Minority languages of France

On April 8^th 2021, the national assembly of France, in an historical vote has adopted a law proposition that protects and promotes regional languages. This law was proposed by the MP Paul Molac, who represents the department of Morbihan, region of Brittany.

France may presents itself as a country where french language is one of the main national symbols, the sole official language and the government is actively engaged in its promotion through international organizations like the Francophonie. But the reality is that France is a multilingual country reflecting a rich cultural heritage. The ministry of culture of France has a presentation called “Les langues de France” (2^nd edition, 2016) where they provide the list of languages spoken in France, describing the regional languages spoken in Metropolitan France, Overseas territories and the non-territorial languages. There are around 20 regional languages spoken in Metropolitan France and more than 70 languages named in this document.

The law has the objective to protect and promote the immaterial patrimony, being regional languages part of it. The law promotes teaching regional languages by immersion, the allocation of resources for this task and to teach regional languages during regular school hours. The law promotes the possibility for local authorities to communicate in regional languages as well as in French, the use of regional languages in public signals and to incorporate regional diacritics in official scripting (This is important when parents decide to name their children using regional first names, until now subjected to the rules of french language) 

But the law specifically mentions the following languages only: Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican and Occitan. All of them are regional languages spoken in Metropolitan France. Once the law is enacted, we will see actions to incorporate those languages to the education system and social services.

Here I present some information about those languages spoken in France with some phrases. You can find more information in https://omniglot.com/ and in http://proel.org/

Occitan:

It’s a romance language, with around 2 million native speakers, most of them living in Southern France. It is the most spoken regional language of France. The oldest written records in Occitan were produced during the 10^th century AD. There are 6 dialects of this language: Provençal, Gascon, Languedocien, Limousin, Alpine and Auvergne. There is a rich literature written in this language.

There are 2 genders: masculine and feminine. Numbers are singular and plural. Articles are lou (MS), la (FS) and li is plural both genders (lis in case the following word starts in a vowel). Word order can be either SVO or VSO and verbs are conjugated without personal pronouns. The negative particle is pas.

The language has official status at the other side of the border with Spain, in Catalonia (Alongside with Spanish and Catalan) where it is spoken by around 40,000 people in the Aran Valley and thus it is known as Aranese language.

There are a few publications in Occitan as well as some programs in the Radio. In the Internet you can find some resources to use this language and a dictionary online English – Occitan in https://en.glosbe.com/en/oc. There are few resources to learn this language online.

Here are a list of phrases in Occitan:

English	Occitan	Notes
Good Morning	Bon jorn	You can say: Adissiats
Good Evening	Bon vèspre
How are you?	Cossí va? Va plan?
Goodbye	Adieu
Do you speak Occitan?	Parlatz occitan?	Informally: Parlas occitan?
How much is it?	Quant costa?
I am not rich	Siéu pas riche
Thank you	Mercé	More form : Mercés plan
I like travelling	M’agrada viatjar

Here is a comparison of diacritics in Occitan and French.

Occitan diacritics	Common diacritic with French	Diacritic non existent in French
L’accent grave (grèu)	À, à, È, è	Ò, ò
L’accent aigu (agut)	É, é	Á, á, ĺ, í, Ó, ó, Ú, ú
Tréma (trèma)	Ï, ï, Ü, ü	-
Cédille (cedilha)	Ç, ç	-

Exists another one called Interpunct (punt interior) to separate consecutive consonants, used in n·h and s·h, but only in Gascon. Here is a text in Occitan from Wikipedia in that language :

« L’occitan coneguèt son epòca daurada entre los sègles XI e XIII gràcias a sa literatura e subretot las composicions dels trobadors que coneguèron de succès per tota Euròpa »

(Occitan language has known its golden age between the 11^th and 13^th century owing to its literature, but above all to the compositions of the troubadours that were successful throughout Europe)

*Interesting fact: The french writer Frédéric Mistral, received in 1904 the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work like poet and philologist in Occitan language, specially in provençal.

Alsatian

It’s a West Germanic language spoken mostly in the French region of Alsace. Some scholars consider it a dialect of high German. There are around 900.000 speakers, being the second most spoken regional language in France.

It is not really intelligible to speakers of Standard German, but it is close related to Swiss German.

There are 3 genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. There are 3 cases: Nominative, accusative and dative. There is no genitive case like in Standard German. The letter “ì” is the only one that cannot be directly typed with a french keyboard.

