> >
> > Well, don't forget about Roman-ia, "land of the Romans," and cradle of
one
> > of the 6 modern Romance languages. (Can anyone name all 6?) ~alypius
>
> I can! These are French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian
and a
> language I don't know the name in English but in French we call it
> "romanche" (spoken in Switzerland). In fact, these are not the only six
> Romance languages (there are also Occitan and Catalan, for example), nor
> the only ones to have an official status (Catalan is recognized as the
> official language of Catalunia, with Spanish), but they are the only
> ones to have a status as the official language of a state (one of the
> offical language of the state in the case of Romanche which shares this
> place with French and other languages, maybe German and another one I
> don't remember).
>
> Correct me if I'm wrong but that was still true five years ago.
Catalan is the official language of Andorra, as is French.
>
> --
> Christophe Grandsire
>
> Philips Research Laboratories -- Building WB 145
> Prof. Holstlaan 4
> 5656 AA Eindhoven
> The Netherlands
>
> Phone: +31-40-27-45006
> E-mail: grandsir@natlab.research.philips.com