Occitan language
Occitan — also called Lenga d'Òc, Langue d'Oc or Provençal — (natively: occitan, lenga d'òc and sometimes provençau) is a Romance languages spoken in a territory called Occitania which comprises Southern France, Monaco, part of Italy (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.
Nevertheless, Occitan nowadays enjoy 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]
The 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 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 here.
- ↑ Historical Language Minority Protection Act #482/1999, in Italy; 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