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In Alsace, a confessionally mixed region with a Catholic majority and quite a large Protestant minority, religion and language have habitually been considered stronger cultural identity markers than national belonging. Since the Reformation, Lutheranism has traditionally been linked to Germany and the German language, while Catholicism has often been seen as connected to France and French. The present article investigates salient linguistic, religious and national features in this French border region, mainly drawn from the 17th to the 20th centuries. Furthermore, an account of interviews conducted with a Lutheran Alsatian family makes clear that these matters are still of immediate interest. The informants provide an illustration of how religion still influences language use, linguistic choices and cultural identity, and how it may contribute both to language maintenance and to the ongoing language shift from the Germanic varieties (German and Alsatian) to French.
