Ten IPA pronunciations in Old Occitan:
- c - [k] before a, o, or u; [s] before e or i
- ę - [Ɛ]
- j - [ʤ] or [i] when intervocalic
- qu or q - [k]
- nh - [ŋ]
- d - [z] when intervocalic, otherwise [d]
- ch - [tʃ]
- g - [g] before a, o, or u; [ʤ] before e or i
- ll - [ʎ]
- h - silent
My friend Jennifer is a doctoral candidate in the University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Music. Last year I attended her final performance recital, and today I was able to attend her lecture recital, at which she discussed her project to make troubadour music more accessible to modern performers. She presented her approach to learning a selection of troubadour music, explained her efforts to determine what symbols should be used to render Old Occitan--the language in which troubadour songs were written--in the International Phonetic Alphabet, and demonstrated the notation style she developed to help performers better understand and interpret the pieces. It was really quite interesting! I was glad I had the opportunity to go. Yet another advantage of working on the UW-Madison campus!
