Although France is a signatory to the European Charter for Regional Languages, it has failed to ratify it because to do so would be in contravention of the current French constitution. In any event, it has been official French state policy since 1539 to promote French to the detriment of the other regional languages.
This primer only focuses on languages native to France so it excludes languages such as Portuguese and Arabic (in all its forms) spoken by large but more recent immigrant communities.
Some of the languages are spoken by very small minorities (such as Franco-Provencal, Ligurian, Picard) whilst others (such as Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Dutch, Luxembourgish, Occitan) are more or less dominant in their respective regions. Given the relative importance of the latter group of languages, some of them are the subject of separate primers and are not directly covered here.
Alsatian It is an Alemanic German dialect spoken in the Alsace region. Whilst closely related to other Alemanic German dialects, such as Swiss German, Swabian and Badisch, it is not readily intelligible to speakers of standard German. A 1999 survey found that over half a million people spoke Alsatian in France. As is typical of declining languages, the bulk of the speakers are adults and fewer and fewer children are both learning and using it.
Corsican It is a Romance language spoken on Corsica. Classed as a southern Romance language, it has more in common with Sardinian and Italian than it has with French. According to UNESCO, the language is currently in danger of dying out and whilst official figures put the number of active speakers at around 400,000, 100,000 would probably be a more realistic number. Although the French government has promised to provide greater protection for the language as part of increased autonomy, for various political reasons nothing has been done.
Franco-Provencal Not to be confused with Provencal, which is a variant of Occitan, Franco-Provencal is a Romance language (also known as Arpitan) born in eastern France and Switzerland now spoken to varying degrees in France, Switzerland and Italy. Franco-Provencal never achieved the importance of French, Italian or Occitan and has little official protection outside the Aosta Valley (near Turin) in Italy. However, in recent times the language has declined significantly and is on the UNESCO endangered list. Official figures put the number of speakers at around 100,000 but some studies have indicated that it is significantly lower and declining at such speed that the language could become extinct in the coming decades.
Ligurian The language is a Romance language that is very distinct from the other Romance languages spoken in France and has definite Italian features. In addition to being spoken along the Southern Mediterranean Coast of France (near Nice), it is spoken in pockets of Northern Italy (Liguria, Northern Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna), on the islands of Corsica and Sardinia and in Monaco. Indeed the local variety, known as Munegascu, has been adopted as an official language. It is, however, very difficult to come up with reliable statistics as to the number of active speakers and all signs point to the language being in a very precarious state.
Picard Closely related to French, and often mistakenly taken for a French dialect, Picard is spoken in Picardie, the Pas-de-Calais as well as in parts of Belgium (it should not be confused with Walloon, which is a separate Romance language). Due to its geographical proximity, Picard has been heavily influenced by modern French but is nevertheless very distinctive, in particular phonetically speaking. Although it has no official recognition in France, Picard has been recognised as a regional language by Belgium's French Community since 1990. Although by no means extinct in the sense that it is very present in regional culture, the language is being increasingly confused with regional French and ever fewer people are able to speak it. How bad the situation actually is remains unclear as reliable statistics are very hard to come by.
In addition to Spain's four constitutionally protected official languages (Catalan-Valencian-Balear, Castilian [known as Spanish outside Spain], Galician, Basque), the country has a myriad of unofficial languages enjoying little or no support from the central government. Whilst some, such as Aranese, Aragonese, Fala, Leonese and Calo, are spoken by very small groups of people, others, namely Asturian and Extremaduran, have a much stronger base.
Aragonese It developed from "Vulgar Latin" around the 8th century although it has Basque heritage. Whilst originally the official language of the Kingdom of Aragon, the ultimate fusion of the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon resulted in the spread of Castilian to the detriment of Aragonese. Its use was subsequently limited to rural areas and combined with active suppression from the central government, the number of native speakers dropped to around 10,000, with an additional 20,000 people claiming to speak it as a second language.
Aranese A variant of Gascon, Aranese is spoken by around 4,000 people in the remote Vall d'Aran in the northwest corner of Catalonia, just south of the French border, where it enjoys co-official status. Although obviously in a fragile state due to the low number of native speakers it has nevertheless undergone somewhat of a renaissance in recent times and has even been taught in local schools since 1984.
Asturian Whilst fundamentally a romance language it does have pre-Roman heritage. The number of native speakers has dropped dramatically in recent times and currently stands at around 100,000. That said, almost all of the other 450,000 people in the region are able to speak or understand it.
Calo Alternatively known as Spanish Romany, Calo is a fusion of Romany vocabulary and Spanish grammar. Given the nature of the gypsy community, it is almost impossible to put an accurate figure on the number of speakers. Estimates range from around 50,000 to 150,000. There is similarly little practical knowledge about the language outside the gypsy community. Indeed, it is only in recent times that any serious effort has been made by academics to study the language.
Extremaduran The language originally developed around the 12th century when the Kingdom of Leon captured Extremadura from the Arabs. When the Kingdoms of Castile and Leon were united, Castilian slowly became the dominant language in most of the new kingdom with old Leonese only surviving in isolated pockets. One such pocket was in Extremadura where the old Leonese (see Leonese below) gradually developed into what we now call Extremaduran. With 500,000 people able to use the language and 200,000 active speakers, Extremaduran is the leading unofficial minority language. Most of the speakers are in the north of Extremadura, which straddles the Spanish-Portuguese border.
Fala A variant of Galician-Portuguese, Fala is restricted to a single isolated valley nestled on the Spanish Portuguese border, to the north of Extremadura. This valley, Val du riu Ellas, is home to around 5,000 active speakers with a diaspora of around the same number living outside the region.
Leonese A romance language that was the official language of the Leonese Kingdom in the middle ages. The language declined significantly in recent centuries with only around 80,000 active speakers remaining. On the UNESCO endangered list, in 2006 the Castile and Leon autonomous region finally decided to restore the language's official status. The local Leon Provincial government is now actively promoting the language, in particular through education initiatives.
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