Occitan language
Occitan — also called Lenga d'Òc, Langue d'Oc or Provençal — (natively: 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[1] and of a protected language in Italy.[2] 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 11th century, including the troubadours of the Middle Ages, a baroque period, Frederic Mistral's Nobel prize in 1904 and a constant renewal nowadays.[3]
The main Occitan dialects are Provençal (including Niçard), Vivaro-Alpine, Auvernhat, Lemosin, Gascon and Lengadocian.[4] All of them are integrated into and respected in the ongoing standardization process.
Catalan is extremely close to Occitan.
Footnotes
- ↑ Act no. 16 of 1990 (Regim especiau dera Val d'Aran / Special Regime of Aran Valley) and Act no. 1 of 1998 (Lei de politica linguistica / Language Policy Act), both in the autonomous region of Catalonia; see here.
- ↑ Act no. 482 of 1999 in Italy (Norme in materia di tutela delle minoranze linguistiche storiche / Norms Concerning the Protection of Historical Language Minorities), see here.
- ↑ KIRSCH F. Peter, & KREMNITZ Georg, & SCHLIEBEN-LANGE Brigitte (2002) Petite histoire sociale de la langue occitane: usages, images, literature, grammaires et dictionnaires, coll. Cap al Sud, 66140 Canet: Trabucaire.
- ↑ BEC Pierre (1973) Manuel pratique d’occitan moderne, coll. Connaissance des langues, Paris: Picard.