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Italian Language

Italian language

Italian (Italian: ) is a Romance language spoken by about 70 million people primarily in Italy. Standard Italian is based on Tuscan dialects and is somewhat intermediate between the languages of Southern Italy and the Gallo-Romance languages of the North. Like many languages it is written using the Latin alphabet, Italian has double consonants. However, contrary to, for example, French and Spanish, double consonants are pronounced as long (geminated) in Italian. As in most Romance languages (with the notable exception of French), stress is distinctive. Out of the Romance languages, Italian is generally considered to be the one most closely resembling Latin in terms of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.

History

The history of the Italian language is quite complex but the modern standard of the language was largely shaped by relatively recent events. The earliest surviving texts which can definitely be called Italian (as opposed to its predecessor Vulgar Latin) are legal formulae from the region of Benevento dating from A.D. 960-963. Italian was first formalized in the 14th century through the works of Dante Alighieri, who mixed southern Italian dialects, especially Sicilian, with his native Tuscan in his epic poems known collectively as the Commedia, to which Boccaccio later affixed the title Divina. Dante's much-loved works were read throughout Italy and his written dialect became the canonical standard that others could all understand. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language. Italian has always had a distinctive dialect for each city, since the cities were up until recently city-states. Italians generally believe that the best spoken Italian is lingua toscana in bocca romana - 'the Tuscan tongue, in a Roman mouth' (Tuscan dialects spoken with Roman inflection). The Romans are known for speaking clearly and distinctly, while the Tuscan dialect (supposedly derived from Etruscan and Oscan), is the closest existing dialect to Dante's now-standard Italian. In contrast to the dialects of northern Italy, the older southern Italian dialects were largely untouched by the Franco-Occitan influences introduced to Italy, mainly by bards from France, during the middle ages. (See La Spezia-Rimini Line.) The economic might and relative advanced development of Tuscany at the time (late middle ages), gave its dialect weight, though Venetian remained widespread in medieval Italian commercial life. Also, the increasing cultural relevance of Florence during the periods of 'Umanesimo' and Rinascimento (Renaissance) made its vulgare (dialect) a standard in the arts.

Classification

Italian is most closely related to the other two Italo-Dalmatian languages, Sicilian and the extinct Dalmatian. The three are part of the Italo-Western grouping of the Romance languages, which are a subgroup of the Italic branch of Indo-European.

Geographic distribution

Italian is the official language of Italy and San Marino, and is an official language in Ticino and Grigioni cantons of Switzerland. It is also the second official language in Vatican City and in some areas of Istria in Slovenia and Croatia with an Italian minority. It is widely used by immigrant groups in Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium, the United States, Canada, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia, and is also spoken in neighbouring Albania. It is spoken, to a much lesser extent, in parts of Africa formerly under Italian rule such as Somalia, Libya and Eritrea. It is also widely known and taught in Monaco and in the neighbouring island of Malta and served as an official language of the country until English was enshrined in the 1934 Constitution. Italian is widely taught in many schools around the world, but rarely as the first non-native language of pupils. In anglophone parts of Canada, Italian is, after French, the second most taught language. In the United States and the United Kingdom, Italian ranks fourth (after Spanish-French-German and French-German-Spanish respectively). Throughout the world, Italian is the fifth most taught non-native language, after English, French, Spanish and German.

Official status

Italian is an official language of Italy, the European Union, San Marino, Switzerland and Vatican City. It is also an official language in the Istria County (Croatia) and municipalities of Koper, Piran and Izola (Slovenia).

Dialects and regional languages of Italy

:See Italian dialects The dialects of Italian identified by the Ethnologue are Tuscan, Abruzzese, Pugliese (Apulian), Umbrian, Laziale, Central Marchigiano, Cicolano-Reatino-Aquilano, and Molisan. On the contrary Ethnologue and the Red book on endangered languages of UNESCO consider Piemontese, Lombard, Ligurian, Emiliano-Romagnolo, Venetian, Friulian, Neapolitan-Calabrese or Tricalabro (a range including Neapolitan and Sicilian) and Sardinian as regional minority languages, structurally separated from Italian. Most Italians, however, refer to these simply as "dialect", with the exception of Sardinian, which is usually recognized language status. Also the Corsican language has strong similarities to Italian and most linguists consider it as a Tuscany dialect, the closest to modern Italian. Many of the so-called dialects of Italian spoken around the country are different enough from standard Italian to be considered separate languages by most linguists and some speakers themselves. Thus a distinction can be made between "dialects of (standard) Italian" and "dialects (or languages) of Italy". A link to an Italian site with translation features between Italian dialects and Italian: [http://www.dialettando.com]

