Mon Aerolisador es Plen d’Anguilas – The Trivial Traveler

Let’s play a

game. Who here thinks they can guess the language that’s up there in the title? Ok, put your hands down. If you were thinking, ‘French’ – you’re wrong. But you’re close. It’s actually a rather obscure European romance language known as Occitan. It’s not very widely spoken, which should explain why you’ve probably never heard of it, but there are pockets within larger geographic language spheres where Occitan is prevalent – places like southern France, parts of northern Italy, and western North Carolina.

It’s true. But first, a little about Occitan. Very similar to French and spoken by roughly 400,000 people, Occitan is a minority language throughout a region extending from Spanish Catalonia, through the south of France, past Monaco, and into Alpine Italy. A markedly older tongue, Occitan is considered among actively spoken languages to be second closest to Latin. (Sardinian is thought to be a smidge closer.) The most common of its six dialect is Provençal – a word you may have seen go by on a restaurant menu or two.

Understanding how there came to be an Occitan-speaking community in Western North Carolina requires a passing familiarity with Waldensianism. Although the thought of a cult for transcendentalists springs to mind, Waldensians are actually adherents to an early Protestant religious movement that dates back to the twelfth century – 400 years before Martin Luther would shake things up. Declared heretics, the Waldensians (found in and around the Piedmont region of northwest Italy) quickly began to notice that they weren’t exactly the most popular folks around town, leading several to leave home for more tolerant destinations.

 

 

Emigration took place in several waves over the centuries and in 1893, twenty-nine Waldensian settlers from Italy’s Cottian Alps arrived in Burke County, North Carolina, just west of Hickory. Naming their new community Valdese, the immigrants built the Waldensian Presbyterian Church and welcomed scores of new settlers from the old country.

Naturally, they brought their language with them and, just as the century-old church still stands, the language persists to this day. The people of Valdese speak fluent English in business situations and to outsiders. However, as locals talk amongst themselves, it is entirely possible to overhear conversations in Occitan. So if you’re ever in Valdese and wish to sound like a local, you can drop that phrase I’ve spelled out above and fit right in.

Just bear in mind that you will be telling people, “My hovercraft is full of eels.”

 

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