[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

Yes, it is. But I would go further : I don't think that there is a unified Occitanian identity, despite the common linguistical roots.

There is a "common" identity. Whatever you call a "unified" identity must surely be something different, I suspect that it maybe the result of having been raised in a country where jacobine mentality is ever present. Or probably a reaction to it? I don't know.

For exemple, people from Auvergne, in the Massif Central, will feel closer, in term of identity, with the Francoprovençal-speaking people of the same region than with the Languedocians or Provençals.

Not surprisingly. You have put an example (the Franco-Provençal) which is what we could call "hybrid". And, as you know, it is also the case that geographic proximity is usually accompanied by some degree or another of overlapping. And last, let us also not forget the long time that's passed since jacobine assimilation. The question should be if it is recoverable.

While in the same time - like you said - Occitans from the South-West will probably feel closer with the Spanish people. Such differences are due to historical reasons, I think.

Southwest? That would be Gascony and Lengadòc? Provence is the closest to Catalonia, not Gascony and arguably Lengadòc. And that's the Southeast.

Whatever the case, it is important that Occitanism does not fall in the mistake of becoming a jacobine construct itself. This is possible when a movement like Occitanism is seized by the Left, since they do not care for what the reality is but they care for constructing their own version of the reality which is their own political goals. Because the reality has ethnic connotations, which they oppose.

That's happened to Catalanism, which has been left unrecognisable after having been hijacked by the Left. The same Left that has put for the first time ever, an Andalusian in the presidency of the Generalitat de Catalunya!

Or the same Left that argues that nation and language are the same thing, and therefore a Congolese who speaks Catalan is a Catalan, or a Senegalese who speaks Lengadocian is an Occitan.

Well, some of them are (Jacobine), but a minority. In an hypothetical independent Brittany, even controled by non-Gallo people, this dialect would still be in a better situation than it is with the French Republic.

That's right if you base it on the analysis of one of the sides, namely the French Republic. Which is what you would normally do as it is the easiest target because of long experience. But, have you analyzed the other side with care?

For example, since Breton independentists demand the indepence of Brittany, and since this Brittany that they demand includes a Gallo language identity, have they campaigned for it like they've done for the Breton language identity? Or do they assume that the Gallo part of the country would be happily assimilated in the Breton? Is this demand symetric?