Bressan

Le Pëthiòt Prince — in Bressan dialect of Franco-Provençal language.

Bressan, a dialect of the Franco-Provençal language, was the principal language of informal communication in the Bressan countryside in France.

Franco-Provençal is a language within Gallo-Romance originally spoken in east-central France, western Switzerland and northwestern Italy. It has several distinct dialects and is separate from but closely related to neighbouring Romance dialects (the langues d’oïl and the langues d’oc, in France, and Rhaeto-Romance in Switzerland and Italy). Its speakers has been declining significantly and steadily. According to UNESCO, Franco-Provençal was already in 1995 a “potentially endangered language” in Italy and an “endangered language” in Switzerland and France. Ethnologue classifies it as “nearly extinct”.

In France, it is one of the three Gallo-Romance language families of the country (alongside the langues d’oïl and the langues d’oc). Though it is a regional language of France, its use in the country is marginal. Still, organizations are attempting to preserve it through cultural events, education, scholarly research, and publishing.