Cultural acceptance of dialects

The dialect of Tuscany became the basis for what would become the official language of Italy, by way of the famous Tuscan author Dante Alighieri. Alighieri and other Tuscan poets were inspired by the Sicilian koine wanted by the Sicilian School under holy roman emperor Frederick II. His project (in which Giacomo da Lentini invented the sonnet) was accomplished by enriching the Sicilian language with new words adapted from French, Latin, and Apulian. The Sicilians produced a collection of love-poems which can be considered the first standard Italian ever produced, though it was only used for literary purposes until Guittone d'Arezzo. When the Svevs dynasty ended the Tuscans and Dante re-discovered it (see De Divina Eloquentia and Vita Nova)and integrated the Sicilians into Florence's linguistic heritage. Dolce stil novo, the platonic school of courtly love can be considered the link between the old southern school and Tuscan poetry which aimed to express the new intellectual sensibility and fervor of the newly-born city-states, as Florence. Dante's work, Divina Commedia was the first of its kind to be written in a dialect (though sensibly enriched compared with its spoken counterpart), as opposed to the traditional Latin. The success of his work spread the Florentine dialect, and gave it prestige and acceptance. For this he is referred to as the father of the Italian Language. By the time Italy was unified 1861, and Rome was annexed (1870) the Italian standard had further been influenced by Florentine through the work of the Accademia della Crusca (Cardinal Pietro Bembo and followers). Bembo laid the foundation for what is today's modern standard. But Bembo was a purist and had accepted no other influence than that from Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio. As time went on, the language was losing touch with linguistic change, and could not put up with technology and science. The much-needed update would have to wait a little longer until, in what is commonly regarded as the first modern novel of the Italian literature, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed) (Alessandro Manzoni further refined its widely read novel by "rinsing" it in the waters of the Arno (Florence's river), as he states in his 1840 Preface. However, Manzoni refused the Crusca's purist, written Florentine-only attitude and admitted a certain influence from other dialects, though he reduced it as compared to the first edition of (1821). After unification the huge number of civil servants and soldiers recruited from all over the country introduced many more words and idioms from their home dialects ("ciao" is Venetian, "panettone" is Milanese etc.), in fact confirming Manzoni's linguistic views. Tuscan has thus become one of the twenty official dialects of Italy. Though technically speaking the division between dialect and language is purely conventional, it has been used by scholars, for eg. by Francesco Bruni, to distinguish between the languages that made up the Italian koine, and those which had very little or no part in it, as Albanian, Greek, Südtirolean, Ladino, Friulian and Occitan, still spoken by small ethnic or linguistic minorites. Dialects are generally not used for general communication, e.g. on TV, but are limited to groups of people who can actually speak them and to informal contexts. Speaking dialect is often shunned upon in Italy as it is a sign of lacking education. Younger generations, especially those under 35 (though it may vary in different areas), speak almost exclusively standard Italian in all situations, usually with a slight local accent. Dialects have their share of enthusiasts, but this is a small niche of the population. The promotion of dialects by some political forces as the Lega Nord has possibly damaged rather than promoted their status. Dialects are often used in movies to provide comic relief or to produce stereotypes: northern dialects can be connected to greedy merchants; a Roman accent is associated with arrogant, simple-minded bullies; Neapolitan reminds of dishonest, cunning slackers, and, even in Italy, Sicilian is often associated with the mafia. However, many screenwriters also explore the more expressive and spontaneous features of a dialect, often to challenge the common cliches and present a richer, less explored reality.

Sounds

Vowels

Italian has seven vowel phonemes: , , , , , , . The 'couples' ( - ) and ( - ) get mixed up in spoken Italian, even though each variety of Italian employs both phonemes consistently: compare, for example: (because) and (you listen), employed by some northern speakers, with and , as pronounced by most central and southern speakers. As a result, the usage is strongly indicative of a person's origin. The standard (Tuscan) usage of these vowels is listed in vocabularies, and employed outside Tuscany mainly by the more educated people, especially actors and (television) journalists. These are truly different phonemes, however: compare (fishing) and (peach), both spelled "pesca" (). Similarly (barrel) and (beatings), both spelled as "botte", discriminate and (). In general, vowel combinations usually pronounce each vowel separately. Diphthongs exist, (e.g. "uo", "iu", "ie", "ai"), but are limited to the pattern: (unstressed "u" or "i", or zero) + (stressed vowel) + (unstressed "u" or "i", or zero) The unstressed "u" in a diphthong approximates the English semivowel "w", the unstressed "i" approximates the semivowel "y". E.g.: buono, ieri. As a semivowel, "j" is an alternate spelling of i, currently obsolete but common until early 20th century and preserved in specific words like "Jesi" (a town) or "Jacopo" (a first name). Triphthongs are limited to a diphthong plus an unstressed "i". (e.g. miei, tuoi.) Other sequences of three vowels exist (e.g. noia, febbraio), but they are not triphthongs; they consist of a vowel followed by a diphthong.

