieties

Five zones of Oïl dialects have been proposed:^[2]

• Frankish zone (zone francique)

Picard, Walloon, Lorrain, Norman (north of the ligne Joret, incl. Anglo-Norman and Dgèrnésiais, Jèrriais of the Channel Islands), eastern Champenois

• Francien zone (zone francienne): French proper

varieties of the Île-de-France: Orléanais, Tourangeau (Tourain), western Champenois, Berrichon, Bourbonnais

• Burgundian zone (zone burgonde)

Bourguignon, Franc-Comtois

• Armorican zone (zone armoricaine)

East Armorican: Angevin, Mayennais, Sarthois, Norman (south of the ligne Joret)

West Armorican: Gallo language [Gallo has a stronger celtic substrate from the breton language, it originated from the oïl speech of people from eastern and northern regions: Anjou, Maine (province) (Mayenne, Sarthe), Normandy, in contact with breton speakers in Upper Brittany, see Marches of Neustria]

• Poitevin-Saintongeais zone (zone poitevine and zone saintongeaise, after the former provinces of Poitou and Saintonge)

Poitevin, Saintongeais

For the history of phonology, orthography, syntax and morphology: see History of the French language and the relevant individual Oïl language articles.

Each of the Oïl languages has developed in its own way from the common ancestor, and division of the development into periods varies according to the individual histories. Modern linguistics uses the following terms:

• Old French, Old Norman etc. for the 9th–13th centuries.

And then for French:

• Middle French for the period 14th–15th centuries.
• 16th century : français renaissance (Renaissance French).
• 17th to 18th century: français classique (Classical French).

History

Romana lingua

In the 9th century, romana lingua (the term used in the Oaths of Strasbourg of 842) was the first of the Romance languages to be recognized by its speakers as a distinct language, probably because it was the most different from Latin compared with the other Romance languages (see History of the French language).

A good number of the developments that we now consider typical of Walloon appeared between the 8th and 12th centuries. Walloon "had a clearly defined identity from the beginning of the thirteenth century". In any case, linguistic texts from the time do not mention the language, even though they mention others in the Oïl family, such as Picard and Lorrain. During the 15th century, scribes in the region called the language "Roman" when they needed to distinguish it. It is not until the beginning of the 16th century that we find the first occurrence of the word "Walloon" in the same linguistic sense that we use it today.

Langue d'oïl

By late- or post-Roman times Vulgar Latin had developed two distinctive terms for signifying assent (yes): hoc ille ("this (is) it") and hoc ("this"), which became oïl and oc, respectively. Subsequent development changed "oïl" into "oui", as in modern French. The term langue d'oïl itself was first used in the 12th century, referring to the Old French linguistic grouping noted above. In the 14th century, the Italian poet Dante mentioned the yes distinctions in his De vulgari eloquentia. He wrote in Medieval Latin: "nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil" ("some say 'oc', others say 'si', others say 'oïl'")—thereby distinguishing at least three classes of Romance languages: oc languages (in southern France); si languages (in Italy and Iberia) and oïl languages (in northern France).

Other Romance languages derive their word for "yes" from the classical Latin sic, "thus", such as the Italian sì, Spanish and Catalan sí, Portuguese sim, and even French si (used when contradicting another's negative assertion). Sardinian is an exception in that its word for "yes", eja, is from neither origin.^{[citation needed]} Similarly Romanian uses da for "yes" which it is believed to be of Slavic origin.^{[citation needed]}

However, neither lingua romana nor langue d'oïl referred, at their respective time, to a single homogeneous language but to mutually intelligible linguistic varieties. In those times, spoken languages in Western Europe were not codified (except Latin and Medieval Latin), the region's population was considerably lower than today, and population centers were more isolated from each other. As a result, mutually intelligible linguistic varieties were referred to as one language.

French (Old French/Standardized Oïl) or lingua Gallicana

In the 13th century these varieties were recognized and referred to as dialects ("idioms") of a single language, the langue d'oïl. However, since the previous centuries a common literary and juridical "interdialectary" langue d'oïl had emerged, a kind of koiné. In the late 13th century this common langue d'oïl was named French (françois in French, lingua gallica or gallicana in Medieval Latin). Both aspects of "dialects of a same language" and "French as the common langue d'oïl" appear in a text of Roger Bacon, Opus maius, who wrote in Medieval Latin but translated thus: "Indeed, idioms of a same language vary amongst people, as it occurs in the French language which varies in an idiomatic manner amongst the French, Picards, Normans and Burgundians. And terms right to the Picards horrify the Burgundians as much as their closer neighbours the French".

It is from this period though that definitions of individual Oïl languages are first found. The Picard language is first referred to by name as "langage pikart" in 1283 in the Livre Roisin. The author of the Vie du bienheureux Thomas Hélye de Biville refers to the Norman character of his writing. The Sermons poitevins of around 1250 show the Poitevin language developing as it straddled the line between oïl and oc.

As a result, in modern times the term langue d'oïl also refers to that Old French which was not as yet named French but was already—before the late 13th century—used as a literary and juridical interdialectary language.

The term Francien is a linguistic neologism coined in the 19th century to name the hypothetical variant of Old French allegedly spoken by the late 14th century in the ancient province of Pays de France—the then Paris region later called Île-de-France. This Francien, it is claimed, became the Medieval French language. Current linguistic thinking mostly discounts the Francien theory, although it is still often quoted in popular textbooks. The term francien was never used by those people supposed to have spoken the variant; but today the term could be used to designate that specific 10th-and-11th centuries variant of langue d'oïl spoken in the Paris region; both variants contributed to the koine, as both were called French at that time.

