Old Occitan phonology

Old Occitan changed and evolved somewhat during its history, but the basic sound system can be summarised as follows:

Consonants

Old Occitan consonants

	Bilabial		Labio- dental		Dental/ alveolar		Postalveolar/ palatal		Velar
	voiceless	voiced	voiceless	voiced	voiceless	voiced	voiceless	voiced	voiceless	voiced
Nasal		m				n		ɲ
Plosive	p	b			t	d			k	ɡ
Fricative			f	v	s	z
Affricate					ts	dz	tʃ	dʒ
Lateral						l		ʎ
Trill						r
Tap						ɾ

Notes:

• Written ⟨ch⟩ is believed to have represented the affricate [tʃ]; but, since the spelling often alternates with ⟨c⟩, it may also have represented [k].
• Word-final ⟨g⟩ may sometimes represent [tʃ], as in gaug "joy" (also spelled gauch).
• Intervocalic ⟨z⟩ could represent either [z] or [dz].
• Written ⟨j⟩ could represent either [dʒ] or [j].

Vowels

Monophthongs

Old Occitan vowels

	Front		Back
	unr.	rnd.
Close	i	y	u
Close-mid	e	ø	o
Open-mid	ɛ	œ	ɔ
Open	a	ɶ	ɑ

Notes:

• [o] apparently raised to [u] during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; but the spelling was unaffected, hence flor /fluɾ/ "flower".
• The open-mid vowels [ɛ] and [ɔ] appear as allophones of /e/ and /u/ respectively under certain circumstances in stressed syllables.

Diphthongs and triphthongs

Old Occitan diphthongs and triphthongs

IPA	Example	Meaning
falling
/aj/	paire	father
/aw/	autre	other
/uj/	conoiser	to know
/uw/	dous	sweet
/ɔj/	pois	then
/ɔw/	mou	it moves
/ej/	vei	I see
/ew/	beure	to drink
/ɛj/	seis	six
/ɛw/	breu	short
/yj/	cuid	I believe
/iw/	estiu	summer
rising
/jɛ/	miels	better
/wɛ/	cuelh	he receives
/wɔ/	cuolh	he receives
triphthongs stress always falls on middle vowel
/jɛj/	lieis	her
/jɛw/	ieu	I
/wɔj/	nuoit	night
/wɛj/	pueis	then
/wɔw/	uou	egg
/wɛw/	bueu	ox

External links

• Old Occitan