Occitania


Occitania is the historical region in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasses the southern third of France, as well as part of Spain, Monaco, and smaller parts of Italy. Occitania has been recognized as a linguistic and cultural concept since the Middle Ages, but has never been a legal nor a political entity under this name, although the territory was united in Roman times as the Seven Provinces and in the Early Middle Ages.
Currently about 200,000–800,000 people out of 16 million living in the area are either native or proficient speakers of Occitan, although the languages more usually spoken in the area are French, Catalan, Spanish and Italian. Since 2006, the Occitan language has been an official language of Catalonia, which includes the Aran Valley where Occitan gained official status in 1990.
Under Roman rule, most of Occitania was known as Aquitania, the earlier conquered territories were known as Provincia Romana, while the northern provinces of what is now France were called Gallia. Under the Later Empire, both were grouped in the Seven Provinces, then Nine Provinces or Viennensis. So Provence and Gallia Aquitania are the names used since medieval times for Occitania. Thus the historic Duchy of Aquitaine must not be confused with the modern French region called Aquitaine: this is the main reason why the term Occitania was revived in the mid-19th century. The names "Occitania" and "Occitan language" appeared in Latin texts from as early as 1242–1254 to 1290 and during the following years of the early 14th century; texts exist in which the area is referred to indirectly as "the country of the Occitan language". The name Lenga d'òc that was used in Italian by Dante in the late 13th century. The somewhat uncommon ending of the term Occitania is most probably a portmanteau French clerks coined from òc and Aquitània, thus blending the language and the land in just one concept.
On 28 September 2016 Occitanie became the name of the administrative region that succeeded the regions of Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon,
it is a small part of Occitania.

Geographic extent

The extent of Occitania may vary according to the criteria used:
The name Occitanie appeared in the Middle Ages on the basis of a geographical, linguistic and cultural concept, to designate the part of the French royal domain speaking the langue d’oc.
Its current definition is variable. In the most common usage, Occitania designates the territory where the Occitan has remained used until today, within the limits defined between 1876 and the 20th century. If Occitan language and culture are almost always associated with it, we also find references to a common history, an ethnic group, a homeland, to a people or to a nation. The first sociological study in Occitan language to know how the Occitan define themselves was started in 1976. The survey shows that the Occitan reality is defined by language for 95% of people, culture, characterization by a common history, an ethnic group, a nation. Occitania, as defined by the modern Occitan linguistic territory, covers most of the current Southern France, the Alpine valleys of the Western Piedmont, in Italy, Val d'Aran in Spain and Monaco an area of approximately 190,000 km2. It had about fifteen million inhabitants in 1999 with about 20% inhabitants born outside the territory and about 20% of the natives who left. On the other hand, in the absence of a linguistic census, we know only imperfectly the number of speakers of Occitan.
If the preceding notions are generally limited to the modern linguistic boundaries of Occitan, this term can also be used to designate a larger territory. The term "Occitania" becomes commonplace more and more in the vocabulary of scientists. It is used particularly in a historical sense and anthropological by designating a region extending north to the Loire, ignoring contemporary linguistic boundaries. In a book written by experts in medieval history, are included in Occitania of the year 1000 both the provinces of the north and Catalonia – p. 484. The seven-pointed star, adopted as emblem by the Felibritge symbolized the seven provinces of Occitania, one of which was Catalan. Occitanie is indeed divided by this association into seven maintenances of which one was that of Catalonia-Roussillon.
In 2016, the name Occitanie is used for the French administrative region Languedoc-Roussillon-Midi-Pyrénées which is located on part of the traditional Occitania and includes the Roussillon.

