Traditional Geographical Extension
Historically, various Gallo-Romance languages were spoken in France, except for some outlying regions (Corsica, western Brittany, the Basque Country, Flanders, Alsace and part of Lorraine); the Wallonia region of Belgium; the Romandy region of western Switzerland; the Channel Islands; the Eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula; and in Northern Italy.
Today, a single Gallo-Romance language (French) dominates most of this geographic region (including the formerly non-Romance areas of France), and has also spread overseas. Another, Franco-Provençal, is still commonly spoken in Italy's Aosta Valley. Conversely, English (a Germanic, rather than Romance, language) is now predominant in the Channel Islands.
Read more about this topic: Gallo-Romance Languages
Famous quotes containing the words traditional, geographical and/or extension:
“The developments in the North were those loosely embraced in the term modernization and included urbanization, industrialization, and mechanization. While those changes went forward apace, the antebellum South changed comparatively little, clinging to its rural, agricultural, labor-intensive economy and its traditional folk culture.”
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“While you are divided from us by geographical lines, which are imaginary, and by a language which is not the same, you have not come to an alien people or land. In the realm of the heart, in the domain of the mind, there are no geographical lines dividing the nations.”
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“A dense undergrowth of extension cords sustains my upper world of lights, music, and machines of comfort.”
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