Porter
Not quite the same meaning as in French, and you will surprise more than one (from the northern half of France!) using this word in the Gascon way. Certainly, both French and Gascon use “porter” the same way in most cases. Ex.: “The young mother carried the child in her arms”. Not to mention the many special meanings of this word, such as “to file a complaint”, “he gave him a bad blow in the face”. etc What is particular to Gascon is to use it in the sense of “transport” (in a vehicle). Thus, with the fashion for carpooling: “I’m going to Agen too. If you want, I have space in my car, and I’ll take you”. In the 1950s, when money was not yet flowing freely, some had bought old pre-war “cacugnes” at low prices, which stood out among the modern Simca Arondes, Renault Frigates, and Peugeot 203s. If you smiled when you saw them, the passengers would answer: “What do you want, at least we’re fine!”
Pilot
Diminutive, or augmentative of “pile” in the sense of “piling up”. A “pile” of linen on a shelf evokes the image of neatly arranged linens, like the old linen sheets that were piously kept, from generation to generation, in cupboards.
(The novelist Marcel Prévost perfumed them by interspersing them with his cigars!) The “pilot” is piled up in disorder. So the housewife will say: “I’m overwhelmed, I have a pile of clothes to iron by Monday!” A biography of our Bernard Palissy, written by a Saintongeais in the 19th century, noted that the famous potter used the word “pilot” in his vocabulary. Well done, Mr. Biographer: “pilot” is indeed a Gascon term!
(To be continued)
If Occitan is no longer used in a common way, many of its turns remain, in a picturesque way, in the “Gascon language”. Alain Paraillous listed them for us.
