Franco-Provençal
Gallo-Romance language spoken in France, Italy and Switzerland / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Franco-Provençal (also Francoprovençal, Patois or Arpitan)[2] is a language within Gallo-Romance originally spoken in east-central France, western Switzerland and northwestern Italy.
| Franco-Provençal | |
|---|---|
| patous, gagaer, arpəttan | |
| Pronunciation | [paˈto]; [ɡaˈɡæx]; [axpetan] |
| Native to | Italy, France and Switzerland |
| Region | Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Franche-Comté, Savoie, Bresse, Bugey, Dombes, Beaujolais, Dauphiné, Lyonnais, Forez, Romandie |
Native speakers | 157,000 (2013)[1] 80,000 in France, 70,000 in Italy and 7,000 in Switzerland[2] |
Early forms | |
| Dialects | |
| Latin | |
| Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | frp |
| Glottolog | fran1269 Francoprovencalicfran1260 Arpitan |
| ELP | Francoprovençal |
| Linguasphere | 51-AAA-j[4] |
 Map of the Franco-Provençal language area:
| |
 Franco-Provençal is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
| This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. | |
Franco-Provençal has several distinct dialects and is separate from but closely related to neighbouring Romance dialects (the langues d'oïl and the langues d'oc, in France, as well as Rhaeto-Romance in Switzerland and Italy).[lower-alpha 1]
Even with all its distinct dialects counted together, the number of Franco-Provençal speakers has been declining significantly and steadily.[5] According to UNESCO, Franco-Provençal was already in 1995 a "potentially endangered language" in Italy and an "endangered language" in Switzerland and France. Ethnologue classifies it as "nearly extinct".[2]
The designation Franco-Provençal (Franco-Provençal: francoprovençâl; French: francoprovençal; Italian: francoprovenzale) dates to the 19th century. In the late 20th century, it was proposed that the language be referred to under the neologism Arpitan (Franco-Provençal: arpetan; Italian: arpitano), and its areal as Arpitania.[6] The use of both neologisms remains very limited, with most academics using the traditional form (often written without the hyphen: Francoprovençal), while language speakers refer to it almost exclusively as patois or under the names of its distinct dialects (Savoyard, Lyonnais, Gaga in Saint-Étienne, etc.).[7]
Formerly spoken throughout the Duchy of Savoy, Franco-Provençal is nowadays spoken mainly in the Aosta Valley as a native language by all age ranges.[8] All remaining areas of the Franco-Provençal language region show practice limited to higher age ranges, except for Evolène and other rural areas of French-speaking Switzerland. It was also historically spoken in the Alpine valleys around Turin and in two isolated towns (Faeto and Celle di San Vito) in Apulia.[9]
In France, it is one of the three Gallo-Romance language families of the country (alongside the langues d'oïl and the langues d'oc). Though it is a regional language of France, its use in the country is marginal. Still, organizations are attempting to preserve it through cultural events, education, scholarly research, and publishing.