Oïl Languages

When the Roman Empire expanded through Gaul, as with most conquests, they brough their language with them, Latin. Due to natural language evolution and sometimes isolation, the language started to split, not only in Celtic Gaul, but as far as the Atlantic oast in the Iberian Peninsula. Although one could understand someone living a hundred miles away, as the distance got bigger, the intelligibility decreased. And so the Romance languages formed. In this article I'll talk about the northernmost family of Romance languages, the Oil Languages, spoken today in France and Belgium.
Today, all Oil Languages are endangered. All but one, which is actually one of the most spoken language in the world - French. Virtually all Oil Language speakers (beside French), are bilingual with French and their own language. This article will ignore French (it's not an endagered language, far from it), and I will not discuss opinions about the linguicide which lasts untill today in France (I'm in a good mood).
It's hard sometimes to define where does one language end and the other starts, because there isn't a precise border, since all those languages formed a dialectal continuum.
The reason those languages are called Oïl Languages, is the same of the Oc Languages. Both groups are defined by the word used to say "yes". For example, in French it's "oui", derived from "oil".
The northern Oil languages are Walloon, Picard and Champenois:
Walloon is the Oïl variety spoken in southern Belgium (Wallonia) and in a small parts of northern France. It should be not confused with Belgium French. Although Walloon was spoken by the majority of the population until the 20th century it has since been substituted by French and Dutch. It's recognized officially in Belgium, but only regionaly in France.
Picard is spoken in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Picardy and small areas in Wallonia (southern Belgium).
Although the language is known by its speakers by several different names (depends on the area), linguists group all the dialects with the name "Picard". The official status of Picard in Belgium and France is the same as the Walloon language.
Champenois is spoken in the French region of Champagne and small parts of southern Belgium. It's recognized regionally in both France and Belgium.
The eastern Oil languages still spoken today are Bourgignon, Franc-Comtois and Lorrain.
Bourgignon is spoken in Burgundy. When the Dukes of Burgundy moved to that area they brought their Dutch language, which influenced the native language. It also has similarities with the Arpitan language (also known as Franco-Provençal).
Franc-Comtois is spoken in Franche-Comté and parts of Switzerland.
Lorrain, not to be confused with the variety of German spoken in Lorraine, is spoken in Lorraine (duh) and the region of Gaume in Belgium, where it is known as Gaumais. It is recognized in both the region of Gaumais and France. It is strongly influenced by Lorraine's German and Luxembourgish.
The southern Oil languages weren't studied at the same level as the others, so they will be left out of this article. Most of them where also surrounded by Oc languages, before the expansion of French.
The Western Oil languages are Norman, Gallo and Poitevin.
Norman, like all languages in France (besides French), is recognized but has no official status. It is spoken in Normandy and its extinct variety of Anglo-Norman, was probably the language of William the Conqueror, who invaded England. It is influenced by Norse languages. Some linguists choose to classify Norman as a Northern Oil language.
Gallo is the native Romance language of Brittany. It shares the region with both French and Breton, a Celtic language. It was originaly spoken in the March of Neustria between Brittany and Normandy. The western variety is deeply influenced by Breton.
Poitevin is spoken in the historical border of the languages of Oil and Oc. As such it has lots of features found in the Oc languages. It was a written language since at least the 16th century. There are linguists stating that the Serments de Strasbourg, the first text in French according to the official state position in France, were actually written in Poitevin.

And that's basically it, check us out next time for the Oc languages, one of my personal favourites (outside Iberia, of course).

The Celtic Languages

The Celts where original from the Hallstatt region, in Austria. As a migratory people, they spread through Europe between the 4th and 3rd century BC, and brought their language with them, reaching modern day France, the British Islands and the Iberian Peninsula. Their language is called nowadays as Proto-Celt by linguists. As with most languages that spreaded on a large area, Proto-Celt beggan to diverge, untill it became several different languages.
Since most of those languages are extinct, this article will focus only on the living languages.
There are two main branches in the Celtic languages, brythonic and goidelic. From the brythonic branch comes the only Celtic language still spoken in the European mainland, Breton, in Brittany, France. Allthough nowadays Breton is recognized by the French Republic, it was discriminated since the dawn of the Republic (as where all other languages besides French). It shares the territory of Brittany with the French language and the Gallo language, a romance language formed in Brittany and Normandy (also a minority language).
On the other side of the English Channel, Cornish is spoken in Cornwall. Also a brythonic language, it was virtually extinct since the late 18th century but as since been the target of a revival effort with limited success.
Further north, the Welsh language is spoken in Wales. Another brythonic language, this language is in a better state compared with Cornish. It is spoken by about 15% of the welsh population, allthough suffering a slow decline. Welsh as now the same official status as English in Wales, unfortunately this hasn't avoided its decline.
North of Wales we have now the Goidelic branch. In some ways it is far more healthy than the Brythonic languages.
In Scotland we have Scottish Gaelic. It is now only spoken by about 80,000 people, specially in the Highlands, having lost ground to English. It was recognized by the Scottish Parliament in 2005.
In the Isle of Man, there is Manx Gaelic. The last known native speaker died in 1974, but like Cornish, it was the target of revival effort, with more sucess than its Brythonic "brother". It is now teached in some primary schools in Man.
In Ireland is probably the more famous Celtic language, Irish Gaelic. And definitely the most spoken. It is spoken in all of Ireland (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), allthough it is more common in the west. It is the official language of the Republic of Ireland, being also the only celtic official language of the EU. English is still the most spoken language in Ireland, except for the Gaeltachts, which are areas in the Irish western coast where Irish is still the major language.
And that's how far the Celtic languages go. See you next week, for Languages of Oc and Oil.

Introduction

There are tewnty-three official languages in the European Union nowadays. Every country's official language is by right an official language in the EU. Still, almost every member of the EU has languages spoken in their territory which aren't even recognized in some cases.
This blog objective is to talk and bring information about those languages. Before they all vanish...