Occitania

Lore & Background

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 (Aquitanica or the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse, or the share of Louis the Pious following Thionville divisio regnorum in 806). The terms 'Occitania' and 'Occitan language' (Occitana lingua) 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' (Patria Linguae Occitanae). The name was used in Italian (Lingua d'òc) 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.

Reader's Guide

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 definition of a contiguous and compact Occitan-speaking territory is currently the most widespread. Occitanian culture flourished in the High Middle Ages. 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. 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. On 28 September 2016, Occitanie became the name of an administrative region that merged the previous regions of Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon; it is a small part of Occitania.

Did You Know?

• Occitania has a population of 16 million, and between 200,000 and 800,000 people are either native or proficient speakers of Occitan.
• Since 2006, the Occitan language has been an official language in Catalonia, which includes the Aran Valley, where Occitan gained official status in 1990.
• 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 first attestation of the use of Occitanie in French dates from 1556; the first certificate of Occitania in Italy dates 1549.