The Occitans (Occitan: occitans) are a Romance-speaking ethnic group originating in the historical region of Occitania (southern France, northeastern Spain, and northwestern Italy and Monaco).[1][2][3][4][5] They have been also called Gascons,[6] Provençals, and Auvergnats.[7]

Occitans
Occitans (French)
Occitanos (Spanish)
Occitans (Occitan)
Occitani (Ligurian)
Total population
c. 17 million
Regions with significant populations
Languages
Occitan (native); French, Italian, Spanish, Catalan (as a result of language shift)
Religion
Roman Catholicism, minority Protestantism and Waldensian
Related ethnic groups
Catalans, Valencians, French, Spaniards, Ligurians

The Occitan language is still used to varying levels by between 100,000 and 800,000 speakers in southern France and northern Italy. Since 2006, the Occitan language is recognized as one of the official languages in Catalonia, an autonomous region of Spain.

The Occitans are concentrated in Occitania, but also in big urban centres in neighbouring regions: Lyon, Paris, Turin, and Barcelona. There are also ethnic Occitans in Guardia Piemontese (Calabria), as well as Argentina, Mexico, Canada, and the United States.[citation needed]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Pèire Bec, "Occitan", in Rebecca Posner, John N. Green eds. Language and philology in Romance, Walter de Gruyter, 1982.
    Reprint Volume 3 Language and Philology in Romance. 2011. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. Retrieved 24 Nov. 2015, from http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/48412
  2. ^ Gregory Hanlon, Confession and Community in Seventeenth-century France: Catholic and Protestant Coexistence in Aquitaine, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993, p. 20
  3. ^ Robert Gildea, France since 1945, Oxford University Press, 1996
  4. ^ Peter McPhee, "Frontiers, Ethnicity and Identity in the French Revolution: Catalans and Occitans" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, in Ian Coller, Helen Davies, and Julie Kalman, eds, French History and Civilisation: Papers from the George Rudé Seminar Archived 2016-11-30 at the Wayback Machine, Vol. 1, Melbourne: The George Rudé Society, 2005
  5. ^ Jeffrey Cole, Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2011
  6. ^ Abbé de S***. Dictionnaire languedocien-françois ou choix des mots languedociens les plus difficiles à rendre en François. Contenant un recueil des principales fautes que commettent dans la diction, & dans la Prononciation Françoise, les Habitants des Provinces Méridionales du Royaume, connus à Paris sous le nom de Gascons. Avec un petit Traite de Prononciation & de Prosodie Languedocienne. Ouvrage enrichi dans quelques-uns de ses articles de notes historiques et grammaticales, et d'observations de physique et d'histoire naturelle. 1756
  7. ^ The Occitan members of the Order of Malta were grouped into two tongues, of Provence and Auvergne.