Topographische vs. virtuelle Räume des Okzitanischen: « Faut-il abolir les frontières ? »

Abstract

The present study aims to investigate the area of conflict between the decline and the expansion of communication options in regional and minority languages, which has increasingly been brought into the focus of attention by the new digital media. This topic will be discussed based on the example of Occitan in the southern third of contemporary France where the langue d’oc continuously forfeits its territory.Besides the real topographic decline, the internet offers the Occitan a new virtual sphere of communication. By contrasting the concrete decline of space with the virtual expansion of space, the following article aims to illustrate the importance of the border, more precisely the border demarcation, with regard to the possibilities of communication of the Occitan language.