Attractions in Italy

Although France is a signatory to the European Charter for Regional Languages, it has failed to ratify it because to do so would be in contravention of the current French constitution. In any event, it has been official French state policy since 1539 to promote French to the detriment of the other regional languages.This primer only focuses on languages native to France so it excludes languages such as Portuguese and Arabic (in all its forms) spoken by large but more recent immigrant communities.

Some of the languages are spoken by very small minorities (such as Franco-Provencal, Ligurian, Picard) whilst others (such as Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Dutch, Luxembourgish, Occitan) are more or less dominant in their respective regions. Given the relative importance of the latter group of languages, some of them are the subject of separate primers and are not directly covered here.

Alsatian: It is an Alemanic German dialect spoken in the Alsace region. Whilst closely related to other Alemanic German dialects, such as Swiss German, Swabian and Badisch, it is not readily intelligible to speakers of standard German. A 1999 survey found that over half a million people spoke Alsatian in France. As is typical of declining languages, the bulk of the speakers are adults and fewer and fewer children are both learning and using it.

Corsican: It is a Romance language spoken on Corsica. Classed as a southern Romance language, it has more in common with Sardinian and Italian than it has with French. According to UNESCO, the language is currently in danger of dying out and whilst official figures put the number of active speakers at around 400,000, 100,000 would probably be a more realistic number. Although the French government has promised to provide greater protection for the language as part of increased autonomy, for various political reasons nothing has been done.

Franco-Provencal: Not to be confused with Provencal, which is a variant of Occitan, Franco-Provencal is a Romance language (also known as Arpitan) born in eastern France and Switzerland now spoken to varying degrees in France, Switzerland and Italy. Franco-Provencal never achieved the importance of French, Italian or Occitan and has little official protection outside the Aosta Valley (near Turin) in Italy. However, in recent times the language has declined significantly and is on the UNESCO endangered list. Official figures put the number of speakers at around 100,000 but some studies have indicated that it is significantly lower and declining at such speed that the language could become extinct in the coming decades.

Ligurian: The language is a Romance language that is very distinct from the other Romance languages spoken in France and has definite Italian features. In addition to being spoken along the Southern Mediterranean Coast of France (near Nice), it is spoken in pockets of Northern Italy (Liguria, Northern Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna), on the islands of Corsica and Sardinia and in Monaco. Indeed the local variety, known as Munegascu, has been adopted as an official language. It is, however, very difficult to come up with reliable statistics as to the number of active speakers and all signs point to the language being in a very precarious state.

Picard: Closely related to French, and often mistakenly taken for a French dialect, Picard is spoken in Picardie, the Pas-de-Calais as well as in parts of Belgium (it should not be confused with Walloon, which is a separate Romance language). Due to its geographical proximity, Picard has been heavily influenced by modern French but is nevertheless very distinctive, in particular phonetically speaking. Although it has no official recognition in France, Picard has been recognised as a regional language by Belgium's French Community since 1990. Although by no means extinct in the sense that it is very present in regional culture, the language is being increasingly confused with regional French and ever fewer people are able to speak it. How bad the situation actually is remains unclear as reliable statistics are very hard to come by.

Model cars have been around for quite some time. Even I have to admit going through the phase of putting them together. Even as I write this, I can think of a few of the boxed sets that I would love to pick up from the shelves at the local store and piece together bit by bit. I also have to admit that my patience was never good. But, as with any other thing I have ever collected, there was one thing I always did. I always sought to learn the origin of that item. What's its history? When did people start collecting them? Maybe I wanted to see if my elders were collecting some of the same things, or sometimes I might just have been looking to see how old a hobby mine was. Never the less, everything has a history and the model cars and the collection of them is no different. So where did it begin? Keep reading!

Birth of Model Cars

In the early 1900s not so long after the first real car was introduced, Germany started producing what would become noted as the first model car. Back then, since it was around the time of war, the only people who could really afford these toys were the sons of rich businessmen. These cars were called tin plate models. The first Die cast ones though, did not come about until the late 1920s or the early 1930s. By 1950 toy companies in Japan were producing these goods.

Model Cars Go Mainstream

The model car making companies went through a dry spell in the 1960s as it cost too much to produce these things. It wasn't the products that were costing so much; it was the cost of employment that brought the slow down of producing these models. Today everyone loves to collect these old models more than when they first came out. Many companies closed down, while some switched to newer products that were either made of plastic or they later switched to the newer radio controlled cars. By the end of the craze, there were only four countries still producing the kits. They were United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Italy. As time went on, each company added more and more details to their models.

Transitioning to the Modern Era

Then in 1970, Italy burst onto the model scene with a bang. They lowered their prices, but still produced luxurious cars. They added more detail. Everyone was flocking to this brand. This brought more adults into the scene as it became more complicated to put the models together. By the 1980's and the 1990s, these manufacturers went out west where it was cheaper to produce. More markets were set up. And now, with the progression of the World Wide Web, you can even buy these babies online!

The model car has come a long way. It has helped some kids bond with fathers as the boom of adding more detail to each models was implemented. Cars can be painted any color you want them to be. And recently, the United States created companies to produce these collectable toys as well. Making them a great trademark that continues to be some people's favorite past times. Young and old and male and female are taking pride in the time and dedication it takes to put them together.