Classification
Franco-Provençal's name would suggest it is a transitional language between French and the Provençal dialect of Occitan, but it is not. It is first and foremost a northern Gallo-Romance language, separate from but most closely related to the Oïl language group which includes French. As a transitional language, Franco-Provençal transitions northern Gallo-Romance into Romansh to the east, the Gallo-Italian language Piemontese to the southeast, and finally the Vivaro-Alpine dialect of Occitan to the southwest.
The philological classification for Franco-Provençal published by the Linguasphere Observatory (Dalby, 1999/2000, p. 402) follows:
- Indo-European phylosector > Romanic phylozone > Italiano+Româneasca (Romance) set > Italiano+Româneasca chain > Romance-West net > Lyonnais+Valdôtain (Franco-Provençal) reference name.
- Note: The Linguasphere language code for Franco-Provençal is: 51-AAA-j
A philological classification for Franco-Provençal published by Stanford University (Ruhlen, 1987, pp. 325–326) also follows:
- Indo-Hittite > Indo-European > Italic > Latino-Faliscan > Romance > Continental > Western > Gallo-Iberian-Romance > Gallo-Romance > North > Franco-Provençal.
Read more about this topic: Lyonnais Dialect