History of Occitania - From the end of the 19th century until now - Occitanism vs Jacobinism

See also : How did the Fench take over the Occitan principalities    • How did the French take over the Occitan p...  

History of Occitania - From the end of the 19th century until now Occitanism vs Jacobinism.

"The history of other European nation-states is that of linguistic communities serving their trade needs. France created itself by destroying five cultures - Breton, Occitan, Alsatian, Corsican, and Flemish. We are the only European nation which is the military creation of a non-homogeneous State. This makes France difficult to govern to this day"

Michel Rocard, former prime minister

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At the end of the 19th century, a native of Provence, Frédéric Mistral, is working for the revival of the Occitan language with his cultural association the Félibrige.

Mistral received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Félibres and their Occitan successors preach respect for the dialectal diversity of the Occitan language, that they consider being a cultural richness.

Contrariwise, the "Jacobins", French supporters of a centralized republican state, are requiring the use of a uniform language: standard French according to the French Academy.

Jacobins are fighting the Occitan language considered dangerous because competing with French. They also eradicate native French dialect!

Fundamentalist supporters of a French language uniform to communicate, the Republicans will also impose for the natives Occitans, Bretons etc. the exclusive use of this standard French.

With this "Jacobin" state policy, indigenous dialectal French became obsolete in the 20th century.

The standard French language has become the daily communication tool for the Occitan natives too!

However, the Occitan cultural movement still perpetuates a residual but real use of the traditional Occitan language.

Today, in French Occitanie, from Nice to Bordeaux, from Auvergne to Gascony, 10% of the 12 millions of Occitans are bilingual, able to speak a local dialect of their own Occitan language.

Occitan is also still used in the Occitan valleys of Italy... But it is also official language in the Aran valley in Spain (called there "Aranese")!

The French Republic recognizes in its Constitution (Article 75-1) the heritage aspect of local languages (including Occitan). But considering the Republican "Jacobin" idea is unify the French state by standard French language (Article 2 of the Constitution), in facts, the French law only tolerates a private and confidential use of the Occitan.

There is a mistrust of romantic nationalism that has been based since the 19th century on indigenous languages, hence the unification of Italy, Germany, independence of Poland, Greece, Ireland ...

The geopolitical impact of the linguistic question remains a controversial topic which explains why the French governmental institutions hide the Occitan identity question.

Nevertheless, we will not be able to build anything strong on unspoken. The taboo of the problematic of the language used as identity marker must be removed, because "Jacobin" Republicans want to legitimize state centralism through French identity domination to serve the financial interests of the Parisian capitalism!

Acculturation is preceding the economic control! that explains the Parisian oligarchy's contempt for non-compliant "regional" identities.

In a capitalist Parisian Republic, indigenous Occitans are logically second class citizens. So the Occitan question is essential: there is no parity, no democracy without mutual respect and without decentralization!