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Article published In: Researching Occitan in the 21st Century: Un dialòg interdisciplinari
Edited by Marc Olivier and Anna Paradis
[Revue Romane 60:1] 2025
► pp. 73–100

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Si in Old Catalan and Old Occitan

Beyond verb position and polarity

ORCiD logo with link | University of Cambridge
Published online: 19 December 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/rro.25010.puj
Abstract
This article explores the distribution of the particle si in Old Catalan and Old Occitan. Recent work on si has connected it to the satisfaction of Medieval Romance V2 be it as an expletive or as an alternative to verb movement, always connected to topic continuity. Early Old Catalan (11th–12th centuries) presents the particle but loses it by the 13th century, when its V2 syntax weakens. From this point, sí is only found sparingly in texts of literary character. In Old Occitan, si is exclusively attested in troubadouresque prose. Its distribution suggests that it was used as a stylistic marker of this genre. This syntactic specificity supports the existence of a prestigious and influential troubadouresque koine within the prose domain, while the absence of si elsewhere in the Old Occitan written record traces an isogloss between this variety and neighbouring languages, opening questions on the fragmentation of the Gallo-Romance continuum.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Si in Medieval Romance
  • 3.Si in Old Catalan
  • 4.Si in Old Occitan
  • 5.Conclusions and further questions
  • Notes
  • References
References (88)
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