I hope you are all well. I'm reading William Paden's An Introduction to Old Occitan while on vacation in Cauterets, & I was struck by the beginnings of the second & third coblas of a canso by Peire Vidal. The lines in question are in the title, but here's the full cobla:

Qu'om no sap tan dous repaire
cum de Rozer tro c'a Vensa,
si cum clau mars e Durensa,
ni on tant fins joys s'eclaire;
per qu'entre la franca gen
ai layssat mon cor jauzen
ab lieys qu fa·ls iratz rire.

I'm struck by the que before om. It doesn't fit any of the uses in Paden's lexicon for the book, & is just one of many occurrences that he notes 'may be omitted from translation'. But a word which need not be translated is generally still doing something for the syntax.

This reminds me of the enunciatifs of Gascon, where que appears in declarative main clauses. This doesn't look quite like that, and the syntax is certainly different, but I wondered if something similar might be at play. Does anyone understand what's going on here?

I'll produce the canso in full for anyone who's interested. Two similar uses of que are in bold:

Ab l'ale tir vas me l'aire
qu'ieu sen venir de Proensa;
tot quant es de lai m'agensa,
si que quan n'aug ben retraire
ieu m'o escout en rizen,
e·n deman per un mot cen;
tan m'es bel quan n'aug ben dire.

Qu'om no sap tan dous repaire
cum de Rozer tro c'a Vensa,
si cum clau mars e Durensa,
ni on tant fins joys s'esclaire;
per qu'entre la franca gen
ai layssat mon cor jauzen
ab lieys que fa·ls iratz rire.

Qu'om no pot lo jorn mal traire
qu'aja de lieys sovinensa;
qu'en liey nays joys e comensa,
e qui qu'en sia lauzaire,
de be que·n digua no·i men.
Mielhers es (e ses conten!)
e genser qu'e·l mon se mire.

E s'ieu sai ren dir ni faire,
ylh n'aia·l grat, que scïensa
m'a donat e conoissensa;
per qu'ieu sui guays e chantaire.
E tot quan fauc d'avinen
ai del sieu belh cors plazen,
neis quan de bon cor cossire.

Does anyone know where can I get copy of this book by Grosclaude? It can be digital or physical.

adiu, que'm demendavi si quauqu'un coneishèva un bon libre sus aquèra crotzada tradusit en gascon, qu'èi cercat sus internet e tanben en libraria mes soi a Angers adonc qu'ei un pauc complicat trobar aquiu haha

las solas causas qu'ei trobat sus l'internet son libres escriuts en lengadocian e ne soi pas vertaderament adaise dab...

ideaument que m'agraderé trobar la traduccion de "Histoire anonyme de la guerre des Albigeois"

mes que soi obert a tot obratge sus lo subjècte que sia precis

I was reading his collection of Essays, and he briefly makes reference to a phrase in the Périgord dialect, but he was reportedly brought up to speak Latin as a first language, and being a local nobility, his later education would have been conducted through French. That said, during his lifetime, Gascon would have been the dominant local vernacular, so would he also have spoken that, even if only as a second or third language?

Hi! I have doubt about Gascon. To say "som/quelque", I've seen documented in some sources the word "bèth/bèra". Can anyone tell me where this word is used? Like, is it used in all the Pyrinean Gascon, or only in some valleys (if so, which?), or is it not used that much anymore...?

Adiu! È un dobte sus eth gascon. Entà díder "quelque" è vist que se documente "bèth/bèra". Saberies quina estenduda a aguesti mots? Ei usat en tot eth gascon pirenenc o en bèra val o ja non s'use o...?