The strength, the originality, the true raison d’etre of the Provencal speech resides in its rich vocabulary.  It contains a great number of terms denoting objects known exclusively in Provence, for which there is no corresponding term in the sister speech.  Many plants have simple, familiar names, for which the French must substitute a name that is either only approximate, or learned and pedantic.  Words of every category exist to express usages that are exclusively Provencal.

The study of the modern language confirms the results, as regards etymology, reached by Diez and Fauriel and others, who have busied themselves with the Old Provencal.  The great mass of the words are traceable to Latin etyma, as in all Romance dialects a large portion of Germanic words are found.  Greek and Arabic words are comparatively numerous.  Basque and Celtic have contributed various elements, and, as in French, there is a long list of words the origin of which is undetermined.

The language shares with the other southern Romance languages a fondness for diminutives, augmentatives, and pejoratives, and is far richer than French in terminations of these classes.  Long suffixes abound, and the style becomes, in consequence, frequently high-sounding and exaggerated.

One of the most evident sources of new words in the language of Mistral is in its suffixes.  Most of these are common to the other Romance languages, and have merely undergone the phonetic changes that obtain in this form of speech.  In many instances, however, they differ in meaning and in application from their corresponding forms in the sister languages, and a vast number of words are found the formation of which is peculiar to the language under consideration.  These suffixes contribute largely to give the language its external appearance; and while a thorough and scientific study of them cannot be given here, enough will be presented to show some of the special developments of Mistral’s language in this direction.

-a.

This suffix marks the infinitive of the first conjugation, and also the past participle.  It answers to the French forms in -er and -e.  As the first conjugation is a so-called “living” conjugation, it is the termination of many new verbs.

-a, -ado.

-ado is the termination of the feminine of the past participle.  This often becomes an abstract feminine noun, answering to the French termination -ee; armee in Mistral’s language is armado.  Examples of forms peculiar to Provencal are: 

oulivo, an olive. ouliva, to gather olives. oulivado, olive gathering. pie, foot. piado, footprint.

-age (masc.).

This suffix is the equivalent of the French -age, and is a suffix of frequent occurrence in forming new words. Oulivage is a synonym of oulivado, mentioned above.  A rather curious word is the adverb arrage, meaning at random, haphazard.  It appears to represent a Latin adverb, erratice.