Aranese (Aranès or Aranais) is a dialect of Gascon (which is part of the Occitan language group of the Romance languages), spoken in Val d'Aran, Spain, where it is an official language. It is a Gascon mountain dialect which benefits, like Béarnais , from a certain linguistic normalization which keeps it original.
Considered to be an endangered language, being spoken mainly by older people, it is now experiencing a renaissance and since 1984 it is taught in school.
About 90% of the inhabitants of the Aran Valley can understand it, and about 65% can speak it. Most Aranese are also fluent in Spanish, Catalan and French.
See also
Last updated: 09-03-2005 18:37:12