Toponymies

Occitania comes from the medieval Latin Occitania. The first part of the name, Occ-, comes from Occitan òc and the expression langue d'oc, in Italian lingua d'oc. It is an appellation promoted by Dante Alighieri of Occitan by the way of saying "oui" in Old Occitan-Catalan; as opposed to the "langue de si" and the "langue d'oïl". The ending -itania is probably an imitation of the name itania. The term Occitania is a synonym for Languedoc and the Mediterranean coast in the Middle Ages.
The first attestation of the use of Occitanie in French dates from 1556. The first certificate of Occitania in Italy date 1549. In German, we find the word Occitania in 1572.
All the Occitan language countries have had various designations throughout history. The word Occitania has been the subject of whimsical etymologies, as, for example, Languedoc formerly understood as "land of Goth" or "language of Goth") As well as the rapprochement to the Occitan language exemplified in the names of the regions Languedoc and Occitania, we find in La Minerve Française, a collective work published in Paris in 1818, a history of name-changes of the provinces which reveals the word Occitanie to be a doublet of the word Occident formed in the Lower Empire, giving it the original meaning of "western regions", and not a region where the Occitan language was spoken.
Like the Occitan language, Occitania has been designated under various successive names. The terms are not exclusive: one can, at the same time, find authors who use different terms. Occitania or Pays d'Oc are the most frequently used terms today. However the term Provence is still used when the Felibritge sing the Copa Santa for example during the annual festival of Estello.
The term "Occitania" now covers a linguistic region. This meaning was used in medieval times attested since 1290. On 29 May 1308, during the Council of Poitiers, it appears that the king of France was declared to reign over two nations: one of lingua gallica and the other of lingua occitana. This partition between Occitan language and langue d'oïl in the Gallo-Roman space is very ancient since it started with Romanisation itself. In 1381, the King Charles VI of France considered that his kingdom comprised two parts: the country of langue d'oc, or Occitania, and the oil-language country or Ouytanie "Quas in nostro Regno occupare solebar tam in linguae Occitanae quam Ouytanae".
"Occitania" remained in force in the administration until the French Revolution of 1789. It was taken up again in the 19th century by the literary association of Felibritge then it is again claimed since the 20th century, especially since the end of the 1960s. According to Frédéric Mistral's dictionary "Treasury of Felibritge''", the term Occitania is sometimes used by scholars to describe Southern France in general but mainly for the former province of Languedoc.

Historiography of the Occitania concept

The langue d'oc is a territorialized language, that is to say, spoken mainly on a territory whose boundaries can be described. This part attempts to describe the origins of the Occitanie concept, the different names that this territory has taken and the creation of the modern concept of Occitania.

A unique object of study: d'oc culture

The speakers of the Occitan language do not use a single meaning of their language because Occitan is not a monolithic language with for example a single dictionary where each speaker finds exactly their vocabulary, but a juxtaposition of dialects. Also, many studies have focused on the differences between Provençal, Languedoc, etc. We must also remember the many common features of the Occitan cultural space, which are generally considered partisans.

The consciousness of a common culture

Robert Lafont develops this idea in the introduction of the "History and Anthology of Occitan Literature". The reference to troubadours is essential. This socio-linguistic argument is modulated according to the authors but it is accepted by all the current scholarship, including the authors who speak of "domain d'oc", since by definition, their study of the d'oc domain rests on the consciousness of the existence of a common culture.

Intercomprehension

The different speakers of the language share many common traits that allow mutual understanding. For Occitanists, this intercomprehension means that Occitan is one language; for others, it means that these languages are very close but all agree that the speakers in this defined space understand each other.