Here are a list of phrases in Alsatian:

English	Alsatian	Notes
Good Morning	Güete Morge
Good Evening	Güete Obe
How are you?	Wie geht’s Ihne?	Wie geht’s dir? (inf)
Goodbye	Or’var
Do you speak Alsatian?	Kannst dü Ëlsässisch redde?
How much is it?	Was Koschtet das?
Water	Wasser
Thank you	Mersi
Let the church stay in the village	Dàss d’Kìrich ìm Dorf bliibt	A popular expression

Here is a text in Alsatian from Wikipedia:

« Elsassisch ésch nooch Okzitànisch de àm meischte gesproche vun àlli regionàli Sproche vun Frànkrisch »

(Alsatian is after Occitan, the most spoken of all regional languages in France)

*Interesting Fact: Alsatian is the indigenous language of the city of Strasbourg, that is also the official seat of the European Parliament. You can see many bilingual signs in this city (French / Alsatian).

Breton (Brezhoneg)

It’s a Celtic Brittonic language spoken in Lower Brittany region in France. It’s the only Celtic language spoken outside the British Isles and the only one that has no official status anywhere is spoken.

There are around 220 thousand speakers, most of them live in the Brittany region. It is closely related with Cornish, a critically endangered language spoken in Cornwall in the UK. It is related to Welsh in lesser degree.

The typical word order is VSO, but flexible. Gender can be masculine and feminine. The phenomenon of Mutations exists as in other Celtic languages and the initial letters affected are: m, b, p, g, k, d, t, gw. Mutations can be soft, hard, mixed and aspirant. What is unique among Celtic languages is the existence of Nasalization. It is believed that this is because of French influence. The only diacritic that does not exist in French is “ñ”, which is not part of the alphabet but it is used to represent nasalization of the precedent vowel. Another unique feature is the existence of indefinite articles (un, ur, ul). Definite articles are an, ar, al.

Here are a list of phrases in Breton:

English	Brezhoneg	Notes
Good Morning	Demat
Good Evening	Nozvezh vat	In the night is used: Noz vat
How are you?	Mat ar jeu?
Goodbye	Kenavo	You can use: Adeo, dada
Do you speak Breton?	Komz a rit brezhoneg?
How much is it?	Pegement e koust an dra-mañ?
I don’t speak Japanese	Ne gomzan ket japaneg
Thank you	Trugarez	You can say: Mersi
You have a house	Un ti zo ganeoc’h

Here is a text in Breton from the Bible.

“ Kement tra a fell deoc’h e rafe ar dud deoc’h, grit eta anezhañ dezho, rak-se eo al lezenn hag ar brofeded “

(Do for others what you want them to do for you: this is the meaning of the Law of Moses and of the teachings of the prophets) Mat 7,12;

*Interesting Fact: Brittany has its own anthem sung in Breton. It is “ Bro Gozh ma Zadoù “ which means “ Old Land of my Fathers “. This anthem shares same melody with the other Celtics anthems, from Wales and Cornwall, and the meaning of all those anthems are identical.

Basque (Euskara)

It’s the only isolated language of this list. There are more than 900 thousands speakers, most of them live in neighbouring Spain, where it is official language in 2 regions. In France, it is recognized as a minority language and could benefit from the new law proposition that protects those languages.

There are 7 dialects of Basque, 3 of them are mainly spoken in France (Lower Navarrese, Souletin and Laburdian).

In 2018, I wrote an article about languages of Spain, where I wrote about the characteristics of this language. I leave here the link 

Here are some phrases in Basque:

English	Euskara
Good Morning	Egun on
Good Evening	Arratsalde on
How are you?	Zer moduz?
Goodbye	Agur
I don’t speak Basque	Ez dakit euskaraz
How much is it?	Zenbat ote da?
I am from Canada	Kanadakoa naiz
Thank you	Eskerrik asko
I like basque	Euskara atsegin dut

Here is a text in Basque from the Bible (Mat 7, 12;)

“ Honela bada, besteek zuei egitea nahi zenuketen guztia, egin zuek, ere besteei: horretan datza Liburu Santuek irakatsia”

Interesting Fact: Basque might be the oldest spoken language in Europe and one of the oldest spoken languages in the world. Is the only surviving pre-Indoeuropean language in Western Europe.

Corsican

It’s a romance language spoken mainly in the Island of Corsica. We don’t know how many people speak the language, but it is estimated that there are around 150 thousand native speakers. Corsican is closely related to Italian. There are 2 kinds of dialects, geographically separated by the local mountains, where we have the dialects from northeast (cismuntano) and southwest (ultramontano), both related to the Italian Tuscan dialects.

The language is mainly oral. Modern Literature in Corsican appeared at the end of the 19^th century but the spelling was standardized during the 1970’s.

Here are a list of phrases in Corsican:

English	Corsican	Notes
Good Morning	Bonghjornu
Good Evening	Bona sera
How are you?	Cumu site?	Inf: Cumu sì? Cumu va?
Goodbye	Avvedeci	À dopu
Do you speak Corsican?	Parlate corsu?
How much is it?	Quantu costa?
I like travelling	Mi piace viaghjà
Thank you	Vi ringraziu	You can say: Grazie
Help me, Please!	Aghjutatemi, per piacè!

