Pierre Bec

Pierre Bec (French: [pjɛʁ bɛk]; Occitan: Pèire Bec, IPA: ['pɛjɾe βɛk]; 11 December 1921 – 30 June 2014)^[1] was a French Occitan-language poet and linguist. Born in Paris, he spent his childhood in Comminges, where he learnt Occitan. He was deported to Germany between 1943 and 1945. After returning, he studied in Paris, where he graduated in 1959. He was one of the founders of the IEO or Institut d'Estudis Occitans (Institute of Occitan Studies) as well as its president from 1962 to 1980.

Life

Pierre Bec spent his childhood in Cazères-sur-Garonne where he learned Gascon. In 1938, he was an interpreter for the Spanish Republican refugees who had crossed the Pyrenees, and he discovered Catalan. He was deported in March 1943 to Germany as part of the compulsory labor service.

Bec was titular professor at Poitiers university and assistant director of the Centre d'Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale (Centre for high studies in medieval civilisation).^[2] He is considered one of the most important specialists in Occitan dialectology and in mediaeval Occitan literature. His activity is distributed among Occitanist politics, philological research and literary creation. He collaborated with publications like Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale, Revue de Linguistique Romane, Estudis Romànics, Oc.

In 1982 he took part in the Linguistic Normalisation commission for Aranese, with Jacme Taupiac and Miquèu Grosclaude: they established some linguistics norms, officialised in 1983, following IEO's indications for Gascon.

Bec died in Poitiers on 30 June 2014, at the age of 92.^[3]

Importance for Gallo-Cisalpine language(s)

As a linguist, Pierre Bec stated, within his Manuel pratique de Philologie romane (2nd volume, p. 316) that some kind of diachronical unity holds between Rhaeto-Romance languages (i.e. Romansh, Friulian and Ladin) and Northern Italian or Cisalpine ones (Western Lombard, Eastern Lombard, Piedmontese, Venetan, Emiliano-Romagnolo and Ligurian). This issue has been further investigated by the Australian linguist Geoffrey Hull.^[4]

Works

Literature

• Petite anthologie de la lyrique occitane du Moyen Âge (1954)^[5]
• Les saluts d'amour du troubadour Arnaud de Mareuil (1961) (editor) ^[6]
• La langue occitane (1963)^[7]
• Burlesque et obscénité chez les troubadours (1984)^[8]
• Chants d'amour des femmes troubadours (1995) (Anthologist)^[9]
• Au briu de l'estona (1955) poetry^[10]
• Sonets barròcs entà Iseut (1979) poetry^[11]
• Lo hiu tibat (1978) Novel
• Sebastian (1980) Novel
• Raconte d’una mort tranquilla (1993) Short Story
• Contes de l'unic (1977) Short Story

Linguistics

• Manuel pratique d'occitan moderne (Picard, 1973; 2e édition 1983)^[12]
• Manuel pratique de philologie romane (Picard, 1970 (vol. 1), 1971 (vol. 2) - reedit. 2000)^[13]
• Les Interférences linguistiques entre gascon et languedocien dans les parlers du Comminges et du Couserans (PUF, 1968): Essai d'aréologie systématique.^[14]

See also

• Occitan language
• Aranese
• Gallo-Italic languages

References

1. "Mor l'occitanista Pèire Bèc". www20.gencat.cat. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
2. Covell, Roger (October 20, 2001). "Poets' justice; CD Reviews". Sydney Morning Herald.
3. Mor l'occitanista Pèire Bèc
4. Hull, Geoffrey, PhD thesis 1982 (University of Sydney), published as The Linguistic Unity of Northern Italy and Rhaetia: Historical Grammar of the Padanian Language. 2 vols. Sydney: Beta Crucis, 2017.
5. Bec, Pierre (1954). "Petite anthologie de la lyrique occitane du Moyen Age: initiation à la langue et à la poésie des troubadours" (in French). Aubanel. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
6. Davenson, Henri (1962). "Les " Saluts d'amour " du troubadour Arnaud de Mareuil, éd. Pierre Bec, avec introduction, traduction et notes". Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale. p. 475. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
7. Smith, Alex Duval (July 26, 1991). "Europe: The tongue of the troubadours lives on - Babel". The Guardian.
8. Brusegan, Rosanna (1990). "Pierre Bec. — Burlesque et obscénité chez les troubadours. Le contre-texte au moyen âge, 1984 (" Moyen âge ")". Cahiers de Civilisation Médiévale. pp. 67–69. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
9. "Chants d'amour des femmes-troubadours : trobairitz et chansons de femme". Stock. 1995. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
10. Bec, Pierre. "Au briu de l'estona : poemas / Pierre Bec Bec, Pierre, 1921-2014". bibliotheques.avignon.fr. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
11. Bec, Pierre (1979). Sonets barrocs enta Iseut (in Occitan). Institut d'Estudis Occitans. OCLC 489945977. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
12. Bec, Pierre (1973). Manuel pratique d'occitan moderne (in French). A. & J. Picard. ISBN 9782708400894. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
13. Séguy, Jean (1972). "Bec (P.), Manuel pratique de philologie romane, vol. I, 558 p., 11 cartes ; vol. II, 643 p., 14 cartes ; Paris, Picard, 1970-1971". Annales du Midi. pp. 98–99. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
14. Séguy, Jean (1970). "Bec (Pierre), Les interférences linguistiques entre gascon et languedocien dans les parlers du Comminges et du Couserans (Publications de la Faculté des lettres et sciences humaines de Poitiers n° V, Paris P.U.F., 1968)". Annales du Midi. pp. 204–206. Retrieved 15 November 2021.