# Occitan: sound sample



## panjabigator

I tried searching for a sound sample of Occitan just now, but unfortunately a lot of the sites appear to be French to my untrained eye.  Can someone help me find a sample of this?  I'd like to hear what it sounds like, in comparison to French.


----------



## DCPaco

This is an Online Radio Station in Occitan. (Occitan can be one of six dialects: Provençal, Gascon, Languedoc, Limousin, Alpine and Auvergne.)

http://brunocecillon.free.fr/


----------



## PianoMan

That's interesting, where is it stationed from, Lyon?


----------



## MarcB

Radio Occitania


----------



## panjabigator

So is Provencal a dialect of Occitan or a synonym?


----------



## Thomas1

panjabigator said:


> So is Provencal a dialect of Occitan or a synonym?


I think strictly speaking Provençal is a dialect of Occitan (of the Southern Occitan group).


Thomas


----------



## Spectre scolaire

Thomas1 said:
			
		

> I think strictly speaking Provençal is a dialect of Occitan (of the Southern Occitan group).


I wonder what Frédéric Mistral (1830-1914), Nobel prize of literature 1904, would have said to that... In fact, _Thomas1_ is quite right _historically_, but to still call _Provençal_ a “dialect” just shows how bad things went.

Mistral devoted his entire life to the literary revival of *Provençal*. The main reason for his failure is _le jacobinisme républicain_, the dominant French national ideology which doesn’t favour any other language than French.

It is true that there are several dialects of _Lenga d’__Òc_ which is the same as _Occitan_, a collective name in opposition to _langue d’Oïl_, cf. _DCPaco_ (#2), but this is the case for most languages in a state of development, cf. the term _Ausbausprache_. Common _language policy_ – “language engineering”, if you want - is to choose one dialect, usually one which carries prestige and in which some literature may already have been produced. And indeed, Provençal was the literary language of the troubadours of the late Middle Age. It was natural for Mistral to choose this name for his revival attempt. 

Now that there is no real hope of ever reviving Provençal, anybody can call a «langue d’Oc» anything, and in fact, several dialects are now competing for favour... They are not “dangerous” any more for the unity of France. 

_Divide et impera_...
  ​


----------

