Occitan language

Occitan—also called Lenga d'Òc, Langue d'Oc or Provençal—(in its own language: occitan, lenga d'òc and sometimes provençau) is a Romance language spoken in a territory called Occitania, which comprises southern France, Monaco, part of Italy (the Occitan Valleys) and part of Spain (the Aran Valley).

This minority language has the status of an official language in Spain and of a protected language in Italy. It has no official status in France, nor in Monaco. Its usage is quite limited compared to dominant state languages such as French, Italian and Spanish.

Nowadays, Occitan enjoys a dynamic movement of cultural defense and modern creativity, especially in literature and music. Occitan literature has been famous and uninterrupted since the 10th century, including the troubadours of the Middle Ages, a baroque period, Frederic Mistral's Nobel prize in 1904 and a constant renewal nowadays.

The main Occitan dialects are Provençal (including Niçard), Vivaro-Alpine, Auvernhat, Lemosin, Gascon and Lengadocian. All of them are integrated into and respected in the ongoing standardization process.

Catalan is extremely close to Occitan.

Name

Occitan is nowadays the most frequently used name for the language. It appeared between 1290 and 1300, perhaps as early as 1271 in texts written in Latin under forms such as occitanus, lingua occitana, simultaneously with the territory name Occitania (Occitania in Latin and English, Occitània in Occitan). It is thought that Occitania was created from òc (that is lenga d'òc) and the ending of the territory name [Aqu]itania. The terms Occitan and Occitania used to belong to a learned register for a long time but they have gained a wide usage since the second half of the 20th century.

The term Lenga d'Òc, that is 'language of òc', may be said in English Lenga d'Òc as in Occitan or Langue d'Oc as in French. Lenga d'Òc appeared in texts in 1291 and is the likely etymology of Oc[citan]. Notably, Lenga d'Òc was spread from De vulgari eloquentia (1303-1305), the famous essay of Italian writer Dante Alighieri, where three Romance languages were identified by the way of saying yes 'yes': 'language of òc' (Occitan), 'language of sì' (Italian) and 'language of oïl' (French).

The term Provençal (provençau, provençal in Modern Occitan; proensal in Old Occitan) appeared around 1240. Italian authors, which were influenced by the high prestige of Medieval Occitan, helped the spread of this name since Provence is the closest region of Occitania from an Italian perspective. In traditional Romance linguistics, Provençal was the most used term for the whole language before it was replaced by Occitan in the second half of the 20th century. A large part of Occitan-speaking people do not live in Provence and therefore can hardly identify themselves as 'Provençal-speakers', so the spread of the term 'Occitan' has been viewed as a more neutral naming solution which does not favors any particular region. Nowadays, the term Provençal is mostly used to designate the Occitan dialect of Provence rather than the whole Occitan language.

The term Lemosin appeared between 1190 and 1213. It was used mostly during the 13th century because some famous troubadours were originary from Limousin. During the 18th and the 19th century, some learned persons used to call llemosí the Catalan language in reference to the role of medieval Occitan in the birth of Catalan literature. Nowadays Lemosin only designates the Occitan dialect of Limousin and northern Périgord.

The term Gascon used to designate sometimes the whole Occitan language during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. At this time, Gascony was a major center of Occitan literature and Gascon people used to represent more or less Southern France (that is Occitania) in the eyes of northern French people. Nowadays Gascon only designates the Occitan dialect of Gascony and Bearn.