Languages of Catalonia
There are four languages with official status in Catalonia (an autonomous community of Spain): Catalan; Spanish- which is official throughout Spain; Aranese, a dialect of Occitan spoken in the Aran Valley; and Catalan Sign Language. Many other languages are spoken in Catalonia as a result of recent immigration from all over the world.
Names of the Catalan language
During the Muslim presence in Iberia and the "Reconquista", it was known as "chrestianesch" ('Christianish'), or "lingua chrestianica", or "christianica" ('Christian language'), and contrasted with Classical languages, like Arabic and Hebrew; that are linked to Islamic and Judaic traditions. With the language expanding beyond Catalonia, names that indicated its place of origin were favoured: "catalanesch" (or "cathalanesch"), "valencianesch" and "balearica" or "maioricensis". Likewise, the monarchy became associated with the language, which neutralized the political divisions of its territory. The increased range of the language had the effect of unifying the territory that it came to be spoken in, a fact that successive rulers took advantage of to neutralize political divisions, as was recorded by Ramon Muntaner. The first written reference to Catalan appears in the "regles de trobar" (Rules of the Trobadour's Art, ca. 1290), written in Occitan in Sicily by the Catalan troubadour and monk Jofre of Foixà: ""si tu trobes en cantar proençals alcun mot que i sia frances o catalanesch..."" (If you find a French or Catalan word in a troubadour song...) By the end of Middle Ages, Latin was less of a universal language, provoking Catalan to receive other names that remarked a local character and the political divisions of the time: "materna lingua" (or "maternus sermo"), "maioricensis" (in the Kingdom of Majorca), "valencianesch" (in the Kingdom of Valencia). Similarly, when Castile and Aragon were united in the fifteenth century, the range of the Catalan name was reduced to simply mean "from Catalonia" and confusion about the origin of the language led to the apparition of names such as "lemosin", or "llemosí" (Limousin). Before the Renaixença, which revitalized Catalan-language culture, some unpopular terms such as "llemosí-català", "català i valencià", and "bacavès" (after "balear-català-valencià") were created.