Les Chartes de la Salvetat-Montdragon, texted albigeois du XIIIe siecle ; edition avec introd. et commentaire phonologique et morphologique

Abstract

This study is concerned with the transcription, translation and linguistic interpretation of a series of original 13th century legal documents written in Old Occitan, which originated in the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Pierre de la Salvetat (Tarn). The microfilmed documents obtained from the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris proved in some cases inadequate for transcription purposes, and many faded words and even whole passages had to be examined in the original manuscripts under ultra-violet rays. Several lacunae (none of them extensive) which still appear in the transcriptions indicate that not all the problems of this nature have been solved. Translation of the documents involved problems relating to the terminology of real estate transfer, topography, and lexicology, all of which matters have been relegated to the various appendices. The documents form the basis for a study of the phonetic values of the graphics (Part III, Phonology), and a study of the grammatical forms (Part IV, Morphology) found in the texts. These studies are by no means exhaustive in nature, and attempt merely to supplement and if necessary modify the conclusions found in the two interpretative studies by Mr. Ake Grafstrom (Etude sur la graphie des plus anciennes chartes languedociennes, and Etude sur la morphologie des des plus anciennes chartes languedociennes) of the linguistic content of a collection of original Old Occitan charters (11th to 12th centuries) reproduced by Clovis Brunei. (Although these documents predate our corpus, evidence is presented to show that the graphies and forms found in Brunei's collection are directly comparable with the 13th century texts of la Salvetat). On the assumption that a highly localised sample of scripta such as these charters exhibit may serve to determine the spoken forms typical of that area, an attempt is made to characterise the phonetic and morphological features of the Albigensian dialect of which our charters are deemed representative. The main interest of the thesis lies in the presentation of hitherto unpublished Old Occitan documents, here made available for further study by the historian, by the toponymist, and by the student of mediaeval legal procedure; and also in the attempts made to relate these to the spoken forms then current in the area of their composition.