Lorraine Franconian

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Lorraine Franconian (French: francique, platt lorrain, or platt mosellan) refers primarily to the Moselle Franconian (Germanic) dialect spoken in the north-eastern part of the French region of Lorraine, in the northern part of the département of Moselle. Lorraine Franconian is a close cousin of Luxembourgish, both belonging to the Western Central High German (German: Westmitteldeutsch) group of languages.

Strictly speaking, Lorraine Franconian is spoken in the north-central part of Moselle, in the region of Bouzonville. Further to the west, around Thionville (known locally as Diedennuewen), Luxembourgish is spoken, and further to the east, around Sarreguemines and Bitche, Rhine Franconian is spoken. In practice, the term "Lorraine Franconian" is sometimes used to designate all of the Germanic varieties spoken in north-eastern Lorraine.

In part due to the ambiguity of the term, estimations of the number of speakers of Lorraine Franconian in France vary widely, ranging from 30,000^[1] to 400,000 (according to some militant groups, which would make it the 3rd most-spoken regional language in France, after Occitan and Alsatian).

The most reliable data come from the Enquête famille carried out by INSEE as part of the 1999 census, but they give a somewhat indirect picture of the current situation (see Languages in France for a discussion of this survey). Approximately 78,000 people were reported to speak Lorraine Franconian (platt lorrain), but fewer than 50,000 passed basic knowledge of the language on to their children. Another statistic illustrating the same point: Of all adult men who used Franconian regularly at age 5, less than 30% use (or used) the language regularly with their own children.^[2]

[edit] References

^ [1] Éric Auburtin (2002). "Langues régionales et relations transfrontalières dans l’espace Saar-Lor-Lux". Hérodote 105, pp. 102—122.
^ [2] François Héran, et al. (2002) "La dynamique des langues en France au fil du XX^e siècle". Population et sociétés 376, Ined.

[edit] External links

Redde-n-ìhr Plàtt ? — Historical, literary, and linguistic information (in French)
Gau un Griis — Association for the defense and promotion of Lorraine Franconian
Plattweb