Sprachraum

Under a coherent, or even closed, linguistic area (also linguistic or linguistic landscape ) means a geographic area whose inhabitants share a common native language, with its many dialectal local versions ( dialects ).

Emergence of language areas

A linguistic or linguistic area is a region with a uniform language, usually supplemented by an ethnological unit. Language barriers arise when develop two language areas apart. So the Germans came to their own areas through the so-called first or Germanic sound shift. This, it defined clearly against their contemporaries, the Celts, Slavs and Balts.

Language areas can also overlap when two or more language groups inhabit a common area.

Language area and state

Language areas not agree mostly with national boundaries coincide, but are state across, as states are artificial creations and are in other ways, for example by royal weddings or wars, emerged. Language areas emerged, however, in the course of history through migration. Thus, the closed Central European German -speaking area includes the states of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg as well as the regions of German Switzerland in Switzerland, eastern Belgium in Belgium, South Tyrol in northern Italy and to a lesser extent even the Alsace and Lorraine in France. Some relatively closed German language areas, such as that of the Danube Swabians are externally within foreign language areas.

Since linguistic areas are not bound by state borders, States may also lie within several language areas. Switzerland lies for example in the German, French and Italian -speaking countries as well as to a smaller and smaller share of the Romansh language area. The language barriers within Switzerland have most popular names.

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