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29-463: Arres ( Occitan pronunciation: [ˈares] ) is a municipality in western Aran , Catalonia . It had 61 inhabitants as of 2022. It is located in the terçon of Irissa . This article about a location in Catalonia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Val d%27Aran This valley constitutes the only contiguous part of Catalonia located on the northern side of

58-446: A minority language in a local community where the proportion of the minority speakers is less than 20%. Sign languages are often not recognized as true natural languages, although extensive research supports the case that they are independent languages. Speakers of auxiliary languages have also struggled for their recognition. They are used primarily as second languages and have few native speakers. These are languages that have

87-593: A scenario which was only prevented by the Revolution of Dignity in 2014. In Canada the term "minority language" is used in the Constitution of Canada , in the heading above section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms , which guarantees educational rights to official language minority communities. In Canada, the term "minority language" is generally understood to mean whichever of

116-564: Is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and an estimated number of roughly 5,000 to 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, the vast majority of languages are minority languages in every country in which they are spoken. Some minority languages are simultaneously also official languages , such as Irish in Ireland or

145-614: Is experiencing a renaissance. The name Aran comes from Basque haran , meaning valley. Maps and road signs in Spain use the name "era Val d'Aran" to refer to the valley, where era is the Aranese singular feminine article. The same practice goes for all towns and other locations in Aran, for example, the Aranese spelling Vielha is used instead of Catalan and Spanish Viella to refer to the capital of Aran. Basque toponyms reveal that Basque

174-457: Is indicated on a sign-board first in the minority language and only after it in Slovak, or if in a bilingual text, the minority language part is written with bigger fonts than its Slovak equivalent, or if the bilingual text on a monument is translated from the minority language to the dominant language and not vice versa, or if a civil servant or doctor communicates with a minority speaker citizen in

203-531: Is the mother tongue of 62.87% of people born in the region, it is less frequent among residents born outside the valley. In 1313, James II of Aragon granted administrative and political autonomy to the Aran Valley, the legal details of which are described in a Latin manuscript called the Querimonia . The devolution of power was a reward for the Aranese pledging allegiance to James II in a dispute with

232-758: The Forau d'Aigualluts . It then reappears in the Val dera Artiga de Lin before reaching the Aran valley, then through France and eventually to the Atlantic Ocean . The Noguera Pallaresa river, whose source is only a hundred meters from that of the Garonne, flows the opposite way towards the Mediterranean . Aran borders France on the north, the Autonomous Community of Aragon to the west and

261-473: The Catalan comarques of Alta Ribagorça to the south and Pallars Sobirà to the east. Its capital, Vielha e Mijaran, has 5,474 inhabitants (2014). The entire population of the valley is about 9,991 (2014). As of 2001, a plurality of people in Aran spoke Spanish (38.78%) as their native language, followed by Aranese (34.19%), then Catalan (19.45%) with 7.56% having a different native language. While Aranese

290-703: The ( Democratic Convergence of Catalonia ). The Occitan Republican Left party was founded in 2008. The main economic activity in the valley is tourism; from the ski resorts in the winter and from other tourist activity in the summer. Other primary sectors of the economy include forest products, cattle ranching and agriculture, all of which have become progressively less important since the opening of ski resorts. Many native animals of Aran are in danger of extinction . There are programs to reintroduce and/or protect: 42°43′21″N 0°50′14″E  /  42.72250°N 0.83722°E  / 42.72250; 0.83722 Minority language A minority language

319-762: The Catalan Parliament passed a new law which increased the powers of the Conselh Generau and recognized Aran as an "Occitan national reality". The population of Val d'Aran has generally been opposed to the Catalan independence movement due to lack of a strong Catalan identity. Aranese is the standardized form of the local Gascon variety of the Occitan language . Aranese has been regularly taught at school since 1984. Like several other minority languages in Europe that recently faced decline, Aranese

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348-522: The Charter is also caused by the refusal (for instance, in Estonia or Malta) to recognize such postimperial world languages as English, French or Russian as minority languages, even if they are spoken by minority populations. The symbolic, cultural and political power vested in such world languages empowers any demographically minority population to such a degree that any additional rights (for example,

377-626: The Pyrenees. Hence, this valley holds the only Catalan rivers to flow into the Atlantic Ocean (for the same reason, the region is characterized by an Atlantic climate, instead of a Mediterranean one). The Garonne river flows through Aran from its source on the Pla de Beret (Beret Flat) near the Port de la Bonaigua . It is joined by the Joèu river (from the slopes of Aneto mountain ) which passes underground at

406-646: The construction of equal and politically and socially stable societies". In Slovakia for example, the Hungarian community generally considers the 'language law' enacted in 1995 to be discriminatory and inconsistent with the European Charter for the Protection of Regional or Minority languages. The Majority Slovaks believed that minority speakers' rights are guaranteed, in accordance with the highest European standards, and are not discriminated against by

