Gallo-Italic languages - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Gallo-Italic or Gallo-Italian is a linguistic set of Romance languages

Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...

. In accordance with a source such as Ethnologue

Ethnologue

Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...

is a subset of the Gallo-Romance languages

Gallo-Romance languages

The Gallo-Romance branch of Romance languages include French and the other langue d'oïl dialects, Occitan , Catalan, Franco-Provençal, Gallo-Italic, and other languages - Other possible classifications :...

, which also include French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

and Occitan, among others; in accordance with the major Italian linguists and dialectologists (Giovan Battista Pellegrini, Tullio De Mauro

Tullio De Mauro

Tullio De Mauro is an Italian linguist and politician.He was born in Torre Annunziata, Province of Naples. He in 1963 he published the monumental Storia linguistica dell'Italia unita...

, Maurizio Dardano, Tullio Telmon and Vincenzo Orioles, in instance) the Gallo-Italic dialects cannot be referred to as Gallo-Romance at all: due to the crucial role played by the other Italo-Romance languages in their historical formation, the Gallo-Italic dialects evolved as Italo-Romance languages as well.

Geographical distribution

Traditionally spoken in Northern Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, Southern Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, San Marino

San Marino

San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino , is a state situated on the Italian Peninsula on the eastern side of the Apennine Mountains. It is an enclave surrounded by Italy. Its size is just over with an estimated population of over 30,000. Its capital is the City of San Marino...

and Monaco

Monaco

Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...

, most Gallo-Italic languages have given way in everyday use to Standardized Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

. The vast majority of current speakers are bilingual with Italian. These languages are still spoken by immigrants

Italian diaspora

The term Italian diaspora refers to the large-scale migration of Italians away from Italy in the period roughly beginning with the unification of Italy in 1861 and ending with the Italian economic miracle in the 1960s...

in countries with Italian immigrant communities. Ligurian is formalised in Monaco as Monegasque

Monégasque language

Monégasque is a dialect of the modern Ligurian language, spoken in Monaco.- Language family :Forming a part of the Western Romance dialect continuum, Monégasque shares many features with the variety of Ligurian spoken in Genoa, but differs from its neighboring dialects Intemelio and Mentonasc. It...

.

The Venetian language

Venetian language

Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken as a native language by over two million people, mostly in the Veneto region of Italy, where of five million inhabitants almost all can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and often well understood outside Veneto, in Trentino, Friuli, Venezia...

is usually considered to belong to a different dialect community, while some publications place it among Gallo-Italic dialects.

General classification

Gallo-Italic
- Piedmontese
  Piedmontese language
  Piedmontese is a Romance language spoken by over 2 million people in Piedmont, northwest Italy. It is geographically and linguistically included in the Northern Italian group . It is part of the wider western group of Romance languages, including French, Occitan, and Catalan.Many European and...
- Ligurian
  Ligurian language (Romance)
  Ligurian is a Gallo-Romance language spoken in Liguria in Northern Italy, parts of the Mediterranean coastal zone of France, Monaco and in the villages of Carloforte and Calasetta in Sardinia. Genoese , spoken in Genoa, the capital of Liguria, is its most important dialect...
- Lombard
  - Western Lombard
    Western Lombard
    Western Lombard is a Romance language spoken in Italy, in the Lombard provinces of Milan, Monza, Varese, Como, Lecco, Sondrio, a small part of Cremona , Lodi and Pavia, and the Piedmont provinces of Novara, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and a small part of Vercelli , and Switzerland...
  - Eastern Lombard
- Emiliano-Romagnolo
  Emiliano-Romagnolo
  Emiliano-Romagnolo is a Romance language mostly spoken in Emilia-Romagna, Italy and San Marino. It belongs to the Northern Italian group within Romance languages , which is included in the wider group of western Romance languages...
  - Emilian
    Emilian language
    The term Emilian refers to a group of local languages, popularly also called dialects, which are part of the Gallo-Italic group, and are spoken in the historical region of Emilia...
  - Romagnol
    Romagnol language
    Romagnol is a Romance language mostly spoken in Romagna , Republic of San Marino and Northern Marche.-History:...

Phonology

The Gallo-Italic languages differ somewhat in their phonology from one language to another, but the following are the most important characteristics, as contrasted with standard Italian

Italian language

:

Vowels:

