Editing Occitan language (section)

===Number of speakers===
The area where Occitan was historically dominant has approximately 16&nbsp;million inhabitants. Recent research has shown it may be spoken as a first language by approximately 789,000 people<ref name="bernissan" /><ref name="martel" /> in [[France]], [[Italy]], [[Spain]] and [[Monaco]]. In Monaco, Occitan coexists with [[monégasque language|Monégasque]] [[Ligurian (Romance language)|Ligurian]], which is the other native language.<ref>Pierre, Bec. (1995) ''La langue occitane, coll. Que sais-je?'' n° 1059, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.</ref><ref>Arveiller, Raymond. (1967) ''Étude sur le parler de Monaco'', Monaco: Comité National des Traditions Monégasques, p. ix.</ref> Up to seven million people in France understand the language,<ref>Klinkenberg, Jean-Marie. ''Des langues romanes'', Duculot, 1994, 1999, p. 228: "The amount of speakers is an estimated 10 to 12 millions... in any case never less than 6 millions."</ref><ref>Baker, Colin; and Sylvia Prys Jones. ''Encyclopedia of bilingualism and bilingual education'', 1997, p. 402: "Of the 13 million inhabitants of the area where Occitan is spoken (comprising 31 ''départements'') it is estimated that about half have a knowledge of one of the Occitan varieties."</ref><ref>Barbour, Stephen and Cathie Carmichael. ''Language and nationalism in Europe'', 2000, p. 62: "Occitan is spoken in 31 ''départements'', but even the [[European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages|EBLUL]] (1993: 15–16) is wary of statistics: 'There are no official data on the number of speakers. Of some 12 to 13 million inhabitants in the area, it is estimated 48 per cent understand Occitan, 28 per cent can speak it, about 9 per cent of the population use it on a daily basis, 13 per cent can read and 6 per cent can write the language.{{'"}}</ref> whereas twelve to fourteen million fully spoke it in 1921.<ref>{{harvnb|Anglade|1921}}: ''La Langue d'Oc est parlée actuellement par douze ou quatorze millions de Français'' ("Occitan is now spoken by twelve or fourteen million French citizens").</ref> In [[Demographics of France#Historical population of metropolitan France|1860]], Occitan speakers represented more than 39%<ref>{{harvnb|Backer|1860|pp=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5846989r.f61 52, 54]}}: ''parlée dans le Midi de la France par quatorze millions d'habitants'' ("spoken in the South of France by fourteen million inhabitants").</ref> of the whole French population (52% for [[francophone]]s proper); they were still 26% to 36% in the 1920s,<ref>{{harvnb|Gaussen |1927|p=[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k57104841.image.langEN.f6.pagination 4]}}: ''...défendre une langue, qui est aujourd'hui la mère de la nôtre, parlée encore par plus de dix millions d'individus...'' ("protect a language, which is today the mother of ours, still spoken by more than ten million individuals")</ref> but less than 7% in 1993.