Occitan language
Occitan — also called Lenga d'Òc, Langue d'Oc or Provençal — (natively: occitan, lenga d'òc and sometimes provençau) is a Romance language spoken in a territory called Occitania, which comprises southern France, Monaco, part of Italy (the 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.
Nowadays, Occitan enjoys a dynamic movement of cultural defense and modern creativity, especially in literature and music. Occitan literature has been famous and uninterrupted since the 10th century,[3] including the troubadours of the Middle Ages, a baroque period, Frederic Mistral's Nobel prize in 1904 and a constant renewal nowadays.[4]
The main Occitan dialects are Provençal (including Niçard), Vivaro-Alpine, Auvernhat, Lemosin, Gascon and Lengadocian.[5] All of them are integrated into and respected in the ongoing standardization process.
Catalan is extremely close to Occitan.
Name
Occitan is nowadays the most used name for the language. It appeared between 1290 and 1300[6], perhaps as early as 1271[7] in texts written in Latin under forms such as occitanus, lingua occitana, simultaneously with the territory name Occitania. It is thought that Occitania was created from òc (that is lenga d'òc) and the ending of the territory name [Aqu]itania. Occitan and Occitania (natively occitan, Occitània) used to belong to a learned register for a long time but have gained a wide usage since the second half of the 20th century.
Lenga d'Òc (a native term, but the French term Langue d'Oc is also used in English) appeared in texts in 1291[8] and is the very likely etymology of Occitan.
Footnotes
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ LAFONT Robert, & ANATOLE Christian (1970) Nouvelle histoire de la littérature occitane, coll. Publications de l’Institut d’Études Occitanes, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2 vol.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ LAFONT Robèrt (1986) “La nominacion indirècta dels païses”, Revue des langues romanes 2, vol. XC: 161-171
- ↑ LODGE R. A. (1993) French, from dialect to standard, London / New York: Routledge, p. 96 — Quoted in: MULJAČIĆ Žarko (1997) “Perché i glottonimi linguaggio italiano, lingua italiana (e sim.) appaiono per indicare ‘oggetti’ reali e non soltanto auspicati molto più tardi di altri termini analoghi che si riferiscono a varie lingue gallo e ibero-romanze?”, Cuadernos de filología italiana 4: 253-264
- ↑ LODGE R. A. (1993) French, from dialect to standard, London / New York: Routledge, p. 96 — Quoted in: MULJAČIĆ Žarko (1997) “Perché i glottonimi linguaggio italiano, lingua italiana (e sim.) appaiono per indicare ‘oggetti’ reali e non soltanto auspicati molto più tardi di altri termini analoghi che si riferiscono a varie lingue gallo e ibero-romanze?”, Cuadernos de filología italiana 4: 253-264