_ _    _ _____  ___   __                       
 __      _(_) | _(_)___ / ( _ ) / /_   ___ ___  _ __ ___  
 \ \ /\ / / | |/ / | |_ \ / _ \| '_ \ / __/ _ \| '_ ` _ \ 
  \ V  V /| |   <| |___) | (_) | (_) | (_| (_) | | | | | |
   \_/\_/ |_|_|\_\_|____/ \___/ \___(_)___\___/|_| |_| |_|

Regional language

In today's world, Regional language has become a topic of constant interest for people of all ages and walks of life. With the advancement of technology and globalization, Regional language has become increasingly relevant in society. From its origins to the present, Regional language has significantly impacted the way people relate to each other, how they function in the workplace, and even the way they perceive the world around them. This article aims to explore in detail the importance of Regional language today and its influence on different aspects of daily life.
"Local language" redirects here. For the concept in formal language theory, see Local language (formal language).
Not to be confused with National language or Nation language.

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:

  1. 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
  2. different from the official language(s) of that State

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:

In other cases, a regional language may be very different from the state's main language or official language. For example:

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:

See also

References

  1. ^ "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages". Council of Europe. Retrieved 11 March 2015.

External links

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia