The revival of this speech could not fail to interest lovers of literature.  If not a lineal descendant, it is at least a descendant, of the language that centuries ago brought an era of beauty and light to Europe, that inspired Dante and Petrarch, and gave to modern literatures the poetic forms that still bear their Provencal names.  The modern dialect is devoted to other uses now; it is still a language of brightness and sunshine, graceful and artistic, but instead of giving expression to the conventionalities of courtly love, or tending to soften the natures of fierce feudal barons, it now sings chiefly of the simple, genuine sentiments of the human heart, of the real beauties of nature, of the charm of wholesome, outdoor life, of healthy toil and simple living, of the love of home and country, and brings at least a message of hope and cheer at a time when greater literatures are burdened with a weight of discouragement and pessimism.

[Footnote 5:  The edition of Mireio published by Lemerre in 1886 contains an Avis sur la prononciation provencale wherein numerous errors are to be noted.  Here the statement is made that all the letters are pronounced; that ch is pronounced ts, as in the Spanish word muchacho.  The fact about the pronunciation of the ch is that it varies in different places, having at Maillane the sound ts, at Avignon, for instance, the sound in the English chin.  It is stated further on that ferramento, capello, febre, are pronounced exactly like the Italian words ferramento, capello, febbre.  The truth is that they are each pronounced somewhat differently from the Italian words.  Provencal knows nothing of double consonants in pronunciation, and the vowels are not precisely alike in each pair of words.

Later this sentence occurs:  “Dans les triphthongues, comme biais, piei, vuei, niue, la voix doit dominer sur la voyelle intermediaire, tout en faisant sentir les autres.”  Only the first two of these four words contain a triphthong. Vuei is a descending diphthong, the ue representing the French eu. Niue offers the same two vowel sounds inverted, with the stress on the second.

Lastly, the example is given of the name Jeuse.  It is spelled without the accent mark, and the reader is led to infer that it is pronounced as though it were a French name.  Here the eu is a diphthong.  The first vowel is the French e, the second the Italian u.  The stress is on the first vowel.]

CHAPTER IV

THE VERSIFICATION OF THE FELIBRES