Historically Booker’s native language would be Occitan and not French . He would also probably deeply resent standard / Parisian French since the government did their damnest to erase regional languages and still do it today .
Agreed! There was another post about this, but since I got an ask (I love you, anon) I’ll elaborate. Buckle up for a primer on the evolution of the French language with a brief aside for troubadours, traveling musician-poets you wish were still a career option. No, being a rock star is not quite the same.
In the early medieval period (as early as ~900CE), the country we now call France had a language divide between the northern and southern regions. In the north, they spoke langues d'oïl which is what eventually became modern standard French. In the south, they spoke Occitan or lenga d'òc and a modern form of this language is known as Provençal. Looking at the regional sub-dialects, the more northern Occitan begins to sound like a langue d’oil and the more southern dialects begin to sound like Spanish.
As I touched upon in a previous post, this is because they all share similar roots as a romance language. Even though modern standard French is a langue d’oil, occitan managed to sneak a few things into the language. If you’ve learned French as a second language, you’ll know that when you respond yes (oui) to a negative question (you don’t like cheese? / tu n’aimes pas le fromage?) that you use a different yes (si). This is a skeleton of Occitan!
The why of the invention of “standard French” is, as most “standard” things are, a detour into nationalism. In 1635, Cardinal Richelieu (under Louis XIII) founded the Académie Française (French Academy) which was tasked with standardizing the French language so that it could be exported to the rest of Europe and used to gain further prestige of the role of French philosophers during the Enlightenment. During the French Revolution, it was disregarded, but Napoleon Bonaparte restored it as part of the Institut de France (Institute of France) in 1803. To this day, the Académie is tasked with publishing the French dictionary and inventing new words for things such as “e-mails” so that the French needn’t stoop to using English loan-words.
Another part of this was the Toubon Law (August 1994) which required French (the standard French from the Académie) to be used in all official documents and advertising. It required all advertising to use French and even set a certain percentage of music on the radio that must be French. This law was literally the government going “let’s make the French french again.” If a school doesn’t instruct in French (modern, standard French of course), then they can’t receive government funds. The only exception is Breton-language schools (Breton is as north as it gets and is a langue d’oil so it still helps crush Occitan).
Since the previous paragraph probably made you mad as heck, let me give you some irony to laugh at: some French people refer to this as the loi Allgood (“law” Allgood). To explain this joke, it helps to know that Toubon is the last name of the Minister of Culture at the time the law was passed. If you break down his last name, it sounds like “tout bon” in French which translates to “all good.” People took this law saying make everything French, goddammit and replied, sure thing Minister All-Good. I love it.
Now, for the troubadours! I learned standard modern French in high school, but at university I came across Occitan because of those romantic poets. I’ll put this aside below the break so you can continue on with your day if for some reason you’re not interested in medieval French rock star-poets...
Let me begin by quoting the Wikipedia definition:
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word troubadour is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz.
Right away you may notice a few things: 1) they wrote and sang in Occitan; 2) it was an equal-opportunity field (though it was rare for a woman to be one). The first Troubadours were mostly noblemen, but later ones could come from any social class. Yes, you read that correctly: egalitarian travelling poets! If that doesn’t sell you on these performers, I don’t know what will. The troubadours spread their tradition throughout Europe and the only thing that could stop them was the Black Plague.
As you’d expect, they mostly sang about love. A lot of their poems were about courtly love and chivalry, but they could also get bawdy. The especially good performers would be sought after by courts like famous painters. Troubadours are essentially the apex bards: romantic, witty, charming, talented, and able to make serious bank.
To finish this, I will leave you with one of the bawdiest troubadour poems I know of, Farai un vers, pos mi somelh (The Ladies with the Cat) by Guillem de Peiteus. It’s essentially the story of a dude who has sex with these women who pick up a knight on a pilgrimage (though it plays with reality and this guy’s fantasies). I’ll include it in the original Occitan, and then a translation by Robert Kehew (I believe), verse-by-verse. Forgive me for my commentary in between, but I just want you to understand how freaking clever this poem is!
Farei un vers, pos mi somelh
Em vauc e m’estauc al solelh.