Here is a comparison of diacritics in Corsican and French.

Diacritics	Common diacritic with French	Diacritic non existent in French
L’accent grave	À, à, È, è, Ù, ù	Ì, ì, Ò, ò
L’accent aigu	É, é (old spelling)	-
L’accent circonflexe	Â, â, Ê, ê, Î, î, Ô, ô (old spelling)	-
Tréma	Ï, ï, Ü, ü, (Ë, ë, Ÿ, ÿ in old spelling)	-
Cédille	Ç, ç (old spelling)	-

Ligature letters exist in both languages such as Æ, æ, Œ, œ, but in Corsican they are used in the old spelling, which is previous to the standardization in the 70’s.

Here is an example of a text in Corsican taken from Wikipedia:

“ A lingua corsa hè un idioma parlatu in Corsica. Cum’è una lingua rumanica hè dirivata da u latinu. ”

(Corsican is a language spoken in Corsica. As a romance language, it descends from Latin).

Interesting Fact: Although this language is mainly oral and there are few written resources, Google translate has available the option for free translations. You can read around 5900 articles in Corsican in Wikipedia.

Catalan

Catalan is a romance language. It is the most spoken minority language in the EU. I wrote about Catalan language in 2 articles, one was about Kurdish and Catalan languages and the other one about Languages of Spain. Both articles were written considering that this language has the majority of its speakers in Spain.

As per the use of Catalan in France, I can add that there are a few speakers living in this country, and most of them are elderly people. Younger students can learn Catalan as a foreign language. But this new law we mention in this article, will benefit education in Catalan.

Catalan is spoken mostly in the department of Pyrénées-orientales. This region is also known as Northern Catalonia.

Here is a comparison of diacritics in Catalan and French.

Catalan diacritics	Common diacritic with French	Diacritic non existent in French
L’accent grave (greu)	À, à, È, è	Ò, ò
L’accent aigu (agut)	É, é	ĺ, í, Ó, ó, Ú, ú
Tréma (dièresi)	Ï, ï, Ü, ü	-
Cédille	Ç, ç	-

Interesting Fact: The Prime Minister of France, Jean Castex, is a fluent Catalan speaker.

Here is a text from the Bible in Catalan (Mat 7,12;)

“ Feu als altres tot allò que voleu que ells us facin; aquest és el resum de la Llei i els Profetes “

Franco-Provençal

It’s a Gallo-Romance language spoken in parts of France, Italy and Switzerland. It is also known as Arpitan, Patouès, Romand. The language is similar to French and Occitan.

We don’t know how many people can speak this language. There is an estimation that in France there are around 60.000 speakers, mostly living in Rhône-Alpes and Franche-Comté regions and in the department of Savoie live the majority of them. There are around 70 thousand speakers in Italy, mostly in the Aosta Valley where the language is in its best shape. There are also some speakers in Piedmont. Numbers are unknown in Switzerland but most of speakers live in the Romandy area, in the rural areas of all the cantons except for Jura and Bern.

Franco-Provençal is not mention in this new law. It has currently no official status anywhere.

Here is a text in Franco-Provençal from the Wikipedia.

« L’ôtonimo « arpetan » ou ben « arpitan » est lo nom per loquint los Arpetans dèsignont lor lengoua. Por la Suisse romanda, la lengoua est sovent asse-ben nomâye « romand ». A la suita de la politica francêsa, la parola « patouès » ou ben « patês » est étot empleyêe, mas el at un’origina pèj·orativa ».

(The term arpetan, or arpitan is the name used by arpitans for their language. In the Romandie in Switzerland, this language is named romand. Due to French politics, the word patouès or patês it’s used but as a pejorative term).

Tahitian (Reo Tahiti)

It’s an Eastern Polynesian language belonging to the Austronesian family of languages, spoken by approx 60 thousand people mainly on the Society Islands in French Polynesia.

Although this language is spoken in a remote area, very far from Metropolitan France, it is affected by the laws of the nation where French is the only recognized official language and Tahitian is just considered a regional language, in this case, spoken in a remote area that is still part of the French Republic. This language is not affected by the law mention in this article, and is an example among many other languages spoken in French overseas territories.

Tahitian has a very rich oral tradition, where ancient hymns are sung honouring the local mythology. The translation of the Bible into Tahitian practically started the written language and many people used the Bible to learn how to read and write .

It has a very simple alphabet with only 9 consonants and 5 vowels. The language has singular, dual and plural, and those numbers are reflected in the article used. Genders are not marked. The typical word order is VSO.

Here is a sample text in Tahitian taken from the Bible (Mat 7,12;)

« E te mau mea ‘toa ta outou i hinaaro ia vetahi ê ia rave ia outou ‘na, e na reira ‘toa ‘tu outou ia ratou; o ta te ture ïa e ta te mau peropheta. »