Never confuse a singer with a troubadour, and if you bring a joggler be
careful, as you should be if you invite the minstrel.
Apparently, troubadours performed their own songs -- who else would?
Jogglers (joglars), as the etymology goes (?) were mere performers. Singers
(cantanti) performed the troubadour's songs -- with or without letting him know
about this!
Joglars were thus called apparently from the Latin "ioculatores" (NOT used
by Ovid, I think), giving rise also to the English juggler, which has come
to refer to a more specific breed of performer.
The medieval jongleur/joglar is really a minstrel, if not a VERY wand'ring
one, as Gilbert thought he should be.
In a message dated 2/15/2016 12:18:11 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: "the ancient Provencal; and from this
circumstance alone, it is entitled to a particular attention. A careful and
critical examination of it enables us to distinguish the various ingredients,
which have successively entered into its composition."
My previous reference to the Italians was meant to be elaborated. We know
of 'la scuola toscana', and the previous 'scuola siciliana' (that every
historian of Italian literature deals with!).
But what I find fascinating is to find Ligurians using the Occitan tongue.
Il primo podestà-trovatore è Rambertino Buvalelli, possibilmente il primo
trovatore nato in Italia, podestà di Genova tra il 1218 e il 1221.
One such, a 'guelfo' -- apparently the first of these -- was Rambertino
Buvalelli (claimed by the Italians to be "possibly the first troubadour born
in Italy"). He was the podestà di Genova -- if you're interested in what
Americans call 's.e.' variables (socio-economic).
It was Buvalelli who, possibly to irritate the rest of the Italians,
instead of performing his troubadour's art in Italian, he did it in Occitan. I
guess he was a Griceian at heart, since one of Grice's maxims is "be
perspicuous", and by using an obscure lingo, Buvalelli thought that, by
implicature, he was being funny.
The funny thing, though, is that he had followers. Three, indeed, all from
Genova (what the English and Americans call 'Genoa'):
-- one 'guelfo', like Buvalelli: Luchetto Gattilusio.
-- two 'ghibellini': Percivalle Doria e Simone Doria (they are related).
But there were "podestà-trovatori" which were not from Genova, my favourite
being Alberico da Romano (a nobleman who ruled in Vicenza, sometimes as a
ghibellino, sometimes as a guelfo).
Some terminological expansion may be in order when discussing the
troubadour's implicature.
Provençal is a VARIETY of Occitan spoken by a minority of people in
southern France, mostly in Provence, obviously.
In the English-speaking world, "Provençal" is often used to refer to ALL
dialects of Occitan, but more properly it refers, as it should, to the
dialect spoken in Provence.
However there is an important controversy about whether Provençal is an
Occitan dialect or a particular language.
Popper, who dislikes definitions, possibly couldn't care less. Geary says
that a dialect is a language without an army, so some may say that neither
counts, anyway, neither Provencal nor Occitan!
"Provençal" (with "Limousin") is also the customary name given to the
OLDER version of the langue d'oc used by the troubadours of medieval
literature,
while Old French, of course, or the langue d'oïl was limited to the
northern areas of France.
These Genovese 'troubadours' who used Occitan (occitanico) were perhaps not
being THAT eccentric, since Occitan is after all spoken in Italy's Occitan
valleys, if you've been there -- as Dr. Johnson would say, "worth seeing,
if not worth going to see").
Strictly, Occitan is just "lenga d'òc" and it's spoken in southern France,
Italy's Occitan Valleys, and Monaco (once part of Liguria). These remote
and barbarous regions (cfr. "The man who broke the bank at Montecarlo"), that
Queen Victoria adored, are sometimes referred to unofficially as Occitania
-- which is a bit of a joke.
Occitan is also spoken in the linguistic enclave of Guardia Piemontese, in
Calabria, Italy -- but then Calabrians _are_ special.
There is a controversy about the unity of the language, as some think that
Occitan is a macrolanguage, whatever that is.
If there is no King of Ruritania, perhaps there SHOULD be a king of
Occitania. When I say it's a (middle-Latin) joke, I'm referring to the fact
that
of course, it's all about the word used by Jenny (in her saga):
"In twenty-four languages, she couldn't say 'no'"
Implicature: She said 'yes'. "Hoc" in Occitan -- The 'h' is mute.
Occitan being from Medieval Latin "occitanus:", in the phrase "lingua
occitana". And I say it's a joke because it's a funny Latinization of "langue
d'oc" -- 'oc' being 'yes' and the ending "-itanus" perhaps usd after
"aquitanus" and such.
Cheers,
Speranza
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