Aguiéne
Aguiéne (native name) or Aguiaine (Standard French name) is the area where the Poetevin-Séntunjhaes language is spoken, in midwest France. The area is not coterminous with any modern French department or region, but is of interest to scholars as a linguistic region. "Aguiéne" is an old medieval name, derived from Latin Aquitania (but not to be confused with the modern region of Aquitaine in southwest France) and revived with the current sense by linguist Jacques Duguet in 1976.[1]
Aguiéne can be viewed on this map.
It comprises the following zones:
- From a historical point of view, the traditional provinces of Poitou, Saintonge, Aunis and Angoumois.
- From an administrative point of view: the official region of Poitou-Charentes and the department of Vendée (adding some strips of the nearby departments of Loire-Atlantique, Maine-et-Loire, Indre, Dordogne and Gironde, but removing a western strip of Poitou-Charente where Occitan is spoken).
The main cities of Aguiéne are Poitiers, Niort, La Rochelle, Angoulême, Saintes and La Roche-sur-Yon.
Some small islands in the Atlantic Ocean, near mainland Aguiéne, include Noirmoutier, Yeu, Ré, l'Ile d'Aix and Oléron.
Notes
- ↑ Duguet, Jacques (1976) “Qu'est-ce que l'Aguiaine?” Société d’études folkloriques du Centre-Ouest 10, p. 161-163.