An Introduction to Old Occitan

by William D. Paden

Overview

An Introduction to Old Occitan is the only textbook in print for learning the language used by the troubadours in southern France during the Middle Ages. Each of the thirty-two chapters discusses a subject in the study of the language (e.g., stressed vowels, subjunctive mood) and includes an exercise based on a reading of an Occitan text that has been edited afresh for this volume. An essential glossary analyzes every occurrence of every word in the readings and gives cognates in other Romance languages as well as the source of each word in Latin or other languages. The book also contains a list of prefixes, infixes, and suffixes and a dictionary of proper names.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781603290548
Publisher:	Modern Language Association
Publication date:	01/01/1998
Series:	Introductions to Older Languages , #4
Edition description:	Bilingual
Pages:	636
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

William D. Paden is Professor Emeritus at Northwestern University. A specialist in literature of the Middle Ages, he was co-editor with the late Mario Trovato of a 13th-century philosophical treatise in Latin, Guillelmus de Aragonia, De Nobilitate Animi (2012); co-author with Frances Freeman Paden of a book of English verse translations, Troubadour Poems from the South of France (2007); editor of essay collections on Medieval Lyric: Genres in Historical Context (2000), The Future of the Middle Ages: Medieval Literature in the 1990s (1994), and The Voice of the Trobairitz: Perspectives on the Women Troubadours (1989); editor of The Medieval Pastourelle (1987); and co-editor of The Poems of the Troubadour Bertran de Born (1986). He was awarded a Mellon Emeritus Fellowship in 2011 for a project on "Love and Marriage in the Time of the Troubadours."

Editorial Reviews

"A work of impeccable scholarship, which manages to convey a great deal about troubadour language and culture, synthesizing much of the latest research in the field." —Speculum

"This hefty and scholarly book is very welcome and deserves a place in every university library." —Modern Language Review

From the Publisher

Paden (French and Italian, Northwestern U.) presents the only textbook in print for learning the language of the troubadours in southern France during the Middle Ages. Chapters explain such linguistic features as stressed vowels and subjunctive mood, and include an exercise based on a reading of an Occitan text that has been edited afresh for the volume. The glossary gives cognates in other Romance languages and its Latin source as well as the English definition. The compact disc discusses the pronunciation, with illustrations from the texts in the book and musical performances. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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