Domnas i a de mal conselh,
E sai dir cals:
Cellas c’amor de cavalier
Tornon a mals.
While sound asleep I’ll walk along
In sunshine, making up my song.
Some ladies get the rules all wrong;
I’ll tell you who:
The ones that turn a knight’s love down
And scorn it, too.
The singer is establishing himself as a troubadour. The protagonist is dreaming, so we should be careful about what is real and imagined. He’s also invoking the trope of the philandering knight constantly falling in love and breaking his heart.
Domna fai gran pechat mortal
Qe no ama cavalier leal;
Mas si es monge o clergal,
Non a raizo:
Per dreg la deuri’hom cremar
Ab un tezo.
Grave mortal sins such ladies make
Who won’t make love for a knight’s sake;
And they’re far worse, the ones who’ll take
A monk or priest--
They ought to get burned at the stake
At the very least.
The Middle Ages were not at all chaste; yes, monks and priests were having sex. This isn’t as sexist as it may come across on a first reading however. He’s not saying women shouldn’t have sex (he’s actually saying that it’s a sin not to being having sex), he’s just upset that women who are clearly willing to have sex are turning *him* down. He’s not going to get any awards for feminist of the year, but he’s not the worst. I’m sure this would rouse cheers from a tavern.
En Alvernhe, part Lemozi,
M’en aniey totz sols a tapi:
Trobei la moller d’en Guari
E d’en Bernart;
Saluderon mi simplamentz
Per sant Launart.
Down in Auvergne, past Limousin,
Out wandering on the sly I ran
Into the wives of Sir Guarin
And Sir Bernard;
They spoke a poper welcome then
By St. Leonard.
These are recognizable locations along a pilgrimage route. There’s a good chance that these names are replaceable (Bernard can be replaced with any last name that rhymes with a saint) and this song could be used to goad the audience. And no, he hasn’t had sex with these ladies yet. They’re just saying hello (for now).
La unam diz en son latin:
“E Dieus vos salf, don pelerin;
Mout mi semblatz de bel aizin,
Mon escient;
Mas trop vezem anar pel mon
De folla gent.”
One said in her dialect,
“Sir Pilgrim, may the Lord protect
Men so sweet-manned, so correct,
With such fine ways;
This whole world’s full of lunatics
And rogues, these days.”
I think most would agree that this is happening in the knight’s sex-dream because she’s just sweet talking him. The awesome part is that the “dialect” reflects the singer actually adopting a Northern French language (they’re mutually intelligible). Guillem didn’t have to go that hardcore, but he did.
Ar auzires qu’ai respondut;
Anc no li diz bat ni but,
Ni fer ni fust no ai mentaugut,
Mas sol aitan:
“Barbariol, babariol,
Babarian.”
For my reply--I’ll swear to you
I didn’t tell them Bah or Boo,
I answered nothing false of true;
I just said, then,
“Babario, babariew,
Babarian.”
This guy just mocks their accents as a reply. Wildin’.
So diz n’Agnes a n’Ermessen:
“Trobat avem que anam queren.
Sor, per amor Deu, l’alberguem,
Qe ben es mutz,
E ja per lui nostre conselh
Non er saubutz.”
So Agnes said to Ermaline,
“Let’s take him home, quick; don’t waste time.
He’s just the thing we’d hoped to find:
Mute as a stone.
No matter what we’ve got in mind,
It won’t get known.”
In this stanza we see two repeats and a new thing. First, the names are easy to replace (Agnes doesn’t even have to rhyme with anything) so that this can be done to call out a specific woman’s name. Second, the language skills are being flaunted again as this Occitan-speaker is just casually showcasing that he can sing about sex in other languages too, thankyouverymuch. Lastly, this is WOMEN voicing their desire, not men. The man is silent, they think he’s incapable of speech. This is two women in a poem/song getting to steer the story how they please. Stepping back, this is a guy’s sex-dream so you could argue he’s just got a kink for dominant women, but regardless that’s a pretty cool way to turn masculinity on its head.
La unam pres sotz son mantel
Menet m’en sa cambra, al fornel.
