Editing Occitan language (section)

===Occitano-Romance linguistic group===
Despite these differences, Occitan and Catalan remain more or less [[mutual intelligibility|mutually comprehensible]], especially when written – more so than either is with Spanish or French, for example, although this is mainly a consequence of using the classical (orthographical) norm of the Occitan, which is precisely focused in showing the similarities between the Occitan dialects with Catalan. Occitan and Catalan form a common diasystem (or a common [[Abstandsprache]]), which is called [[Occitano-Romance]], according to the linguist [[Pierre Bec]].<ref>Bec, Pierre. (1995). ''La langue occitane'', coll. Que sais-je? nr. 1059. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France [1st ed. 1963]</ref> Speakers of both languages share early historical and cultural heritage.

The combined Occitano-Romance area is 259,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>, with a population of 23&nbsp;million. However, the regions are not equal in terms of language speakers. According to Bec 1969 (pp.&nbsp;120–121), in France, no more than a quarter of the population in counted regions could speak Occitan well, though around half understood it; it is thought that the number of Occitan users has decreased dramatically since then. By contrast, in the [[Catalonia]] administered by the [[Government of Catalonia]], nearly three-quarters of the population speak Catalan and 95% understand it.<ref>[http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/socio/coneix.htm Gencat.net] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060709074538/http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/socio/coneix.htm |date=9 July 2006 }}</ref>