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- The language of Catalonia. Like Castilian, Catalan is a Romance language. Variants of it include mallorquín of the Balearic Islands and valenciano spoken in the autonomous region of Valencia.
Banned under Franco, Catalan has enjoyed a revival since Spain's return to democracy and now has around 11 million speakers. It is the medium of instruction in schools and universities and its use is widespread in business, the arts, and the media. Many books are published in Catalan. See also lenguas cooficiales.
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- Spain has long been been a diverse country, made up of different kingdoms and territories with their own languages, political institutions and legal systems. Periods of central control and uniformity, such as the Franco era, nurtured nationalist and separatist feeling in the Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia. The 1978 Constitution changed Spain into a country consisting of 19 autonomous regions, known as comunidades autónomas or autonomías. These replaced the old regiones. Each of them has its own parliament and government, and its relationship with the central government is governed by an estatuto. Some have more autonomy than others.
The comunidades autónomas are: Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, the Balearic Islands, the Basque Country , the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, Madrid, Murcia, Navarre, La Rioja, Valencia and the North African cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Estatuto/Estatut