The Resian dialect is a distinct dialect of Slovene spoken in the Resia Valley, Province of Udine

Province of Udine

The Province of Udine is a province in the autonomous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of Italy, bordering Austria and Slovenia. Its capital is the city of Udine....

, 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...

, close to the border with Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

. Because of its remote location outside of Slovenia, the dialect has phonetic properties different from standard Slovene, and from most other Slovene dialects.

Characteristics

Although not a regulated dialect (scholars consider it a dialect of Slovene rather than a different language), and without any official status in Italy, Resian is written with a Latin script different from that used for standard Slovene. The alphabet contains the letter ⟨W

W

W is the 23rd letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.In other Germanic languages, including German, its pronunciation is similar or identical to that of English V...

⟩, which is a rare grapheme among Slavic languages; the exceptions being Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

 and Sorbian

Sorbian languages

The Sorbian languages are classified under the Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. They are the native languages of the Sorbs, a Slavic minority in the Lusatia region of eastern Germany. Historically the language has also been known as Wendish or Lusatian. Their collective ISO 639-2 code...

. This grapheme—according to the Italian linguist Bartoli—is characteristic of the Ladin language of the eastern Alps and indicates the autochthonous Neolatin population's strong influence on Resian.

Historical development and linguistic features

Most contemporary scholars consider Resian a transitional dialect between the Carinthian Slovene

Carinthian dialect group

The Carinthian dialect group is a group of closely related dialects of Slovene. The Carinthian dialects are spoken by Carinthian Slovenes in Austria, in Slovenian Carinthia, and in the northwestern parts of Slovenian Styria along the upper Drava Valley, and in the westernmost areas of Upper...

 and Slovene Littoral

Littoral dialect group

The Littoral dialect group is a group of very heterogeneous dialects of Slovene. The Littoral dialects are spoken in most of the Slovenian Littoral and in the western part of Inner Carniola; they are also spoken by Slovenes in the Italian provinces of Trieste and Gorizia, and...

 dialects. Linguists identify three historical layers in the development of Resian: initially, Resian part of the Carinthian Slovene dialect of lower Gail Valley (spoken south-west of Villach

Villach

Villach is the second largest city in the Carinthia state in the southern Austria, at the Drava River and represents an important traffic junction for Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the population is 58,480.-History:...

, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, but also in the Italian municipalities of Malborghetto Valbruna

Malborghetto Valbruna

Malborghetto Valbruna is a comune in the Province of Udine in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about 100 km northwest of Trieste and about 50 km northeast of Udine, on the border with Austria. , it had a population of 1,025 and an area of 120.5 km²...

 and Tarvisio

Tarvisio

Tarvisio is a town in the Province of Udine, in the northeastern part of the autonomous Friuli–Venezia Giulia region in Italy...

, and in the town of Rateče

Ratece

-External links:** *...

 in Slovenia); in the 14th century, with the German and Friulian

Friulians

Friulians or Furlans are a linguistic minority living in Italy and elsewhere. About 530,000 of them live in the provinces of Udine and Pordenone and in parts of Gorizia and Venice. Their language, the Friulian language, is the second largest minority language in Italy. About 170,000 Friulians live...

 colonization of the Canale and Reccolana valleys, the connection with Carinthian dialects

Carinthian dialect group

The Carinthian dialect group is a group of closely related dialects of Slovene. The Carinthian dialects are spoken by Carinthian Slovenes in Austria, in Slovenian Carinthia, and in the northwestern parts of Slovenian Styria along the upper Drava Valley, and in the westernmost areas of Upper...

 was interrupted; starting from the 15th century, Resian acquired specific features of Venetian Slovenia

Venetian Slovenia

Venetian Slovenia is a small mountainous region in northeastern Italy . Most of the region is located in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the area between the towns of Cividale del Friuli, Tarcento and Gemona ....

n dialects (especially the vocabulary); the third layer is represented by specific innovations and developments, which are unique to Resian and cannot be found in any other Slovene dialect.

In addition, Resian has maintained a number of archaism

Archaism

In language, an archaism is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current. This can either be done deliberately or as part of a specific jargon or formula...

s (including the aorist

Aorist

Aorist is a philological term originally from Indo-European studies, referring to verb forms of various languages that are not necessarily related or similar in meaning...

) which have disappeared both in standard Slovene and most other Slovene dialects.

This historical development helps to understand the specifics of Resian in regards to other Slovene dialects. Regarding the vocabulary, Resian is very similar to other western Slovene dialects (both in Italy and Slovenia), especially those spoken in Venetian Slovenia

Venetian Slovenia

Venetian Slovenia is a small mountainous region in northeastern Italy . Most of the region is located in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the area between the towns of Cividale del Friuli, Tarcento and Gemona ....

, Val Canale, Brda and upper Soča Valley

Soca

The Soča or Isonzo is a 140 km long river that flows through western Slovenia and northeastern Italy. An Alpine river in character, its source lies in the Trenta Valley in the Julian Alps in Slovenia, at an elevation of around 1,100 metres...

. It however distinguishes sharply from these neighboring dialects in its phonetics. Resian sounds very different from other Slovene dialects, especially regarding the vocal system; nevertheless, some of its features are common to Carinthian Slovene dialects

Carinthian dialect group

The Carinthian dialect group is a group of closely related dialects of Slovene. The Carinthian dialects are spoken by Carinthian Slovenes in Austria, in Slovenian Carinthia, and in the northwestern parts of Slovenian Styria along the upper Drava Valley, and in the westernmost areas of Upper...

.

Mutual intelligibility with Slovene

Written Resian can mostly be understood by Slovenes, but spoken Resian is much harder to understand, especially for those from central and eastern Slovenia. Resian forms a part of the South Slavic

South Slavic languages

The South Slavic languages comprise one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches by a belt of German, Hungarian and Romanian speakers...

 dialect continuum

Dialect continuum

A dialect continuum, or dialect area, was defined by Leonard Bloomfield as a range of dialects spoken across some geographical area that differ only slightly between neighboring areas, but as one travels in any direction, these differences accumulate such that speakers from opposite ends of the...

, and shares numerous features with the dialects spoken in the Slovenian Littoral

Slovenian Littoral

The Slovenian Littoral is a historical region of Slovenia. Its name recalls the historical Habsburg crown land of the Austrian Littoral, of which the Slovenian Littoral was a part....

 and Venetian Slovenia

Venetian Slovenia

Venetian Slovenia is a small mountainous region in northeastern Italy . Most of the region is located in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the area between the towns of Cividale del Friuli, Tarcento and Gemona ....

, and communication between these communities is intelligible

Mutual intelligibility

In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort...

. However, Resian and standard Slovene are mutually unintelligible due to archaisms lost in modern Slovene, and due to significant 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...

 and Friulian influences on Resian vocabulary.

Scholars of Resian

Notable linguists who have studied the dialect include Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay, Eric Hamp, Milko Matičetov, and Roberto Dapit.

External links

• Resianic homepage, containing texts in Italian, German, Slovenian, and English, as well as a Resian-Slovenian dictionary