Occitan phonology

This article describes the phonology of the Occitan language.

Consonants
Below is an abstract consonant chart that covers multiple dialects. Where symbols for consonants occur in pairs, the left represents a voiceless consonant and the right represents a voiced consonant.


 * Notes:
 * The phoneme is mostly found in Southern Occitan (written $⟨(i)sh⟩$ in Gascon, $⟨ch⟩$ in Provençal, and $⟨(i)ss⟩$ in Languedocien).
 * The distinction between $⟨v⟩$ and  $⟨b⟩$ is general in Provençal, Vivaro-Alpine, Auvergnat and Limousin. However, in Languedocien and Gascon, the phonemes  and  are neutralized as  (thus  has disappeared).
 * In the Languedocien:
 * the phonemes indicate three kinds of sounds, depending on what surrounds them:
 * a voiced plosive sound by default
 * devoiced to phrase-finally or before a voiceless sound
 * a voiced fricative when both preceded and followed by voiced continuants (i.e., vowels or ) within the same phrase.
 * the phonemes and  and the sequences  are neutralized as  (thus,  and  have disappeared).
 * In Auvergnat and Limousin, and locally in other dialects,
 * the phonemes and  are neutralized as  (thus  has disappeared).
 * the phonemes and  are neutralized as  (thus  has disappeared).
 * In Auvergnat, most of the consonants, except, can have a palatalized sound before i and u. Consequently, the consonant phonemes have two kinds of sounds, one being not palatal (by default) and the other being palatal (before i and u): => ;  => ;  => ;  => ;  => ;  => ;  => ;  => ;  => ;  => ;  => ;  => ;  => ;  => ;  =>.
 * In one part (and only one part) of Limousin, a transphonologization has occurred:
 * The old phonemes, have now become ,.
 * The old phonemes, have now become ,.
 * In the Provençal in general, and partially in other dialects, the phonemes and  are neutralized as  (thus  has disappeared).
 * The original rhotic consonants, (tapped) and  (trilled) have known important evolutions:
 * In Provençal and partially in other dialects, there is now an opposition between (tapped) and  (uvular) (whereas  has disappeared). This feature is shared with Portuguese. In the cases when the opposition is impossible between the two phonemes, the default realization is  (it was  in the original pattern).
 * In most of Limousin, Auvergne, Vivarais and Niçard, the phonemes and  are neutralized as  (or even ).

Gascon consonants

 * Gascon shares some traits with Languedocien:
 * The phonemes have the same realization as described above for Languedocien.
 * The phonemes and  of the general pattern are neutralized as . It seems possible, however, that the phoneme  has never existed in Gascon.
 * Gascon and Southern Languedocien don't use the semivowel (Gascon has, SL has ) and have the same distribution for the phonemes  (tg, tj) and  (j, g).
 * In one part of Gascon, the palatal affricates become plosive palatal consonants:.

Vowels
Please note:
 * The grapheme -a, when in final position and after the word's stress, is pronounced /ɔ/ in general (locally: /a/, /ə/).
 * The grapheme á is pronounced /ɔ/ in general (locally: /e/, /ɛ/).

General ablaut
In an unstressed position, some vowels cannot be realized and become more closed vowels:
 * The stressed vowel (è) becomes the unstressed vowel  (e). For instance (stress underlined): t è rra  > terr a ssa.
 * The stressed vowel (ò) becomes the unstressed vowel  (o). For instance (stress underlined): c ò de  > codific a r.
 * In some local dialects, especially in the Languedocien variety of Guyenne, the stressed vowel (a) becomes the unstressed vowel  (a). For instance (stress underlined): b a la  > bal o n.
 * Please note- Also in Guyenne, the vowel a, when stressed, is pronounced when followed by a nasal consonant such as  (n, m, nh) or a final -n that is not heard: mont a nha, p a n  (instead of ).
 * In Limousin, Auvernhat, Vivaro-Alpine and in most of Provençal (though not in Niçard), the stressed diphthong (au) becomes the unstressed diphthong  (au). For instance (stress underlined): s au ta  > saut a r.
 * In Limousin, Auvernhat, Vivaro-Alpine and in most of Provençal (though not in Niçard), the stressed diphthong (ai) becomes the unstressed diphthong  (ai). For instance (stress underlined): l ai ssa  > laiss a r.

The ablaut in Auvergnat
One typical characteristic of Auvergnat (also a feature of some neighbouring dialects of Vivaro-Alpine) is the transformation of the following phonemes:
 * The old phoneme has become.
 * The old phoneme has become  or.