Consonants

Two symbols in a table cell denote the voiceless and voiced consonant, respectively. The phoneme undergoes assimilation when followed by a consonant, e.g., when followed by a velar ( or ) it's pronounced , etc. Italian plosives are not aspirated (unlike in English). Italian speakers hear the difference as a foreign accent. Italian has geminate, or double, consonants, which are distinguished by length. Length is distinctive for all consonants except for , , , , which are always geminate, and which is always single. Geminate plosives and affricates are realized as lengthened closures. Geminate fricatives, nasals, and are realized as lengthened continuants. Geminate is realized as the trill .

Assimilation

Italian has few diphthongs, and so most unfamiliar diphthongs heard in foreign words (in particular, those with a first vowel that is not "i" or "u", or a first vowel that is stressed), will be assimilated as the corresponding dieresis (i.e., the vowel sounds will be pronounced separately: "strive" and "hive" will rhyme with "naïve").

Grammar

see Italian grammar.

Writing system

Italian grammar Italian is written using the Latin alphabet. The letters J, K, W, X and Y are not part of the standard Italian alphabet, but are seen in imported words (such as jeans, whiskey, taxi). J may also appear in many words from different dialects. Each of these foreign letters had an Italian equivalent spelling: gi, ch, u, cs or s, and i, but these are now obsolete.
- Italian uses the acute accent over the letter E (as in perché, why/because) to indicate a mid-close vowel, and the grave accent (as in tè, tea) to indicate a mid-open vowel. The grave accent is also used on letters A, I, O, and U to mark the stress position when it is on the last letter of a word (for instance gioventù, youth). Typically, the penultimate syllable is stressed. If other syllables are stressed, no accent is marked, as is instead done in Spanish.
- The letter H is always silent when it begins a word, and is only used to distinguish ho, hai, ha, hanno (present indicative of avere, to have) from o (or), ai (to the), a (to), anno (year). H is otherwise used for some combinations with other letters (see below), but the /h/ sound does not exist in Italian.
- The letter Z is pronounced , or sometimes , depending on context, though there are few minimal pairs. The same goes with S, which can be pronounced or . However, these two phonemes are in complementary distribution everywhere except between two vowels in the same word, and even in such environment there are extremely few minimal pairs, therefore this distinction is being lost in most accents.
- The letters C and G are affricates: as in "chair" and as in "gem", respectively, before the front vowels I and E. They are pronounced as plosives , (as in "call" and "gall") otherwise1. But, the normally silent H is added between CI, CE, GI or GE if the consonant is to be a plosive. For example: : :1(Front/back vowel rules for C and G are similar in French, Romanian, and to some extent English (including Old English). Swedish and Norwegian have similar rules for K and G. See also palatalization.)
- There are two special digraphs in Italian: GN and GL. GN is always pronounced , and GL is pronounced ) but only before i, and never when at the beginning of the word, except in the plural form gli of the masculine definite article. (Compare with Spanish "ñ" and "ll", Portuguese "nh" and "lh".)
- In general all letters are clearly pronounced, and always in the same way. (The only notable allophonic variations in the pronunciation of phonemes in standard Italian are the assimilation of /n/ before consonants, and vowel length (vowels are long in stressed open syllables, and short elsewhere) — compare with the enormous number of allophones of the English phoneme /t/. Spelling is clearly phonetic and difficult to mistake given a clear pronunciation. Exceptions are generally only found in foreign borrowings. There is less dyslexia than in languages like English.

Usage among Younger Generations

Some variations in the usage of the writing system may be present in practical use. Most scholars consider these to be mistakes, but they are so common that knowledge of these may be useful to read an Italian text.
- Usage of x instead of per: this is very common among teenagers and in SMS abbreviations. Since per means "to", "for you" becomes x te, similar to the English 4 U. Words containing per can also have it substituted with x, and once an university student allegedly pronounced the surname of Italian revolutionary Nino Bixio as Biperio at an oral exam[http://pacs.unica.it/rassegna/rassegna0905.txt]. Perché (both "why" and "because") is often shortened as x`.
- Usage of foreign letters such as k, j and y, especially in nicknames and SMS language: ke instead of che, Giusy instead of Giuseppina. This is curiously mirrored in the usage of i in English names such as Staci instead of Stacey, or in the usage of c in Northern Europe (Jacob instead of Jakob). The letter k also appears to give words a certain strenght and threatening aspect, possibly because it is associated with Germany. Politician Francesco Cossiga used to be nicknamed Kossiga by rioting students as early as 1968, because of his role as minister of internal affairs.
- Accents are often substituted by apostrophes, such as in perche instead of perché. È is particularly rare, as it is absent from the Italian keyboard layout. Few are aware of the distinction between grave and acute accents.

Examples


- cheers (generic toast): salve
- English: inglese
- good-bye: arrivederci
- hello: ciao (informal); buongiorno (good morning/good afternoon), buonasera (good evening)
- Yes: sì /si/
- No: no
- Sorry: scusi //
- Again: ancora //
- Always: sempre //
- When: quando /kwando/
- Why? / Because: perché /per'ke/
- how much?: quanto (masculine); quanta (feminine)
- thank you!: grazie!
- you're welcome!: prego!

Sample texts

You can hear a recording of Dante's Divine Comedy read by Lino Pertile at http://etcweb.princeton.edu/dante/pdp/. From the Holy Bible, Luke 2, 1-7 (for an English version see http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=luke+2) You can listen to a rendition of this text as recorded by an Italian native speaker from Milan. 2:1 In quei giorni, un decreto di Cesare Augusto ordinava che si facesse un censimento di tutta la terra. 2 Questo primo censimento fu fatto quando Quirino era governatore della Siria. 3 Tutti andavano a farsi registrare, ciascuno nella propria città. 4 Anche Giuseppe, che era della casa e della famiglia di Davide, dalla città di Nazaret e dalla Galilea si recò in Giudea nella città di Davide, chiamata Betlemme, 5 per farsi registrare insieme a Maria, sua sposa, che era incinta. 6 Proprio mentre si trovavano lì, venne il tempo per lei di partorire. 7 Mise al mondo il suo primogenito, lo avvolse in fasce e lo depose in una mangiatoia, poiché non c'era posto per loro nella locanda.

See also


- Italian phonology
- Sicilian School
- Veronese Riddle

External links


-
- [http://www.ielanguages.com/italian.html Italian Language Tutorial at ielanguages.com]
- [http://www.ilm.it/ Italian Language School]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Italian-english/ Italian English Dictionary] from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition
- [http://www.garzantilinguistica.it A free Italian-English Dictionary, Italian Dictionary, and Thesaurus] from Garzanti Linguistica (in Italian, requires free registration)
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ita Ethnologue report on Italian]
- [http://www.applelanguages.com/en/learn/italian/italy.php/ Learn Italian in Italy]
- [http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/languages/italian/index.html A profile of the Italian language]
- [http://www.dicts.info/dictlist1.php?k1=53 All free Italian dictionaries]
- [http://italian-language-test.scuolaleonardo.com/ Test your Italian - Free Italian language test]
- [http://www.centropuccini.it/ Learn Italian in Italy by the sea]
- [http://www.locuta.com/ Centro Studi Italiani]
- [http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/modlang/carasi/site/pageone.html Online Italian language course]
- [http://www.loecsen.com/travel/discover_pop.php?lang=en&to_lang=8&learn-Italian/ Learn and listen to useful expressions in Italian]
- Category:Languages of Italy Category:Languages of Switzerland Category:Languages of Vatican City Category:Languages of San Marino Category:Languages of Slovenia als:Italienische Sprache ko:이탈리아어 ja:イタリア語 simple:Italian

Romance languages

The Romance languages, also called Romanic languages or New Latin languages, are a subset of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Latin dialects spoken by the common people in what is known as Latin Europe (Italian/Portuguese/Spanish Europa latina, Catalan Europa llatina, French Europe latine, Romanian Europa latină) as Vulgar Latin later evolved in different areas after the break-up of the Roman Empire. Romance language native speakers:
- Western Group:
  - Iberian and Americas: Spanish (300 million native speakers), Portuguese (230 million), Catalan (6.5 million), Galician (4 million)
  - France: French (65 million), Occitan (2 million)
  - Switzerland: Romansh (66,000)
  - Italy: Sardinian (300,000), Northern Italian dialects, Dolomites Ladin, Friulian
- Eastern Group:
  - Italy: Italian (60 million), Central and Southern Italian dialects including Corsican language, Sicilian
  - Romania and Moldova: Romanian (30 million) Many of the differences from the Romance languages in relation to Latin are analytical: articles and prepositions instead of declension, use of auxiliary verbs for the composite verbs, etc. The daughter languages of Latin differ for several reasons: historical isolation, influence of prior languages in territories of Latin Europe that fell under Roman rule, invasions and instability after the fall of Rome, and contact with other cultures in the Renaissance, among others.

