A regional language is a language tied to a particular part of a country rather than to the whole of it. The term is used loosely in everyday speech and more precisely in law, such as the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
Key takeaways
- A regional language is associated with one area of a country, and may or may not be official there.
- In law, the European Charter covers languages traditionally used in a state that differ from its official languages, and leaves classification to each state.
- Catalan is spoken in Spain, France, Andorra and Italy, with about 4.9 million first-language speakers (llengua.gencat.cat, 2021).
- The map does not label languages as regional, so check each country's own rules.
How the term works
In everyday use, a regional language is one associated with a particular part of a country, as opposed to one used across the whole state. The word carries no fixed numerical or legal meaning on its own, and it is often paired with "minority" in official texts [2].
The clearest formal use is the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. It applies to languages traditionally used by the nationals of a state that differ significantly from the majority or official language [1]. A language qualifies either because it has a territorial basis, or because it is used by a linguistic minority across the whole state, as with Yiddish and Romani [1]. The Charter excludes the languages of recent migrants and does not let states protect what they regard as local dialects of the official language [1].
The Charter gives no definition of its own. Classification stays in the hands of each state [1]. As a result, the same language can be treated differently in different places, and some states link recognition to national minorities defined by ethnic, cultural or religious criteria instead [1]. A language that is official only within one region, such as Catalan in Spain, is not a state-level official language, and can benefit from the Charter [1].
An example from our data
Catalan is spoken in Spain, France, Andorra and Italy, so it crosses four national borders. Our data gives it about 4.9 million first-language speakers (llengua.gencat.cat, 2021), a figure that is approximate, and Glottolog rates it threatened. It is also the kind of language the Charter's commentary describes as official in a region without being a state-level official language [1].
Scottish Gaelic is tied to a part of one country, United Kingdom. It has about 60,000 speakers (Ethnologue, 2011) and is rated shifting. Basque is spoken across Spain and France. Whether these are called regional, minority or something else depends on who is speaking, and the map takes no side.
The thing people get wrong
Regional does not mean unofficial, and it does not mean a dialect. A regional language can have official status in its own region, schools and broadcasting. Whether a variety is a language or a dialect is often disputed, and the answer can depend on politics as much as on how speech differs. See language vs dialect.
It is also not a fixed category on this map. The shapes on the map show where a language has traditionally been spoken, taken from an atlas, and say nothing on its legal status.
Regional vs minority
| Regional language | Minority language | |
|---|---|---|
| Based on | Place within a country | Number of speakers in a territory |
| Can be a majority language? | Yes, within its region | No, by definition in that territory |
| Fixed legal meaning? | Only in specific laws | Only in specific laws |
Frequently asked questions
Is a regional language the same as a dialect?
No. Dialects of an official language are excluded from the European Charter, so a regional language there is one that differs significantly from the official language.
Does this map mark regional languages?
No. It colours languages by family and shows Glottolog's endangerment status, not legal categories.
Sources
- European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Wikipedia.
- Minority language, Wikipedia.
- Every figure from our own map is worked out from the datasets on the data sources page (checked against Glottolog and Glottography, retrieved 13 October 2026).