435-530: The construction of the Vielha tunnel , opened in 1948, the Aran valley had no direct communication with the south side of the mountains during winter. In 1987 it became an administrative comarca. In 1990 the special status of Aran within Catalonia was restored by the Parliament of Catalonia , reestablishing the Conselh Generau, granting it a degree of home rule and declaring Occitan as official language. In 2015

464-709: The divisions dates from the 15th century. Since 1991, Aran has an autonomous government called the Conselh Generau d'Aran ( Occitan : General Council of Aran ), headed by the Síndic d'Aran . The major political parties are the Unity of Aran - Aranese Nationalist Party (the local chapter of the Socialists' Party of Catalonia ), the Aranese Democratic Convergence (the local chapter of

493-528: The dominant language. Support for minority languages is sometimes viewed as supporting separatism, for example, the ongoing revival of the Celtic languages in the British Isles and France ( Irish , Welsh , Scottish Gaelic , Manx , Cornish and Breton ). The dominant culture may consider use of immigrant minority languages to be a threat to unity, indicating that such communities are not integrating into

522-690: The kingdoms of France and Mallorca over control of the valley. This status was suppressed in 1834, when the Valley was integrated into the new Province of Lleida, in the context of the establishment of the Spanish provinces at the beginning of the liberal state. On 19 October 1944, Spanish Communist Party guerrillas invaded the valley in an attempt to bring about the fall of the Spanish dictatorship . They took control of several villages until October 27, 1944, but were forced to retreat back into France after Franco sent reinforcements to defend Vielha. Before

551-444: The larger culture. Both of these perceived threats are based on the notion of the exclusion of the majority language speakers. Often this is added to by political systems by not providing support (such as education and policing) in these languages. Speakers of majority languages can and do learn minority languages, through the large number of courses available. It is not known whether most students of minority languages are members of

580-517: The minority community re-connecting with the community's language, or others seeking to become familiar with it. Views differ as to whether the protection of official languages by a state representing the majority speakers violates the human rights of minority speakers. In March 2013, Rita Izsák, UN Independent Expert on minority issues, said that "protection of linguistic minority rights is a human rights obligation and an essential component of good governance, efforts to prevent tensions and conflict, and

609-754: The minority languages are defined by legislation or constitutional documents and afforded some form of official support. In 1992, the Council of Europe adopted the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe . For the purposes of the Charter, it stipulated the following definitions: The signatories that have not yet ratified it as of 2012 are Azerbaijan , France , Iceland , Ireland , Italy , North Macedonia , Malta , and Moldova . Refraining from signing or ratifying

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638-511: The numerous indigenous languages of Bolivia . Likewise, some national languages are often considered minority languages, insofar as they are the national language of a stateless nation . There is no scholarly consensus on what a "minority language" is, because various different standards have been applied in order to classify languages as "minority language" or not. According to Owens (2013), attempts to define minority languages generally fall into several categories: In most European countries,

667-462: The official languages is less spoken in a particular province or territory (i.e., English in Québec, French elsewhere). Minority languages may be marginalised within nations for a number of reasons. These include having a relatively small number of speakers, a decline in the number of speakers, and popular belief that these speakers are uncultured, or primitive, or the minority language is a dialect of

696-471: The state language having preferential status. The language law declares that "the Slovak language enjoys a preferential status over other languages spoken on the territory of the Slovak Republic." As a result of a 2009 amendment, a fine of up to €5,000 may be imposed for a misdemeanor from the regulations protecting the preferential status of the state language, e.g. if the name of a shop or a business

725-553: The status of a minority language) granted to their given world language may precipitate the rapid decline of the state (national) language in favor of the world language. That is the situation in Belarus, where after 1995 Russian empowered as an 'equal co-official language' marginalized the use of Belarusian . The Charter was employed to achieve the same effect in Ukraine after 2010 by marginalizing Ukrainian through empowered Russian ,

754-400: The status of a national language and are spoken by the majority population in at least one country, but lack recognition in other countries, even where there is a significant minority linguistic community: Linguistic communities that form no majority of population in any country, but whose language has the status of an official language in at least one country: A treasure language is one of

783-468: The thousands of small languages still spoken in the world today. The term was proposed by the Rama people of Nicaragua as an alternative to heritage language , indigenous language , and "ethnic language", names that are considered pejorative in the local context. The term is now also used in the context of public storytelling events. The term "treasure language" references the desire of speakers to sustain

812-457: The use of their mother tongue into the future: [The] notion of treasure fit the idea of something that had been buried and almost lost, but was being rediscovered and now shown and shared. And the word treasure also evoked the notion of something belonging exclusively to the Rama people, who now attributed it real value and had become eager and proud of being able to show it to others. Accordingly,

841-588: Was spoken further east along the Pyrenees than today. The growing influence of Latin began to drive Basque out after the turn of the first millennium. Administratively, Aran is a "unique territorial entity" roughly equivalent to a comarca with additional powers, and informally referred to as a comarca. This status was most recently formalised in February 2015. The area is divided into six administrative divisions called terçons (meaning "thirds", as there were formerly three divisions). The current arrangement of

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