The Langedoc Region

The former French province of Languedoc was named after the dialect of French that is used in that region, which is now Occitanie. "Langue d'òc", directly translates to "language of yes", since òc is their word for yes. The major rival to this particular dialect was the "langue d'oïl", meaning "language of oïl", which is spoken in the northern France and the south of Belgium.

Languedoc as a region included the southeastern portion of the Massif Central, a plateau in the south of France, and ran from the province of Roussillon, in the west, to the Rhône River, forming the border with Provence in the east. Toulouse was one of the most important counties in the region as it held the capital of the region, which was also called Toulouse.

Languedoc was eventually annexed by France in 1271. Early in this century, the city of Rome, under Pope Innocent II, condemned a Christian sect called the Albigenses, whose theology was based on Manichaean dualism. Innocent declared the sect heretical because it denied the divinity of Christ and the Incarnation, and because they came to have much influence over the southern part of France. The Albigenses were largely based in the Languedoc region. Pope Innocent II founded the Dominican Order to combat them. The Pope's crusade against this sect developed into a general civil war between the north and the south of France, resulting in the defeat of the south. The langue d'oc was then suppressed and so the langue d'oïl became the dominant language of France and the ancestor of Modern French.

 

References

  1. ^ Swyrich, Archive materials