Common social characteristics

The social characteristics of Occitania are not eternal and intangible because factors of endogenous mutations and European influences, especially of Northern France, can blur these social peculiarities.
The best studied example is that of Roman Law which is better maintained in the Occitan Early Middle Ages society than in Northern France thanks to the promulgations of Visigoth and Burgundians laws. From the mid-11th century, the teaching of the Corpus Juris Civilis taken shortly after Bologna in the universities of Toulouse, Montpellier, Avignon, Perpignan... will promote a massive renaissance of Roman Law in Occitania.
With regard to education: Pierre Goubert and Daniel Roche write, to explain the low literacy in Occitania in the 18th century, that there exists in these territories a confidence maintained in the old vulgar languages. The relations to education are today completely reversed between Northern and Southern France thanks to the anthropological imprint of the family strain.
From a demographic point of view, the influence of the family was still felt in 2007 because of the small number of families with many children.
In politics, many debates have also taken place around the expression Red Southern coined by Maurice Agulhon to find out if the "pays d'oc" was more "republic" than the northern half of France. Emmanuel Todd analysing the regions that voted for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, calling himself a "Republican" in the 2012 presidential elections, declares that "what is obvious is his general inscription in the Occitan family that loves vertical structures, the state or the church."
Finally, for André Armengaud, these common social characteristics make it possible to write a historical synthesis. But since 1979, no other "History of Occitan" has been undertaken.

The appearance of the modern concept of Occitania

If the term Occitania appeared in French from the mid-16th century, then in 1732 in a collection of laws of the ancien régime, it only becomes current at 19th century. Thus, the duke of Angoulême conspired with a view to the establishment of a Kingdom of Occitania or of a Vice-Royalty of Occitania at the time of the Restoration. The term was popularized by the publications of Raynouard and Rochegude, and known in its contemporary sense by the English historian Sharon Turner.
It appeared in the Treasury of Felibritge and in the statutes of this organization in 1911. In the Interwar period, a Felibritgan school, the Escòla Occitana was created in 1919 in the Toulousean Languedoc. The Institute of Occitan Studies was born in 1930. These initiatives remain closely linked, notably because of the dual membership of their main animators at Felibritge.
After the Second World War, the creation of the Institute of Occitan Studies was presided over by a resistant, but above all its action in terms of linguistic reform, particularly its desire to adapt the classical norm to Provençal, marked a break with a large fraction of the Felibritge François Fontan created the first overtly Occitan nationalist party in 1959.
In France, Occitania has been confronted with a problem of recognition of Occitan since 1992; the French is the only "language of the Republic". In 1994, it was made compulsory in the public space and in the administration.
In 2015, with the prospect of creating a large region gathering "Midi-Pyrénées" and "Languedoc-Roussillon", the name "Occitanie" came at the head of an online survey organized by the regional press. Note, however, a variable support rate depending on the geographical origin of the voters. As part of the territorial reform, a consultation, the name of my region, organized by the Regional Council Languedoc-Roussillon-Midi-Pyrénées takes place in spring 2016 to give a name to the new region regrouping Midi-Pyrenees and Languedoc-Roussillon. Occitanie is in the lead, i.e., by 91,598 voters. Behind arrives Languedoc-Pyrenees with 17.81% of the votes, then Pyrenees-Mediterranean, Occitanie-Catalan Country and finally Languedoc. This new region was renamed Occitanie, according to the vote of the regional councilors on June 24 of 2016, and after final validation by the Government of France and Conseil d'État.

Geography

Occitania includes the following regions:
Occitan or langue d'oc is a Latin-based Romance language in the same way as Spanish, Italian or French. There are six main regional varieties, with easy inter-comprehension among them: Provençal, Vivaroalpenc, Auvernhat, Lemosin, Gascon 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.

Historic regions

The regions of Ancien Régime that make up Occitania are the following: Auvergne, Forez, Bourbonnais, Couserans, Dauphiné, County of Foix, County of Nice, Périgord, Gascony, Guyenne, Languedoc, Angoumois, Limousin, Poitou , La Marche, Provence, Comtat Venaissin, Velay, Vivarais.
Traditional Occitan Provinces :
  1. Béarn – 6,800 km2
  2. Guyenne & Gascony – 69,400 km2
  3. Limousin – 9,700 km2
  4. La Marche – 7,600 km2
  5. Auvergne – 19,300 km2
  6. Languedoc – 45,300 km2
  7. Dauphiné – 8,500 km2
  8. County of Nice – 3,600 km2
  9. Provence – 22,700 km2
  10. Comtat Venaissin – 3,600 km2
  11. County of Foix – 3,300 km2
X. Bourbonnais – approx. 3,200 km2

Administrative divisions in France

The administrative regions covering Occitania are the following: Occitanie region, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. In the Centre-Val de Loire Occitan is spoken in some communes in southern Cher and Indre.

Geographical boundaries

The geographical delimitation of Occitania most commonly accepted was specified between 1876—beginning of research on the linguistic boundaries—and the 20th century. Occitania roughly covers a southern third of France, the Occitan Valleys and Guardia Piemontese, in Italy, as well as the Val d'Aran, in Spain.
The practice of Occitan is not the same uniformly throughout the territory. In addition, there is a linguistic transition area in the north called Croissant where the terms of d'oil and Occitan interfere strongly. Instead, some territories are not generally considered to be part of Occitania according to the modern definition:
Written texts in Occitan appeared in the 10th century: it was used at once in legal then literary, scientific or religious texts. The spoken dialects of Occitan are many 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, 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. But things did not go according to plan and at the division of the Frankish Empire, 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 Counts of Barcelona 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 and the Lenga d'Òc spread throughout all European cultivated circles. Actually, the terms Lenga d'Òc, 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. In 1539, Francis I issued the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts that imposed the use of French in administration. But despite measures such as this, a strong feeling of national identity against the French occupiers remained and Jean Racine wrote on a trip to Uzès in 1662: "What they call France here is the land beyond the Loire, which to them is a foreign country."
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 whole fourteen million inhabitants of the area 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 gaining fresh impetus.

Outer settlements

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.

Cultural and political movements

Occitanist associations or organizations

The oldest association is the Felibritge, founded in 1854. Some of its members founded in 1945 a distinct movement under the name of Institut d'Estudis Occitans after the Second World War.
The main movements in France are as follows:
In Italy, the main movements are:
In Spain:
Some associations adhering to Felibritge and Parlaren claim a Provençal language distinct from Occitan.
Other associations claim distinct "languages d'oc", even if, paradoxically, some of them are grouped together in an Alliance of Oc languages:
Some associations have no affiliation with other oc countries:
On the other hand, some groups claim an Occitan-Roman identity including the Catalan Countries.

Spain

In Spain, the Aranese political parties alternately run the Conselh Generau d'Aran, principal institution of the Government of the Val d'Aran. They also have elected officials in the municipalities of Aran, the Parliament of Catalonia and the Spanish Senate. They are close to Catalan parties with the exception of the localist party Partit Renovador d'Arties-Garòs who has, however, made alliances with Unity of Aran. Unity of Aran is a social-democratic and regionalist-autonomist party affiliated to Socialists' Party of Catalonia, while Aranese Democratic Convergence, currently in power, is a centrist and autonomist party linked to the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia. Esquèrra Republicana Occitana founded in 2008, Left/Social Democracy and Independence, is a local section of Republican Left of Catalonia. Corròp is a citizen movement born in February 2015 that aims to break with the Aranese bipartisanship and is inspired by the Catalan independence movement Popular Unity Candidacy, but with a view to Occitania.
In the 2017 Catalan regional election the electors of the Val d'Aran voted mostly for pro-unionist parties to Spain or "constitutionalists".

France

In France, political parties or movements within the framework of Occitania had difficulty to win a large audience and get elected officials. They have never had elected representatives in national or European institutions or in general councils. However, in the 2010 French regional elections, the Occitan Party, within the framework of the participation of the federation Regions and Peoples with Solidarity to Europe Écologie, enters five regional councils. Dàvid Grosclaude is elected in Aquitaine., Guilhem Latrubesse in Midi-Pyrénées, Gustau Aliròl in Auvergne, Anne-Marie Hautant and Hervé Guerrera in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. The latter is also elected to the city council of Aix-en-Provence and counselor to the Agglomeration Community of Aix Country. The movement Bastir! ran for the first time in the 2014 municipal elections and won 55 seats. On the other hand, the president of the Occitan Party, Gustave Alirol is currently also president of the "Regions and Peoples with Solidarity" party and vice-president of the "European Free Alliance" which participates in a group of 50 deputies to the in the European Parliament.
Political partiesIdeology
Occitan PartyRegionalism
Autonomism
Occitan nationalism
Environmentalism
Left-wing nationalism
Party of the Occitan NationOccitan nationalism
Freedom !Occitan nationalism

Italy

There are currently no Occitan political movements in Monaco.

