Passadoc Gazette - No 157

The Hebdo 157

Words also travel...

Like men, words also travel.

Example: fada*.
From Latin fatigue (insensed), he stopped in Provence in 1343 and if he remained regional, he was known throughout France, thanks in particular to Marcel Pagnol** :

« That's why, when there comes a good action, all ready, in working order, right in front of your nose, is that the Good Lord offers it to you. Whoever doesn't jump on the footstool and goes hand in hand, it's a poor fad who missed the train.« .

Another example?
1870: from Brittany, the soldiers demanded bara (pain) and gwin (win) from their officers who understood nothing about this language. The war ended, the military returned to their province... but Baragouin*** Stay in towns and villages!

But how did homosapians, nomad hunters/gatherers, express themselves? Scientists agree enough that the exchanges were merely gestures, screams, whistles and expressive mimics, and that languages only formed during sedentarization.

To develop the topic, it would take hours and hours of research, pages and pages of gazette... We're not fedas enough for that!

Jeanne Monin

Research on several sites.

* Beyond Latin origin, « fada » means bewitched by the fairies. There is a female « Fadade » in popular French.
Found in the Tresor dóu Feliberge : parlo coume uno fado She has an enchanting language.
** Manon des Sources.
*** Nice story... but we find Barragouin as early as 1532 with the same hypothesis: meeting of bread and wine. The expression is taken from Rabelais who gives him the meaning of « person speaking incomprehensible language » – Source Alain Rey – Historical Dictionary of the French Language

The Echoes of the Week
Barjols' triplets
The old tree
Yes!
Passadoc
Publications

The Tripettes of Barjols

A moment of joy for the 3,000 inhabitants of this commune of Var.
Open this page quickly! Claude Boyer tells the story

The old tree

On a stroll through the Cantal, I had photographed this majestic tree that immediately made me think of Aubre Vielh (The Old Tree) by Marcèla Delpastre, a 20th century major poetic work in the Occitan language.

Poetess and peasant, Marcèla was born in Germont (Corrèze) in 1925. She died on her farm in 1998, just 25 years ago.

I encourage Passadocians who love poetry to read Marcelle Delpastre in Occitan and/or French.

André Abbe

Extracts :

L'aubre vielh, que diriatz que jamai lai tornarà montar la saba, talament la ruscha

es crebada, the raç curada of vermes which fell in povera per lo mitan, jamai,

revengu l'estiu, n-aviá balhat so many fuelhas, nor flowers tan perfumadas,

sovendrem of his frucha may from his ombra.

Per lo tuar, queu país, as long as he spoke his lenga in vielh flowers, not not

naissut lo chaçado.

« The old tree, as it looks like never will rise the sap there, so much bark seems

dead, the root eaten of worms, and falling into dust by the middle, never,

When he came in summer, he had not given so many leaves, nor such fragrant flowers. And we're

His fruits and shadow will be remembered.

To kill him, this country, as long as he speaks his tongue in flowers of the old tree, no, he's not.

Claude Boyer

When I was a kid, we often went to Italy in Piedmont; My parents who didn't speak Italian did well when speaking Provençal.

Yes!

This is not the first time anyone has asked me why, in Provence, we say « Sies a peis » (You're a fish!) to a person who did a good job.

In French – in these circumstances – we will say « You're an ace » or « You're a champion. ».

I think I have the explanation, but I can't be formal. If you know more than I do, tell us.

Fish (not all) have the ability to climb currents without zigzag, to cross waterfalls, which was the admiration of our elders. Where « a peis ».

The secretary of the Marquis de Saluces (Saluzzo in Italian- province of Cuneo) Frédéric II, had as his motto « Right whatever it is » and for an emblem a fish. It brings water to my mill!

André Abbe.

Publications

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These are cited in The Gazette :
André Abbe
Claude Boyer
Jeanne Monin
Editor in Chief
Jeanne Monin