The Catalan tongue is a Roman language coming from the popular Latin previously spoken in the land of Roussillon and Catalonia. It is the day to day language of about 7 million people today, and it is the center of a very ancient and huge literature which first texts dated from the XIth century. An official language of Catalonia since 1716, Catalan has been forbidden by General Franco in 1939 and remained privately or secretly spoken until the democratic transition in Spain, when it came back to official use. For the last few years, the Catalan language has become the center of the Catalan nationalism, which could lead Catalonia to independence. Language, law and politics are tightly connected in this matter, even if the link between them is not easy to understand precisely.