Regional 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.

"Local language" redirects here. For the concept in formal language theory, see Local language (formal language).

Internationally, for the purposes of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, "regional or minority languages" means languages that are:

Recognition of regional or minority languages must not be confused with recognition as an official language.

The spoken in the Netherlands and Germany, which belong to the Germanic family.

Frisian languages

The , a regional language spoken in Gotland and related to the Swedish language.

Gutnish language

in Kurdistan, which is an autonomous region in northern Iraq, Northwestern Iran and southeastern Turkey.

Kurdish

in northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and northwestern Iran.

Assyrian Neo-Aramaic

Wu

a regional language of Poland, has a bit under 90 thousand speakers, and is a language of the Lechitic branch, alongside Polish and Silesian.^[2]

Kashubian

a regional language in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, has around one million speakers and is closely related to Luxembourgish, Kleverlandish and Ripuarian.

Limburgish

(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.

Low German

a regional language of Scotland and Northern Ireland (both part of the United Kingdom, and where it is known as Ulster Scots in the latter location), belongs to the same family of West Germanic languages as English.

Scots

Sicilian and Venetian, regional languages spoken in Italy which also belong to the same family of standard Italian (Italo-Dalmatian).

Neapolitan

Aranese

Tibetic languages

Amdo tibetan language

and Seto, regional languages of Estonia, are either dialects of Estonian or separate Finnic languages as Estonian.

Võro

a regional language of France and Belgium, belongs to the same family of Oïl languages as French.

Walloon

Hindi

regional languages of India

a regional language of the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh and the Barak Valley of Assam, India, is often considered a dialect of Bengali but is also sometimes seen as a separate language.

Sylheti

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.

Chittagonian

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:

an official language of South Africa, is a regional language of Namibia.

Afrikaans

official in Zanzibar, a region of Tanzania.

Arabic

is the official language of Bangladesh, and is the regional language of West Bengal in India.

Bengali

one of the official standard varieties in Hong Kong and Macau (both special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China), is used as a regional language of the province of Guangdong, People's Republic of China.

Cantonese

the official language of Andorra, is a regional language in Spain (Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Valencian Community), France (Pyrénées Orientales) and Italy (Alghero, Sardinia).

Catalan

an official language of Austria, Belgium, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Switzerland, is a regional language in Italy (South Tyrol), Poland (Silesia), France (Alsace and Lorraine), Denmark (Southern) and Namibia.

German

one of the national languages of Taiwan, is spoken as a regional language in the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangxi and Fujian, People's Republic of China.

Hakka

one of the national languages of Taiwan, is spoken as a regional language in the provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong, People’s Republic of China.

Hokkien

a Uralic language and official in Hungary, is a regional language of Romania (Northern Transylvania).

Hungarian

the first official language of the Republic of Ireland, is a regional language in Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom.

Irish

one of the national language in Japan, is a regional language in Palau (Angaur Island).

Japanese

the official language of Korea, is a regional language in People's Republic of China (Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture).

Korean

the official language of Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore, is a regional language in Indonesia (Riau Province).

Malay

the official language of the Russian Federation and Belarus, is a regional language of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and other entities.

Russian

the official language of Singapore and Sri Lanka, is a regional language in India (Tamil Nadu)

Tamil

an official language of Eritrea, is a regional language in Ethiopia (Tigray Region).

Tigrinya

the official language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus, is a regional language of Kosovo.

Turkish

An official language of a country may also be spoken as a regional language in a region of a neighbouring country. For example: