Alsatian (French Alsacien, German Elsässisch) is a German Alemannic dialect spoken in Alsace, a region now in eastern France, and historically passing between French and German control many times.

Though not readily intelligible to speakers of standard German, it is closely related to other nearby Alemannic dialects, such as Swiss German or Swabian. It is often confused with the Frankish language, a more distantly related German West Franconian dialect. Both languages are called alsacien in French.

Many speakers write in standard German, although street names (formerly only in French, not bilingual in some places, especially Strasbourg) may use local spellings.

As the constitution of the Fifth Republic states that French is the language of the Republic, no regional language is granted any official status in France. However, the French government has included Alsatian in the list of Languages of France.

External links

• Alemannic Wikipedia (http://als.wikipedia.org/)
• Euromosaic - German in France (http://www.uoc.es/euromosaic/web/document/alemany/an/i3/i3.html) - The status of Alsatian in France.

als:Elsässisch de:Elsässische Sprache fr:Alsacien ja:アルザス語