Occitania
Occitania (Occitan: Occitània) is a historic area in southwestern Europe where Occitan is the autochthonous language. Is is politically located in southern France, part of Italy (Occitan Valleys), part of Spain (Aran Valley) and Monaco. Occitania is often referred to as the Midi (i.e. the 'South' in French), although this term lacks of linguistic precision.
It stretches between two seas, the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, and three mountains, the Alps, the Massif cehtral and the Pyrenees. I forms a large isthmus between the Iberian peninsula and the rest of Europe.
Occitania comprises the following cultural regions, from west to east: Bearn, Gascony (including Aran Valley), Limousin, southern Bourbonnais, Auvergne, Velay, Vivarais, Guyenne, Languedoc, southern Dauphiné, the Occitan Valleys, Provence, the County of Nice and Monaco.
The largest cities are Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nice.
Since the Middle Ages, Occitania has always existed as a cohesive, cultural area with a certain consciousness of its unity,[1] as the literary development of the Occitan language shows (and the usual term Midi). Nonetheless it has never been a political entity. Several political attemps of unification existed, especially between the 11th and the 13th centuries, carried on by the Duchy of Aquitania, the County of Toulouse and the Kingdom of Aragon.[2] Since the 19th century, several movements have tried to improve the social use of Occitan and to achieve the public recognition of Occitan culture. Part of the Occitan movement expresses political claims ranging from regional autonomy to full independence. In 1990, Occitan was recognized as an official language in Aran Valley (Spain)[3] and in 1999, it became a protected language in a large part of the Occitan Valleys (Italy).[4]
Footnotes
- ↑ LAFONT Robèrt (2003) Petita istòria europèa d’Occitània, coll. Istòria, Canet: Trabucaire
- ↑ BONASSIÉ Pierre (1979) “L'Occitanie, un État manqué?”, L’Histoire 14: 31-40
- ↑ Act no. 16 of 1990 (Regim especiau dera Val d'Aran / Special Regime of Aran Valley) and Act no. 1 of 1998 (Lei de politica linguistica / Language Policy Act), both in the autonomous region of Catalonia; see here.
- ↑ Act no. 482 of 1999 in Italy (Norme in materia di tutela delle minoranze linguistiche storiche / Norms Concerning the Protection of Historical Language Minorities), see here.