Marchois (dialect)

The range area does not coincide with the historical province of La Marche but it is larger than that,.[26][27] Marchois is spoken in the north of Creuse,[28][29][30][31] and Haute-Vienne to which must be added the north of the Charente Limousine around Confolens, some southern communes of Poitou[32] but also the south of Boischaut, at the southern tip of Berry in the southern parts of Indre[33] and Cher (Saint-Benoît-du-Sault,[34] Lourdoueix-Saint-Michel,[35][36] Culan), and finally Montluçon and its region in the Allier (Châtaigneraie),[37][38],.[39]

The rest of the department of Allier once out of the Cher valley and from the center of the Bocage bourbonnais forms the eastern part of the Croissant which is to speak Arverno-Bourbonnais (Bocage, Limagne and Bourbonnaise mountain, Vichy). Guéret and Montluçon are the two main towns in La Marche region, both radiating over half of the Creuse department.[40]

The Marchois dialect is divided into three main varieties.[41]

• The southern Marchois which goes from the region of Bellac to Combrailles via Le Dorat, Magnac-Laval, Guéret.
• The central Marchois which goes from Availles-Limouzine to Néris-les-Bains via Arnac-la-Poste, La Souterraine then to Montluçon.
• The northern Marchois of Dun-le-Palestel to the south of the Tronçais forest via Bonnat, Châtelus-Malvaleix, Boussac, Treignat then the municipalities located north of Montluçon with the “Biachets” dialect (from Occitan biachés) .

Three main writing systems can be used to write Marchois.[42] All three are encouraged by the research group on the dialects of the Croissant (CNRS):

• The international phonetic alphabet makes it possible to transcribe the language as well to record pronunciations.
• The French spelling can also be used and allows the speakers to transcribe their dialects with the writing system of the French language of which they are also all familiar. Marchois being an intermediate dialect with the language of oïl it can therefore also be applied, especially since this spelling allows to underline the pronunciations which are specific to it.
• The classic Occitan spelling with a precise local adaptation for Marchois.[43] In Marchois the final Occitan “a” does not exist, it is replaced by a silent “e” as in French. e.g. The term "jornade" (="day") replaces the form "jornada" of other Occitan dialects. This specific codification to this dialect is recommended by the Institute of Occitan Studies and its local sections (IEO Lemosin, IEO Marcha-Combralha).

Early francization

The vast county of Marche experienced earlier francization than the rest of the Occitan-speaking countries. From the thirteenth century, a langues d'oïl speaking aristocratic class, e.g., the Lusignans, settled locally in the midst of an endogenous Occitanophone nobility. The region of Montluçon is linked to the same period to the seigneury of Bourbon and to a territory whose lords are very close to the kings of France. They also originate from Champagne and bring as is the case in Poitou and Saintonge "settlers" who are from Champagne and speak the dialect of the same name. These latter will exert a notable influence on the Bourbonnais d'Oïl but also the Occitan dialects of Marche and Arverno-Bourbonnais.

The Bourbons will arrive thereafter in the rest of the Marche, e.g., the famous count Jacques de La Marche, who influence even more the language of the nobles. The neighboring Berry is strongly francized, even if significant parts of Occitan still remain, from the end of the Middle Ages it also influences the towns and villages of the north of La Marche as in the region of Boussac.

The masons of La Creuse

The masons of La Creuse originating in the northern half of this department, use the marchois including in their displacement in other regions. They play on influences if they do not wish to be understood in certain "foreign" regions: they sometimes use the occitan features so as not to make themselves understood in a territory where French is spoken, as in Paris, or vice versa. in other Occitan-speaking regions they rely on oïl languages traits.

Marchois is linked to Limousin (dialect) (north-Occitan) but also to its northern neighbors, the southern dialects of oïl (Poitevin-Saintongeais, berrichon, bourbonnais d'oïl).[44] The distinctive features of the rest of the Occitan dialects were in part established by Maximilien Guérin[45] or Jean-Pierre Baldit, founder of the Institut d'études occitanes section La Marche and Combrailles.

Distinctive features vis-à-vis other Occitan dialects

• The phonology is close to French: "chabra" is pronounced "chabre" and no longer "chabro".
• Maintaining the personal pronoun in front of each verb: "I chante" instead of "chante" or "chanti" in North Occitan.
• Use as in French of the silent "e" while all other Occitan dialects, including Arverno-Bourbonnais, maintain the final Latin "a" in the feminine.

Distinctive features of the Arverno-Bourbonnais

• General preservation of the intervocalic "d" which falls in Arverno-Bourbonnais: chantada in Marchois (“sang” - pronounced chantade) and chantaa in Arverno-Bourbonnais.
• Maintaining the determinant and its elision in front of a verb that partially disappears in Arverno-Bourbonnais: Qu'es finite in marchois ("It is finished" - pronounced kou'i finite ) and u'es chabat in Arverno-Bourbonnais (pronounced or 'é chaba - which is similar to the Franco-Provençal ou est - “c'est”).

Occitan traits nevertheless remain very strong in La Marche which remains attached to Occitan.

• Nadau, collected by Marcel Rémy, Christmas carol from La Souterraine. Transcription in classical Marchois script :

A l'ore de las legendas, quand le clhocher sone mineut, rendam nos dins las eglesias, per i passar le moment pieus.

Vos, las fennas que siatz prias, mesme quos qui que cresan pas. Anatz remplir las eglesias. Las eglesias seran plenas. E tos los cuers sauran chantar, e mesme en plhurant, esperar... Las prieras par le païs, par los absents, par los amics, s'envoleran au Paradis ; le petiot Jesus sau escotar ; On sau veire le Nadau de guèrre, las misèras, la paubre tèrre.

O sau tot veire e pardonar, Oc-es, raluman nostres amas, a l'ore de las legendas, a l'ore de las prieras.

This is a non-exhaustive list of Marchois authors:

• Paul-Louis Grenier, historian and poet from Chambon-sur-Voueize, he wrote both in Marchois and Limousin .
• Maximilien Guérin (CNRS), he is a linguist and also a writer, he wrote Mes mille premiers mots en bas-marchois (2020) with Michel Dupeux.[46]
• Marie-Rose Guérin-Martinet, she has notably published Le Pitit Prince, a translation of the Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry in Marchois (2020),.[47][48]
• Jean-Michel Monnet-Quelet.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Marchois.

• Classic Marchois standard:

Totes las persones naissan lieures e egales en dignitat e en dret. Als son dotades de rason e de consciénçe més i leur fau agir entre als dins une aime de frairesse.

• French standard:

Toutes las persones naissant lieures et égales en dignitat et en dret. Als sont dotades de rason et de conscience mais i leur faut agir entre als dins une aime de frairesse.

• Authority control:
• https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb169289936 : Bibliothèque nationale de France
• Notices related to university research:
• IdRef [Marchois (dialecte)]
• Notices related to local studies:
• Société des Sciences de la Creuse; Amis de Montluçon - Ouvrages de références
• Linguistic authority notcies:
• Observatoire Linguistique, Colloque parlers du Croissant, Maximilien Guérin (Université de Poitiers)