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Catalan (català) is a Western Romance language that is native to the eastern Iberian Peninsula. It shares official status with Spanish in three autonomous communities in eastern Spain – Catalonia; the Balearic Islands; and the Valencian Community, where it is called Valencian (valencià) – and is the sole official language of Andorra. Catalan also has semi-official status in Alghero, an Italian municipality in Sardinia, and is spoken in the Pyrénées-Orientales department of France and in two further areas in eastern Spain: the eastern strip of Aragon and the Carche area in the Region of Murcia. The Catalan-speaking regions are often called the Catalan Countries (Països Catalans).

The language evolved from Vulgar Latin in the Middle Ages around the eastern Pyrenees. It became the language of the Principality of Catalonia and the kingdoms of Valencia and Mallorca, being present throughout the Mediterranean as the main language of the Crown of Aragon. It was replaced by Spanish as a language of government and literature in the 1700s, but 19th century Spain saw a Catalan literary revival, culminating in the early 1900s. During the Francoist dictatorship (1936–1975), the usage of Catalan was subject to repressive measures, before it entered a relatively successful process of re-normalization between the 1980s and the 2000s. However, during the 2010s, it experienced signs of decline in social use, diglossia and a resurgence in discrimination cases. (Full article...)