In an unstressed position, some vowels cannot be realized and become more closed vowels:
 * The stressed vowel (è) becomes the unstressed vowel  (e). For instance (stress underlined): t è rra  > terr a ssa.
 * The stressed vowel (ò) becomes the unstressed vowel  (o). For instance (stress underlined): c ò de  > codific a r.
 * In the northern part of Auvergne, the stressed vowel (a) (unrounded) becomes the unstressed vowel  (a) (rounded). For instance (stress underlined): b a la  > bal o n.
 * The stressed diphthong (au) becomes the unstressed diphthong  (au). For instance (stress underlined): s au ta  > saut a r.
 * The stressed diphthong (ai) becomes the unstressed diphthong  (ai). For instance (stress underlined): l ai ssa  > laiss a r.

The ablaut in Limousin
A strong characteristic of Limousin (also a feature of some neighbouring dialects of Vivaro-Alpine) is the neutralization of the phonemes and  in one single phoneme, that can have various degrees of opening.

In words of popular formation, the sequences as, es, is, òs, os, us, ues, when at the end of a syllable, first became and have now become long vowels, , which tends to create new phonemes with a relevant opposition between short vowels and long vowels. The same phenomenon exists in one part of Vivarais.

In an unstressed position, some vowels cannot be realized and become more closed vowels:
 * The stressed vowel (ò) becomes the unstressed vowel  (o). For instance (stress underlined): c ò de  > codific a r.
 * The stressed vowel (a) (unrounded) becomes the unstressed vowel  (a) (rounded). For instance (stress underlined): b a la  > bal o n.
 * The stressed diphthong (au) becomes the unstressed diphthong  (au). For instance (stress underlined): s au ta  > saut a r.
 * The stressed diphthong (ai) becomes the unstressed diphthong  (ai). For instance (stress underlined): l ai ssa  > laiss a r.

Regional variation

 * In Limousin and Auvergnat, final consonants, except for -nh and -m, are generally muted when not directly followed by a word with a vocalic initial: filh, potz , fach , limon but estelum , estanh , un fach ancian.


 * In Limousin and Auvergnat, when a diphthong starts in $⟨o⟩$ or $⟨u⟩$, it is always the following vowel that receives precedence: boisson (Auvergnat) and  (Limousin) versus  (Languedocien) or  (Provençal).


 * In all dialects but Languedocien, final -l is heavily velarized (dark l) and therefore usually spelled -u: especial / especiau  but especiala  in the feminine (except in Gascon where it stays as especiau).

Word stress
Word stress has limited mobility. It can only fall on:
 * the last syllable (oxytones or mots aguts "acute words")
 * the penultimate syllable (paroxytones or mots plans "plain words").
 * However, in Niçard, and less commonly in the Cisaupenc dialect of the Occitan Valleys, the stress can also fall on the antepenultimate (third from last) syllable (proparoxytones or mots esdrúchols "slip words"). These proparoxytones are equivalent to paroxytones in all other dialects. For instance (stress underlined):

Historical development
As a Romance language, Occitan developed from Vulgar Latin. Old Occitan (around the eighth through the fourteenth centuries) had a similar pronunciation to present-day Occitan; the major differences were:
 * Before the 13th century, $⟨c⟩$ had softened before front vowels to, not yet to.
 * In the early Middle Ages, $⟨z⟩$ between vowels represented the affricate, not yet.
 * In early Old Occitan, $⟨z⟩$ represented in final position.
 * In the late Middle Ages, the letter $⟨a⟩$ went from to  in unaccented position and in stressed syllables followed by a nasal consonant.
 * When not part of a diphthong, the vowel spelled $⟨o⟩$ was probably pronounced as, not yet.
 * Between vowels, the letter $⟨i⟩$ or $⟨j⟩$ represented, for most speech in Occitania, . However, this could become, especially down south: it later became , which, in turn, would locally depalatalize to  in Middle Occitan.
 * In words where was preceded by a diphthong whose second element was, it was sometimes palatalized to.
 * In earlier times, some dialects used instead of the more common : despite their similarity, this often led to contrasting spellings ($⟨laishar⟩$ or $⟨laischar⟩$  vs. $⟨laichar⟩$ ; $⟨fois⟩$ or $⟨foish⟩$  vs. $⟨foih⟩$ ) before it became  commonly across the language ($⟨laissar⟩$, $⟨Fois⟩$ ).
 * In the pre-literary period of early Old Occitan had not been fronted to, although strong doubts exist as to when the change actually happened.
 * When between vowels, lenited to, though this is still true for only Gascon and Languedocien dialects; elsewhere, it eventually turned to  or was deleted.
 * In Gascon, there was one voiced labial phoneme that was in the beginning of a word and  between vowels. This still happens today and has spread to the neighbouring Languedocien dialect.
 * The phoneme $⟨lh⟩$ was exclusively pronounced (it is now  in intervocalic or final position in some dialects).