75-617: Gardanne ( French pronunciation: [ɡaʁdan] ; Occitan : Gardana ) is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France . Its inhabitants are called Gardannais. It is close to Aix-en-Provence and Marseille and on the rail link connecting the two cities. It is bordered by the Massif du Montaiguet, which expands to Luynes, Aix en Provence and Bouc-Bel-Air. It comprises chalky plateaux bordered by cliffs, forests of pines and oaks, and crops areas. In 1979 and 2005
150-750: A brief proclamation of the Catalan Republic on 14 April 1931 and the provisional establishment of the Generalitat as a Catalan government within the new Spanish Republic , the first Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia was approved by the Spanish Parliament in September 1932, recognizing Catalan self-government and establishing a separate Parliament of Catalonia as the legislative body of the Generalitat, being elected on 20 November 1932 . This first legislature
225-542: A common origin (see Occitano-Romance languages ). The language was one of the first to gain prestige as a medium for literature among Romance languages in the Middle Ages. Indeed, in the 12th and 13th centuries, Catalan troubadours such as Guerau de Cabrera , Guilhem de Bergadan, Guilhem de Cabestany, Huguet de Mataplana , Raimon Vidal de Besalú, Cerverí de Girona , Formit de Perpinhan, and Jofre de Foixà wrote in Occitan. At
300-636: A consonant), whereas the southernmost dialects have more features in common with the Ibero-Romance languages (e.g. betacism ; voiced fricatives between vowels in place of voiced stops; - ch - in place of - it -), and Gascon has a number of unusual features not seen in other dialects (e.g. /h/ in place of /f/ ; loss of /n/ between vowels; intervocalic -r- and final -t/ch in place of medieval - ll -). There are also significant lexical differences, where some dialects have words cognate with French, and others have Catalan and Spanish cognates. Nonetheless, there
375-512: A dialect of French spoken by Jews in southern France. Southern Jewish French is now estimated to only be spoken by about 50–100 people. Domergue Sumien proposes a slightly different supradialectal grouping. Parliament of Catalonia Supported by (26) Opposition (67) Referendums Local The Parliament of Catalonia ( Catalan : Parlament de Catalunya , IPA: [pəɾləˈmen də kətəˈluɲə] ; Spanish : Parlamento de Cataluña ; Occitan : Parlament de Catalonha )
450-455: A general assembly made up by representatives from the four provinces, but lacking legislative powers. In 1919, the Commonwealth prepared a project of Statute of Autonomy for Catalonia which included a bicameral parliament , however, the bill wasn't implemented. The assembly and the Commonwealth itself were disbanded and outlawed by Miguel Primo de Rivera 's dictatorship in 1925. Following
525-729: A part of a wider Occitano-Romanic group. One such classification posits three groups: According to this view, Catalan is an ausbau language that became independent from Occitan during the 13th century, but originates from the Aquitano-Pyrenean group. Occitan has 3 dialects spoken by Jewish communities that are all now extinct. A sociolect of the Gascon dialect spoken by Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Gascony . It, like many other Jewish dialects and languages, contained large amounts of Hebrew loanwords. It went extinct after World War 2 with
600-496: A position he would hold until 2003. That began a period of hegemony of CiU, which won the election of 1984 with an absolute majority (72 of 135). The representatives of the Parliament of Catalonia are elected every four years after the date of its previous election, unless it is dissolved earlier, under a system of party-list proportional representation . Since 1980, the 135 members of the Parliament of Catalonia are elected using
675-540: A second Occitan immigration of this period was assimilated by the similar Navarro-Aragonese language , which at the same time was fostered and chosen by the kings of Aragon . In the 14th century, Occitan across the whole southern Pyrenean area fell into decay and became largely absorbed into Navarro-Aragonese first and Castilian later in the 15th century, after their exclusive boroughs broke up (1423, Pamplona 's boroughs unified). Gascon-speaking communities were called to move in for trading purposes by Navarrese kings in
750-538: A single written standard form, nor does it have official status in France, home to most of its speakers. Instead, there are competing norms for writing Occitan, some of which attempt to be pan-dialectal, whereas others are based on a particular dialect. These efforts are hindered by the rapidly declining use of Occitan as a spoken language in much of southern France, as well as by the significant differences in phonology and vocabulary among different Occitan dialects. According to
