DISCOVER THE PLACE NAMES OF COUSERANS AND THEIR HISTORY
Conference-meeting
7th January 2025
Médiathèque de Lorp-Sentaraille, Ariège (FR)
On Friday 7 January 2025, Jean-Paul Ferré hosted a talk at the Lorp-Sentaraille media library on the toponymy of the Couserans region. He has been researching this subject for several years, culminating in the publication in 2021 of an impressive work entitled Toponymie d’une commune couserannaise. Betchat, between Lens and Lavin, a valuable resource for the whole of the Couserans region and beyond. Eth Ostau Comengés has also helped the municipality of Betchat to put up bilingual signposts in Gascon and French for all the streets and hamlets in the municipality, based on fieldwork carried out by the association (you can read about this project in the latest Revue de Comminges: 2023-2 – Société des études du Comminges ).
Based on this research into the commune of Betchat, the speaker went back over the recurring or emblematic toponyms of the Couserans to give the public the keys to understanding their familiar environment by explaining the origin of these names and also answering their questions. At a time when the use of Occitan in the public arena and in the family is becoming increasingly rare, the aim of such an event is also to make the public aware that, although alive under the domination of French, Occitan is present everywhere around them, even in their own surnames. As well as the linguistic aspect, this exchange gave Jean-Paul Ferré the opportunity to go back over the history of these places: related activities, evolution of the landscape, historical or religious facts or settlement dynamics.