Learning Occitan

In the past few weeks, I have had to write several papers for my classes, so I haven't had much time left to write to Romanika. The free time that I have had has not gone in vain though. I continue my studies of Latin, a language which, like I've said, I approach differently than the Romance languages. Also, besides Latin, I took the decision of getting started with yet another Romance languages: this time, Occitan. I wrote an entry last year when I looked into learning Catalan. I knew I wanted to learn Catalan, but was also interested in Occitan. After doing some research, I proceeded with Catalan because it has official status in Catalonia, Valencia and Andorra. Now that I have experience with Catalan, I can see that it is indeed an important language where it is spoken, appreciated by the people who speak it. The media resources are numerous as well, including radio and television, and its presence on the internet is significant. Occitan, on the other hand, holds no true officialdom and it doesn't even have a standard as established as does Catalan. The non-official standard, if any, would be Lengadocian, the dialect from Languedoc. Being spoken throughout Occitania, which includes Southern France and small parts of Northern Italy and Northern Spain, Occitan speakers will generally learn and write in their own dialects, with some being more distant to Lengadocian than others. Provençal, one of its main dialects, is usually written in a separate orthography, based on French, while Lengadocian follows closely the orthography of Old Occitan (cf. Leng. Occitania, Lo Provençal vs. Prov. Ousitanio, Lou Prouvençau, even though the pronunciation in both is almost identical).
Sometimes, Occitan is classified, not as a language, but as the group of dialects spoken in Occitania, also referred to as Langue d'Òc. The dialects have indeed diverged, but not so much that if a standard, such as Lengadocian since it's the most conservative of all, were adopted throughout Occitania, particularly in Southern France, a unified language could be established. Some speakers of dialects even learn Langedocian because they are aware of its historical and present importance.
The only true official variety of Occitan exists in the Val d'Aran, in Catalonia. However, this dialect diverges much from Lendadocien. For instance, Filius Lunae, the name by which I am known online, in Lengadocien would be Filh de la luna, while in Gascon from the Val d'Aran it would be Hilh dera lua.

Luckily, I have found a community online consisting of speakers, linguists and teachers of Occitan. I will keep learning this Romance language, so expect to see its name "up there" with the others soon.