Occitania

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A version of the flag frequently used by Occitan activists.

Map of Occitania (Occitan-speaking territory)

Occitania (Occitan: Occitània) refers to the lands where Occitan is the traditional language in use, generally nowadays as a minority language. Most of Occitania is in Southern France, other parts are in Italy (Occitan Valleys in Piedmont and Liguria), Spain (Aran Valley) and include Monaco (so the main languages in Occitania are nowadays French, Italian and Spanish). However, as the huge demonstrations in Carcassonne (2005) and Béziers (2007) show, there is a strong revival of the Occitan language.

The names Occitania and Occitan language appeared in Latin texts of the 1290s and of the early 14th century (Patria Linguae Occitanae, Occitana lingua). They derive from the name Lenga d'òc that was used in Italian (Lingua d'òc) by Dante in the late 13th century. Occitan and Lenga d'òc both refer to the centuries-old set of Romance dialects that use òc for "yes".

1 Geography
2 Occitan history
3 Colonies
4 Occitan today
5 Famous people from Occitania
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Geography

Occitania is composed of:

The southern half of France: Provence, Drôme-Vivarais, Auvergne, Limousin, Guyenne, Gascony and Languedoc. French is the main language in most parts of this area.
The Occitan valleys in the Italian Аlps, where the Occitan language received legal status in 1999. These are fourteen Piedmontese valleys in the provinces of Cuneo and Torino, as well as in scattered mountain communities of the Liguria region (province of Imperia), and, unexpectedly, in one community (Guardia Piemontese) in the region of Calabria (province of Cosenza).
The Aran valley, in the Pyrenees, in Catalonia (Spain) where Occitan has been an official language since 1987 (status granted by the Catalan Statute)
The Principality of Monaco (where Occitan is traditionally spoken besides Monégasque).

Occitan or langue d'oc (lenga d'òc) is a Latin-based Romance language in the same way as Spanish, Italian or French. There are six main regional varieties with easy intercomprehension among them: Provençal (including Niçois spoken in the vicinity of Nice), Vivarais-alpine, Auvergnat, Limousin, Gascon (including Béarnais spoken in Béarn) and Languedocien. All these varieties of the Occitan language are written and valid. Standard Occitan is a synthesis. See also Northern Occitan and Southern Occitan.

Catalan is a language very similar to Occitan and there are quite strong historical and cultural links between Occitania and Catalonia.

[edit] Occitan history

Written texts in Occitan appeared in the 9th century: it was used at once in legal then literary, scientific and religious texts. The spoken dialects of Occitan are centuries older, revealed in toponyms, for instance.

From the division of Gallia Narbonensis in the 5th century, between Provence and Septimania Occitania was never politically united; though it was united by a common culture, it was divided among its bishops and abbots, its territorial counts, the self-governing communes of its walled cities, with a tangle of varying loyalties to nominal sovereigns: from the 9th to the 13th centuries, the dukes of Aquitaine, the counts of Foix, the counts of Toulouse and the Catalan kings rivalled in their attempts at controlling the various pays of Occitania.

The Occitan literature was glorious and flourishing at that time: in the 12th and 13th centuries, the troubadours invented courtly love (fin'amor) and the langue d'oc spread throughout all European cultivated circles. Actually, the terms langue d'oc, and Occitania appeared at the end of the 13th century.

But from the 13th to the 17th centuries, the French kings gradually conquered Occitania, sometimes slaughtering the population (one million people were killed during the Albigensian crusade^{[citation needed]}).

The nobility and bourgeoisie started learning French while the people stuck to the langue d'oc. In 1539, Francis I issued the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts that imposed the use of French instead of Occitan in administration.

In 1789, the revolutionary committees tried to re-establish the autonomy of the «Midi» regions: they used the Occitan language but the Jacobin power neutralized them.

The 19th century witnessed a strong revival of the Occitan literature and the writer Frédéric Mistral was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1904.

But from 1881 onwards, children who spoke Occitan at school were punished in accordance with minister Jules Ferry's recommendations. That led to a depreciation of the language: everyone spoke Occitan in 1914, but French gained the upper hand during the 20th century. The situation got worse with the media excluding the use of the langue d'oc. In spite of that decline, the Occitan language is still alive and trying to gain fresh impetus.

[edit] Colonies

Although not really a colony in a modern sense, there was an enclave in the County of Tripoli. Raymond IV of Toulouse founded it in 1102 during the Crusades north of Jerusalem. Most people of this county came from Occitania and Italy and so the Occitan language was spoken.

[edit] Occitan today

There are fourteen to fifteen million inhabitants in Occitania today. According to the 1999 census, there are 610,000 native speakers and another million persons with some exposure to the language. Native speakers of Occitan are to be found mostly in the older generations. The Institut d'Estudis Occitans (I.E.O.) has been modernizing the Occitan language since 1945, and so does the Conselh de la Lenga Occitana (CLO) [1] since 1996. Nowadays Occitan is used in the most modern musical and literary styles such as rock 'n roll, detective stories or science-fiction. It is represented on the internet. Association schools (Calandretas) teach children in Occitan.

The Occitan political movement for self-government has existed since the beginning of the 20th century and particularly since post-war years (Partit Occitan and many others). The movement remains negligible in electoral and political terms. At a time of Europe's emerging Regions, it wishes Occitania to become a federation of strong regions, with a lively culture and open to the world.