December 11th, 2009 | 
Author: A recent sociolinguistic survey has shown that the Dordogne Aquitaine is the region of France with the largest number of fluent speakers of the romantic Occitan tongue.
Occitan was once spoken across Europe, in Spain, Italy, Monaco and particularly in France. Once it was the everyday language for the rural French south and until the 14th century it was the primary vehicle for the poetry of medieval troubadours. Some historians claim that Occitan poetry, singing and plays inspired the rise of the vernacular in medieval literature.
However the language has suffered a continuing decline ever since, falling out of favour soon after the traditional provinces were replaced by the department system in the late 18th to 19th century. In what Occitan speakers refer to as La Vergonha (“shame”), various policies were brought about by the French national government to officially exclude regional dialects and promote the current language until well into the 20th century.
However in the 1999 census, there were almost 610,000 native speakers of Occitan and perhaps a million more with some fluency in the historic tongue – the majority of whom live in the Dordogne.
According to a story on Sudouest.com, Dordogne is the department where the language still survives. Although nearly every resident is likely to speak french as their most-commonly used language, Sudouest reports that a sociolinguistic survey has shown that for many of the region’s elderly residents it remains their native language.
Visitors to the Dordogne may notice that many street signs are presented bilingually, in both French and Occitan, particularly in the area’s many historic towns and marketplaces.
Occitan is so common among Dordogne residents that the regional council has decided to launch a unique training plan for its social care system – language training for care staff. The department’s health authorities hope that by speaking in their native tongue, alzheimer’s patients can be helped more effectively and seniors can easily communicate with care staff.
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