Provençal (Prouvençau in Provençal language) is one of several dialects of the Romance language Occitan, which is spoken in southern France and other areas of France.
"Provençal" is often used to refer to all dialects of Occitan, but actually refers specifically to the dialect spoken the former province of Provence as well as south of Dauphiné and the Nimes region in Languedoc; Italy: upper valleys of Piedmont (Val Mairo, Val Varacho, Val d'Esturo, Entraigas, Limoun, Vinai, Pignerol, Sestriero). "Provençal" is also the customary name given to the older version of the langue d'oc used by the troubadours of medieval literature, corresponding to Old French of the northern areas of France.
One of the most notable passages of Provençal in Western literature occurs in the 26th canto of Dante's Purgatorio in which the troubadour Arnaut Daniel responds to the narrator:
«Tan m'abellis vostre cortes deman, / qu'ieu no me puesc ni voill a vos cobrire. / Ieu sui Arnaut, que plor e vau cantan; / consiros vei la passada folor, / e vei jausen lo joi qu'esper, denan. / Ara vos prec, per aquella valor / que vos guida al som de l'escalina, / sovenha vos a temps de ma dolor»
Sub-Dialects
Four main sub-dialects are identified. These are:
- Rhodanien
- Maritime
- Gavot
- Niçard
The Shuadit or Judeo-Provençal is considered as extinct since 1977, the Holocaust being the major cause of its extinction.