Languages in conflict in Toulouse: las leys d'amors

The 'Leys d'Amors' (Laws of Love) is a work produced by the newly-founded Consistory of the city of Toulouse to teach correct Occitan poetry to those who wished to enter their annual competition, the 'Jocs florals' (Jeux Floraux). The work of the Consistory was defined as an attempt to maintain a fading lyric tradition in a language that was changing. It is argued that the 'Leys d'Amors' betray a perception of the Occitan language as both familiar and foreign, in part through the rhetorical term 'allebolus', which refers to a 'strange' or somehow foreign term.