Languages in conflict in Toulouse: las leys d'Amors

The poetry competition founded in Toulouse in 1323 is a well-known instance of cultural resistance, thanks to its promotion and preservation of poetry in Occitan shortly after the county of Toulouse had become part of the French crown. This article re-examines the Leys d'Amors, the treatise produced in two redactions by the Consistory in the mid-fourteenth century, in order to establish whether Occitan is treated as a civic `mother tongue', or if instead the text reveals an approach to language acquisition modelled on Latin treatises familiar to the University, in which case Occitan becomes less a `mother tongue' than an `other tongue'. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]