In their native land the Guerres would have done their business orally in Basque, Spanish, or Gascon. In the area between the Garonne and the Ariège, they often did it before notaries. The latter were scattered about in many small burgs, and even before the royal Edict of Villers-Cotterets of 1539 required it, they drew up contracts in French with occasional words and spellings in Occitan. The Guerres developed enough writing skills to keep simple accounts, though, like most inhabitants of Artigat, they never signed their contracts with their names and they probably could not read.
