Lorraine Franconian ( native name: or ; or '; ) is an ambiguous designation for

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

s of

West Central German West Central German () belongs to the Central German, Central, High German languages, High German dialect family of German language, German. It includes the following sub-families: * Central Franconian () ** Ripuarian language, Ripuarian (), spok ...

(), a group of

High German The High German languages (, i.e. ''High German dialects''), or simply High German ( ) – not to be confused with Standard High German which is commonly also called "High German" – comprise the varieties of German spoken south of the Ben ...

dialects spoken in the

Moselle The Moselle ( , ; ; ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it joins at Koblenz. A sm ...

department of the former northeastern French region of Lorraine (See Linguistic boundary of Moselle).

Description

The term ''Lorraine Franconian'' has multiple denotations. Some scholars use it to refer to the entire group of West Central German dialects spoken in the French Lorraine region. Others use it more narrowly to refer to the

Moselle Franconian Moselle Franconian (; ) is a West Central German language, part of the Central Franconian languages area, that includes Luxembourgish. Overview Moselle Franconian is spoken in the southern Rhineland and along the course of the Moselle, i ...

dialect spoken in the valley of the river Nied (in Pays de Nied, whose largest town is Boulay-Moselle), to distinguish it from the other two Franconian dialects spoken in Lorraine,

Luxembourgish Luxembourgish ( ; also ''Luxemburgish'', ''Luxembourgian'', ''Letzebu(e)rgesch''; ) is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 400,000 people speak Luxembourgish worldwide. The language is standardized and officiall ...

to the west and Rhine Franconian to the east. The German term refers to Rhine Franconian spoken in Lorraine. In 1806 there were 218,662 speakers of Lorraine Franconian in

and 41,795 speakers in Meurthe. In part due to the ambiguity of the term, estimates of the number of Lorraine Franconian speakers in France vary widely, ranging from 30,000 to 400,000 (which would make it the third most-spoken regional language in France, after Occitan and Alsatian). The most reliable data comes from the ''Enquête famille'' carried out by INSEE (360,000 in the 1962 census) as part of the 1999 census, but it gives a somewhat indirect picture of the current situation (see Languages in France for discussion of this survey). About 78,000 people were reported to speak Lorraine Franconian, but fewer than 50,000 passed basic knowledge of the language on to their children. Another statistic illustrating the same point is that of all adult men who used Franconian regularly when they were 5, less than 30% use (or used) the language regularly with their own children.Héran

Bilingual signs

image:Roussy-le-Bourg.jpg image:Grouss H.jpg

References

Sources

Auburtin, Éric. 2002. "Langues régionales et relations transfrontalières dans l’espace Saar-Lor-Lux". ''Hérodote'' 105, pp. 102–122.

Héran, François, et al. 2002. "La dynamique des langues en France au fil du XX^e siècle". ''Population et sociétés'' 376. Paris: Institut National d'Études Démographiques
INED
. *Hughes, Stephanie. 2005. Bilingualism in North-East France with specific reference to Rhenish Franconian spoken by Moselle Cross-border (or frontier) workers. In Preisler, Bent, et al., eds. ''The Consequences of Mobility: Linguistic and Sociocultural Contact Zones''. Roskilde, Denmark: Roskilde Universitetscenter: Institut for Sprog og Kultur. . *Kieffer, Jean-Louis. 2006. ''Le Platt Lorrain de poche''. Assimil.

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
{{Authority control Moselle (department) Central German languages German dialects Languages of France