Languedocien is a Romance language akin to Provençal spoken by some people in the part of southern France known as Languedoc. Languedocien is a variety of the Occitan language. The Romance languages, also called Romanic languages, are a subfamily of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Vulgar Latin dialects spoken by the common people evolving in different areas after the break-up of the Roman Empire. ... Provençal (Prouvençau in Provençal language) is one of several dialects of the Romance language Occitan, which is spoken by a minority of people in southern France and other areas of France. ... Coat of arms of the province of Languedoc, now being used as an official flag by the Midi-Pyrénees region as well as by the city of Toulouse Languedoc (Lengadòc in Occitan) is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc... Occitan, or langue doc is a Romance language characterized by its richness, variability, and by the intelligibility of its dialects. ...
About ten percent of the population of Languedoc are fluent in the language, and another 20 percent "have some understanding" of the language. All speak French as their first or second language. Languedocien is used primarily by rural people over age 50.
There are a number of languages of France, although the French language is by far the most widely spoken and the only official language of the country. ...
The dynastic union of the Catalan Counties and the Kingdom of Aragon—which formed the Aragonese Crown in the 12th century—did not result in a merging of the language forms of the two territories into a single form; Catalan continued to be spoken in the east, and Aragonese in the west.
Moreover, Catalan was the language that expanded into the new territories conquered from the Moors: the Balearic Islands and the new kingdom of Valencia.
Pupils were beaten in schools for using it, and language politics in Francoist Spain forbade the teaching of any language that was not Spanish.
It is the language of the people of France and is also spoken in parts of Belgium and Switzerland, and in present and former French colonies, including French Guiana, northwestern Africa, Indochina, Haiti, Madagascar, and parts of Canada.
One of the most important steps toward standardizing and otherwise improving the French language was the compilation, in the 17th century, of a dictionary by the French Academy, a literary society formed in 1635 by the statesman and cardinal Richelieu.
In the 16th and 17th centuries French replaced Latin as a common language for international, especially diplomatic, communication in Europe, and it continues to be used for that purpose.
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