Occitan

Lo Gossàs dels Baskervilles  2014. 

Last week I received an email from my friend and fellow collector Takahiko ENDO directing me to a webpage that showed a translation of the Hound of the Baskervilles in what appeared to be a language we were not familiar with. As I delved deeper, I discovered the book was translated into the language Occitan. Quickly, I added it to my database for the Galactic Sherlock Holmes as the 101^st language with a Canonical translation. It was premature excitement on my part.

As is turns out, Occitan is a new language (in the Sherlockian translation sense) but I have Gascon listed which turns out to a dialect of Occitan. I have corrected the Galactic Sherlock Holmes making Occitan as the language and the two Gascon editions are now listed under it with notes stating that is is a dialect not a different language.

The source I use in determining languages is Ethnologue. This is what they say about Occitan and Gascon. There are a total of 218,310 speaker of Occitan. In France the speakers are in the Auvergne, Gascogne, Languedoc, Limousin, and Provence provinces. There are other speakers in Andorra, Spain, and Portugal.  Occitan is classified as an Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Western, Gallo-Iberian, Ibero-Romance, Oc language. There are several dialects including Auvergnat (Auverne, Auvernhas), Gascon, Languedocien (Langadoc, Languedoc, Lengadoucian), Limousin (Lemosin), Provençal (Alpine Provençal, Mistralien, Prouvençau, Provençal). Highly fragmented dialect situation, with limited intelligibility between some varieties.

Lo Chanhàs deus Baskervilles 2001

The two editions published in the dialect of Gascon are both listed in the Galactic Sherlock Holmes. I have added the images of those two book as well as the Occitan edition. I suppose the confusion initially started because in Gascon the title is Lo Chanhàs deus Baskervilles  and in Occitan it is Lo Gossàs dels Baskervilles. In the language Catalan, the title is El gos dels Baskerville. Catalan is very similar to Occitan and it is classified as an Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Western, Gallo-Iberian, Ibero-Romance, East Iberian language. The only difference is Occitan is Oc and Catalan is East Iberian. The rest of their classifications are identical.

There are about a dozen other languages spoken in France. One of those languages, Breton has published the Hound. Throughout Europe, there seems to be a push to revive older, regional languages. Let us hope there are more Sherlockians out there willing to keep the memory green in these languages. It is always exciting for my hobby, pursuing the next Sherlockian translation and adding it to my collection.

Happy Collecting!!

Lo Chanhàs deus Baskervilles 2012