Poetevin-Séntunjhaes

Poetevin-Séntunjhaes or Parlanjhe (native names), also know as Poitevin-Saintongeais or Parlange (Standard French names), is a Romance linguistic variety spoken in midwest France, viewed either as a French dialect or as an independent Romance language.

Poetevin means “from Poitou”, Séntunjhaes means “from Saintonge”, parlanjhe means “the language, the way of talking” (implicitly, “our language”).

Territory

The Poetevin-Séntunjhaes territory, located in midwest France, is sometimes named Aguiéne (native name) or Aguiaine (Standard French name): this is an old medieval name, derived from Latin Aquitania.

It comprises the following zones:

• from a historical point of view, the traditional provinces of Poitou, Saintonge, Aunis and Angoumois.
• from an administrative point of view: the official region of Poitou-Charentes and the department of Vendée (exactly: adjoining some strips of the departments of Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire, Indre and Gironde and without a western strip of Poitou-Charente—where Occitan is spoken—).

Hence the name Poitou-Saintonge-Vendée, often used as a synonym of Aguiéne.

The main cities of Aguiéne are Poitiers, Niort, La Rochelle, Angoulême, Saintes and La Roche-sur-Yon.

Classification

All specialists agree on the fact that, within the Romance family, Poetevin-Séntunjhaes is a variety of the Langue d'Oïl with an important substratum from Occitan .

But specialists disagree on wether Poetevin-Séntunjhaes is a dialect of the French language or an independent language.

• According to the traditional classification of Romance linguistics, “French” and “Langue d'Oïl” are synonyms, both names designate one language, which includes several dialects. In this view, Poetevin-Séntunjhaes is a dialect of French or Langue d'Oïl.
• According to a view supported by some linguists since the 1970's, there is not one Langue d'Oïl but several “Langues d'Oïl” (in plural) and Poetevin-Séntunjhaes should be considered as one member of those Langues d'Oïl. “French” (the variety of Paris and Ile-de-France) would be another member of the same Oïl group. The supporters of Poetevin-Séntunjhaes usually subscribe to this second conception. But most Poetevin-Séntunjhaes speakers and inhabitants of Aguiéne are unaware of this debate.

Current use and status

Poetevin-Séntunjhaes was used by the majority of the population until the beginning of the 20th century. Its use has dwindled dramatically in front of Standard French since the 20th century.

However, a cultural movement has developped since the 19th century in order to promote the use of Poetevin-Séntunjhaes. Nowadays, Poetevin-Séntunjhaes is supported by networks of speakers, cultural activists, writers and singers and courses for adults and youngsters. The regional authorities of Poitou-Charentes give some funding to the cultural associations.

Poetevin-Séntunjhaes is not protected by any law nor official status. Nevertheless, it is recognized in a list of “regional languages” established by the French Ministry of Culture.

Genesis

The early stages of Poetevin-Séntunjhaes are not very well known. They are related with the withdrawal of the Occitan language during the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries.

Occitan was spoken at least until the end of the 12th century in the southern half of the current Poetevin-Séntunjhaes territory: the language boundary went near the cities of Rochefort, Niort and Poitiers and Poitiers was probably Occitan-speaking (some scholars even suppose that, initially, Occitan could have covered all the current Poetevin-Séntunjhaes domain). At the end of the 12th century, Occitan began to withdraw progressively in front of the Langue d'Oïl; the current Oïl-Occitan boundary was probably stabilized in the 15th century.

In this zone of language withdrawal, Poetevin-Séntunjhaes emerged progressively in written documents as a variety of the Langue d'Oïl, bearing a lot of remnants of Occitan. Poetevin-Séntunjhaes may even have existed before the great language change, located north of the earlier Rochefort-Niort-Poitiers limit, but this is not sufficiently attested.

Writing system

A spelling has been codified since the 1970's and the 1980's, thanks to one of the main Parlanjhe associations, the UPCP (Union for the Popular Culture of Poitou-Charentes-Vendée).