recreation out of its own resources. It forms compounds with greater
readiness than French, and the learner is impressed by the unusual
number of compound adverbs, some of very peculiar formation.
_Tourna-mai_ (again) is an example. Somewhat on the model of the French
_va-et-vient_ is the word _li mounto-davalo_, the ups and downs. _Un
regardo-veni_ means a look-out. _Noun-ren_ is nothingness. _Ped-terrous_
(earthy foot) indicates a peasant.

Onomatopoetic words, like _zounzoun_, _vounvoun_, _dindánti_, are
common.

Very interesting as throwing light upon the Provençal temperament are
the numerous and constantly recurring interjections. This trait in the
man of the _Midi_ is one that Daudet has brought out humorously in the
Tartarin books. It is often difficult in serious situations to take
these explosive monosyllables seriously.

In his study of Mistral's poetry, Gaston Paris calls attention to the
fact that the Provençal vocabulary offers many words of low association,
or at least that these words suggest what is low or trivial to the
French reader; he admits that the effect upon the Provençal reader may
not be, and is likely not to be, the same; but even the latter must
occasionally experience a feeling of surprise or slight shock to find
such words used in elevated style. For the English reader it is even
worse. Many such expressions could not be rendered literally at all.
Mistral resents this criticism, and maintains that the words in question
are employed in current usage without calling up the image of the low
association. This statement, of course, must be accepted. It is true of
all languages that words rise and fall in dignity, and their origin and
association are momentarily or permanently forgotten.