Arpitania

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section needs additional references or sources to improve its verifiability. It may be using the words or ideas of other publications in its text, without citing the source(s) of the information.
Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. This article has been tagged since December 2006. (help)

Arpitania (Arpitan and Italian: Arpitania, French: Arpitanie) refers to the lands where the Arpitanian language is spoken or used to be the prevalent idiom^{[citation needed]} (in this sense, Lyonnais may also be included)^{[citation needed]}.

Arpitania and Arpitanian Language are retronyms. They were neologisms from the 20th century. It was initially used for the Alpine regions where Arpitan was spoken. The name was popularised by Mouvement Harpitanya, a left-wing political grouping in Aosta Valley in 1970s.^{[citation needed]} In 1990s, the term lost its particular political context. However, the use of the word "Arpitania" indicates a common cultural heritage and a regional identity beyond linguistic limitations.^{[citation needed]} This is also the base of the pursuit of an official recognition, spearheaded by organisations such as Aliance culturèla arpitana in Lausanne, which demand, for instance, a non-official document to be named "Arpitan passport", in order to underline the transnational identity of the region. In 2005, recognition of Arpitania as a Euroregion was raised as an issue.^{[citation needed]}

Inhabitants of the region, whether they are actual speakers of the language or not, are named as Arpitans^{[citation needed]} by circles who regularly point at the identity of the region as a distinct community or a "nation".

[edit] Geography

Map of Arpitania, the Arpitan Language Area (in Arpitan Language)

Arpitania is composed of:

France (Savoy, Dauphiné, Isère, a big part of the Rhône département, southern Franche-Comté, a very small part of the Ain, Monts du Forez...).
Italy (Aosta Valley, Arpitan-speaking valleys in the Piemont).
Switzerland (Romandy (excluding northern and western parts of Jura)).