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.
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:
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.
Aranese,
Catalan, and
Galician are each, in the regions where they are the autochthonous language, co-official in status with
Castilian (Spanish) which is official everywhere in the
Kingdom of Spain.
Occitan, most widely spoken across the Pyrenees in France and Catalonia, together with Catalan, forms a subgroup of Romance languages linguistically intermediate between
French and the
Ibero-Romance languages of Spain and Portugal.
Aranese is a subdialect of
Gascon
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:
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.
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:
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.
Aranese,
Catalan, and
Galician are each, in the regions where they are the autochthonous language, co-official in status with
Castilian (Spanish) which is official everywhere in the
Kingdom of Spain.
Occitan, most widely spoken across the Pyrenees in France and Catalonia, together with Catalan, forms a subgroup of Romance languages linguistically intermediate between
French and the
Ibero-Romance languages of Spain and Portugal.
Aranese is a subdialect of
Gascon
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: