Notes taken during reading of "An introduction to Old Occitan", by William Paden.

           Old Occitan 1000-1500. Like the Greek in the Odessey, the language of the troubadours is a "koine",
           or common language. It contains featues of various dialects, yet identifiable with none. Such a koine
           was what Dante searched for Italy, because italian before Dante (as was old French) was strongly
           marked by dialectal features .

1.Verbs: general morphology

The tenses in old occitan can be grouped in three sets based on morphology. This
subdivision makes it easier to remember and recognize many verb forms.
Any verb conjugation may be built up by a scheme consisting of the root of the verb and three
additional markers: verb = root + set + tense + person. The first marker after the verb root is the
set marker. Paden identifies three sets of tenses:
1. present set, i.e. the tenses of the present indicative and imperfect. Based on root + no specific marker.
2. future set, i.e. the tenses of the future and 1st conditional. Based on the infinitive.
3. past set, i.e. the three tenses of the preterit, past subjunctive, 2nd conditional. Based on root + mostly marker 'e'.

The set and tense markers are summarized in the following table; '-' indicates no (zero) marker.
Present set
future set
 past set
(no marker)
 (marker = infinitive)
 various markers: e, i, s
present ind.   'a' for -ar
                    '-' for non-ar
present subj. '-' for -ar
                    'a' for non-ar
imperfect      'ava' for ar
                    'ia' for non-ar
 future  'a'

 --

1st conditionnal 'ia'
 preterit '-'

past subjunctive   's' (aftter vowel)
                           'es'
2nd conditionnal  'ra'
 
Finally, person markers are for all tenses the same except for the preterit (see below). They are the following
 - '-' (zero)
 - s
 - '-' (zero)
 - em (in general, sometimes am)
 - etz (in general, sometimes atz)
 - on


2.Verbs: morphology  in practice


2.1 The present set  (no marker)
PRESENT
PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE IMPERFECT
-ar (marker 'a')
 non -ar (marker '-')
 -ar (marker '-') non -ar (marker 'a') -ar (marker 'ava') non -ar (marker 'ia')
cant
cantas
cant
cantam
cantatz
cantan/on 		part
partz
part
partem
partetz
parten/on		 cant
cantz
cant
cantem
cantetz
canton		 parta
partas
parta
partam
partatz
partan		 cantava
cantavas
cantava
cantavam
cantavatz
cantavan
 partia
partias
partia
partiam
partiatz
partian
2.2 The future set (marker is infinitive)
FUTURE
1st CONDITIONAL
-ar (marker 'a')
 non -ar (marker 'a')
 -ar (marker 'a')
non-ar (marker '  a') -ar (marker 'ia') 
non -ar (marker 'ia')
cantarai
cantaras
cantara
cantarem
cantaretz
cantaran
 partirai
partiras
partira
partirem
partiretz
partiran

cantaria
cantarias
cantaria
cantariam
cantariatz
cantarian
partiria
partirias
partiria
partiriam
partiriatz
partirian

The open space in the future set table above is in principle reserved for the
future subjunctive. This tense is however not in use (see for a possible
example Paden).
2.3 The past set (various markers e, i, s, ..)
As noticed above the preterit has unique persons marker. In the past set
there exists a much greater variety in markers than in the previous two. There
is no simple distinction between -ar and non -ar verbs.In the table below, two
examples of the preterit are given; see e.g. here for the preterit of other verbs.
Note that there are many exception among past set verb morphology to the
general rules.
   
PRETERIT
PAST SUBJUNCTIVE  2nd CONDITIONAL
-ar

-ar (marker s, es)
 non -ar (marker s, es) -ar (marker ra) non -ar (marker ra)
cantei
cantest
cantet(c)
cantem
cantetz
canteron
 perdei
perdest
perdet
perdem
perdetz
perderon		 cantes
cantesses
cantes
cantessem
cantessetz
cantesson
 		partis
partisses
partis
partissem
partissetz
partisson
 		cantera
canteras
cantera
canteram
canteratz
canteran
partira
partiras
partira
partiram
partiratz
partiran


3. Usage of verb forms in the past set

The past set is possible the least familiar of verb forms for
speakers of non-latin derived languages. Some usage is given
in the next subsections.
3.1 If clauses, 1st and 2nd conditionnal, subjunctive
The past subjunctive one may translate with "I might have sung".
The 2nd conditional one may translate with "I would have sung".

The first and the second conditional express hypothetical actions -
that is, actions whose truth is subject to an expliticit or implicit condition.
The condition is often, but not always introduced using by the subjunctive.

e.g. Si sabia, cantaria. = If i knew, i would sing.
      Si saubes, cantera = If i had known, i would have sung.

The condition is introduced by words like si (if), or ab sol que (provided
that), or qui (if someone).

There exists three 'if'-clause patterns:
1. If (present), then (future)
2. If (imperfect), then (1st conditional)
3. If (past. subj), then (2nd conditional)

In a stand alone conditional, often regarding 'voler' or 'dever', both conditionals
serve to mitigate an assertion, that would have been too harsh in the present,
i.e. i want cheese > i would like cheese. The difference between the two
is one of degree. The 2nd conditional represents actions often more hypothetical
than the first conditional.

Both conditionals express the future in the past, but the 2nd conditional expresses
actions that could have taken place but did not, as for example 'i would sing' and
'i would have sung' already seem to imply.
3.2 Preterit
The preterit expresses past events that are unrelated to the present,
see e.g. the passe simple in French, or passato remoto in Italian.

4.Other word types


4.1 Articles and nouns

 Masculin
 Feminin

singular
 plural
 singular
 plural
Nominative
 lo jorns
 li jorn
 la domna
 las domnas
Oblique
 lo jorn
 los jorns
 la domna
 las domnas


Note the variation of the 's' in the masculin. Thus in general for masculin words there is a case difference;
for femine there is not. Exception are feminine words ending in 'a', they get in the nom. singular an ending in 's'.
4.2 Adjectives and adverbs
4.3 Demonstratives
The demonstratives in old occitan are derived from the classical latin demonstatives
hic/hoc = this, near speaker
iste/istum = that, near addressee
ille/illum  = yonder, far from both

Prefixes and suffixes have been added to the root of the demonstratives in the evolution of vulgar latin
of  Occitania making distinctions force (prefixes) and gender, case and numbers (suffixes).

The prefixes are as follows:
proximity
 weak
 interm
 strong
cl. Latin
 old Occ.
 (root)
 (s-/c- + root)
 ais/aic/as/aq + root
hoc
 neuter
 o
 so
 aiso, aico
istum
 near
 est
 cest
 aicest, aiquest
illum
 far
 el/lo
 cel
 aicel, aquel


Suffixes are straightforward and for feminine words and plural follow the article endings
(e.g. est > esta/estas, aicel > aicela/aicelas, lo > la/las). Masculin demonstratives have
the following forms in the weak case:

 singular
 plural
nominative
 est / el
 ist / il
oblique
 est / el
 estz / los
An unusual form of masc. nom. sing. is 'le' instead of  'lo'.

In some cases the letter 'i' is used as marker for feminine words in the
nominative singular instead of the usual 'a'. For example:
ela > il, ilh
la > li
cesta > cist
aquesta > aquist
cela > cil
aquela > aquil

A translation into Dutch of Reading 2
Ab l'alen tir vas me l'aire
qu'ieu sen venir de Proensea
tot quant es de lai m'agensa
si que quan n'aug ben retraire
ieu m'o escout en rizen
e.n deman per un mot cen
tan m'es bel quan n'aug ben dire

Qu'om no sap tan dous repaire
cum de Rozer tro c'a Vensa
si cum clau mars e Durensa
ni on tant fins joys s'esclaire
per qu'entre la france gen
ai layssat mon cor jauzen
ab lieys que fa.ls iratz rire

Qu'om no pot lo jorn mal traire
qu'aja de lieys sovinensa
qu'en liey nays joys e comensa
e qui qu'en sia lauzaire
de be qu.n digua no.i men
mielhers es (e ses content)
e genser qu'e.l mon se mire

E s'ieu sai ren dire ni faire
ylh n'aia .l grat, que sciensa
m'a donnat e conoissensa
per qu'ieu sui guays e chantaire
e tot quan fauc d'avinen
ai del sieu belh cors plazen
neis quan de bon cor cossire
 Met het inhaleren, trek ik naar mij de lucht
waarvan ik proef dat ze uit de Provence komt
Alles wat van daar komt bevalt me
evenzo wanneer ik goeds over haar hoor vertellen
ik luister ernaar al glimlachend
en ik er vraag voor 1 woord honderd van
zo mooi is het wanner er goed over hoor praten

Omdat men geen liefelijker verblijfplaats kent
dan de Rhone tot aan Vensa
evenzo als de zee en de Durensa insluit(en)?
noch waar zoveel fijne blijdschap oplicht
want tussen de de goudeerlijke mensen
heb ik mijn juichend hart achtergelaten
bij haar die de getergden laar lachen

Laat men de dag niet slecht behandelen
die nieuws van haar brengt
want in haar vangt het geluk aan en begint,
en wie er ook een aanbidder van mag zijn
slechts goeds zal hij ervan zeggen, niet liegen
beter is zij (en wees blij) [?]
en zachtaardiger dan wat men de wereld  zou kunnen vinden (mirar)

En indien ik ook maar iets zou mogen zeggen en kunnen
dan hebbe zij de dank ervoor, want kennis
heeft ze me geschonken en (h)erkenning
want ik ben vrolijk en zanger [?]
en al het prachtige wat ik doe,
heb ik van haar betoverende en innemmend karakter (cors=persoon, karakter,lichaam)
juist/zelfs wanner ik met oprecht hart spreek