Alpine

The Alpine culture speaks the eastern branch of Vivaro-Alpine, an Occitan dialect traditionally called gavot from Gap to Briançon. These valleys made up the High Dauphiné. From the 1040s they belonged to the counts of Albon, whose dolphin emblem gave the Dauphiné its name.

The charter granted to Briançon in 1244 was enlarged in 1343 into the Republic of the Escartons, a league of five valleys that kept its privileges until 1789. In 1349 the last dauphin, Humbert II, sold the Dauphiné to the future Charles V of France; thereafter the French king's eldest son bore the title of Dauphin.

The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 shifted the transalpine valleys of the Briançonnais to Savoy. Briançon, fortified by Vauban, withstood a three-month Allied siege in 1815. French gradually displaced gavot from administration and trade, though gavot long remained the language of mountain villages.