French attitude to regional languages

[Herr Dunkel]

But who's to say what's a language and what's a dialect? For all we know French could be some weird Spanish dialect. I mean of course there has to be some linguistic pride involved, but yeah. Alsatien seems pretty languagey to me.

If you go by that, Tsokanye in Russia gives rise to a new language, and Sweden is filled with Germanic languages, Switzerland has 9 languages (Two French, Four Romansch, Two Allemanic and One Austro-Bavarian language)

[communistplot]

I mean both the Romance & Germanic language groups are just large dialect continua anyway, I guess the same could be said for every language family, the "standard" varieties are just the most divergent dialects of a mother tongue. So in essence we all still speak PIE. >.>

[Herr Dunkel]

I mean both the Romance & Germanic language groups are just large dialect continua anyway, I guess the same could be said for every language family, the "standard" varieties are just the most divergent dialects of a mother tongue. So in essence we all still speak PIE. >.>

XD
So, where the laryngeals at ?
I'll get me some pretty prevelars, too, if I can

[communistplot]

Where'd the syllable final <r>'s go in non-rhotic English dialects? Where did <s> go in dialects of Spanish with debuccalisation? Such silly questions.

[Herr Dunkel]

Where'd the syllable final <r>'s go in non-rhotic English dialects? Where did <s> go in dialects of Spanish with debuccalisation? Such silly questions.

They never went anywhere, they're just hiding!

[communistplot]

Where'd the syllable final <r>'s go in non-rhotic English dialects? Where did <s> go in dialects of Spanish with debuccalisation? Such silly questions.

They never went anywhere, they're just hiding!

Good answer. xD I can respect that.

[Ducane]

When I lived in Rennes (in Brittany), I remember many of the official street signs in the city were printed in both French and Breton. I seem to recall one of my professors explaining that this was a relatively new policy that never would have happened in decades prior, reflecting a new shift toward some recognition of local languages. On the other hand though, it seems to me that this was just an expedient means of giving the city a unique flavor for the tourism industry.

[ol bofosh]

Where did <s> go in dialects of Spanish with debuccalisation?

Is that what it's called? When some Spaniards (mostly from the south, I believe) miss out the s?
Is it me or do they sometimes replace it with a breathy sound, like a glottal fricative?

[Whimemsz]

Yes, debuccalization (or I GUESS if you want to be all lame and not American, "debuccalisation") is the technical term. It's not just widespread in Andalusia though, but in virtually every dialect of Spanish, particularly in more colloquial, rural, and/or uneducated speech. It's especially ubiquitous, though, in the Caribbean, the Southern Cone, and parts of Central America (and the Canaries). The realization (total loss, [h], lengthening of following consonant, change in vowel quality, voiceless fricative which agrees in POA with following consonant, or some combination of these) varies a lot too.

[Ser]

"Debuccalization" refers to [s] > [h] only, the other stuff is treated separately. [s] is perfectly conserved in Highland Spanish (Mexico City and whereabouts, the Andean regions) and Northern Spaniard dialects though.