Most Gallo-Italic languages delete all unstressed final vowels except /a/, e.g. Lombard òm "man", füm "smoke", nef "snow", fil "wire", röda "wheel" (Italian uomo, fumo, neve, filo, ruota). They remain, however, in Ligurian, with passage of -o to -u, except after n; e.g. ramu, rami, lüme, lümi "branch, branches, light, lights" (Italian ramo, rami, lume, lumi), but can, chen /kaŋ, keŋ/ "dog, dogs" (Italian cane, cani).
u /u/ tends to change to ü /y/, as in French, as in Lombard füm (Italian fumo "smoke") and Ligurian lüme, Piedmont lüm (Italian lume "light"). In some parts, e.g. southern Piedmont, this has further developed into /i/, e.g. fis (Italian fuso), lim (Italian lume "light"). In some mountainous parts of Piedmont, however (e.g. Canavese, Biellese, Ossolano), this change is blocked before final /a/, leading to masculine crü (Italian crudo "raw") but feminine cru(v)a (Italian cruda).
So-called "metaphony" is very common, affecting original open stressed è /ɛ/ and ò /ɔ/ when followed by /i/ or sometimes /o/ (operating before final vowels were dropped). This leads at first to diphthongs ie and uo, but in many dialects these progress further, typically to monophthongs i and ö /ø/. Unlike standard Italian diphthongization, this typically operates both in open and closed syllables, hence in Lombardy (where typically /i/ but not /o/ triggers metaphony) quest (Italian questo "this") vs. quist (Italian questi "these").
Stressed closed é /e/ and sometimes ó /o/, when occurring in an open syllable (followed by at most one consonant) often diphthongize to /ei/ and /ou/, as in Old French
Old French
Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories that span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th century to the 14th century...

; e.g. Piedmont beive (Italian bere < *bévere "to drink"), teila (Italian tela "cloth"), meis (Italian mese "month"). In Piedmont, /ei/ develops further into either /ɛ/ or /i/, e.g. tèla /tɛla/ < *teila (Italian tela "cloth"), sira (Italian sera "evening"), mis (Italian mese "month").
Stressed /a/ in an open syllable often fronts to ä /æ/ or è /ɛ/.

Consonants:

Lenition
Lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a kind of sound change that alters consonants, making them "weaker" in some way. The word lenition itself means "softening" or "weakening" . Lenition can happen both synchronically and diachronically...

affects single consonants between vowels. Voiced /d/ and /g/ drop; voiced /b/ becomes /v/ or drops; unvoiced /t/ and /k/ become voiced /d/ and /g/, or drop; unvoiced /p/ becomes /b/, /v/, or drops. /s/ between vowels voices to /z/. /l/ between vowels sometimes becomes /r/, and this /r/ sometimes drops. Double consonants are reduced to single consonants, but not otherwise lenited. /n/ becomes velarized to /ŋ/. These changes occur before a final vowel drops. After loss of final vowels, however, further changes sometimes affect the newly final consonants, with voiced obstruents often becoming voiceless, and final /ŋ/ sometimes dropping. Liguria, especially in former times, showed particularly severe lenition, with total loss of intervocalic /t/, /d/, /g/, /b/, /v/, /l/, /r/ (probably also /p/, but not /k/) in Old Genoese, hence müa (Latin matura "early"), a éia e âe? (Italian aveva le ali? "does it have wings?"; modern a l'aveiva e ae? with restoration of various consonants due to Tuscan influence). In Liguria and often elsewhere, collapse of adjacent vowels due to loss of an intervocalic consonant produced new long vowels, notated with a circumflex.
Italian palatoalveolar /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ are often reduced/assibilitated to /s/ and /z/, respectively. This typically does not occur in Lombardy, however, and parts of Liguria have intermediate /ts/ and /dz/.
Italian /kj/ from Latin /kl/ is further palatalized to /ʧ/; similarly /gj/ from Latin /gl/ becomes /ʤ/. In Liguria, /pj/ and /bj/ from Latin /pl/ and /bl/ are affected in the same way, e.g. Ligurian cian (Italian piano "soft") and giancu (Italian bianco "white").
Latin /kt/ develops variously into /jt/ or /ʧ/ (contrast Italian /tt/).

Isolated varieties in Sicily

Varieties of Gallo-Italic languages are also found in Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, corresponding with the central-eastern parts of the island that received large numbers of immigrants from Northern Italy, called Lombards

Lombards of Sicily

Lombards of Sicily are a linguistic minority living in Sicily, southern Italy, speaking an isolated variety of Gallo-Italic dialects, the so called Gallo-Italic of Sicily....

, during the decades following the Norman

Normans

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...

conquest of Sicily (around 1080 to 1120). Given the time that has lapsed and the cross-fertilisation that has occurred between these varieties and the Sicilian language

Sicilian language

Sicilian is a Romance language. Its dialects make up the Extreme-Southern Italian language group, which are spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands; in southern and central Calabria ; in the southern parts of Apulia, the Salento ; and Campania, on the Italian mainland, where it is...

itself, these dialects are best described as Gallo-Italic. The major centres where these dialects can still be heard today include Piazza Armerina

Piazza Armerina

Piazza Armerina is an Italian comune in the province of Enna of the autonomous island region of Sicily.-History:...

, Aidone

Aidone

Aidone is a town and comune in the province of Enna, in region of Sicily in southern Italy.-Main sights:* Church of Santa Maria la Cava* Mother Church of San Lorenzo...

, Sperlinga

Sperlinga

Sperlinga is a comune in the province of Enna, in region of Sicily in southern Italy....

, San Fratello

San Fratello

San Fratello , formerly San Filadelfio, is a comune in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 110 km east of Palermo and about 90 km west of Messina...

