Saintongeais
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (February 2008) |
| Saintongeais saintonjhouê, jhabrail |
||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: |  France |
|
| Region: | Charente, Charente-Maritime (also: very small communities in Bordeaux | |
| Total speakers: | ||
| Language family: | Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Western Gallo-Iberian Gallo-Romance Oïl Saintongeais |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | pns | |
| ISO 639-2: | ||
| ISO 639-3: | – | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Saintongeais (patouê saintonjhouê, jhabrail) is a language spoken halfway down the western coast of France in the former provinces of Saintonge, Aunis and Angoumois, all of which have been incorporated into the current départements of Charente and Charente-Maritime as well as in parts of their neighbouring départements of Deux-Sèvres, Vendée and Gironde. Although many of the same words are used in both Charente départements, they differ in many respects, i.e., in what they mean or in how they are pronounced.
Saintongeais has significantly influenced the Québécois, the Acadian and Cajun dialects of French spoken in the USA and Canada.
[edit] Geographic distribution
Its area covers the entire department of Charente-Maritime, the west and centre of the department of Charente, the northern department of Gironde with its Pays Gabaye and its enclaves around Saintonge, Monségur; also the Aunisien (south Vendée) and Saintongeais (south Deux-Sèvres) parts of the Marais Poitevin. Today, Saintongeais is no longer widely spoken except in the countryside. It is still used in shows, magazines, and radio. Some words from Saintongeais are still used in the region. Words like since (floorcloth) are so widespread that they can be wrongly considered to be French.
[edit] Cultural distribution
Along with French, Saintongeais is used in the magazine Xaintonge, which is published twice a year. The great promoters of spoken Charentais at the beginning of the twentieth century were "le Barde Saintongeais" Goulebenéze, succeeded by Odette Comandon, author of comedy and folk tales, patois actress and storyteller.
