Aquitaine
| Aquitaine | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Region of France | |||
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| Country |
 France
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| Prefecture | Bordeaux | ||
| Departments | |||
| Government | |||
| • President | Alain Rousset (PS) | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 41,308 km2 (15,949 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2012)INSEE | |||
| • Total | 3,285,970 | ||
| • Density | 80/km2 (210/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| ISO 3166 code | FR-B | ||
| GDP (2012) | Ranked 6th | ||
| Total | €90.8 billion (US$116.8 bn) | ||
| Per capita | €27,583 (US$35,478) | ||
| NUTS Region | FR61 | ||
| Website | Region of Aquitaine | ||
Aquitaine (English /ˈækwᵻteɪn/; French pronunciation: [akitɛn]; Occitan: Aquitània; Basque: Akitania; Poitevin-Saintongeais : Aguiéne), archaic Guyenne/Guienne (Occitan: Guiana) was a traditional region of France, and was an administrative region of France until 1 January 2016. It is now part of the new region Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It is situated in the south-western part of Metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It is composed of the five departments of Dordogne, Lot-et-Garonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes and Gironde. In the Middle Ages, Aquitaine was a kingdom and a duchy, whose boundaries fluctuated considerably.
There are traces of human settlement by prehistoric peoples, especially in the Périgord, but the earliest attested inhabitants in the south-west were the Aquitani, who were not proper Celtic people, but more akin to the Iberians (see Gallia Aquitania). Although a number of different languages and dialects were in use in the area during ancient times, it is most likely that the prevailing language of Aquitaine during the late pre-historic to Roman period was an early form of the Basque language. This has been demonstrated by various Aquitanian names and words that were recorded by the Romans, and which are currently easily readable as Basque. Whether this Aquitanian language (Proto-Basque) was a remnant of a Vasconic language group that once extended much farther, or whether it was generally limited to the Aquitaine/Basque region is not known. One reason the language of Aquitaine is important is because Basque is the last surviving non-Indo-European language in western Europe and it has had some effect on the languages around it, including Spanish and, to a lesser extent, French.
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