If you are immune to the narcissim of small differences and accept the notion that Valencian is a dialect of Catalan, then you should have no major problem with the idea that Catalan is a dialect of the tongue of the Orcs, or troubadours as they prefer to be called – the two are mutually comprehensible. (If you disagree with this chronology, then you may perhaps enjoy Miguel Cuyás y Devesa’s theory that Arab > Catalan > the southern French dialects.)
Radio Occitania is like the Catalan state media without the budget (more like 300€ than 300 million – a sensible subsidy cap for any public broadcaster), without the smugness that comes of such overspend, with virtually no political bullshit, with Volk-ism that is not an obsessive messianic cult, and almost entirely devoid of the degenerative brain disease known as football.
OK, there’s lots of really bad music, but the Romance quota mentality will be there long after the demise of the last cockroach.
One of the current discussions is the looming reduction in French regional officialdom by Manuel Valls, the first powerful French politician ever who doesn’t appear to have been acquired in a joke and fancy dress shop, but if you don’t spend it in the first place then they can’t take it off you.
I know, I know: I can fuck off and live in Ariège. That’s not actually such a bad idea, but is it true that the local burgers barbecued and ate the pony they “gave” to Tony Blair after he & famille went and ate ice cream there one summer in the late 20th century?
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