History

The term "Romance" comes from the Romance word romance or romanz, from Latin romanice, the adverbial form of romanicus, in expressions like parabolare romanice ("to speak in Roman"). The modern Romance languages differ from Classical Latin in a number of fundamental respects:
- No declensions, that is, they generally no longer alter a noun to indicate its grammatical role, though there may be a few exceptions such as in pronouns. An exception is Romanian, which continues to use declensions.
- Only two grammatical genders, rather than the three of Classical Latin (except Romanian and Italian to a small extent, and except several gender-neutral pronouns in Spanish, Italian, Catalan etc.)
- Introduction of grammatical articles, based on Latin demonstratives
- Latin future tense scrapped, and new future and conditional tenses introduced, based on infinitive + present or imperfect tense of habere (to have), fused to form new inflections.
- Latin synthetic perfect tenses replaced by new compound forms with be or have + past participle (except Portuguese, where the Latin plusquamperfect tense has been retained and Romanian, which has 2 perfect tenses - one synthetic and one compound - that have the same meaning and also has a synthetic plusquamperfect tense in the indicative mood that is formed using the suffix "-se", derived from the suffix used in Latin to form the subjunctive plusquamperfect, "-isse").

Status

The most spoken Romance language is Spanish, followed by Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian and Catalan. Generally, the Romance languages have simplified the complex morphology and grammar of Latin. Italian, Sardinian and Romanian retain more original features than the rest. The Romance variants form a dialect continuum, and nearby languages usually have some mutual intelligibility. Portuguese and French are perhaps the most innovative of the languages, each in different ways. Sardinian is perhaps the most isolated and conservative variant. Languedocian Occitan is considered by some the most "average" western Romance language. In the history of the Romance languages, the first split was between Sardinian and the rest. Then of the rest, the next split was between Romanian in the east, and the others in the west. The third major split was between Italian and the Gallo-Iberian group. This latter then split into a Gallo-Romance group, which became the Oïl languages (including French), Occitan, Francoprovençal and Romansh, and an Iberian Romance group which became Spanish and Portuguese. Catalan is considered by many specialists as a transition language between the Gallic group and the Iberian group, since it shares characteristics from both groups; for example, 'fear' is 'medo' in Portuguese, 'miedo' in Spanish, but 'por' in Catalan — compare with 'peur' in French. There is much dialect diversity, and there is no clear differentiation between a "language" and a "dialect". Some varieties are privileged in that they are the main language of media and education in their countries (French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian and, recently, Catalan, although it is not as spread on the media as the other cited languages are, particularly in Valencia and the Balearic Islands, where its presence on local newspapers and radio stations is almost minoritary; it is also much neglected in the area of the French state where it is spoken). Others are used as the language of instruction in schools and have some official status, such as Sardinian and Romansh. Many have suffered long periods of official neglect, such as Occitan (or Provençal), the Oïl languages other than French, and Venetian. Some of these possess several competing standards. And some minor variants which might have developed into distinct languages have been reduced to residual areas and restricted usage, like Astur-Leonese, Aragonese or Mirandese.

Typical characteristics

Characteristics typical of Romance languages include:
- General:
  - Romance languages are "verb-framed" rather than "satellite-framed". This means that phrases indicating motion will tend to encode the motion's direction within the verb (e.g. "enter", "insert"), rather than in an external particle (e.g. "go in", "put in"). This is a feature of word formation.
  - Romance languages frequently have two copula verbs (see Romance copula), from the Latin infinitives ESSE and STARE: one for essence and the other for status.
  - Romance languages conjugate verbs in first, second, and third person forms, both singular and plural. The third person forms may also be inflected for gender, but the first- and second-person forms are not (compare with Hebrew, which inflects all three persons for gender and number.)
  - Politeness forms include some form of the T-V distinction in all Romance languages.
  - Romance languages have 2 or 3 genders for all nouns, but usually do not inflect nouns for case, though their parent Latin did.
  - Romance languages include a default stress on the second-last syllable, and have euphony rules that avoid glottal stops, and multiple stop consonants in a row. (The second-last syllable becomes the last in languages like French that habitually drop the final Latin vowel.) The combination of these rules gives spoken Romance languages their characteristic high speed and flow. Compare Polish second-to-last stress.
- Written form only:
  - The letters "W" and "K" are rarely used (except in names or borrowings, for example Kappa, or w in standard Walloon orthography).
  - The letters "C" and "G" are usually "soft" postalveolar consonants before a front vowel, but "hard" velar consonants by default, or before a back vowel.
  - In most Romance languages, proper adjectives (including nationalities, such as American and British), names of days of the week and months of the year are not capitalized. For example, nationalities are capitalized in French only when used as nouns.

Distinguishing features

Evolution compared to Latin

According to the results of the study of M. Pei in 1949, which compares the evolution degree of the languages with respect of their inheritance language (in the case of Romance languages the Latin language), here are the evolution degrees:
- Sardinian: 8 %;
- Italian: 12 %;
- Spanish: 20 %;
- Romanian: 23.5 %;
- Occitan: 25 %;
- Portuguese: 31 %;
- French: 44 %.