Sapchatz qu’a mi fo bon a bel,
El focs fo bos,
Et eu calfei me volentiers
Als gros carbos.
Under her cloak, one let me hide;
We slipped up to her room’s fireside.
By now I thought one could abide
To play this role--
Right willingly I warmed myself
At their live coals.
Yes, this dude is saying he’s more than happy to let the women take charge. Don’t kink-shame him.
A manjar mi deron capos,
E sapchatz agui mais de dos,
E noi ac cog ni cogastros,
Mas sol nos tres,
El pans fo blancs el vins fo bos
El pebr’ espes.
They served fat capons for our fare--
I didn’t stop at just one pair;
We had no cook or cook’s boy there,
But just us three.
The bread was white, the pepper hot,
The wine flowed free.
A capon is a castrated rooster, fattened for eating. He’s being fattened (and emasculated by letting them take control) before the women get down to their fun with him.
“Sor, aquest hom es enginhos,
E laissa lo parlar per nos:
Nos aportem nostre gat ros
De mantenent,
Qel fara parlar az estros,
Si de renz ment.”
N’Agnes anet per l’enujos,
E fo granz et ac loncz guinhos:
E eu, can lo vi entre nos,
Aig n’espavent,
Q’a pauc non perdei la valor
E l’ardiment.
“Wait, sister, this could be a fake;
He might play dumb just for our sake.
See if our big red cat’s awake
And fetch him, quick.
Right here’s one silence we should break
If it’s a trick.”
So Agnes brought that wicked beast,
Mustachioed, huge, and full of yeast;
To see him sitting at our feast--
Seemed less than good;
I very nearly lost my nerve
And hardihood.
So yes, he’s joking about almost loosing his boner and there’s that language play again. The big part of the ending, however, is the imagery of the red cat. Cats are typically associated with women, and the color red tempts the mind into thinking of it as female passion or some kind of prowling sexuality (with undertones of evil). The subtext here is that they’re going to test him by letting this cat scratch him up to see if he’ll cry out. If he can keep his mouth shut and allow the womens’ passions, he can stay. If he can’t, he’s out. Ultimately, I’m going to say that this poem is subtly for women’s empowerment. Go scratch up your knights, ladies.
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Thursday round-up
At HRDive, Kate Tornone reports that the court on Monday “declined to review an appeals court’s holding that ‘a multimonth leave of absence is beyond the scope of a reasonable accommodation’ under the Americans with Disabilities Act.” Whitney Cooney discusses the cert denial in Severson v. Heartland Woodcraft at The National Law Review.
At Legal Insurrection, Andrew Branca looks at Monday’s summary reversal in in Kisela v. Hughes, in which the court ruled that a police officer who shot a woman outside her home was immune from suit in a civil-rights case. At Reason’s Volokh Conspiracy blog, Orin Kerr offers an explanation for why the court hears so many qualified-immunity cases, suggesting that “misapplying the decision rule of qualified immunity could have quite broad effects,” so that “[w]hat looks like a fact-specific case could have much broader implications.”
Briefly:
At The Hill, Lydia Wheeler reports that “[n]early one year into his tenure,” the Supreme Court’s newest justice, Neil Gorsuch, “is reveling in his role, diving into arguments with gusto and so far fulfilling the expectation that he would be a rock-ribbed conservative in the mold of his predecessor, the late Antonin Scalia.”
At The American Prospect, Simon Lazarus reviews Richard Hasen’s new book about Scalia, suggesting that “[t]he real challenge is to understand why Scalia’s catechism has won the broad influence it has had, both in legal circles and especially in politics.”
At the Cato Institute’s Cato at Liberty blog, Trevor Burrus and Matthew LaRosiere weigh in on South Dakota v. Wayfair, in which the justices will reconsider a ruling that limits the ability of state governments to require out-of-state online retailers to collect tax on sales to state residents, arguing that “[i]f states can directly compel people who live outside state boundaries to adhere to state standards—standards the people had no chance to influence—the concept of statehood itself is undermined.” [Disclosure: Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys contribute to this blog in various capacities, is among the counsel to the petitioner in this case.]
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