Occitan

Occitan, which its speakers also call lenga d'oc, is a Romance language spoken in southern France, Monaco, the Occitan Valleys of Italy and the Val d'Aran in northeastern Spain. A related variety called Gardiol is spoken in Guardia Piemontese in the Italian province of Cosenza and is treated as a separate Occitanic language. Catalan was regarded as a dialect of Occitan until the end of the nineteenth century and remains its closest relative. The name comes from the word oc, meaning yes, and Dante recorded the phrase lingua d'oc in De vulgari eloquentia to set it against the oil and si languages. Occitan has no single written standard and no official status in France, where several competing norms exist, though it is an official language of Catalonia and in the Val d'Aran its Aranese variety is the preferred language. Use has declined sharply, and the UNESCO Red Book classes four of its six major dialects as severely endangered and two as definitely endangered.