Yiou & Dou in the dialect of Nimes

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Antoine Hippolyte Bigot (1825 - 1897) wrote an interesting and beautiful poem in Provencal, or to be more precise: the dialect of the city of Nmes. The dialect proves the correlation between the ego-pronouns1 (yiou, respectively mou) and the divine name (Dou) which are contrasting to the Occitan versions iu respectively Diu as they have been found in Frdric Mistral's Mirio). The Dou-spelling directly seems to refer to *Diou-piter, the PIE-root for Jupiter. Diou has also been found in the dialect of Villar-St-Pancrace where the ego-pronouns are iu m, respectively m iu 2 The poem is named Fraternita and I was unable to find it at the web, so a few hard-copies will have to do to explain some of the special words. The word Joune is Fr: jeune (young) Li tou is les tiens (yours) dou mou is du mien (of mine)

yiou is moi (the ego-pronoun me) Dou is Dieu (English: God) Fig. 1: Fraternita (part 1)

1 The personal pronoun of the first person singular. 2 Patois of Villar-St-Pancrace (for the moment this site unfortunately seems to have been lost) : Personal pronouns: (Cas sujet Cas rgime atone tonique direct indirect) Sg. 1p a (l) iu m, m iu 2p t, t t, t t 3p M u(l), al ei(l) s lu ei F eilo la eilo N o, ul, la - lu - Pl. 1p n* n* 2p * v* v* 3p M (z) s l* i F eil (eilaz) l* eil

Yiou is the ego-pronoun Moi (me) or je (I)3 Bon-Dou is Bon-Dieu (English: Good God)

Yiou is the ego-pronoun Moi (me) or je (I)

aousso (?)

Yiou is the ego-pronoun Moi (me) or je (I) a is j' ai (English: I have)

yeul is yeux (eyes) Dou is Dieu (English: God)

Fig. 2: Fraternita (part 2) Some more information to the correlations between ego-pronouns and the divine names has been documented in: Analysis of a Linguistic Anomaly in the Alps, in The Hieroglyphs in the EgoPronoun, in Etymology of the Ego-Pronoun (I), and in The Sacred Vowels in Pronouns.

The poem Szto de la Placto

At page 300 in the poem Szto de la Placto the poet Antoine Hippolyte Bigot uses the words: Diou probably the divine name for God Yiou probably the ego-pronoun I

Lyonnais (a dialect at Lyon at 200 km north of Nimes)

In the etymological dictionary for Lyon's dialect I found the word jou for Thursday, which perfectly harmonizes with the ego-pronoun Yiou and the divine name Dou: Jou jeudi4

3 In Provencal: ieu (the ego-pronoun I), related to Dieu (God) 4 Source: Dictionnaire Etymologique Du Patois Lyonnais

Another Version of Bigot's poem Fraternita

This version of Fraternita, published by Centre International de l'crit en Langue d'Oc, uses Iu and Diu instead of yiou respectively Dou. Other words like Jouine are used in both versions.

FRATERNITA5 Jouine estrangi, mis abihage Soun pas coupa coumo li tiu, Ti pu soun long, e toun visage Es pas de la coulou du miu, Mai toun cor bat dins ta peitrino Pr tout o ques vrai, bon e grand, Au mau soulet vires lesquino... Sis moun fraire, toco la man. De-que cerques, panle sounjaire, Acrouchouni sus toun papi? - dins lou bonur di travaiaire Moun idio cavo soun li. Pousse i rodo pr que chasco ouro Porte un pau de joio e de pan A quau trimo, patis e plouro... Sis moun fraire, toco la man, E tus, bon vil la barbo griso, Smblo quaissejes, de que vos? - Seguisse la li de Mouso, De crestian man roumpu de cos. Se li paire an fa mau, mestoune Quon trague la piro is enfant, Sis moun fraire, toco la man. Iu, dins nsti desert de sablo La miejo-luno fai la li. Lou Bon Diu, souto nsti fablo, Se mostro un pau aro, un pau pii. Crese quaima vau tout sus terro, Car ome rouge, negre, blanc, Sn lis enfant dun meme Pro... Sis moun fraire, toco la man.

5 Li Bourgadieiro - Hippolyte - Antoine Bigot

Iu dins ma man tne lespaso, Fau la guerro en aimant la ps: I pople quun tiran escraso Porte secous, me pause aprs. Dessus ma tsto uiausso e trono, Ai pas pu, vau toujour avans Sun cris de liberta me sono... Sis moun fraire, toco la man. Iu, pechaire! ai uno famiho, Entre pensamen e rambal, Abarisse garoun e fiho, Cor au bn e tsto au traval. I dise: - Laissas li batsto, Is iuel de Diu, rn vau pas tant Quun cor bon, uno vido ounsto... - Sis moun fraire, toco la man.