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The Alsatian dialect represented throughout the 19th and in the first part of the 20th century the main element of regional culture and identity. It was both a culture that was lived daily by the practice of the language and a scholarly culture expressed in various litterary forms. But since the end of the Second World War the use of the dialect is slowly declining and its litterary inspiration is failing in spite of an active support of the new media. Moreover, the dialect is being replaced by German in demands for linguistic autonomy, more especially in education. For these reasons militating in favour of a dialectal culture in Alsace is more and more difficult or even useless.