Frederic Mistral Part 7

-ounge (masc.).

A suffix forming nouns from adjectives.

viei, _old_.

vieiounge, _old age_.

-our (fem.).

This is like the above.

viei, _old_.

vieiour, _old age_.

-ous, -ouso.

This is the Latin -osus; French -eux, -euse. It forms many new words in Mistral.

urous (Fr. heureux), _happy_.

pouderous (It. and Sp. poderoso), _powerful_.

aboundous, _abundant_.

pin, _pine_.

pinous, _covered with pines_.

escalabra, _to climb_.

escalabrous, _precipitous_.

-ta (fem.).

This is the equivalent of the Latin -tas, French -te. In Mistral's language it is usually preceded by a connecting vowel _e_.

moundaneta, _worldliness_.

soucieta, _society_.

paureta, _poverty_.

-u (masc.), -udo (fem.).

This ending terminates the past participles of verbs whose infinitive ends in _e_. It also forms many new adjectives.

astre, _star_.

malastru, _ill-starred_.

sabe, _to know_.

saberu, _learned_.

The feminine form often becomes a noun.

escourre, _to run out_.

escourregudo, _excursion_.

-un (masc.).

This is a very common noun-suffix.

clar, _bright_.

clarun, _brightness_.

rat, _rat_.

ratun, _lot of rats_, _smell of rats_.

paure, _poor_.

paurun, _poverty_.

dansa, _to dance_.

dansun, _love of dancing_.

plagne, _to pity_.

plagnun, _complaining_.

viei, _old_.

vieiun, _old age_.

-uro (fem.).

toumba, _to fall_.

toumbaduro, _a fall_.

escourre, _to flow away_.

escourreduro, _what flows away_.

bagna, _to wet_.

bagnaduro, _dew_.

This partial survey of the subject of the suffixes in Mistral's dialect will suffice to show that it is possible to create words indefinitely.

There is no academy to check abuse, no large, cultivated public to disapprove of the new forms. The Felibres have been free. A fondness for diminutives marks all the languages of southern Europe, and a love of long terminations generally distinguished Spanish latinity. The language of the Felibres is by no means free from the grandiloquence and pomposity that results from the employment of these high-sounding and long terminations. _Toumbarelado_, _toumbarelaire_, are rather big in the majesty of their five syllables to denote a cart-load and its driver respectively. The abundance of this vocabulary is at any rate manifest.

We have here not a poor dialect, but one that began with a large vocabulary and in possession of the power of indefinite development and recreation out of its own resources. It forms compounds with greater readiness than French, and the learner is impressed by the unusual number of compound adverbs, some of very peculiar formation.

_Tourna-mai_ (again) is an example. Somewhat on the model of the French _va-et-vient_ is the word _li mounto-davalo_, the ups and downs. _Un regardo-veni_ means a look-out. _Noun-ren_ is nothingness. _Ped-terrous_ (earthy foot) indicates a peasant.

Onomatopoetic words, like _zounzoun_, _vounvoun_, _dindanti_, are common.

Very interesting as throwing light upon the Provencal temperament are the numerous and constantly recurring interjections. This trait in the man of the _Midi_ is one that Daudet has brought out humorously in the Tartarin books. It is often difficult in serious situations to take these explosive monosyllables seriously.

In his study of Mistral's poetry, Gaston Paris calls attention to the fact that the Provencal vocabulary offers many words of low a.s.sociation, or at least that these words suggest what is low or trivial to the French reader; he admits that the effect upon the Provencal reader may not be, and is likely not to be, the same; but even the latter must occasionally experience a feeling of surprise or slight shock to find such words used in elevated style. For the English reader it is even worse. Many such expressions could not be rendered literally at all.

Mistral resents this criticism, and maintains that the words in question are employed in current usage without calling up the image of the low a.s.sociation. This statement, of course, must be accepted. It is true of all languages that words rise and fall in dignity, and their origin and a.s.sociation are momentarily or permanently forgotten.

The undeniably great success of this new Provencal literature justifies completely the revival of the dialect. As Burns speaks from his soul only in the speech of his mother's fireside, so the Provencal nature can only be fully expressed in the home-dialect. Roumanille wrote for Provencals only. Mistral and his a.s.sociates early became more ambitious.

His works have been invariably published with French translations, and more readers know them through the translations than through the originals. But they are what they are because they were conceived in the patois, and because their author was fired with a love of the language itself.

As to the future of this rich and beautiful idiom, nothing can be predicted. The Felibrige movement appears to have endowed southern France with a literary language rivalling the French; it appears to have given an impulse toward the unification of the dialects and subdialects of the _langue d'oc_. But the _patoisants_ are numerous and powerful, and will not abdicate their right to continue to speak and write their local dialects in the face of the superiority of the Felibrige literature. Is it to be expected that Frenchmen in the south will hereafter know and use three languages and three literatures--the local dialect, the language of the Felibres, and the national language and literature? One is inclined to think not. The practical difficulties are very great; two literatures are more than most men can become familiar with.

However, this much is certain: a rich, harmonious language has been saved forever and crystallized in works of great beauty; its revival has infused a fresh, intellectual activity into the people whose birthright it is; it has been studied with delight by many who were not born in sunny Provence; a very great contribution is made through it to philological study. Enthusiasts have dreamed of its becoming an international language, on account of its intermediary position, its simplicity, and the fact that it is not the language of any nation.

Enthusiasm has here run pretty high, as is apt to be the case in the south.