Rise of French (Standardized Oïl) versus other Oïl languages

For political reasons it was in Paris and Île-de-France that this koine developed from a written language to a spoken language. Already in the 12th century Conon de Béthune reported about the French court who blamed him for using words of Artois.

By the late 13th century the written koine had begun to turn into a spoken and written standard language, and was named French. Since then French started to impose itself on the other Oïl dialects as well as on the territories of langue d'oc.

However, the Oïl dialects and langue d'oc continued contributing to the lexis of French.

In the 16th century the French language imposed itself even more by the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts to replace Latin in judgements and official acts and deeds (although the local Oïl languages had always been the language respectively spoken in justice courts). It is argued that the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts was not intended to make French a national language, merely a chancery language for law and administration. Although there were competing literary standards among the Oïl languages in the mediaeval period, the centralisation of the French kingdom and its influence even outside its formal borders sent most of the Oïl languages into comparative obscurity for several centuries. The development of literature in this new language encouraged writers to use French rather than their own regional languages. This led to the decline of vernacular literature.

It was the French Revolution which imposed French on the people as the official language in all the territory. As the influence of French (and in the Channel Islands, English) spread among sectors of provincial populations, cultural movements arose to study and standardise the vernacular languages. From the 18th century and into the 20th century, societies were founded (such as the "Société liégoise de Littérature wallonne" in 1856), dictionaries (such as George Métivier's Dictionnaire franco-normand of 1870) were published, groups were formed and literary movements developed to support and promote the Oïl languages faced with competition. Until the First World War, the regional languages of France were still the languages most used in the home and in the fields.^{[citation needed]} This was also generally the case in areas where Oïl languages were spoken.

French is now the best-known of the Oïl languages.

Literature

Besides the influence of French literature, small-scale literature has survived in the other Oïl languages. Theatrical writing is most notable in Picard (which maintains a genre of vernacular marionette theatre), Poitevin and Saintongeais. Oral performance (story-telling) is a feature of Gallo, for example, while Norman and Walloon literature, especially from the early 19th century tend to focus on written texts and poetry (see, for example, Wace and Jèrriais literature).

As the vernacular Oïl languages were displaced from towns, they have generally survived to a greater extent in rural areas - hence a preponderance of literature relating to rural and peasant themes. The particular circumstances of the self-governing Channel Islands developed a lively strain of political comment, and the early industrialisation in Picardy led to survival of Picard in the mines and workshops of the regions. The mining poets of Picardy may be compared with the tradition of rhyming weaver poets of Ulster Scots in a comparable industrial milieu.

There are some regional magazines, such as Ch'lanchron (Picard), Le Viquet (Norman), Les Nouvelles Chroniques du Don Balleine (Jèrriais), and El Bourdon (Walloon), which are published either wholly in the respective Oïl language or bilingually with French. These provide a platform for literary writing.

Status

Apart from French, an official language in many countries (see list), the Oïl languages have enjoyed little status.

Currently Walloon, Lorrain (under the local name of Gaumais) and Champenois have the status of regional languages of Wallonia.

The Norman languages of the Channel Islands enjoy a certain status under the governments of their Bailiwicks and within the regional and lesser-used language framework of the British-Irish Council.

The French government recognises the Oïl languages as Languages of France but the Constitutional Council of France barred ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.^[3]

Influence

The English language was heavily influenced by contact with Norman following the Norman Conquest and much of the adopted vocabulary shows typically Norman features.

The Portuguese language is heavily influenced by more than a millennium of perennial contact with several dialects of both Oïl and Occitan, in lexicon (up to 15-20% in some estimates, at least 5000 word roots), phonology and orthography.^[4][5][6] In Brazil, after greater and continual Portuguese immigration, and Tupi influence,^[7] the status of French as a language of culture in the Western world for centuries and the presence of Swiss immigrants (sixth largest European group to Brazil) for a consirable span of time is popularly regarded to be the main source of difference between the group of dialects spoken in Florianópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo and surrounding regions, and those elsewhere in Brazil (it was also more indirectly influenced by French due to the larger Portuguese influence there and the stronger Francophile feel in the Portuguese culture—Portuguese and French influence are often confused).^[8][9][10] The learning of French is historically the most important and has always been strong among the westernized Lusophone high societies, and for a great span of time it was also a foreign language strong among the middle class general populaces of both Portugal and Brazil, in the globalization surpassed by English in both and more recently by Spanish in the latter.^{[11][12][13][14]} Alliance française is present in Brazilian cities as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Brasília and others.^[15]

The French spoken in Belgium shows some influence from Walloon.

The langues d'oïl were more or less influenced by the native languages of the conquering Germanic tribes, notably the Franks. This was apparent not so much in the vocabulary (which remained overwhelmingly of Latin origin) as in the phonology and syntax; the invading Franks, Burgundians and Normans became the rulers and their accents were imposed as standard on the rest of the population. This accounts in large part for the relative distinctiveness of French compared to other Romance languages.

The development of French in North America was influenced by the speech of settlers originating from north-western France, many of whom introduced features of their Oïl varieties into the French they spoke. (See also French language in the United States, French language in Canada)

Creoles derived from French

Creole languages and pidgins developed from a basis of French are sometimes included among the Oïl languages (see French-based creole languages).

Languages/dialects with significant Oïl influence

• English (Oïl influences on vocabulary, transmitted via the Anglo-Norman language spoken by the upper classes in England in the centuries following the Norman Conquest)
• Portuguese (Oïl and Occitan influences on lexicon, phonology—especially European and Europeanized Brazilian dialects, and orthography)
• Limburgish languages (Oïl influences varies per variant, with large influence in Maastricht)
  • Maastrichtian dialect (significant vocabulary influence)
• Luxembourgish language

See also

• Old French
• Bartsch's law
• Lenga d'òc

Notes

References

External links

• Songs in oïl languages