Some of the French dialects spoken in the French and Swiss Alps derive from Old Provençal ; the German dialects derive from Germanic tribal languages.

The word graal, as it is earliest spelled, comes from Old French graal or greal, cognate with Old Provençal grazal and Old Catalan gresal, meaning " a cup or bowl of earth, wood, or metal " ( or other various types of vessels in Southern French dialects ).

According to the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages, four of the six major dialects of Occitan ( Provençal, Auvergnat, Limousin and Languedocien ) are considered " severely endangered ", while the remaining two ( Gascon and Vivaro-Alpine ) are considered " definitely endangered " (" severely endangered " essentially means that only elderly people still speak the language fluently, while " definitely endangered " means that adults speak the language but are not passing it on to their children ).

For many centuries, the Occitan dialects ( together with Catalan ) were referred to as Limousin or Provençal, the names of two regions lying within modern " Occitania ".

Strong Italian and ( to a lesser extent ) Corsican influences make it more intelligible than other extant Provençal dialects.

In the English-speaking world, " Provençal " is often used to refer to all dialects of Occitan, but it actually refers specifically to the dialect spoken in Provence.

The standard of the Sicilian school combines many traits typical of the Sicilian, Latin, Provençal and to a lesser, but not negligible extent, Apulian and certain southern dialects.

The Romance languages — Galician / Portuguese, Spanish, Sicilian, Catalan, Occitan / Provençal, French, Sardinian, Romanian, Romansh, Friulan, other Italian, French, and Ibero-Romance dialects, and others — form another well-known continuum, with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility.

In the Archivio Glottologico Italiano XII, 1890 / 92, pp. 97 – 106 John Bruyn Andrews wrote that the dialect of Menton is in the middle between the Ligurian and Provençal dialects.

Up to roughly 1340, the Romance languages spoken in the Middle Ages in the northern half of what is today France are collectively known as " ancien français " (" Old French ") or " langues d ' oïl " ( languages where one says " oïl " to mean " yes "): following the Germanic invasions of France in the fifth century, these Northern dialects had developed distinctly different phonetic and syntactical structures from the languages spoken in southern France ( collectively known as " langues d ' oc " or the Occitan language family, of which the largest group is the Provençal language ).

Mention should be made of the Provençal troubadour Isnart d ' Entrevenas, who was podestà of Arles in 1220, though he does not fit the phenomenon Giulio Bertoni first identified in Italy.

Even though the term " courtly love " does appear only in just one extant Provençal poem ( as cortez amors in a late 12th century lyric by Peire d ' Alvernhe ), it is closely related to the term fin ' amor (" fine love ") which does appear frequently in Provençal and French, as well as German translated as hohe Minne.

They developed a Provençal hybrid version of reggae, rub-a-dub and raggamuffin with lyrics in the French and Occitan languages, sometimes referred to as trobamuffin ( from the Occitan word trobador and the musical style raggamuffin ), though they have also performed in Portuguese and Italian.

Wolfram also claimed that a lost Arabic manuscript by a descendant of Solomon was discovered by a certain Kyot the Provençal, though this may have been his way of parodying the dubious veracity of many other Grail texts.

Garlic * and anchovies are used in many of the region's sauces, as in Poulet Provençal, which uses white wine, tomatoes, herbs, and sometimes anchovies, and Pastis is found everywhere that alcohol is served.

* Herbes de Provence ( or Provençal herbs ) are a mixture of dried herbs from Provence which are commonly used in Provençal cooking.

There are about 375, 000 players licensed with the Fédération Française de Pétanque et Jeu Provençal ( FFPJP ), some 3, 000 in England.

The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent, and satirical ; they were written principally in Medieval Latin ; a few in Middle High German, and some with traces of Old French or Provençal.

Provençal quilts, now often referred to as " boutis " ( the Provençal word meaning " stuffing "), are wholecloth quilts traditionally made in the South of France since the 17th century.

The three main forms of the Provençal quilt are matelassage ( a double-layered wholecloth quilt with wadding sandwiched between ), corded quilting or piqûre de Marseille ( also known as Marseilles work or piqué marseillais ), and boutis.

It is from this adjective that are derived French jaloux, Provençal gelos, Italian geloso, and Spanish celoso.

Morels are a feature of many cuisines, including Provençal.

In Occitan ( Niçard and Provençal ) and French, the only usual names are Còsta d ' Azur in Occitan and Côte d ' Azur in French.

The main sub-dialects of Provençal are:

The opera of the puppets and the Sicilian tradition of cantastorî ( singers of tales ) are rooted in the Provençal troubadour tradition in Sicily during the reign of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, in the first half of the 13th century.

Porcini are a feature of many cuisines, including Provençal, and Viennese.

Some of those novels which have come down to us may be ranked with the most graceful works in Provençal literature ; two are from the pen of the Catalan author Raimon Vidal de Besalu.

What makes a bouillabaisse different from other fish soups is the selection of Provençal herbs and spices in the broth ; the use of bony local Mediterranean fish ; the way the fish are added one at a time, in a certain order, and brought to a boil ; and the method of serving.

What makes a bouilabaisse different from these other dishes are the local Provençal herbs and spices, the particular selection of bony Mediterranean coastal fish and the way the broth is served separately from the fish and vegetables.

In spite of Puget's visits to Paris and Rome his work never lost its local character: his Hercules is fresh from the galleys of Toulon ; his saints and virgins are men and women who speak Provençal.

Precursors to the dolce stil novo are found in the Provençal works of the troubadours, such as the Genoese Lanfranc Cigala.

Although his rule was quite just, unrest was simmering in Sicily because the island played a very subordinate role in Charles's empire — its nobles had no share in the government of their own island and were not compensated by lucrative posts abroad, as were Charles's French, Provençal and Neapolitan subjects ; also the taxes were heavy but they were spent on Charles's wars outside Sicily, making Sicily somewhat of a donor economy to Charles ' nascent empire.

The Aigues Brun brook comes out of the pass and runs just to the west of the village ( Aigue is a Provençal word for " water ", coming from Latin aqua ).

La Môle was the Provençal lover of Marguerite de Valois, among others, during the early part of her marriage to Henry of Navarre, the future king of France.

Gavòt ( in French Gavot ), spoken in the Western Occitan Alps, around Digne, Sisteron, Gap, Barcelonnette and the upper County of Nice, but also in a part of the Ardèche, is not exactly a subdialect of Provençal, but rather a closely related Occitan dialect, also known as Vivaro-Alpine.

Some people view Gavòt as a variety of Provençal since a part of the Gavot area ( near Digne and Sisteron ) belongs to historical Provence.

Wolfram claimed that a certain Kyot the Provençal supplied additional material drawn from Arabic and Angevin sources but most scholars now consider Kyot to be Wolfram's invention and part of the fictional narrative.

Niçard ( Classical orthography ), Nissart / Niçart ( Mistralian orthography ), Niçois ( French, IPA: ), or Nizzardo ( Italian, IPA: ) is considered a distinct subdialect of the Occitan language ( Provençal dialect ) spoken in the city of Nice ( Niçard: Niça / Nissa ) and in the historical County of Nice ( since 1860 the main part of the current French département of Alpes-Maritimes ).

The classical conception of love's arrows were elaborated upon by the Provençal troubadour poets of southern France in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and became part of the European courtly love tradition.

The term Provençal ( Occitan: provençal, provençau or prouvençau, ) may be used as a traditional synonym for Occitan but, nowadays, “ Provençal ” is mainly understood as an Occitan dialect spoken in Provence.

After Mistral's Félibrige movement in the 19th century, Provençal achieved the greatest literary recognition and so became the most popular term for the Occitan language.

Nowadays, linguists use the terms Provençal and Limousin strictly to refer to specific varieties within Occitania, keeping the name Occitan for the language as a whole.

The Occitan language is often called Provençal.

Grasse (; Provençal Occitan: Grassa in classical norm ( and Italian ) or Grasso in Mistralian norm ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department ( of which it is a sub-prefecture ), on the French Riviera.

Historically the language spoken in Provence was Provençal, a dialect of the Occitan language, also known as langue d ' oc, and closely related to Catalan.

The golden age of Provençal literature, more correctly called Occitan literature, was the 11th century and the 12th century, when the troubadours broke away from classical Latin literature and composed romances and love songs in their own vernacular language.

Provençal writers and poets who wrote in Occitan include:

Toulon (; Provençal Occitan: Tolon in classical norm or Touloun in Mistralian norm ) is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base.

Occitania is an area in southern France where Occitan ( often called Provençal ) has been historically spoken.

The English and French name pétanque comes from petanca in the Provençal dialect of the Occitan language, deriving from the expression pès tancats, meaning " feet together " or more exactly " feet anchored ".

Aix-en-Provence (; Provençal Occitan: Ais de Provença in classical norm, or Ais de Prouvènço in Mistralian norm, ), or simply Aix (; " Ex ", medieval Occitan Aics ), is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille.

Orange ( Provençal Occitan: Aurenja in classical norm or Aurenjo in Mistralian norm ) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d ' Azur region in southeastern France.

Occitan literature — still sometimes called Provençal literature — is a body of texts written in Occitan in what is nowadays the South of France.

Saint-Rémy-de-Provence ( Provençal Occitan: Sant Romieg de Provença in classical and Sant Roumié de Prouvènço in Mistralian norms ) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France.