Language spoken in parts but not all of a country
A regional language is a
language spoken in a region of a
sovereign state , whether it be a small area, a
federated state or
province or some wider area.
Internationally, 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
[1]
Recognition of regional or minority languages must not be confused with recognition as an
official language .
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 (a regional language of
Spain ,
Italy and
France , albeit the
national language of
Andorra ) has more speakers than
Finnish or
Danish .[
citation needed ] A similar situation exists in China, where
Wu , spoken in southern
Jiangsu , northern, and the general area of
Shanghai
Zhejiang by more than 90 million speakers, is spoken natively by more speakers than
French ;
Yue Chinese , a
Chinese regional variety spoken in
Guangdong ,
Hong Kong and nearby areas in
China with more than 60 million local and overseas speakers (North America, parts of
Malaysia ), outnumbers
Italian in number of speakers.[
citation needed ] Dialects of the
Min dialect group have over 70 million speakers, mainly in
Fujian and in nearby
Taiwan , but also in the
Southeast Asian countries of
Malaysia and
Singapore .
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:
The
Frisian languages spoken in the Netherlands and Germany, which belong to the
Germanic family.
The
Gutnish language , a regional language spoken in
Gotland and related to the Swedish language.
Kurdish in
Kurdistan , which is an autonomous region in northern
Iraq , Northwestern
Iran and southeastern
Turkey .
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic in northern Iraq, northeastern
Syria , southeastern Turkey and northwestern Iran.
The several hundred
Sinitic languages are nearly always replaced by
Standard Chinese (based on the
Beijing dialect ) in writing.
Wu , in
Shanghai , southern
Jiangsu ,
Zhejiang and eastern
Jiangxi .
Yue Chinese , in
Guangdong , parts of
Guangxi ,
Hainan ,
Hong Kong and
Macau ,
Cantonese is the regional standard variety for Yue-speaking areas
Hakka , in parts of
Guangdong ,
Jiangxi ,
Fujian , and
Taiwan
Min , in
Fujian ,
Taiwan , eastern
Guangdong and
Hainan .
Xiang , in
Hunan .
Gan , in
Jiangxi .
Kashubian , a regional language of
Poland .
Limburgish , a regional language in
Germany , the
Netherlands and Belgium, has around one million speakers and is closely related to
Luxembourgish ,
Kleverlandish and
Ripuarian .
Low German (also referred to as Low Saxon), an officially recognized regional language in Germany and the Netherlands, the direct descendant of
Old Saxon . Sometimes (e.g. by nds and nds-nl Wikipedia) considered two languages divided by today’s Netherlands–German border on account of Dutch influences in the west and German influences in the east; closely related to
Frisian , more distantly to
German .
Scots , a regional language of
Scotland and
Northern Ireland (both part of the
United Kingdom , and where it is known as
Ulster Scots in the latter location), belongs to the same family of
West Germanic languages as
English .
Neapolitan ,
Sicilian and
Venetian , regional languages spoken in
Italy which also belong to the same family of standard Italian (
Italo-Dalmatian ).
Regional languages of
Spain and
Portugal :
Tibetic languages
Võro and
Seto , regional languages of
Estonia , are either dialects of
Estonian or separate
Finnic languages as Estonian.
Walloon , a regional language of France and
Belgium , belongs to the same family of
Oïl languages as
French .
Hindi and English are the
official languages of
India 's
Central Government .
The officially declared
regional languages of India are:
Assamese ,
Bengali ,
Bhojpuri ,
Bodo ,
Dogri ,
Gujarati ,
Kannada ,
Kashmiri ,
Konkani ,
Maithili ,
Malayalam ,
Manipuri ,
Marathi ,
Nepali ,
Odia ,
Punjabi ,
Sanskrit ,
Santali ,
Sindhi ,
Tamil ,
Telugu ,
Tulu , and
Urdu .
Sylheti , a regional language of the
Sylhet Division of
Bangladesh and the
Barak Valley of
Assam , India, is often considered a dialect of Bengali but is also sometimes seen as a separate language.
Chittagonian , a regional language of parts of the
Chittagong Division of
Bangladesh , is often considered a dialect of Bengali but is also sometimes seen as a separate language.
In other cases, a regional language may be very different from the state's main language or official language. For example:
Basque , a regional language spoken in
Spain and
France (
Basque Country ).
Breton , a regional Celtic language spoken in
France (
Brittany ).
Cherokee is an
Iroquoian language, and one of the many
Native American languages spoken in the
U.S. State of
Oklahoma .
Cornish , a regional Celtic language in the
United Kingdom (
Cornwall ).
Corsican , a regional language in
France (
Corsica ) closely related to
Tuscan -derived
Italian .
Gagauz , a regional
Turkic language spoken in
Moldova .
Livonian , a regional language of the
Finnic family spoken in
Latvia .
Resian , a dialect of
Slovene spoken in
Italy (
Resia valley ).
Sardinian , a regional
Romance language spoken in
Italy (
Sardinia ).
Scottish Gaelic , a regional
Celtic language spoken in the
United Kingdom (
Scotland ).
Sorbian , a regional
Slavic language of
Germany .
Welsh , a regional
Celtic language spoken in the
United Kingdom (
Wales ).
Official languages as regional languages
An official language of a country may also be spoken as a regional language in a region of a neighbouring country. For example:
Afrikaans , an official language of
South Africa , is a regional language of
Namibia .
Arabic , official in
Zanzibar , a region of
Tanzania .
Bengali is the official language of Bangladesh, and is the regional language of
West Bengal in India.
Cantonese , one of the official standard varieties in
Hong Kong and
Macau (both
special administrative regions of the
People's Republic of China ), is used as a regional language of the province of
Guangdong ,
People's Republic of China .
Catalan , the official language of
Andorra , is a regional language in
Spain (
Catalonia ,
Balearic Islands and
Valencian Community ),
France (
Pyrénées Orientales ) and
Italy (
Alghero ,
Sardinia ).
German , an official language of
Austria ,
Belgium ,
Germany ,
Liechtenstein ,
Luxembourg and
Switzerland , is a regional language in
Italy (
South Tyrol ),
Poland (
Silesia ),
France (
Alsace and
Lorraine ),
Denmark (
Southern ) and
Namibia .
Hakka , one of the national languages of
Taiwan , is spoken as a regional language in the provinces of
Guangdong ,
Jiangxi and
Fujian ,
People's Republic of China .
Hokkien , one of the national languages of
Taiwan , is spoken as a regional language in the provinces of
Fujian ,
Zhejiang and
Guangdong ,
People’s Republic of China .
Hungarian , a
Uralic language and official in
Hungary , is a regional language of
Romania (
Northern Transylvania ).
Irish , the first official language of the
Republic of Ireland , is a regional language in
Northern Ireland , part of the
United Kingdom .
Japanese , one of the national language in
Japan , is a regional language in
Palau (
Angaur Island ).
Korean , the official language of
Korea , is a regional language in
People's Republic of China (
Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture ).
Malay , the official language of
Malaysia ,
Brunei and
Singapore , is a regional language in
Indonesia (
Riau Province ).
Russian , the official language of the
Russian Federation and
Belarus , is a regional language of
Abkhazia ,
South Ossetia and other entities.
Tamil , the official language of
Singapore and
Sri Lanka , is a regional language in India (
Tamil Nadu )
Tigrinya , an official language of
Eritrea , is a regional language in
Ethiopia (
Tigray Region ).
Turkish , the official language of
Turkey and
Northern Cyprus , is a regional language of
Kosovo .
See also
References
External links