_lingua di sì_ (Italian) and the _langue d’oïl_, (northern French, _oïl_ = _oui_). From the latter it was a totally distinct language both in grammar and pronunciation, quite as distinct, for instance, as Portuguese from Spanish, or Dutch from English. On the strength of the latter parallel the much-mooted question as to the possibility of conversation between Trouvère and Troubadour may perhaps receive some new light from an adventure of the late Mr. Buckle, who, while travelling in a railway carriage in Holland, addressed a gentleman in the language of the country, but received after a time the polite answer that he, the Dutch gentleman, was sorry he did not understand—Italian. The _langue d’oc_ was again subdivided into numerous provincial dialects, but of these little or no trace appears in the songs of the Troubadours. For they were court poets, and the idiom they used a court language, spoken in its purity by no one beyond the magic circle of polite society. It seems, however, that the dialects of Limosin and the neighbouring districts, and of Provence proper, showed the nearest approach to this language of poets and courtiers. Such at least is the decided opinion of the grammarian and poet Raimon Vidal, not himself a native of those parts. ‘Every person,’ he says, ‘who wants to produce or understand poetry, ought to know, first of all, that none is the natural and proper accent of our language but that of Limosin, Provence, Auvergne, and Quercy. Therefore I tell you, that when I speak of Limosin, you must understand all these countries and those that are near them or lie between them; and all people born or brought up in those parts have the natural and correct accent.’