825-469: A unitary language, as it lacks an official written standard . Like other languages that fundamentally exist at a spoken, rather than written, level (e.g. the Rhaeto-Romance languages , Franco-Provençal , Astur-Leonese , and Aragonese ), every settlement technically has its own dialect, with the whole of Occitania forming a classic dialect continuum that changes gradually along any path from one side to
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#1732884863030900-608: A written account in Occitan from Pamplona centered on the burning of borough San Nicolas from 1258, while the History of the War of Navarre by Guilhem Anelier (1276), albeit written in Pamplona, shows a linguistic variant from Toulouse . Things turned out slightly otherwise in Aragon, where the sociolinguistic situation was different, with a clearer Basque-Romance bilingual situation (cf. Basques from
975-410: Is "probably not more divergent from Occitan overall than Gascon is". There is no general agreement about larger groupings of these dialects. Max Wheeler divides the dialects into two groups: Pierre Bec divides the dialects into three groups: In order to overcome the pitfalls of the traditional romanistic view, Bec proposed a "supradialectal" classification that groups Occitan with Catalan as
1050-614: Is a Romance language spoken in Southern France , Monaco , Italy 's Occitan Valleys , as well as Spain 's Val d'Aran in Catalonia ; collectively, these regions are sometimes referred to as Occitania . It is also spoken in Calabria ( Southern Italy ) in a linguistic enclave of Cosenza area (mostly Guardia Piemontese ). Some include Catalan in Occitan, as the linguistic distance between this language and some Occitan dialects (such as
1125-460: Is a significant amount of mutual intelligibility . Gascon is the most divergent, and descriptions of the main features of Occitan often consider Gascon separately. Max Wheeler notes that "probably only its copresence within the French cultural sphere has kept [Gascon] from being regarded as a separate language", and compares it to Franco-Provençal, which is considered a separate language from Occitan but
1200-530: Is made up of the leaders and spokespersons from each parliamentary group in the Parliament and has the right to be "heard" before the Bureau takes some decisions such as scheduling debates and votes. In the Spanish system, however, ruling parties usually do not hold a tight grip over the Parliament's schedule, nor do they use it to turn down the opposition proposals without debate: they are just voted down in committee or by
1275-696: Is the Palace of the Parliament of Catalonia ( Palau del Parlament de Catalunya in Catalan). It is located in the Parc de la Ciutadella of the capital city, Barcelona. The main entrance is at number 1 of Joan Fiveller Square. The building was designed by the Flemish architect Jorge Próspero de Verboom between 1716 and 1748 to serve as an arsenal, in the fortress of the Citadel that King Philip V had built, shortly after having conquered
1350-577: Is the unicameral legislature of the autonomous community of Catalonia . The Parliament is currently made up of 135 members, known as deputies ( diputats / deputats / diputados ), who are elected for four-year terms or after extraordinary dissolution, chosen by universal suffrage in lists of four constituencies, corresponding to the Catalan provinces. The Parliament building is located in Ciutadella Park , Barcelona . Established in 1932, after
1425-413: Is the other native language. Up to seven million people in France understand the language, whereas twelve to fourteen million fully spoke it in 1921. In 1860 , Occitan speakers represented more than 39% of the whole French population (52% for francophones proper); they were still 26% to 36% in the 1920s and fewer than 7% in 1993. Occitan is fundamentally defined by its dialects, rather than being
1500-462: Is worthier and better suited for romances and pastourelles ; but [the language] from Limousin is of greater value for writing poems and cançons and sirventés ; and across the whole of the lands where our tongue is spoken, the literature in the Limousin language has more authority than any other dialect, wherefore I shall use this name in priority. The term Provençal , though implying a reference to
1575-468: The òc language (Occitan), the oïl language (French), and the sì language (Italian). The word òc came from Vulgar Latin hoc ("this"), while oïl originated from Latin hoc illud ("this [is] it"). Old Catalan and now the Catalan of Northern Catalonia also have hoc ( òc ). Other Romance languages derive their word for "yes" from the Latin sic , "thus [it is], [it