Formation of plurals

Some Romance languages form plurals by adding /s/ (derived from the plural of the Latin accusative case), while others form the plural by changing the final vowel (by influence of the Latin nominative ending /i/). See La Spezia-Rimini Line for more information.
- Plural in /s/: Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, Occitan, French, Sardinian.
- Vowel change: Italian, Romanian.

Omission of final Latin vowels

Some Romance languages have lost the final unstressed vowels from the Latin roots. For example: Latin lupus, luna become Italian lupo, luna but French loup /lu/), lune (/lyn/).
- Final vowels retained: Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Romanian (Southern dialects and old Romanian).
- Final vowels retained in feminine gender only: Catalan, Occitan, Romanian (Daco-Romanian).
- Final vowels dropped: French. Romance languages dropping the final vowel have one less syllable: the usual "penultimate syllable" accent is on the last syllable in these languages.

Words for "more"

Some Romance languages use a version of Latin plus, others a version of magis.
- Plus-derived: French plus /ply/, Italian più /pju/, dialectal Catalan pus /pus/ (this word is exclusively used on negative statements in Mallorcan Catalan)
- Magis-derived: Portuguese (mais), Spanish (más), Catalan (més), Occitan (mai), Romanian (mai), Italian (mai, used only in the construction non...mai, meaning "never")

The number 16

In some languages the word for the number 16 is irregular after the fashion of English "sixteen", as are all the Romance numerals from 11 to 15. In other Romance languages, 16 is literally "ten and six", like the numbers from 17 to 19.
- "Sixteen": Catalan, Occitan, French, Italian, Romanian.
- "Ten and six": Portuguese, Spanish.

To have and to hold

The verbs derived from Latin habere and tenere are used differently for the concepts of "to hold", "to have", "to have" (auxiliary for complex tenses), and existence statements ("there is"). For instance, in French, je tiens, j'ai, j'ai fait, il y a: these are respectively derived from tenere, habere, habere and habere. If we use T for tenere and H for habere, in these four meanings, we can encode the difference as follows:
- TTTT: Some varieties of Brazilian Portuguese.
- TTTH: Portuguese/Galician.
- TTHH: Spanish, Catalan.
- THHH: Occitan, French. There is also essere in Italian and este in Romanian, used for "to be":
- THHE: Romanian, Italian

To have or to be

Some languages use their equivalent of "have" as an auxiliary verb to form the perfect forms (e. g. French passé composé) of all verbs; others use "be" for some verbs and "have" for others.
- "Have" only: Catalan, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian.
- "Have" and "be": Occitan, French, Italian. In the latter, the verbs which use "be" as an auxiliary are unaccusative verbs, that is, intransitive verbs that show motion not directly initiated by the subject or changes of state, such as "fall", "come", "become". All other verbs (intransitive unergative verbs and all transitive verbs) use "have". For example, in French, J'ai vu "I have seen" vs. Je suis tombé "I am fallen" ("I have fallen").

Pidgins and creoles

The global spread of colonial Romance languages has given rise to numerous creoles and pidgins. Some of the lesser-spoken languages have also had influences on varieties spoken far from their traditional regions.
- List creoles and pidgins, grouped by source-language.
- Lingua Franca, influenced by the Romance languages of the Western Mediterranean and Arabic.
- French Creoles
  - Haitian Creole is a national language of Haiti
  - Antillean Creole spoken primarily in Dominica and St. Lucia.
  - Kreyol Lwiziyen Louisiana creole
  - Mauritian Creole is the lingua franca in Mauritius
  - Seychellois Creole Also known as Seselwa, Seychellois Creole is an official language, along with English and French, as well as the lingua franca of the Seychelles.
  - Lanc-Patuá Spoken in Brazil, mostly in Amapá state. It has been influenced by Portuguese. It was developed by immigrants from neighboring French Guiana and French territories of the Caribbean Sea.
- Portuguese Creoles
  - Angolar Spoken in coastal areas of São Tomé Island, São Tomé and Príncipe.
  - Annobonnese Spoken in the island of Annobón, Equatorial Guinea.
  - Crioulo do Barlavento (Criol) Spoken in Barlavento islands of Cape Verde.
  - Crioulo de São Vicente Spoken in São Vicente Island, Cape Verde. It could not be a, de facto, Creole.
  - Crioulo do Sotavento (Kriolu) Spoken in Sotavento islands of Cape Verde.
  - Daman Indo-Portuguese Spoken in Daman, India. Decreolization process occurred.
  - Diu Indo-Portuguese Spoken in Diu, India. Almost extinct.
  - Forro Spoken in São Tomé Island, São Tomé and Príncipe.
  - Kristang Spoken in Malaysia.
  - Kristi Spoken in the village of Korlay, India.
  - Lunguyê Spoken in Príncipe Island, São Tomé and Príncipe. Almost extinct.
  - Macanese Spoken in Macau and Hong Kong. Decreolization process occurred.
  - Papiamento Spoken in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba. Spanish influenced.
  - Saramaccan Portuguese/English Creole. Spoken in Surinam.
  - Sri Lanka Indo-Portuguese Spoken in Coastal cities of Sri Lanka.
  - Upper Guinea Creole (Kriol) lingua franca of Guinea-Bissau, also spoken in Casamance, Senegal.
- Spanish Creoles
  - Chavacano -Spoken in Zamboanga and Cavite , Philippines.
  - Palenquero
  - Papiamento. It is often hard to tell Portuguese influences from Spanish ones.
  - Spanglish, spoken in northern Mexico and southern United States.
  - Yanito While not being pidgins nor creoles, English (see Middle English creole hypothesis) and Basque have a substantial Romance influence in their vocabularies.

