Editing Occitan language (section)

==Preservation==
In the modern era, Occitan has become a rare and highly threatened language. Its users are clustered almost exclusively in Southern France, and it is unlikely that any monolingual speakers remain. In the early 1900s, the French government attempted to restrict the use and teaching of many minority languages, including Occitan, in public schools. While the laws have since changed, with bilingual education returning for regions with unique languages in 1993, the many years of restrictions had already caused serious decline in the number of Occitan speakers. The majority of living speakers are older adults.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Bahrami|first=Beebe|title=The language the French forbade|url=https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20180911-occitan-the-language-the-french-forbade|access-date=2021-12-24|website=www.bbc.com|date=11 September 2018 |language=en|archive-date=24 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211224201638/https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20180911-occitan-the-language-the-french-forbade|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-08-13|title=Global Voices – The decline of Occitan: A failure of cultural initiatives, or abandonment by the state?|url=https://globalvoices.org/2021/08/13/the-decline-of-occitan-a-failure-of-cultural-initiatives-or-abandonment-by-the-state/|access-date=2021-12-24|website=Global Voices|language=en|archive-date=24 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211224201649/https://globalvoices.org/2021/08/13/the-decline-of-occitan-a-failure-of-cultural-initiatives-or-abandonment-by-the-state/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2018-04-19|title=Occitan's fight to stay away from the cliff of extinction|newspaper=The Economist|url=https://www.economist.com/prospero/2018/04/19/occitans-fight-to-stay-away-from-the-cliff-of-extinction|access-date=2021-12-24|issn=0013-0613|archive-date=24 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211224201637/https://www.economist.com/prospero/2018/04/19/occitans-fight-to-stay-away-from-the-cliff-of-extinction|url-status=live}}</ref>