Occitania
Occitania is the historical region in southern Europe where the Occitan language was historically spoken and where it persists today as a local dialect. This cultural area roughly encompasses much of the southern third of France as well as part of Spain, Monaco, and parts of Italy.
Occitania has been recognized as a linguistic and cultural concept since the Middle Ages. The territory was united in Roman times as the Seven Provinces and in the Early Middle Ages.
Currently, the region has a population of 16 million, and between 200,000 and 800,000 people are either native or proficient speakers of Occitan. More commonly, French, Piedmontese, Catalan, Spanish and Italian are spoken. Since 2006, the Occitan language has been an official language in Catalonia, which includes the Aran Valley, where Occitan gained official status in 1990.
At the time of the Roman empire, most of Occitania was known as Aquitania. The territories conquered early were known as Provincia Romana, while the northern provinces of what is now France were called Gallia. Under the late Roman empire, both Aquitania and Provincia Romana were grouped in the Seven Provinces or Viennensis. Provence and Gallia Aquitania have been in use since medieval times for Occitania.
The historic Duchy of Aquitaine should not be confused with the modern French region called Aquitaine: this is a reason why the term Occitania was revived in the mid-19th century. The terms "Occitania" and "Occitan language" appeared in Latin texts from as early as 1242–1254 to 1290 and during the early 14th century; texts exist in which the area is referred indirectly as "the country of the Occitan language". The name Lenga d'òc was used in Italian by Dante in the late 13th century. The somewhat uncommon ending of the term Occitania is most likely from a French clerk who joined the òc and Aquitània in a portmanteau term, thus blending the language and the land in just one concept.
On 28 September 2016, Occitanie became the name of an 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:- Based on a geolinguistic definition, Occitania is the area of Occitan language as surveyed at the end of the 19th century. The formerly Occitanophone regions are not included.
- Occitanian culture flourished in the High Middle Ages. Many writers, poets, and exponents in the troubadour movement used Occitan as their language of choice, and their works prominently featured courtly love as well as, at times, ideas of religious and social tolerance. According to this definition taken up by historians and anthropologists, the domain is extended north to the Loire including former Occitanophone regions.
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 in use 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 the Occitan language to learn 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 natives who left. On the other hand, in the absence of a linguistic census, we only imperfectly know 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 "yes" 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 dates 1549. In German, the word Occitania was found in 1572.
All of the Occitan language countries have had various designations throughout history. The word Occitania has been the subject of whimsical etymologies, 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 find authors who use different terms in the same time period. 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.
- Dioecesis Viennensis et Dioecesis Septem Provinciarum, under Diocletian and Constantine during a division of the Roman Empire, Gaul is divided into dioceses and that of Vienne has its border on the Loire river, bypasses the Central Massif and passes the Rhône between Lyon and Vienne. This is the beginning of the bipartition between Occitan language and langue d'oil.
- Kingdom of Aquitaine: in 781, Charlemagne creates a new kingdom of Aquitaine and names his son Louis the Pious to his head. This new state included the Aquitaine properly speaking as well as the Vasconia. In 806, Charlemagne shares his empire. Louis the Pious receives in addition to Aquitaine the Marca Hispanica, Septimania and Provence.
- Proensa/Proença and Prouvènço/Provença, from the Latin Provincia which originally designated the Roman Province is used from the 11th century: all countries of Occitan language of the south of the Loire. The term Provence is still used in its general sense by the Felibritgists.
- Great Provence according to Palestra, Centenary of the Catalan Renaixença.
- Patria romana.
- Lingua Occitana or Pars occitana to designate the new royal territories conquered south of the Loire. Occitania was created in Latin by the Capetian administration with the combination of the particle 'Oc/òc' and of the 'Aquitania/Aquitània . Appeared in the 13th century, this term served, after the annexation of almost all the countries of the South by France, to designate only the Languedoc.
- Respublica Occitania during the 14th century.
- Romania, in reference to the medieval usage of calling Occitan the roman.
- Homeland of the Occitan language, in the official texts of the Kingdom of France from the 14th century.
- Provinces of the Union or United Provinces of the South: in February 1573 the huguenots and the moderate Catholics create a federal republic where each province enjoys a great autonomy vis-a-vis the central power.
- Gascony after the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, "the general name of Gascony or Gascons is used to refer to the countries and peoples to the left side of the Loire where still speaks the old Provençal". Used mainly from the access to the throne of France of Henri IV and until the French Revolution.
- Reputed foreign provinces of the south of France since the middle of the 17th century at the end of the 18th century
- Occitania in the Diderot Encyclopaedia.
- Occitanie : in 1732 in the collection of Capetian laws of Shake Secousse, in 1878, in the Treasure of the Felibritge, in 1911 in the Statutes of the Felibritge; in 1927, Estieu and Salvat founded the College of Occitania.
- Midi: is a vague geographical notion indicating in a rather imprecise way the regions of Occitan dialects of Southern France.
- Southern France: is another vague geographical name indicating in a rather imprecise way the regions of Occitan dialects of Southern France.
- Pays d'Oc: appeared in the 19th century under the impetus of Frederic Mistral, taken over by Antonin Perbòsc four years later.
- Estate of Oc: neologism appeared at the end of the 20th century among supporters of several Occitan languages.