Lingualia LingualiaEurope’s regional and minority languages

Spelling

Writing language names in French

In French, language names are written in lower case, as are the corresponding adjectives (le breton, un poème en gallois), while names of peoples and inhabitants take a capital (les Bretons, les Basques)1. English, by contrast, capitalises both.

Spelling standards of the languages presented

Many regional languages have only recently had their spelling standardised, or are still debating it. A few documented examples:

Aragonese
The Aragonese Language Academy approved the orthography of Aragonese in April 2023; it was published in Aragon’s official journal in May 20232.

Sardinian
The 2018 Sardinian regional law creates the “Consulta de su sardu”, tasked with proposing a linguistic standard and spelling norm that takes account of the Campidanese and Logudorese varieties3.

Alghero Catalan
For Alghero Catalan, the same law refers to the standard set by the municipality of Alghero3.

Luxembourgish
The Centre for Luxembourgish (Zenter fir d’Lëtzebuerger Sprooch) publishes the spelling and grammar rules, after consulting the Permanent Council for the Luxembourgish language4.

Franco-Provençal
There is no single spelling: the Aosta Valley patois are often written with the BREL system (Regional Bureau for Ethnology and Linguistics), while in Piedmont the so-called “Genre” spelling is often used5.

Aromanian
A proposal for a writing system was published in 2017, and the Society of Aromanians of Athens held a workshop on writing standards and teaching the same year6.

Sources

  1. Majuscule aux noms de peuples et d’habitants, Office québécois de la langue française, Vitrine linguistique.
  2. Aragonese in Spain (Mercator Wiki), Mercator European Research Centre (Fryske Akademy).
  3. Sardaigne – Loi régionale n° 22 du 3 juillet 2018, CEFAN – Université Laval.
  4. Loi du 20 juillet 2018 relative à la promotion de la langue luxembourgeoise, Journal officiel du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg.
  5. E. Autelli, « Il francoprovenzale e il francese nell’Italia settentrionale », Linguistik online 130, Universität Bern.
  6. Aromanian in the Balkans (Mercator Wiki), Mercator European Research Centre (Fryske Akademy).