Yesterday the Val d’Aran in Catalonia celebrated its native, official and endangered language: Occitan. There are 5,000 speakers out of a population of 10,000. Alidé Sans is an Aranese singer and also the mayor of her town of Bausen (70 inhabitants). Plus a free lesson in how to swear in Occitan.
https://v.redd.it/dxvu191rqifd1
Posted by paniniconqueso
4 Comments
And it should be stressed that occitan is endangered because france intentionally wiped it out and that it survives in spain because spain grants languages many rights other european nations, including italy, don’t.
Yesterday was the festival Aran per sa Lengua, a day to celebrate the native language of the Val d’Aran, which as far as we can tell, has been Occitan speaking for the last 1000 years, at least.
Before that, we think that the people of this valley spoke Basque or a Basque-related language, as the name itself of the valley suggests: haran (pronounced [aran]) in Basque is how we say “valley”, meaning that the name of the valley is…Valley of the Valley, a pleonasm.
The motto that they use for the day and which is repeated constantly in the Val d’Aran is: “Qui ten era lengua ten era clau”, which means “he who has the language, has the key”. It is a quotation taken from the Provençal author Frederic Mistral (1830-1914):
>Qu’un pòble tombe esclau
Se tèn sa lenga tèn la clau
>Que dei cadenas lo deslieura
*A people who has become enslaved*
*If they have their language, they have the key*
*That will free them from their chains.*
https://preview.redd.it/gxieztcpvifd1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6b14d4457cc3059e4ba6d10040e67515ced7cec8
Learning Occitan is definitely on my bucket list.
Thanks for sharing this! As a catalan, I really couldn’t understand much of what was said or sung haha! Do aranese people consider themselves a bit spanish or catalan? I’m just curious, as in the rest of Catalonia you’ll get so many different answers… And do kids have to learn catalan in school? Or is it just mandatory in the rest of the comunitat?