at Montpellier, at Le Velay, in Haute-Auvergne, in Roussillon, and in
Catalonia the Latin final _a_ is preserved, as in Italian and Spanish.

The noun has but one form for the singular and plural. The distinction
of plural and singular depends upon the article, or upon the
demonstrative or possessive adjective accompanying the noun. In
_liaison_ adjectives take _s_ as a plural sign. So that, for the ear,
the Provençal and French languages are quite alike in regard to this
matter. The Provençal has not even the formal distinction of the nouns
in _al_, which in French make their plural in _aux_. _Cheval_ in
Provençal is _chivau_, and the plural is like the singular. A curious
fact is the use of _uni_ or _unis_, the plural of the indefinite
article, as a sign of the dual number; and this is its exclusive use.

The subject pronoun, when unemphatic, is not expressed, but understood
from the termination of the verb. _Iéu_ (je), _tu_ (tu), and _éu_ (il)
are used as disjunctive forms, in contrast with the French. The
possessive adjective _leur_ is represented by _si_; and the reflective
_se_ is used for the first plural as well as for the third singular and
third plural.

The moods and tenses correspond exactly to those of the French, and the
famous rule of the past participle is identical with the one that
prevails in the sister language.

Aside from the omission of the pronoun subject, and the use of one or
two constructions not unknown to French, but not admitted to use in the
literary language, the syntax of the Provençal is identical with that of
the French. The inversions of poetry may disguise this fact a little,
but the lack of individuality in the sentence construction is obvious in