Constructed languages

Latin and the Romance languages also give rise to numerous constructed languages, both international auxiliary languages (well-known examples of which are Esperanto, Ido and Interlingua) and languages created for artistic purposes only (such as Brithenig and Wenedyk).

Listing

Here is a more detailed listing of languages and dialects (roughly ordered from west to east):
- Iberian Romance languages
  - Portuguese-Galician
    - Portuguese language
      - European Portuguese
      - Brazilian Portuguese
      - African Portuguese
      -
- Angolan Portuguese
      -
- Capeverdean Portuguese
      -
- Guinean Portuguese
      -
- Mozambican Portuguese
      -
- São Tomean Portuguese
      - Judeo-Portuguese
    - Galician
      - Eonaviegan (a Galician dialect with some traits of Asturian)
    - Fala language (spoken in a a valley of the northwestern part of Extremadura in Spain)
  - Astur-Leonese
    - Leonese
    - Asturian (the variant with more vitality)
    - Mirandese (spoken in a tiny corner of Portugal — very archaic)
    - Extremaduran (the south variant, more Castilian like)
  - Spanish (Castilian)
    - Ladino (Judæo-Spanish)
  - Aragonese
  - Mozarabic variants (extinct by the 15th century)
  - Catalan
    - Western Catalan
      - North-Western Catalan
      -
- Ribagorçan (transitional to Aragonese)
      - Valencian
    - Eastern Catalan
      - Central Catalan (includes Barcelona dialect)
      - Northern Catalan (Roussillonese)
      - Balearic
      - Alguerese
- Occitan or langue d'oc
  - Gascon
    - Aranese
  - Lemosin
  - Auvernhat
  - Aupenc
  - Lengadocian
  - Provençal
    - Niçard
- Francoprovençal
- langues d'oïl
  - French
  - Picard language
  - Walloon language
  - Norman language
    - Jèrriais
    - Dgèrnésiais
    - Anglo-Norman language (extinct)
  - Gallo language
  - Franc-Comtois
  - Champenois
  - Poitevin-Saintongeais
  - Bourguignon-Morvandiau
  - Lorrain
- Rhaetian languages
  - Friulian
  - Ladin
  - Romansh
- Italian
  - Gallo-Italian languages
    - Piemontese
    - Ligurian
      - Monegasque
    - Lombard
    - Emilio-Romagnolo
    - Venetian
  - Napoletano-Calabrese
  - Sicilian
  - Corsican (closely related to Tuscan dialects, with Ligurian elements)
  - Gallurese (close to Corsican)
  - Sassarese (transitional to Corsican)
- Sardinian
  - Campidanese
  - Logudorese
- Dalmatian (extinct)
- Istriot
- Eastern Romance languages
  - Romanian (also named Moldovan in Moldova)
  - Aromanian
  - Meglenitic
  - Istro-Romanian (these latter three are sometimes regarded as dialects of the Romanian language).

Ethnologue classification

The classification below is largely based on the analysis provided at ethnologue.com. The ISO-639-2 code roa is applied by the ISO for any Romance language that does not have its own code. The Ethnologue classification (produced by the SIL International) is at one extreme of linguists, who divide into 'splitters' and 'lumpers'. Ethnologue produce a very detailed classification, which is more precise than many other linguists would accept, but it is valuable as a description of varieties. The Southern group
- Sardinian Four versions recognized; all are included in ISO 639-1 code, sc; ISO 639-2 code, srd)
  - Sardinian, Sassarese - (SIL code, SDC)
  - Sardinian, Gallurese - (SIL Code, SDN)
  - Sardinian, Logudorese - (SIL Code, SRD)
  - Sardinian, Campidanese - (SIL Code, SRO)
- Corsican - (SIL Code, COI; ISO 639-1 code, co; ISO 639-2 code, cos) The Italo-Western group
The Western sub-group
. .Gallo-Iberian division
. . .Ibero-Romance sub-division
. . . .West Iberian section
- Asturo-Leonese
  - Asturian - (SIL Code, AUB; ISO 639-2 code, ast)
  - Mirandese - (SIL Code, MWL; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
- Castilian
  - Spanish - (SIL Code, SPN; ISO 639-1 code, es; ISO 639-2 code, spa)
  - Spanish, Loreto-Ucayali - (SIL Code, SPQ; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Ladino (Judæo-Spanish) - (SIL Code, SPJ; ISO 639-2 code, lad)
  - Extremaduran - (SIL Code, EXT; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Caló - (SIL Code, RMR; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
- Portuguese-Galician
  - Portuguese - (SIL Code, POR; ISO 639-1 code, pt; ISO 639-2 code, por)
  - Galician - (SIL Code, GLN; ISO 639-1 code, gl; ISO 639-2 code, glg)
  - Fala - (SIL Code, FAX; ISO 639-2 code, roa) . . . .East Iberian section