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#17328848630301650-622: The Romance of Flamenca (13th century), the Song of the Albigensian Crusade (1213–1219?), Daurel e Betó (12th or 13th century), Las, qu'i non-sun sparvir, astur (11th century) and Tomida femina (9th or 10th century). Occitan was the vehicle for the influential poetry of the medieval troubadours ( trobadors ) and trobairitz : At that time, the language was understood and celebrated throughout most of educated Europe. It
1725-614: The Usatges de Barcelona , was promulgated by Count Ramon Berenguer I based on the decisions of these assemblies. Although the counts of Barcelona, had greatly extended the territory under their control, their financial and military power was quite limited, due to the impact of the Feudal revolution during the regency of countess Ermesinde of Carcassonne (1018-1044). Their personal resources were particularly insufficient in periods of economic crisis or military expansion, of which they were many from
1800-611: The Civil War , the building became a military barracks and in 1945, the seat of the Museum of Modern Art of Barcelona. In 1977, during the Spanish transition to democracy , the building temporarily served as the Assembly of Parliamentarians (Catalan: Assemblea de Parlamentaris ) until the restitution of Catalan self-government. In 1979 it became the seat of Parliament again and was renovated. Finally,
1875-451: The D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with a threshold of 3% of valid votes—which includes blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Seats are allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of Barcelona , Tarragona , Girona and Lleida , with each being allocated 85, 18, 17 and 15 seats respectively. In the 1932 election there were 85 seats up to election divided into five constituencies:
1950-582: The Gascon language ) is similar to the distance between different Occitan dialects. Catalan was considered a dialect of Occitan until the end of the 19th century and still today remains its closest relative. Occitan is an official language of Catalonia, Spain, where a subdialect of Gascon known as Aranese is spoken (in the Val d'Aran ). Since September 2010, the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be
2025-461: The UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages , four of the six major dialects of Occitan (Provençal, Auvergnat , Limousin and Languedocien) are considered severely endangered , whereas the remaining two ( Gascon and Vivaro-Alpine ) are considered definitely endangered . The name Occitan comes from the term lenga d'òc ("language of òc "), òc being the Occitan word for yes. While
2100-574: The Val d'Aran cited c. 1000 ), but a receding Basque language (Basque banned in the marketplace of Huesca, 1349). While the language was chosen as a medium of prestige in records and official statements along with Latin in the early 13th century, Occitan faced competition from the rising local Romance vernacular, the Navarro-Aragonese , both orally and in writing, especially after Aragon's territorial conquests south to Zaragoza , Huesca and Tudela between 1118 and 1134. It resulted that
2175-460: The city of Barcelona proper and the provinces of Barcelona (excluding the city of Barcelona ), Girona , Lleida and Tarragona , with each being allocated 24, 19, 14, 14 and 14 seats respectively. They were elected under the Republican system of plurality block voting or majoritari per districtes , with each voter casting a vote for 75% of its constituency seats. This in practice ensured that
2250-749: The granting of self-governance to Catalonia by the Second Spanish Republic , it went to exile in 1939 as a consequence of the Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War . It was reestablished in 1979 during the transition to democracy . The most recent general election to the Parliament was held on 12 May 2024. The first representative and legislative bodies in Catalonia were the Comital Court (Catalan: Cort Comtal ) of Barcelona, modelling after
2325-504: The ERC leader, Francesc Macià , as president of the Generalitat and, right after the election, the institution began to pass progressive legislation in different areas, such as health, culture and civil law, however, the institution was suspended between 1934 and 1936 when the Government of Catalonia attempted to create a Catalan State within a Spanish Federal Republic after, among other reasons,
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2400-614: The Eiffel Tower and the Millau viaduct. The plant will be closed before 2022 in order to reduce greenhouse gas (CO 2 ) emissions in accordance with the PPE law. The commune of Gardanne was governed by the French Communist Party under Mayor Roger Meï from 1977 until 2020. Voting is usually towards the left-wing, but rather uncharacteristically, Nicolas Sarkozy gained 53.1% of the vote at
2475-550: The Frankish curia regis , and the Peace and Truce of God Assemblies ( Assemblees de Pau i Treva ), of which the earliest record dates from 1027. The last ones were originally ad hoc, local meetings convened by the clergy ( Oliba , Bishop of Vic, who died in 1046, was a notable instigator) but progressively became subsumed into the court of the Counts of Barcelona . The first Catalan legal code,
2550-671: The House of Bourbon, supported by the Crown of Castille, defeated the Habsburg pretender to throne, which was backed by the remnants of the Crown of Aragon in the War of the Spanish Succession . There were attempts from late 19th century to restore an autonomous system of representation for Catalonia. The Manresa Bases (1892) proposed the creation of new Catalan Courts, partly modeled on the original ones. On
2625-592: The Judeo-Occitan dialects, Judeo-Niçard was spoken by the community of Jews living in Nice , who were descendants of Jewish immigrants from Provence, Piedmont, and other Mediterranean communities. Its existence is attested from a few documents from the 19th century. It contained significant influence in both vocabulary and grammar from Hebrew. All three of these dialects have some influence in Southern Jewish French,
2700-549: The President is absent, and four Secretaries, elected in the first session of each newly elected Parliament. The Bureau is tasked with managing the Parliament schedule and interpreting its rules of order , including the power to expel members from the sessions. There is also a second, consultative body, the Spokespersons' Council (Catalan: Junta de Portaveus , Spanish: Junta de Portavoces , Aranese: Conselh de Pòrtavotzes ), which
2775-668: The acts of the between the King and their sessions (known as pragmàtiques ) and, from 1359, established a permanent delegation to oversee the Crown (the Deputation of the General, forerunner of the Generalitat de Catalunya ). The Catalan Courts, as well as the other institutions of the Principality and the administrative use of Catalan language, were abolished by the Nueva Planta decrees in 1716 after
2850-547: The area was devastated by bush fires. Following these incidents, garrigue is now covering a wide area. Walls dating back to the first century AD have been found. In 1454 René d'Anjou bought the estate and would go there until 1480. In 1482 it was bought back by the Forbins and in 1676 the villagers themselves bought back their own land. In the 1860s a railway was built and a little later mines were dug, thus attracting Italian, Armenian, Polish, Czech, Spanish and African workers to
2925-452: The cities in southern France is unlikely to hear a single Occitan word spoken on the street (or, for that matter, in a home), and is likely to only find the occasional vestige, such as street signs (and, of those, most will have French equivalents more prominently displayed), to remind them of the traditional language of the area. Occitan speakers, as a result of generations of systematic suppression and humiliation (see Vergonha ), seldom use
3000-526: The city of Barcelona, on 11 September 1714. After the destruction of the Citadel, in 1868, the old arsenal was converted into a palace by the architect Pere Falqués, in order to receive the royal family during the 1888 Barcelona Universal Exposition . In 1900, the building became the Local Museum of Decorative and Archaeological Arts ( Museo Municipal de Arte Decorativo y Arqueológico in Spanish). In 1932, after
3075-543: The clergy, the feudal nobles and the citizens of Royal towns such as Barcelona or Girona . Inhabitants of feudal towns (such as Cardona ) were not represented, except by their overlords. The main function of the Corts was legislative, either in approving laws proposed by the monarch ( Constitucions ) or at their own initiative ( capítols de cort ). Although the Catalan Courts met at irregular intervals, it also formally approved
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3150-485: The early 12th century to the coastal fringe extending from San Sebastian to the river Bidasoa , where they settled down. The language variant they used was different from the ones in Navarre, i.e. a Béarnese dialect of Gascon. Gascon remained in use in this area far longer than in Navarre and Aragon, until the 19th century, thanks mainly to the fact that Donostia and Pasaia maintained close ties with Bayonne . Though it
3225-890: The end of the 11th century, the Franks , as they were called at the time, started to penetrate the Iberian Peninsula through the Ways of St. James via Somport and Roncesvalles , settling in various locations in the Kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon enticed by the privileges granted them by the Navarrese kings . They settled in large groups, forming ethnic boroughs where Occitan was used for everyday life, in Pamplona , Sangüesa , and Estella-Lizarra , among others. These boroughs in Navarre may have been close-knit communities that tended not to assimilate with
3300-596: The full house after the shortest debate allowed by the rules of order. Thus, while control of the Bureau and the Spokespersons' Council is definitely important, it is not a critical matter as it sometimes becomes in other systems. The definition and functions of the Parliament of Catalonia are defined by the Title II, Chapter I of the Statute of Autonomy. According to the Statute, the Parliament: The official home of Parliament
3375-522: The geographical territory in which Occitan is spoken is surrounded by regions in which other Romance languages are used, external influences may have influenced its origin and development. Many factors favored its development as its own language. Catalan in Spain's northern and central Mediterranean coastal regions and the Balearic Islands is closely related to Occitan, sharing many linguistic features and
3450-678: The government were restored in February 1936 after the victory of Popular Front in the Spanish election , and abolished by the dictator Francisco Franco at the beginning of the occupation of Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War . The Parliament of Catalonia, like the rest of the institutions of the Generalitat, went to exile in 1939. After the death of Franco in 1975 and the subsequent first years of Spanish transition to democracy , claims by most of Catalan society and political spectrum, from communists to liberals, to restore self-government grew. The Generalitat came back from exile in 1977. In 1979,
3525-476: The language at the beginning of the 13th century by Catalan troubadour Raimon Vidal de Besalú(n) in his Razós de trobar : La parladura Francesca val mais et [es] plus avinenz a far romanz e pasturellas; mas cella de Lemozin val mais per far vers et cansons et serventés; et per totas las terras de nostre lengage son de major autoritat li cantar de la lenga Lemosina que de negun'autra parladura, per qu'ieu vos en parlarai primeramen. The French language
3600-456: The language in the presence of strangers, whether they are from abroad or from outside Occitania (in this case, often merely and abusively referred to as Parisiens or Nordistes , which means northerners ). Occitan is still spoken by many elderly people in rural areas, but they generally switch to French when dealing with outsiders. Occitan's decline is somewhat less pronounced in Béarn because of
3675-474: The language. Following the pattern of language shift , most of this remainder is to be found among the eldest populations. Occitan activists (called Occitanists ) have attempted, in particular with the advent of Occitan-language preschools (the Calandretas ), to reintroduce the language to the young. Nonetheless, the number of proficient speakers of Occitan is thought to be dropping precipitously. A tourist in
3750-408: The larger collection of dialects grouped under the name langues d'oïl ) should be used for all French administration. Occitan's greatest decline occurred during the French Revolution , in which diversity of language was considered a threat. In 1903, the four Gospels ( "Lis Evangèli" , i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were translated into Provençal as spoken in Cannes and Grasse. The translation
3825-406: The last speakers being elderly Jews in Bayonne . About 850 unique words and a few morphological and grammatical aspects of the dialect were transmitted to Southern Jewish French. Judeo-Provençal was a dialect of Occitan spoken by Jews in Provence . The dialect declined in usage after Jews were expelled from the area in 1498, and was probably extinct by the 20th century. The least attested of
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#17328848630303900-772: The latter term for the language as a whole. Many non-specialists, however, continue to refer to the language as Provençal . One of the oldest written fragments of the language found dates back to 960, shown here in italics mixed with non-italicized Latin: De ista hora in antea non decebrà Ermengaus filius Eldiarda Froterio episcopo filio Girberga ne Raimundo filio Bernardo vicecomite de castello de Cornone ... no·l li tolrà ni no·l li devedarà ni no l'en decebrà ... nec societatem non aurà , si per castellum recuperare non o fa , et si recuperare potuerit in potestate Froterio et Raimundo lo tornarà , per ipsas horas quæ Froterius et Raimundus l'en comonrà . Carolingian litanies ( c. 780 ), though
3975-440: The leader sang in Latin , were answered to in Old Occitan by the people ( Ora pro nos ; Tu lo juva ). Other famous pieces include the Boecis , a 258-line-long poem written entirely in the Limousin dialect of Occitan between the year 1000 and 1030 and inspired by Boethius 's The Consolation of Philosophy ; the Waldensian La nobla leyczon (dated 1100), Cançó de Santa Fe ( c. 1054 –1076),
4050-415: The modern Occitan-speaking area. After Frédéric Mistral 's Félibrige movement in the 19th century, Provençal achieved the greatest literary recognition and so became the most popular term for Occitan. According to Joseph Anglade , a philologist and specialist of medieval literature who helped impose the then archaic term Occitan as the standard name, the word Lemosin was first used to designate
4125-422: The negative sense: for example, "Vous n'avez pas de frères?" "Si, j'en ai sept." ("You have no brothers?" "But yes, I have seven."). The name "Occitan" was attested around 1300 as occitanus , a crossing of oc and aquitanus ( Aquitanian ). For many centuries, the Occitan dialects (together with Catalan ) were referred to as Limousin or Provençal , after the names of two regions lying within
4200-441: The new Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia recognized the restoration of the Parliament. The first legislature of the current Parliament of Catalonia was elected on 20 March 1980 , 48 years after the first election in 1932. Convergència i Unió (CiU) a center-right Catalan nationalist electoral coalition won the plurality of seats, reaching 48 of 135 seats, and thus giving the presidency of the Generalitat to its leader Jordi Pujol ,
4275-488: The officially preferred language for use in the Val d'Aran. Across history, the terms Limousin ( Lemosin ), Languedocien ( Lengadocian ), Gascon , in addition to Provençal ( Provençal , Provençau or Prouvençau ) later have been used as synonyms for the whole of Occitan; nowadays, the term "Provençal" is understood mainly as the Occitan dialect spoken in Provence , in southeast France. Unlike other Romance languages such as French or Spanish , Occitan does not have
4350-419: The other hand, republican federalists and left-wing Catalan nationalists made their own proposals of a liberal and democratic Catalan assembly. The first achievement of Catalan nationalism (led at that time by the Regionalist League ), the Commonwealth of Catalonia (1914–25), was an institution composed by the provincial councils ( diputaciones ) of Barcelona , Girona , Lleida and Tarragona , which included
4425-424: The other. Nonetheless, specialists commonly divide Occitan into six main dialects: The northern and easternmost dialects have more morphological and phonetic features in common with the Gallo-Italic and Oïl languages (e.g. nasal vowels ; loss of final consonants; initial cha/ja- instead of ca/ga- ; uvular ⟨r⟩ ; the front-rounded sound /ø/ instead of a diphthong, /w/ instead of /l/ before
4500-431: The predominantly Basque -speaking general population. Their language became the status language chosen by the Navarrese kings, nobility, and upper classes for official and trade purposes in the period stretching from the early 13th century to the late 14th century. Written administrative records were in a koiné based on the Languedocien dialect from Toulouse with fairly archaic linguistic features. Evidence survives of
4575-420: The proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic and the grant of self-government to Catalonia, the building was chosen by the newly created Catalan Parliament. The building was renovated by the decorator Santiago Marco, transforming the throne room into the session chamber, and on the facade the Bourbon coat of arms was replaced by the Blazon of Catalonia . The inaugural session was held on 6 December 1932. After
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#17328848630304650-555: The province's history (a late addition to the Kingdom of France), though even there the language is little spoken outside the homes of the rural elderly. The village of Artix is notable for having elected to post street signs in the local language. The area where Occitan was historically dominant has approximately 16 million inhabitants. Recent research has shown it may be spoken as a first language by approximately 789,000 people in France , Italy , Spain and Monaco . In Monaco, Occitan coexists with Monégasque Ligurian , which
4725-466: The region of Provence , historically was used for Occitan as a whole, for "in the eleventh, the twelfth, and sometimes also the thirteenth centuries, one would understand under the name of Provence the whole territory of the old Provincia romana Gallia Narbonensis and even Aquitaine ". The term first came into fashion in Italy . Currently, linguists use the terms Provençal and Limousin strictly to refer to specific varieties within Occitan, using
4800-486: The rightward turn of the Republican government by its inclusion of CEDA ministers, self-proclaimed anti-Marxist and anti-democratic totalitarian traditionalists close to the European fascists , and the rejection by the Republican Court of Constitutional Guarantees (Constitutional Court of that time) of the emancipatory Crop Contracts Law land reform bill passed by the Parliament of Catalonia. The unilateral declaration of sovereignty lasted 10 hours. The Parliament and
4875-530: The second round of the 2007 French presidential election . This Bouches-du-Rhône geographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Occitan language Italy Occitan ( English: / ˈ ɒ k s ɪ t ən , - t æ n , - t ɑː n / ; Occitan pronunciation: [utsiˈta, uksiˈta] ), also known as lenga d'òc ( Occitan: [ˈleŋɡɒ ˈðɔ(k)] ; French : langue d'oc ) by its native speakers, sometimes also referred to as Provençal ,
4950-525: The term would have been in use orally for some time after the decline of Latin, as far as historical records show, the Italian medieval poet Dante was the first to have recorded the term lingua d'oc in writing. In his De vulgari eloquentia , he wrote in Latin, "nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil" ("for some say òc , others sì , yet others say oïl "), thereby highlighting three major Romance literary languages that were well known in Italy, based on each language's word for "yes",
5025-413: The twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. The need to secure troops and revenue led to the steady expansion of the Count's Court (Royal Court after the dynastic union of Barcelona and the Kingdom of Aragon , creating the Crown of Aragon ) and a formalisation of its procedures. It came to be referred to as the Cort General de Catalunya or Corts catalanes (General Court of Catalonia or Catalan Courts), and
5100-413: The village. The deep mine, one of the last surviving in France, was closed down in 2003. The Centrale thermique de Provence, a thermal power station is located in Gardanne. It runs on coal and biomass and uses the technology known as the circulating fluidized bed. It has the highest chimney in France which rises to 297 m. In 2018, the site director presented it as the third tallest building in France, after
5175-434: The winning bloc would always win three quarters of the votes (68 seats), thus ensuring a majority, with the second biggest bloc being awarded the remainder (17 seats). This system heavily punished minor parties, making it extremely difficult for them to gain representation. The Parliament of Catalonia's Leadership resides in the Bureau of the Parliament comprising a President (Speaker), two Vice Presidents who chair debate when
5250-399: Was control by the Republican Left of Catalonia ( Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya , ERC), which won the absolute majority of seats, while the conservative Regionalist League , almost hegemonic in Catalonia during the reign of Alfonso XIII , reached the second place but far from the Republican Left. Lluís Companys was appointed the first speaker of the Parliament. The Parliament appointed
5325-444: Was done], etc.", such as Spanish sí , Eastern Lombard sé , Italian sì , or Portuguese sim . In modern Catalan, as in modern Spanish, sí is usually used as a response, although the language retains the word oi , akin to òc , which is sometimes used at the end of yes–no questions and also in higher register as a positive response. French uses si to answer "yes" in response to questions that are asked in
5400-535: Was endowed with formal procedures, effectively written constitutions, by King Peter III of Aragon in 1283, making this institution the policymaking and legislative body of the Principality of Catalonia . It was the first parliament of Europe to officially obtain the right of legislate, beyond the already established custom. The Corts Catalanes were summoned and presided by the king as count of Barcelona, being composed of Three Estates ( Tres Braços ), representing
5475-478: Was given the official Roman Catholic Imprimatur by vicar general A. Estellon. The literary renaissance of the late 19th century (in which the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Frédéric Mistral, among others, was involved) was attenuated by World War I , when (in addition to the disruption caused by any major war) many Occitan speakers spent extended periods of time alongside French-speaking comrades. Because
5550-543: Was still an everyday language for most of the rural population of southern France well into the 20th century, it is now spoken by about 100,000 people in France according to 2012 estimates. There is a movement in regions of France where Occitan was widely spoken to introduce educational programs to encourage young people in these regions to learn the language. According to the 1999 census, there were 610,000 native speakers (almost all of whom were also native French speakers) and perhaps another million people with some exposure to
5625-511: Was the maternal language of the English queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and kings Richard I (who wrote troubadour poetry) and John . With the gradual imposition of French royal power over its territory, Occitan declined in status from the 14th century on. The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) decreed that the langue d'oïl (French – though at the time referring to the Francien language and not
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