Occitans

{{Expand French|Occitans|date=May 2022}}

{{short description|Romance-speaking Mediterranean ethnic group}}

{{Infobox ethnic group

| group = Occitans

| native_name = {{native name|fr|Occitans}}
{{native name|es|Occitanos}}
{{native name|oc|Occitans}}
{{native name|lij|Occitani}}

| native_name_lang =

| image = Occitancommunity.png

| caption =

| population = {{circa|17 million}}

| region1 = Occitania

| languages = Occitan (native); French, Italian, Piedmontese, Spanish, Catalan (as a result of language shift)

| religions = Roman Catholicism, minority Protestantism and Waldensian

| related = Catalans, Valencians, French, Spaniards, Ligurians, Cagots

}}

The Occitans ({{langx|oc|occitans}}) are a Romance-speaking ethnic group originating in the historical region of Occitania (southern France, northeastern Spain, and northwestern Italy and Monaco).Pèire Bec, "Occitan", in Rebecca Posner, John N. Green eds. Language and philology in Romance, Walter de Gruyter, 1982.
Reprint Volume 3 Language and Philology in Romance. 2011. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. Retrieved 24 Nov. 2015, from http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/48412Gregory Hanlon, Confession and Community in Seventeenth-century France: Catholic and Protestant Coexistence in Aquitaine, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993, p. 20Robert Gildea, France since 1945, Oxford University Press, 1996Peter McPhee, [http://www.h-france.net/rude/2005conference/McPhee2.pdf "Frontiers, Ethnicity and Identity in the French Revolution: Catalans and Occitans"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304115316/http://www.h-france.net/rude/2005conference/McPhee2.pdf |date=2016-03-04 }}, in Ian Coller, Helen Davies, and Julie Kalman, eds, [http://www.h-france.net/rude/2005conference/rudecomplete.pdf French History and Civilisation: Papers from the George Rudé Seminar] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130150404/http://www.h-france.net/rude/2005conference/rudecomplete.pdf |date=2016-11-30 }}, Vol. 1, Melbourne: The George Rudé Society, 2005Jeffrey Cole, Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2011 They have been also called Gascons,Abbé de S***. Dictionnaire languedocien-françois ou choix des mots languedociens les plus difficiles à rendre en François. Contenant un recueil des principales fautes que commettent dans la diction, & dans la Prononciation Françoise, les Habitants des Provinces Méridionales du Royaume, connus à Paris sous le nom de Gascons. Avec un petit Traite de Prononciation & de Prosodie Languedocienne. Ouvrage enrichi dans quelques-uns de ses articles de notes historiques et grammaticales, et d'observations de physique et d'histoire naturelle. 1756 Provençals, and Auvergnats.The Occitan members of the Order of Malta were grouped into two tongues, of Provence and Auvergne.

The Occitan language is still used to varying levels by between 100,000 and 800,000 speakers in southern France and northern Italy. Since 2006, the Occitan language is recognized as one of the official languages in Catalonia, an autonomous region of Spain.

The Occitans are concentrated in Occitania, but also in large urban centres in neighbouring regions: Lyon, Paris, Turin, and Barcelona. There are also ethnic Occitans in Guardia Piemontese (Calabria), as well as Argentina, Mexico, Canada, and the United States.{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}