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, a part of Italy (Occitan Valleys) and a part of Spain (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 weak in front of dominant state languages such as French, Italian and Spanish.
Nevertheless, Occitan enjoys nowadays a dynamic movement of cultural defense and of modern creativity, especially in literature and music. Occitan literature has been famous and uninterrupted since the 11th century[3].
Main Occitan dialects are Provençal (including Niçard), Vivaro-Alpine, Auvernhat, Lemosin, Gascon and Lengadocian[4]. All of them are integrated and respected in the ongoing standardization process.
Catalan language is extremely close to Occitan.
Footnotes
- ↑ Special Regime of Aran Valley Act #16/1990 and Language Politics Act #1/1998, both in the autonomous region of Catalonia, see[1]
- ↑ Historical Language Minority Protection Act #482/1999, in Italy, see[2]
- ↑ 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