
A regional language is a language spoken in a part of a country - it may be a small area, a Federalism state or province, or a wider area. ==Definition in international law== For the purposes of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: :''"regional or minority languages" means languages that are: '' #''traditionally used within a given territory of a State by nationals of that State who form a group numerically smaller than the rest of the State's population; and '' #''different from the official language(s) of that State'' ==Influence of number of speakers== There are many cases when a regional language can claim greater numbers of speakers than certain languages which happen to be official languages of sovereign states. For example, Catalan language (a regional language of Spain and France, albeit official in Andorra) has more speakers than Finnish language or Danish language. Cantonese language has more than 60 million local and overseas speakers, as a regional language of Guangdong. ==Relationship with official languages== In some cases, a regional language may be closely related to the state's main language or official language. For example: *Walloon language, a regional language of France and Belgium, belongs to the same family of Oïl languages as French language; *Scots language, a regional language of the United Kingdom, belongs to the same family of West Germanic languages as English language. *Frisian language, a regional language of The Netherlands and Germany, belongs to the same language family as Dutch language and German language *Võro language, a regional language of Estonia, belongs to the same family of Finno-Ugric languages as Estonian language. *Cantonese language, a regional language of Guangdong, China, belongs to the same family of spoken languages of China as Mandarin Chinese, and shared the same ideograms and writing systems. In other cases, a regional language may be very different from the state's main language or official language. For example: *Basque language, a regional language in Spain, is non-Indo-European languages, and therefore unrelated to Spanish language, a Romance languages; *Sorbian language, a regional language of Germany, is a Slavic languages, and therefore only distantly related to German, a Germanic languages. ==Official languages as regional languages== An official language of a state may also be spoken as a regional language in a region of a neighbouring state. For example: *German is a regional language of Italy; *Hungarian language, a Finno-Ugric languages, is a regional language of Romania whose official language, Romanian language is a Romance language. *Cantonese language is ''de facto'' official language of Hong Kong, Macao and the province of Guangdong Province. *Catalan, the official language of Andorra, is a regional language in Spain, France and Italy. ==See also== *Minority language *Languages of France *Languages of the European Union *British-Irish Council *Languages in the United Kingdom *Italian dialects Languages kw:Yeth ranndiryel
Have tried to put article into some semblance of order. This article is likely to be unwieldy if too many regional languages get a mention, so I have pruned some links (sorry, all!). However, this article is still overwhelmingly Eurocentric and would benefit from some examples from other continents. User:Man vyi 17:45, Oct 27, 2004 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Regional_language:
Regional_language
Regional_language
Regional_languages
Regional language
A regional language is a language spoken in a part of a country - it may be a small area, a Federalism state or province, or a wider area. ==Definition in international law== For the purposes of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: :''"regional or minority languages" means languages that are: '' #''traditionally used within a given territory of a State by nationals of that State who form a group numerically smaller than the rest of the State's population; and '' #''different from the official language(s) of that State'' ==Influence of number of speakers== There are many cases when a regional language can claim greater numbers of speakers than certain languages which happen to be official languages of sovereign states. For example, Catalan language (a regional language of Spain and France, albeit official in Andorra) has more speakers than Finnish language or Danish language. Cantonese language has more than 60 million local and overseas speakers, as a regional language of Guangdong. ==Relationship with official languages== In some cases, a regional language may be closely related to the state's main language or official language. For example: *Walloon language, a regional language of France and Belgium, belongs to the same family of Oïl languages as French language; *Scots language, a regional language of the United Kingdom, belongs to the same family of West Germanic languages as English language. *Frisian language, a regional language of The Netherlands and Germany, belongs to the same language family as Dutch language and German language *Võro language, a regional language of Estonia, belongs to the same family of Finno-Ugric languages as Estonian language. *Cantonese language, a regional language of Guangdong, China, belongs to the same family of spoken languages of China as Mandarin Chinese, and shared the same ideograms and writing systems. In other cases, a regional language may be very different from the state's main language or official language. For example: *Basque language, a regional language in Spain, is non-Indo-European languages, and therefore unrelated to Spanish language, a Romance languages; *Sorbian language, a regional language of Germany, is a Slavic languages, and therefore only distantly related to German, a Germanic languages. ==Official languages as regional languages== An official language of a state may also be spoken as a regional language in a region of a neighbouring state. For example: *German is a regional language of Italy; *Hungarian language, a Finno-Ugric languages, is a regional language of Romania whose official language, Romanian language is a Romance language. *Cantonese language is ''de facto'' official language of Hong Kong, Macao and the province of Guangdong Province. *Catalan, the official language of Andorra, is a regional language in Spain, France and Italy. ==See also== *Minority language *Languages of France *Languages of the European Union *British-Irish Council *Languages in the United Kingdom *Italian dialects Languages kw:Yeth ranndiryel
Regional language
Have tried to put article into some semblance of order. This article is likely to be unwieldy if too many regional languages get a mention, so I have pruned some links (sorry, all!). However, this article is still overwhelmingly Eurocentric and would benefit from some examples from other continents. User:Man vyi 17:45, Oct 27, 2004 (UTC)
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
R
RA | RB | RC | RD | RE | RF | RG | RH | RI | RJ | RK | RL | RM | RN | RO | RP | RS | RT | RU | RW | RX | RY | RZ |Words begining with Regional_language:
Regional_language
Regional_language
Regional_languages
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