tipdrill541 t1_irtist4 wrote on October 10, 2022 at 10:41 PM

Reply to comment by Hapankaali in TIL according to the Census of India of 2001, India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages by Sistermateriial

What language did the French speak 100 years ago

djn808 t1_iru4cnf wrote on October 11, 2022 at 1:29 AM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vergonha

lots of them

innergamedude t1_iry4tv8 wrote on October 11, 2022 at 10:12 PM

This. "French as a language" doesn't really mean anything in a strict sense. You had a whole continuum of dialects and the powerful interests in the national government declared one of them the "real thing" and all others basically Kirkland-brand French. This is actually the case for basically any Old World country with a nationalized language. The notion that "German" is one language is laughable.

Hapankaali t1_irv0m6u wrote on October 11, 2022 at 6:39 AM

As mentioned, Occitan was a major one. Other languages with formerly large minorities include Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Dutch, Provençal (the latter is sometimes considered a variation of Occitan) and others. Of these, only Breton and Alsatian survive with a significant number of speakers today, though Alsatian is also rapidly dying.

Napoleon Bonaparte was from Corsica and not a native speaker of French.