Catalan Countries

Catalan Countries

The Catalan term Països Catalans (, ; English: Catalan Countries) refers to the territories where the Catalan language is spoken.

The first mentions of the term date back to the late 19th century, but it never surpassed the limits of a small circle of Catalan authors until its strictly cultural dimension became increasingly politically charged by the late 1960s and early 1970s, as Francoism began to die out in Spain. Thus, what had remained to date as a cultural term restricted to connoisseurs of Catalan philology, then rose to prominence and became highly controversial during the Spanish Transition period, most acrimoniously in Valencia during the 1980s.

The Països Catalans do not have any legal standing, nor is there any universal territorial definition of the scope covered by this concept. It may refer strictly to the territories in which the different varieties of Catalan are traditionally spoken, or it may be extended to the entire political entities in which Catalan has some official status, in spite of the fact that those entities include areas where Catalan is not spoken (the map to the right covers this latter usage).