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:
“Americans want action for their money. They are fascinated by its self-reproducing qualities if its put to work.... Gold-hoarding goes against the American grain; it fits in better with European pessimism than with Americas traditional optimism.”
—Paula Nelson (b. 1945)
“Mens private self-worlds are rather like our geographical worlds seasons, storm, and sun, deserts, oases, mountains and abysses, the endless-seeming plateaus, darkness and light, and always the sowing and the reaping.”
—Faith Baldwin (18931978)
“Slavery is founded in the selfishness of mans natureopposition to it, is [in?] his love of justice.... Repeal the Missouri compromiserepeal all compromisesrepeal the declaration of independencerepeal all past history, you still can not repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of mans heart, that slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth will continue to speak.”
—Abraham Lincoln (18091865)