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Franco-Provençal (patouès, gaga, arpetan)
Native to: Italy, France, Switzerland
Region: Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Foggia, Franche-Comté, Savoie, Bresse, Bugey, Dombes, Beaujolais, Dauphiné, Lyonnais, Forez, Romandie
Native speakers: 227,000 (2013) (150,000 in France, 70,000 in Italy,
7,000 in Switzerland
Language family: Indo-European (Romance)

is a dialect group within Gallo-Romance originally spoken in east-central France, western Switzerland and northwestern Italy.

Franco-Provençal has several distinct dialects and is separate from but closely related to neighbouring Romance dialects (the langues d'oïl and the langues d'oc, in France, and Rhaeto-Romance in Switzerland and Italy).

Even with all its distinct dialects counted together, the number of Franco-Provençal speakers has been declining significantly and steadily. According to UNESCO, Franco-Provençal was already in 1995 a "potentially endangered language" in Italy and an "endangered language" in Switzerland and France. Ethnologue classifies it as "nearly extinct".

The designation Franco-Provençal (Franco-Provençal: francoprovençâl; French: francoprovençal; Italian: francoprovenzale) dates to the 19th century. In the late 20th century, it was proposed that the language be referred to under the neologism Arpitan (Franco-Provençal: arpetan; Italian: arpitano), and its areal as Arpitania; the use of both neologisms remains very limited, with most academics using the traditional form (often written without the dash: Francoprovençal), while its speakers actually refer to it almost exclusively as patois or under the names of its distinct dialects (Savoyard, Lyonnais, Gaga in Saint-Étienne, etc.).

Formerly spoken throughout the Duchy of Savoy, Franco-Provençal is nowadays spoken mainly in the Aosta Valley, in Italy. It is also spoken in the alpine valleys around Turin and in two isolated towns (Faeto and Celle di San Vito) in Puglia.

Franco-Provençal is also spoken in rural areas of French-speaking Switzerland.

In France, it is one of the three Gallo-Romance language families of the country (alongside the langues d'oïl and the langues d'oc), and it is officially recognized as a regional language of France, but its use in the country is marginal. Still, organizations are attempting to preserve it through cultural events, education, scholarly research, and publishing.

LINKS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Proven%C3%A7al_language
https://omniglot.com/writing/francoprovencal.htm
http://www.pngp.it/en/visit-park/culture-and-traditions/franco-provencal-dialect
https://blog.amara.org/2018/10/05/franco-provencal-arpitan-language-convergence-at-alpine-heights/
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/frp
https://atlas.limsi.fr/index-en.html?tab=Hexagone

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