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Catalan Catalan is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencian Community (where it is known as Valencian) and in the city of Alghero in the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken, although with no official recognition, in the autonomous communities of Aragon (in La Franja) and Murcia (in Carche) in Spain, and in the historic Roussillon region of southern France, roughly equivalent to the current département of the Pyrénées-Orientales (Northern Catalonia).  Catalan is spoken in: * Catalonia (Catalunya), in Spain. * Most of the Valencian Community (Comunitat Valenciana), in Spain, where it's called Valencian. * An adjacent strip (Franja de Ponent) of Aragon, Spain, in particular the comarques of Ribagorça, Llitera, Baix Cinca, and Matarranya. * Balearic Islands (Illes Balears i Pitiüses), in Spain. * Andorra (Principat d'Andorra). * Northern Catalonia (Catalunya Nord) (unofficial names), in France. * The city of Alghero (l'Alguer) on Sardinia, Italy. * A small region in Murcia, Spain, known as Carche in Catalan. The Catalans are the people from Catalonia, an autonomous community of Spain, including people originating in that region but living elsewhere. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France – known in Catalonia proper as Catalunya Nord (Northern Catalonia), and in France as the Pays Catalan – are often included in this definition. The Països Catalans do not have any legal entity nor is there any universal territorial definition of the scope covered by this concept. It may refer strictly to the territories in which the different varieties of Catalan are traditionally spoken, or the entire political entities in which Catalan has some official status, in spite of the fact that those entities include areas where Catalan is not actually spoken (the map to the right covers this latter usage).  The concept of the Catalan Countries includes territories of the following sovereign states: Spain Aragon (for Western Strip) Balearic Islands Catalonia Murcia (for Carche) Valencia France The region called le Pays Catalan (in France) or Catalunya Nord (in Catalonia) in the Pyrénées-Orientales department Italy The city of Alghero Andorra Catalan is the official language Dictionary:
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