Occitan

Occitan is a Romance language spoken in southern France and in parts of adjacent regions, with speakers also in Italy and Spain. It is often called the langue d’oc, named after the word oc for yes, in contrast to the French langue d’oïl. Occitan comprises several dialects that form a continuous linguistic spectrum, including Gascon, Languedocian, Provençal, Auvergnat, Limousin, and Vivaro-Alpine; there are smaller varieties in the Italian and Spanish territories traditionally associated with Occitania. In the Pyrenees and the Alps, Occitan varieties such as Aranese are spoken in specific communities, notably Aranese in the Val d’Aran.

The language has a medieval literary tradition, with troubadours and trobairitz composing lyric poetry in the 11th–13th centuries. Its prestige faded in most of France during centralized state formation, but it experienced revival efforts in the 19th and 20th centuries, most notably by the Félibrige movement and poets like Frédéric Mistral, a Nobel laureate in 1904. In contemporary practice, collaborative standardization efforts have produced unified orthographies for education and media, while respecting the diversity of dialects.

Status and usage vary by region. In France, Occitan is not an official national language, though regional recognition and education initiatives exist in some areas. In Catalonia, Aranese (a variety of Occitan) has official status in the Val d’Aran. Occitan is also present in some communities in Italy and Spain. Estimates of speakers vary; many dialects are considered endangered to some degree, but revival movements and cultural activities continue to sustain the language communities.