, Nicosia

Nicosia (EN)

Nicosia is a city and comune of the province of Enna in Sicily, southern Italy. The vicinity traditionally contained are salt mines and arable lands...

, and Novara di Sicilia

Novara di Sicilia

Novara di Sicilia is a comune in the Province of Messina in the Italian region Sicily, located about 160 km east of Palermo and about 40 km southwest of Messina...

. Northern Italian dialects did not survive in some towns in the province of Catania

Province of Catania

Catania is a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily in Italy. Its capital is the city of Catania.It has an area of 3,552 km², and a total population of 1,073,881 . There are 58 comunes in the province, see Comunes of the Province of Catania...

that developed large Lombard

Lombard

The term Lombard refers to members of or things related, directly or indirectly, to the Lombards , a Germanic tribe that dominated northern Italy and adjoining areas from the 6th to 8th centuries...

communities during this period, namely Randazzo

Randazzo

Randazzo is a town and comune of Sicily, Italy, in the province of Catania. It is situated at the northern foot of Mount Etna, 70 km NW of Catania by rail. It is the nearest town to the summit of Etna, and is one of the points from which the ascent may be made.-History:In the 13th century the...

, Paternò

Paternò

Paternò is a town and comune in the Province of Catania, Sicily, southern Italy.-History:The site of Paternò was settled before 3500 BCE. Its inhabitants were probably the Sicani, although it was located in mainly Sicel territory; its initial name was Inessa. The modern name derives form the Greek...

and Bronte. However, the Northern Italian influence in the local varieties of Sicilian are marked. In the case of San Fratello, some linguists have suggested that the gallic-italic dialect present today has Provençal

Franco-Provençal language

Franco-Provençal , Arpitan, or Romand is a Romance language with several distinct dialects that form a linguistic sub-group separate from Langue d'Oïl and Langue d'Oc. The name Franco-Provençal was given to the language by G.I...

as its basis, having been a fort manned by Provençal mercenaries in the early decades of the Norman conquest (bearing in mind that it took the Normans 30 years to conquer the whole of the island).

Other varieties of Gallo-Italic languages, locally spoken from 13th and 14th century, are also found in Basilicata

Basilicata

Basilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...

, more precisely in the province of Potenza

Potenza

-Transportation:Potenza is a rail junction on the main line from Salerno to Taranto, managed by FS Trenitalia; it has also a connection to Altamura, served by the Ferrovie Appulo Lucane regional company...

(Tito, Picerno

Picerno

Picerno is a town and comune in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. It is bounded by the comuni of Balvano, Baragiano, Potenza, Ruoti, Savoia di Lucania, Tito, Vietri di Potenza....

, Pignola

Pignola

Pignola is a town and comune in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata.Pinot Noir from this region is commonly bottled under the Pignola label....

and Vaglio Basilicata

Vaglio Basilicata

Vaglio Basilicata is a town and comune in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. It is bounded by the comuni of Albano di Lucania, Brindisi Montagna, Cancellara, Pietragalla, Potenza, Tolve and Tricarico....

), Trecchina

Trecchina

Trecchina is a town and comune in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata....

, Rivello

Rivello

Rivello is a town and comune in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata....

, Nemoli

Nemoli

Nemoli is a town and comune in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata....

and San Costantino.

Sources

Bernard Comrie, Stephen Matthews, Maria Polinsky (eds.), The Atlas of languages : the origin and development of languages throughout the world. New York 2003, Facts On File. p. 40.
Stephen A. Wurm, Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing. Paris 2001, UNESCO Publishing, p. 29.
Glauco Sanga: La lingua Lombarda, in Koiné in Italia, dalle origini al 500 (Koinés in Italy, from the origin to 1500), Lubrina publisher, Bèrghem
Studi di lingua e letteratura lombarda offerti a Maurizio Vitale, (Studies in Lombard language and literature) Pisa : Giardini, 1983
Brevini, Franco – Lo stile lombardo : la tradizione letteraria da Bonvesin da la Riva a Franco Loi / Franco Brevini – Pantarei, Lugan – 1984 (Lombard style: literary tradition from Bonvesin da la Riva to Franco Loi )
Mussafia Adolfo, Beitrag zur kunde der Norditalienischen Mundarten im XV. Jahrhunderte (Wien, 1873)
Pellegrini, G.B. "I cinque sistemi dell'italoromanzo", in Saggi di linguistica italiana (Turin: Boringhieri, 1975), pp. 55–87.
Rohlfs, Gerhard, Rätoromanisch. Die Sonderstellung des Rätoromanischen zwischen Italienisch und Französisch. Eine kulturgeschichtliche und linguistische Einführung (Munich: C.H. Beek'sche, 1975), pp. 1–20.
Canzoniere Lombardo – by Pierluigi Beltrami, Bruno Ferrari, Luciano Tibiletti, Giorgio D'Ilario – Varesina Grafica Editrice, 1970.

Geographical distribution

General classification

Phonology

Isolated varieties in Sicily

Sources

See also