Welche is a Gallo-Romance dialect of Lorrain

Lorrain

Lorrain may refer to:* Claude Lorrain , a 17th-century French artist of the baroque style* Lorrain language, a Romance dialect spoken in Lorraine region in France and Gaume region in Belgium- See also :* Lorain...

 spoken in Bas-Rhin

Bas-Rhin

Bas-Rhin is a department of France. The name means "Lower Rhine". It is the more populous and densely populated of the two departments of the Alsace region, with 1,079,013 inhabitants in 2006.- History :...

 and Haut-Rhin

Haut-Rhin

Haut-Rhin is a département of the Alsace region of France, named after the Rhine river. Its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less populated of the two departements of Alsace, although is still densely populated compared to the rest of France.-Subdivisions:The department...

 in the western Alsace

Alsace

Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

 in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. The varieties of this dialect are the variety of Bruche

Bruche

Bruche is a large suburb of Warrington, England.It forms the old border of Poulton and Warrington.As of 2005 it is home to the Bruche Police Training Centre, a national police training centre.- See also :...

, the variety of Villé

Villé

Villé is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.-References:*...

, the variety of Lièpvre

Lièpvre

Lièpvre is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.In the 8th century saint and abbot, Fulrad, built a monastery and filled it with relics of Saint Cucuphas.-Geography:...

, the variety of Kaysersberg

Kaysersberg

Kaysersberg is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.The inhabitants are called Kaysersbergeois. The name means Emperor's Mountain in German....

 and the variety of Orbey

Orbey

Orbey is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.-References:*...

. Welche is a dialect without numeric strength.

Welche is the French spelling of Welsch, a German word given to foreigners (i.e. non-Germanic-speaking people), derived from the term Walha

Walha

Walhaz is a reconstructed Proto-Germanic word, meaning "foreigner", "stranger", "Roman", "Romance-speaker", or "Celtic-speaker". The adjective derived from this word can be found in , Old High German walhisk, meaning "Romance", in Old English welisċ, wælisċ, wilisċ, meaning "Romano-British" and in...

. The word has the same linguistic roots as "Welsh", but is not at all similar to the Welsh language

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

.

Vocabulary

Due to its proximity to German-speaking areas, a lot of words have been borrowed from German.

External links

• http://www.linguasphere.org/langues_romanes.pdf
• http://juillot.home.cern.ch/juillot/ban_de_la_roche.html - variety of Ban de la Roche
  Ban de la Roche
  Le Ban de la Roche is the name of an ancient seigneurie and later a county. It is situated in Alsace, France, Département du Bas-Rhin. This small region is referred by its old name, because of its strong identity and it being relatively different from its neighbours although in Alsace;...