Old movements

Former political movements include:
There are 14 to 16 million inhabitants in Occitania today. According to the 1999 census, there are 610,000 native speakers and another million people with some exposure to the language. Native speakers of Occitan are to be found mostly in the older generations. The Institut d'Estudis Occitans has been modernizing the Occitan language since 1945, and the Conselh de la Lenga Occitana since 1996. Nowadays Occitan is used in the most modern musical and literary styles such as rock 'n roll, folk rock, rap, reggae and heavy metal, detective stories or science-fiction. It is represented on the internet. Association schools 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. The movement remains negligible in electoral and political terms. Nevertheless, Regional Elections in 2010 allowed the Partit Occitan to enter the Regional councils of Aquitaine, Auvergne, Midi-Pyrénées, and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur.
Major demonstrations in Carcassonne and Béziers and the week-long Estivada festivals in Rodez suggest that there is a revival of Occitan language and culture. However, in France, Occitan is still not recognized as an official language, as the status of French has been constitutionally protected since 1992, and Occitan activists want the French government to adopt Occitan as the second official language for seven regions representing the South of France.

Language

The Occitan language is only recognized as official, protected and promoted in the Val d'Aran ; in Italy it has the status of a protected language; and in France it only has acceptance in the educational network but without legal recognition.
The Fédération des langues régionales pour l'enseignement public calculated the number of students in the Occitan language in October 2005 at 4,326.
According to a 2002 report by the French Ministry of Culture, in public schools, collèges and lycées and private schools: in the academic year 2001–02, 67,549 students had enrolled in classes of or in Occitan.
Despite this precarious social position, Occitan was one of the official languages of the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.

Culture

Literature

Romantic composer Gabriel Fauré was born in Pamiers, Ariège in the Pyrenees region of France.
The Occitanian gastronomy or occitan cuisine is considered as Mediterranean but has some specific features that separate it from the Catalan cuisine or Italian cuisine. Indeed, because of the size of Occitania and the great diversity of landscapes- from the mountaineering of the Pyrenees and the Alps, rivers and lakes, and finally the Mediterranean and Atlantic coast – it can be considered as a highly varied cuisine.
Compared to other Mediterranean cuisines, we could note the using of basic elements and flavors, among them meat, fish and vegetables, moreover the frequent using of the olive oil; although also compound of elements from the Atlantic coast cuisine, with cheeses, pastes, creams, butters and more high calorie food. Among well-renowned meals common on the Mediterranean coast includes ratatolha, alhòli, bolhabaissa, pan golçat likewise salads with mainly olives, rice, corn and wine. Another significant aspect that changes compared to its Mediterranean neighbors is the abundant amount of aromatic herbs; some of them are typically Mediterranean, like parsley, rosemary, thyme, oregano or again basil.
Some of the world-renowned traditional meals are Provençal ratatolha, alhòli and adauba, Niçard salada nissarda and pan banhat, Limousin clafotís, Auvergnat aligòt, Languedocien caçolet, or again Gascon fetge gras.
Occitania is also home of a great variety of cheeses and a great diversity of wines such as Bordeaux, Rhône wine, Gaillac wine, Saint-Émilion wine, Blanquette de Limoux, Muscat de Rivesaltes, Provence wine, Cahors wine, Jurançon. Alcohols such as Pastis and Marie Brizard or brandies such as, Armagnac, and Cognac are produced in the area.

Image gallery