(Redirected from Occitans)
A version of the flag frequently used by Occitan activists.
Map of Occitania (Occitan-speaking territory)
'Occitania' (
Occitan: ''Occità nia''
[1][2]) 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 [1] (
2005) and
Béziers [2] (
2007) and the week-long ''Estivada'' festival in
Rodez [3] (
2006) show, there is a strong revival of the Occitan language (and culture) in spite of its illegal status in France, where according to Article II
[4] of the
1958 French Constitution (despite the
1992 European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages), ''the language of the Republic shall be French''.
Under Roman rule (
355), most of ''Occitania'' was known as ''Aquitania''
[3] while the northern provinces of what is now France were called ''Gallia'' (
Gaul). The names ''Occitania'' and ''Occitan language'' themselves appeared in Latin texts from
1290[4] and during the following years 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".
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 Ðlps, 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
1990 (status granted by the partial autonomy of Aran Valley, then confirmed 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
Niçard spoken in the vicinity of
Nice),
Vivaroalpenc,
Auvernhat,
Lemosin,
Gascon (including
Beranés spoken in
Béarn) and
Lengadocian. All these varieties of the Occitan language are written and valid. 'Standard Occitan' is a synthesis which respects soft regional adaptations. 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.
Occitan history
Written texts in Occitan appeared in the 10th century: it was used at once in legal then literary, scientific and religious texts. The spoken
dialects of Occitan are centuries older and appeared as soon as the 8th century, at least, revealed in
toponyms or in Occitanized words left in
Latin manuscripts, for instance.
Occitania was often politically united during the Early Middle Ages, under the
Visigothic Kingdom and several
Merovingian and
Carolingian sovereigns. In
Thionville, nine years before he died (
805),
Charlemagne vowed that his empire be partitioned into three autonomous territories according to nationalities and mother tongues: along with the Franco-German and Italian ones, was roughly what is now modern Occitania from the reunion of a broader Provence and Aquitaine
[5]. But things didn't go according to plan and at the division of the
Frankish Empire (9th century), Occitania was split into different
counties,
duchies and
kingdoms, bishops and
abbots, self-governing communes of its walled cities. Since then the country was never politically united again, though Occitania was united by a common culture which used to cross easily the political, constantly moving boundaries. Occitania suffered 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.
Occitan literature was glorious and flourishing at that time: in the 12th and 13th centuries, the
troubadours invented courtly love (''fin'amor'') and the Lenga d'Ã’c spread throughout all European cultivated circles. Actually, the terms ''Lenga d'Ã’c, Occitan'', 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 by war and slaughtering the population, sometimes by annexation with subtle political intrigue. From the end of the 15th century, the nobility and bourgeoisie started learning French while the people stuck to Occitan (this process began from the 13th century in two northernmost regions, northern Limousin and Bourbonnais). In 1539,
Francis I issued the
Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts that imposed the use of French 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 deprecation of the language known as ''la
vergonha'' (the shaming): 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.
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.
Occitania 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 (IEO) has been modernizing the Occitan language since
1945, and the
Conselh de la Lenga Occitana (CLO) 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.
Famous people from Occitania
See also
★
Occitan cross
★
Vergonha
References
1. Regional pronunciations: ''Occità nia'' = .
2. When speaking Occitan, Occitania can be easily referred to as '''lo paÃs''', i.e. 'the country'.
3. Jean-Pierre JUGE (2001) ''Petit précis - Chronologie occitane - Histoire & civilisation'', p. 14
4. Robèrt LAFONT (1986) "La nominacion indirècta dels païses", ''Revue des langues romanes'' nº2, tome XC, pp. 161-171
5. Jean-Pierre JUGE (2001) ''Petit précis - Chronologie occitane - Histoire & civilisation'', p. 19
External links
★
occitania.fr
★
The Council of the Occitan Language (Conselh de la Lenga Occitana)
★
Occitanet - a guide to the language (English option)
★
Troubadour & Early Occitan Literature
★
Guide to online Occitan dictionaries
★
Radio Occitania
★
Occitan Football Association
★
Dances and traditional musics used in the County of Nice
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