Editing Franconia (section)

=== Extent ===
[[File:Sakristei-Mgn.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Franconian Rake]]'' may be used as an indicator of whether a place is part of Franconia.<br />Here: the vestry of Meiningen's municipal church in South Thuringia. The Franconian Rake may be seen on the left]]
Franconia may be distinguished from the regions that surround it by its peculiar historical factors and its cultural and especially linguistic characteristics, but it is not a political entity with a fixed or tightly defined area. As a result, it is debated whether some areas belong to Franconia or not. Pointers to a more precise definition of Franconia's boundaries include: the territories covered by the former [[Duchy of Franconia]] and former [[Franconian Circle]],<ref name="reichskreis3">Rudolf Endres: ''Der Fränkische Reichskreis.'' In: ''Hefte zur Bayerischen Geschichte und Kultur 29,'' published by the House of Bavarian History, Regensburg, 2003, p.&nbsp;37, see [http://www.hdbg.de/basis/pdfs/downloads/reichskreis2.pdf online version] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304123455/http://www.hdbg.de/basis/pdfs/downloads/reichskreis2.pdf |date=2016-03-04 }} (pdf)</ref> the range of the [[East Franconian dialect group]], the common culture and history of the region and the use of the [[Franconian Rake]] on coats of arms, flags and seals. However, a sense of popular consciousness of being Franconian is only detectable from the 19th century onwards, which is why the circumstances of the emergence of a Frankish identity are disputed.<ref name="bayernradio"/> Franconia has many cultural peculiarities which have been adopted from other regions and further developed.<ref name="bayernradio"/>

The following regions are counted as part of Franconia today: the Bavarian [[Regierungsbezirk|provinces]] of [[Lower Franconia]], [[Upper Franconia]] and [[Middle Franconia]], the municipality of [[Pyrbaum]] in the county of [[Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz (district)|Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz]], the northwestern part of the [[Upper Bavaria]]n county of [[Eichstätt (district)|Eichstätt]] (covering the same area as the old county of Alt-Eichstätt), the East Franconian counties of [[South Thuringia]], parts of [[Fulda (district)|Fulda]] and the [[Odenwaldkreis]] in Hesse, the Baden-Württemberg regions of [[Tauber Franconia]] and [[Hohenlohe]] as well as the region around the Badenian [[Buchen (Odenwald)|Buchen]].

In individual cases the membership of some areas is disputed. These include the [[Bavarian language]] area of Alt-[[Eichstätt]]<ref name="bayernradio">[https://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/sendungen/zeit-fuer-bayern/franken-brauchtum-region-mundart-kueche-100.html ''Was ist fränkisch? Wie eine Region definiert wird''], Bayerischer Rundfunk, Bayern 2</ref> and the Hessian-speaking<ref>[http://sprachatlas.bayerische-landesbibliothek-online.de/ Sprachatlas der BLO] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120629002123/http://sprachatlas.bayerische-landesbibliothek-online.de/ |date=2012-06-29 }}, retrieved 1 July 2014.</ref> region around [[Aschaffenburg]], which was never part of the Franconian Imperial Circle. The affiliation of the city of [[Heilbronn]], whose inhabitants do not call themselves Franks,<ref name="heilbronn">Ulrich Maier (Justinus-Kerner-Gymnasium Weinsberg): ''Schwäbisch oder fränkisch? Mundart im Raum Heilbronn Bausteine zu einer Unterrichtseinheit.'' [http://www.projekte-regional.de/inhalt/hn/bausteine/mundart.pdf see online pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304130208/http://www.projekte-regional.de/inhalt/hn/bausteine/mundart.pdf |date=2016-03-04 }}</ref> is also controversial. Moreover, the sense of belonging to Franconia in the Frankish-speaking areas of [[Upper Palatinate]], South Thuringia<ref>[http://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/thueringer-landkreise-zieht-es-nach-bayern-ominoeses-frankenbewusstsein-1.1596205 ''"Ominöses Frankenbewusstsein"''], ''[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]]'' dated 10 February 2013, retrieved 5 May 2016.</ref> and Hesse is sometimes less marked.