Page:Philological Museum v2.djvu/346

336 Q 36 Ofi Oc a7id Oyl. (Ducange. Lingua). This appellation immediately directs us to Auch, the capital of Gascony ; so that in this instance again the language would be named from a place or a region, as in langue de Normandie^ langiie Picarde^ not from one of its words. For Gascony comprises several races, or at least several popular languages. The name itself points to the Bask nation, and it is quite certain that many districts, that of Labour for instance, in which Bayonne is situate, belong to the region which it once occupied. But though this is unquestionably the case with regard to some western districts, and perhaps some southern ones also, where the Bask is still spoken, principally by the peasantry ; it is no less certain that in other tracts of this province the language of oc prevails, having been introduced from the adjacent region of Toulouse and Languedoc, and only modified by some varieties of dialect. This is proved by the grammars and dictionaries of the language, in which the terms Langue- docian and Gascon are used, and by natives of Langue- doc, as perfectly equivalent. A collection of Tolosan poets, among whom Goudouli, who lived in the reign of Louis XIII., fills a distinguished place, was published at Toulouse under the title of Reciieil de poetes Gascons. In short there can be no doubt that Gascony itself is a seat of the lingua Occitana^ which, as we have seen, is also denominated from the capital, and very properly and legitimately, lingua Auxitana Yet it would be precipitate to think of solving the whole enigma of the oc by this fact. Close as is the resemblance of sound between the adjectives, Occitana^ Auxitana^ there is little between their roots, oc and Auch (oche). For this is the way in which the name of the capital is pronounced by the French, who for this reason often write it with an s (Ausch). This sibilant, which is wholly wanting in oc and oco^ is a radical element in the other word, and hence is found in all its derivatives: in Auchois^ an inhabitant of the town, and in its Latin names Augusta Auscorum or Ausciorum : and even in the epithet Auxitafia If we were only to look at the spelling, instead of listening to the pronunciation, we should certainly be very much struck by the resemblance between the name of the Gascon city AucJi^ and the Gascon affirmative, och: