Emilian dialects

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Emilian
Emigliân, emigliàn
PronunciationIPA: [emiˈʎaːŋ]
Native toItaly
RegionPrimarily Emilia-Romagna. Border variants spoken in near Lombardy, Tuscany and Veneto's provinces.
Ethnicity3.3 million (2008)[1]
Native speakers
Unknown, c. 1.3 million (2006 estimate) (2006)[2]
Dialectssee Dialectal varieties section
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3egl
Glottologemil1241
Linguasphere51-AAA-oka ... -okh
Emilian speaking provinces of Emilia Romagna region and surrounding regions
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Emilian (Reggian, Parmesan and Modenese: emigliân, Bolognese emiliàn; Italian: emiliano) is a Gallo-Italic unstandardised language spoken in the historical region of Emilia, which is now in the western part of Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy.

Emilian has a default word order of subject–verb–object and both grammatical gender (masculine and feminine) and grammatical number (singular and plural). There is a strong T–V distinction, which distinguishes varying levels of politeness, social distance, courtesy, familiarity or insult. The alphabet, largely adapted from the Italian (Tuscan) one, uses a considerable number of diacritics.

Classification[edit]

Emilian is an unstandardized Gallo-Italic language, part of the Emilian–Romagnol dialect continuum with the bordering Romagnol varieties.

Besides Romagnol, the Gallo-Italic family includes Piedmontese, Ligurian and Lombard, all of which maintain a level of mutual intelligibility with Emilian.

Dialectal varieties[edit]

The historical and geographical fragmentation of Emilian communities, divided in many local administrations (as signorie then duchies, with reciprocal exchanges of land), has caused a high dialectal fragmentation, to the point the existence of an Emilian koiné has been questioned.

Linguasphere Observatory recognises the following dialects:[3]

Other definitions include the following:[citation needed]

  • Massese (mixed with some Tuscan features)
  • Casalasco, spoken in Casalmaggiore, Lombardy.
  • Comacchiese, as distinct from Ferrarese

Vocabulary[edit]

There is no widespread standard orthography. The words below are written in a nonspecific Emilian script.

Words in Emilian[4][5]
Emilian IPA English
êit, èlt [ɛːjt] high
lêregh [ˈlɛːrɐg] wide
longh, loangh [loŋg] long, tall
tōl, tegh [toːl], [teg] to take
fâṡ, fâż [faːz], [faːð̠] beech
bdoall [b.dœl] birch
znêr, żnèr [ð̠nɛːr] January
fervêr [fɐrˈvɛr] February
ed, ad [ɐd] and
dîṡ [diːz] to say, ten (only in Bolognese)
ê, é [e] (he/she) is
aloura [ɐˈlɔu̯rɐ] so, then

Phonology[edit]

Consonants[edit]

Consonants in the Bolognese dialect
Labial Dental Alveolar Post-alv./
Palatal
Velar
Stop/
Affricate
voiceless p t t͡ʃ k
voiced b d d͡ʒ ɡ
Fricative voiceless f θ s
voiced v ð z
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Rhotic r
Approximant central j w
lateral l ʎ
  • Affricate sounds [t͡s, d͡z] can also be heard as alternates of fricative sounds /θ, ð/ particularly among southern dialects.
  • In the Piacentino dialect, an /r/ sound can be heard as either an alveolar trill [r], or as a uvular fricative [ʁ] sound.

Vowels[edit]

Front Central Back
Close i iː y u uː
Mid e eː ø ə o oː
ɛ ɛː œ ʌ ɔ ɔː
Open æ a aː
  • Rounded front vowel sounds /y, ø, œ/ and a mid-central vowel sound /ə/ are mainly common in the Piacentino and western dialects.
  • In the Piacentino dialect, five vowel sounds being followed by /n/, are then recognized as nasalized ã õ ũ], unless /n/ occurs between two vowel sounds.
  • Vowel length is also distinguished for the following vowels [iː ɛː ɔː uː].[6][7][8]

Writing system[edit]

Emilian is written using a Latin script that has never been standardised, and spelling varies widely among the dialects.

The dialects were largely oral and rarely written until some time in the late 20th century; a large amount of written media in Emilian has been created since World War II.

References[edit]

  1. ^ Miani, Ivan (12 April 2008). "Request for New Language Code Element in ISO 639-3, page 1ISO 639-3 Registration Authority Request for New Language Code Element in ISO 639-3" (PDF). iso639-3.sil.org. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
  2. ^ Istituto nazionale di statistica (20 April 2007). La lingua italiana, i dialetti e le lingue straniere, Anno 2006 [The Italian language, dialects and foreign languages, Year 2006] (PDF) (in Italian). Retrieved 17 December 2012 – via portal-lem.com.
  3. ^ "51-AAA-ok. emiliano + romagnolo". Linguasphere.
  4. ^ Lepri, Luigi; Vitali, Daniele (2007). Dizionario bolognese-italiano, italiano bolognese / Dizionèri bulgnais-itagliàn, itagliàn-bulugnais (in Italian). Bologna: Pendragon. ISBN 978-88-8342-594-3.
  5. ^ Vocabolario reggiano-italiano (in Italian). Reggio: Torreggiani. 1832 – via Biblioteca Panizzi.
  6. ^ Foresti, Fabio (2009). Profilo linguistico dell'Emilia-Romagna (in Italian). Roma: Laterza.
  7. ^ Lepri, Luigi; Vitali, Daniele (2009). Dizionario bolognese-italiano italiano-bolognese / Dizionèri bulgnaiṡ-itagliàn itagliàn-bulgnaiṡ (2nd ed.). Bologna: Pendragon.
  8. ^ Hajek, John (1997). "Emilia-Romagna". In Maiden, Martin; Parry, Mair (eds.). The Dialects of Italy. London: Routledge. p. 275.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Colombini, F. (2007). La negazione nei dialetti emiliani: microvariazione nell'area modenese (MA thesis). University of Padua.
  • Rognoni, Luca (2013). "Il sistema fonologico del dialetto modenese". L'Italia dialettale: rivista di dialettologia italiana. Vol. 74. pp. 135–148. ISBN 9788846739957.

Further reading[edit]

  • Foresti, Fabio (1997). Bibliografia dialettale dell'Emilia-Romagna e della Repubblica di San Marino (BDER). Bologna: Compositori.
  • Mainoldi, Pietro (2000) [1950, Bologna: Società tipografica Mareggiani]. Manuale dell'odierno dialetto bolognese, Suoni e segni, Grammatica – Vocabolario. Forni. ISBN 9788827129173.
  • Tuttle, E. F. (1991). "Nasalization in Northern Italy: Syllabic Constraints and Strength Scales as Developmental Parameters". Rivista di Linguistica. III: 23–92.

External links[edit]