# Occitan / Provençal: d'en vau



## nineth

I'd like to know what 'en vau' means. It's sometimes written 'en-vau'. The context is 'calanque d'en vau' - a calanque in southern france. I speak French and I tried searching a lot for it but could only find that it wasn't French, but from the Provencal dialect of Occitan. Thanks in advance.


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## sound shift

It means "in the valley", but in the context of a calanque it could mean "lower" or "down below", I think.


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## nineth

sound shift said:


> It means "in the valley", but in the context of a calanque it could mean "lower" or "down below", I think.



Thank you very much. "in the valley" makes a lot of sense since this calanque is indeed in a valley.


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## ryba

That's right.

_Vau_ comes from _val_, and the _-u_ part is etymologically a vocalized _-l_ < _-ll_ (cf. the more conservative Languedocien _val_, Gascon _vath_ < _vall_). The local Romance form _vall_, where all those forms ultimately stem from (_vall_ >_ val_; _vall_ > _vath_; _vall_ >_ val _>_ vau_), is, in turn, a descendant of Latin _vallēs_. So is English _valley_, via Old French (cf. French _vallée_, which corresponds to Occitan _valada_). As to _en_, it is etymologically the very same Indo-European word as English _in_.

Have a nice day,


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## nineth

Thank you very much!


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