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.
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.
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: