Catalan CountriesPaïsos Catalans (Catalan-speaking areas in dark grey)The Catalan Countries comprise the following regions: State Region Northern Catalonia Alghero (for La Franja or the Western Strip) (core area) (for El Carxe) The Catalan Countries (, ) refers to the territories where the Catalan language is spoken. They include the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Valencian Community (aka Valencian Country), and parts of Aragon (La Franja) and Murcia (Carche), as well as the Principality of Andorra, the department of Pyrénées-Orientales (aka Northern Catalonia, including Cerdanya, Rosselló, and Vallespir) in France, and the city of Alghero in Sardinia (Italy). It is often used as a sociolinguistic term to describe the cultural-linguistic area where Catalan is spoken. In the context of the Catalan independence movement, the term is sometimes used in a more restricted way to refer to just Catalonia, Northern Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands. The Catalan Countries do not correspond to any present or past political or administrative unit, though most of the area belonged to the Crown of Aragon in the Middle Ages. Parts of Valencia (Spanish) and Catalonia (Occitan) are not Catalan-speaking.
The "Catalan Countries" have been at the centre of both cultural and political projects since the late 19th century. Its mainly cultural dimension became increasingly politically charged by the late 1960s and early 1970s, as Francoism began to die out in Spain, and what had been a cultural term restricted to connoisseurs of Catalan philology became a divisive issue during the Spanish Transition period, most acrimoniously in Valencia during the 1980s. Modern linguistic and cultural projects include the Institut Ramon Llull and the Fundació Ramon Llull, which are run by the governments of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Andorra, the Department Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales, the city council of Alghero and the Network of Valencian Cities. Politically, it involves a pan-nationalist project to unite the Catalan-speaking territories of Spain and France, often in the context of the independence movement in Catalonia, but it is also simply a project for cultural unity, so that the linguistic area can have barriers to communication and interchange removed. The political project of independence under Catalonia does not currently enjoy wide support, particularly outside Catalonia, where some sectors view it as an expression of pancatalanism.Fàbrega, Jaume. La cultura del gust als Països Catalans. El Mèdol, 2000, p. 13.Flor i Moreno, 2010, p. 135, 262, 324 and 493-494.Maseras i Galtés, Alfons «Pancatalanisme. Tesis per a servir de fonament a una doctrina». Renaixement, 21-01-1915, pàg. 53-55. Linguistic unity is widely recognized,The Valencian Normative Dictionary of the Valencian Academy of the Language states that Valencian is a "romance language spoken in the Valencian Community, as well as in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the French department of the Pyrénées-Orientales, the Principality of Andorra, the eastern flank of Aragon and the Sardinian town of Alghero (unique in Italy), where it receives the name of 'Catalan'."The Catalan Language Dictionary of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans states in the sixth definition of Valencian that it is equivalent to Catalan language in the Valencian community. except for the followers of a political movement known as Blaverism,Flor i Moreno, 2009, p. 181 which understands Valencian as a different language.
Different meanings
Països Catalans has different meanings depending on the context. These can be roughly classified in two groups: linguistic or political, the political definition of the concept being the widest, since it also encompasses the linguistic side of it.
As a linguistic term, Països Catalans is used in a similar fashion to the English Anglosphere, the French Francophonie, the Portuguese Lusofonia or the Spanish Hispanophone territories. However, it is not universally accepted, even as a linguistic concept, in the territories it purports to unite.
As a political term, it refers to a number of political projectsArnau Gonzàlez i Vilalta (2006) The Catalan Countries Project (1931–1939). Department of Contemporary History, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. as advocated by supporters of Catalan independence. These, based on the linguistic fact, argue for the existence of a common national identity that would surpass the limits of each territory covered by this concept and would apply also to the remaining ones. These movements advocate for "political collaboration"Statutes of Valencian Nationalist Bloc . Bloc.ws. Retrieved on 12 September 2013. amongst these territories. This often stands for their union and political independence.Political project of Republican Left of Catalonia. Esquerra.cat. Retrieved on 12 September 2013. As a consequence of the opposition these political projects have received –notably in some of the territories described by this conceptEl Gobierno valenciano, indignado por la pancarta de 'països catalans' exhibida en el Camp Nou – españa –. Elmundo.es (24 October 2005). Retrieved on 12 September 2013. – some cultural institutions avoid the usage of Països Catalans in some contexts, as a means to prevent any political interpretation; in these cases, equivalent expressions (such as Catalan-speaking countries) or others (such as the linguistic domain of Catalan language) are used instead.Catalan, the language of eleven million Europeans. Ramon Llull Institute
Component territories
Catalan and its variants are spoken in:
the Spanish Autonomous Communities of Catalonia – even though in the comarca of Val d'Aran, Occitan is considered the language proper to that territory; Aragon, in a Catalan-speaking area known as "La Franja de Ponent" ("Western Strip"); the Balearic Islands and as Valencian, in the Valencian Community, with the exception of some western and southern territories where Spanish is the only language spoken; Carche, small Valencian-speaking area in the Spanish autonomous community of Murcia where some of its 600 inhabitants still speak Valencian due to immigration during the 19th century; Andorra, a European sovereign state where Catalan is the national and only official language. most of the French department of the Pyrénées-Orientales, also called Le Pays Catalan (The Catalan Country) in French or Catalunya (del) Nord (Northern Catalonia) in Catalan; the Italian city of Alghero, in the island of Sardinia, where a variant of Catalan is spoken.
Catalan is the official language of Andorra, co-official with Spanish and Occitan in Catalonia, co-official with Spanish in the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community—with the denomination of Valencian in the latter—and co-official with Italian in the city of Alghero. It is also part of the recognized minority languages of Italy along with Sardinian, also spoken in Alghero.
It is not official in Aragon, Murcia or the Pyrénées-Orientales, even though on 10 December 2007 the General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales officially recognized Catalan, along with French, as a language of the department.Charte en faveur du Catalan. cg66.fr In 2009, the Catalan language was declared llengua pròpia (with the Aragonese language) of Aragon.
Cultural dimension There are several endeavors and collaborations amongst some of the diverse government and cultural institutions involved. One such case is the Ramon Llull Institute (IRL), founded in 2002 by the government of the Balearic Islands and the government of Catalonia. Its main objective is to promote the Catalan language and culture abroad in all its variants, as well as the works of writers, artists, scientists and researchers of the regions which are part of it. The Xarxa Vives d'Universitats (Vives Network of Universities), an association of universities of Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Northern Catalonia and Andorra founded in 1994, was incorporated into the IRL in 2008. Also in 2008, in order to extend the collaboration to institutions from all across the "Catalan Countries", the IRL and the government of Andorra (which formerly had enjoyed occasional collaboration, most notably in the Frankfurt Book Fair of 2007) created the Ramon Llull Foundation (FRL), an international cultural institution with the same goals as the IRL.Neix la Fundació Ramon Llull. 3cat24.cat (31 March 2008). Retrieved on 12 September 2013. La Generalitat crea la Fundació Ramon Llull a Andorra per projectar la llengua i cultura catalanes. europapress.cat. Europapress.es (18 March 2008). Retrieved on 12 September 2013. In 2009, the General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales, the city council of Alghero and the Network of Valencian Cities (an association of a few Valencian city councils) joined the FRL as well.La Fundació Ramon Llull s'eixampla – VilaWeb . Vilaweb.cat (16 January 2009). Retrieved on 12 September 2013.L'Ajuntament de Xeraco aprova una moció del BLOC per a adherir-se a la Fundació Ramon Llull. Valencianisme.Com. Retrieved on 12 September 2013.Varios municipios valencianos se suman a la Fundación Ramon Llull para fomentar el catalán. Las Provincias. Lasprovincias.es. Retrieved on 12 September 2013. In December 2012 the government of the Balearic islands, dominated by the conservative and pro-Spain Partido Popular (PP), announced that the representatives of the Balearic islands were withdrawing from the Llull institute.
A number of cultural organizations, specifically Òmnium Cultural in Catalonia, Acció Cultural del País Valencià in Valencia, and Obra Cultural Balear in the Balearic islands (collectively the "Llull Federation"), advocate independence as well as the promotion of Catalan language and culture.
Political dimension The political projects that centre on the Catalan Countries have been described as a "hypothetical and future union" of the various territories. In many cases it involves the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearics. The 2016 electoral programme of Valencian parties Compromís and Podemos spoke of a "federation" between the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands and Catalonia. They are to campaign for an amendment to article 145 of the Spanish constitution, which forbids federation of autonomous communities. The territories concerned may also include Roussillon and La Franja.
Many in Spain see the concept of the Països Catalans as regional exceptionalism, counterpoised to a centralizing Spanish and French national identity. Others see it as an attempt by a Catalonia-proper-centered nationalism to lay a hegemonic claim to Valencia, the Balearic Islands or Roussillon, where the prevailing feeling is that they have their own respective historical personalities, not necessarily related to Catalonia's. The Catalan author and journalist Valentí Puig described the term as "inconvenient", saying it has generated more reactions against it than adhesions.Valenti Puig . Joanducros.net. Retrieved on 12 September 2013.
The concept has connotations that have been perceived as problematic and controversial when establishing relations between Catalonia and other areas of the Catalan linguistic domain. It has been characterised as a "phantom reality" and an "unreal and fanciful space". The pro-Catalan independence author Germà Bel called it an "inappropriate and unfortunate expression lacking any historic, political or social basis", while Xosé Manoel Núñez Seixas spoke of the difficulties in uniting a historicist concept linked to common membership of the Crown of Aragon with a fundamentally linguistic construct.