Valencian language

Valencian (valencià) or Valencian language (llengua valenciana) is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community of Spain, and unofficially in the El Carche comarca in Murcia, to refer to the Romance language also known as Catalan. The Valencian Community's 1982 Statute of Autonomy and the Spanish Constitution officially recognise Valencian as the regional language. As a glottonym, it is used to refer to either the language as a whole or its Valencia-specific linguistic forms. According to philological studies, the varieties of this language spoken in the Valencian Community and El Carche cannot be considered a dialect restricted to these borders: the several dialects of Valencian (Alicante's Valencian, Southern Valencian, Central Valencian or Apitxat, Northern Valencian or Castellon's Valencian and Transitional Valencian) belong to the Western group of Catalan dialects. Valencian displays transitional features between Ibero-Romance languages and Gallo-Romance languages. Its similarity with Occitan has led many scholars to group it under the Occitano-Romance languages. There is a political controversy within the Valencian Community regarding its status as a glottonym or as a language on its own, since official reports show that slightly more than half of the people in the Valencian Community consider it as a separate language, different from Catalan, although the same studies show that this percentage decreases dramatically among younger generations and people with higher studies. According to the 2006 Statute of Autonomy, Valencian is regulated by the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, following the legacy established by the Castelló norms, which adapt Catalan orthography to Valencian idiosyncrasies. Due to historical repression against the language, the number of speakers has severely decreased, and the influence of Spanish has led to the appearance of a number of barbarisms. Some of the most important works of Valencian literature experienced a golden age during the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.