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Gèli Grande left us

Gèli Grande, passionate and fascinating when he spoke the Occitan language, died at the age of 68. He left the mark of his knowledge on the village and, on the street name plaques, his need to remind people that Occitan was spoken here every day and that this rich language is not dead.

Bad luck for the Occitan language: it was two fierce defenders of our native language who left one by one: Pierre Boissière and Gilles Grande. These two had wanted to write on their business card, their Occitan name: Pèire for the first and Gèli for the second. Our titles are dedicated to Pierre Boissière, a well-known storyteller, singer and curator of old-fashioned games made from natural elements, walnut shells, wheat stalks and other trinkets. Gèli Grande may have been less publicized, he is nonetheless a distinguished author and Occitanist.

Occitan, a living language

Born in Gafa, Tunisia, Géli arrived in France at the age of 6, with his family, after the independence of the country that saw him born. His father of Italian origin, who still spoke Italian with his wife, encouraged him to learn French, convinced that he was, that one had to learn the language of the host country.

But at the age of not reasoning himself, Géli realized that the original language in his region was Occitan. He discovered this language in contact with his neighbors, his friends and deepened his knowledge with Jean Rigouste, Occitan teacher at the Lycée Palissy. This language which was so dear to him earned him great encounters, among others at the Ecole Occitane d’Eté de Villeneuve, at the Estivade de Rodez or the Summer University of Nîmes, making his rebirth, his horse of battle. He never missed an opportunity to show his attachment to it, by the use of a few sentences or expressions, in those around him, whether on the Friday market or in the Layrac shops. Unfortunately, he only found a few people capable of carrying on a conversation “in patois”. This is a word he loathed: “our language is not a patois”, he protested, it has its place in the concert of living languages”. And he made it his duty to bring it to life. This is how he actively participated in the creation of the calandrettes, which he campaigned within the Parti de la Nation Occitane, to become one of its three co-presidents. He was a strong supporter of all the other regional languages : Breton, Alsatian, Basque, Catalan… His latest collection of poetry in Occitan: Puntas de Roge” was published last December by Editions des Petits Papiers, edited by his friend Thierry Hue. Friends, he had many. His love of our original language, and the need to promote it, drove him to passionate discussions. Kind and courteous man, he will leave in our commune the image of a beautiful person. To his wife Janine, to his family, we offer our most sincere condolences.

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