- Catalan-Valencian-Balear - (SIL Code, CLN; ISO 639-1 code, ca; ISO 639-2 code, cat) . . . .Oc section

- Occitan (langue d'oc) - Six versions recognized; all are included in ISO 639-1 code, oc; ISO 639-2 code, oci) - all are from France
  - Auvergnat - (SIL Code, AUV)
  - Gascon - (SIL Code, GSC)
  - Limousin - (SIL Code, LMS)
  - Languedocien - (SIL Code, LNC)
  - Provençal - (SIL Code, PRV)
  - Shuadit - (SIL Code, SDT) . . .Gallo-Romance sub-division
. . . .Gallo-Rhaetian section
- Rhaetian
  - Friulian - (SIL Code, FRL; ISO 639-2 code, fur)
  - Ladin - (SIL Code, LLD; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Romansh - (SIL Code, RHE; ISO 639-1 code, rm; ISO 639-2 code, roh)
- Langues d'Oïl
  - French (langue d'oïl)
    - Standard French - (SIL Code, FRN; ISO 639-1 code, fr; ISO 639-2(B) code, fre; ISO 639-2(T) code, fra)
    - Cajun French - (SIL Code, FRC; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
    - Picard - (SIL Code, PCD; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
    - Zarphatic - (SIL Code, ZRP; ISO 639-2 code, roa) - extinct
  - Franco-Provençal - (SIL Code, FRA; ISO 639-2 code, roa) . . . .Gallo-Italian section
  - Emilio-Romagnolo - (SIL Code, EML; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Ligurian - (SIL Code, LIJ; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Lombard - (SIL Code, LMO; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Piemontese - (SIL Code, PMS; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Venetian - (SIL Code, VEC; ISO 639-2 code, roa) . .Pyrenean-Mozarabic division
- Pyrenean
  - Aragonese - (SIL Code, AXX; ISO 639-1 code, an;ISO 639-2 code, arg)
- Mozarabic
  - Mozarabic - (SIL Code, MXI; ISO 639-2 code, roa) - Extinct for common speech The Italo-Dalmatian sub-group
  - Italian - (SIL Code, ITN; ISO 639-1 code, it; ISO 639-2 code, ita)
  - Napoletano-Calabrese - (SIL Code, NPL; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Sicilian - (SIL Code, SCN; ISO 639-2 code, scn)
  - Judeo-Italian - (SIL Code, ITK; ISO 639-2 code, roa)
  - Dalmatian - (SIL Code, DLM; ISO 639-2 code, roa) - extinct in 19th century.
  - Istriot - (SIL Code, IST; ISO 639-2 code, roa) The Eastern group
- Romanian - (SIL Code, RUM; ISO 639-1 code, ro; ISO 639-2(B) code, rum; ISO 639-2(T) code, ron) - Includes Daco-Romanian.
- :Also as Moldovan - (ISO 639-1 code, mo; ISO 639-2 code, mol)
- Macedo Romanian - (SIL Code, RUP; ISO 639-2 code, rup) - known by native speakers as Aromanian
- Megleno Romanian - (SIL Code, RUQ; ISO 639-2 code, roa) - also known as Moglenitic or Meglenitic
- Istro Romanian - (SIL Code, RUO; ISO 639-2 code, roa)

See also


- Latin Union
- Romance copula Romanic
-

External links


- [http://www.orbilat.com/ Orbis Latinus, site on Romance languages] als:Romanische Sprachen ja:ロマンス語 simple:Romance languages zh-min-nan:Romance gí-giân



Dialect

A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. The number of speakers, and the area itself, can be of arbitrary size. It follows that a dialect for a larger area can contain plenty of (sub-) dialects, which in turn can contain dialects of yet smaller areas, et cetera. A dialect is a complete system of verbal communication (oral or signed but not necessarily written) with its own vocabulary and/or grammar. The concept of dialects can be distinguished from:—
- sociolects, which are a variety of a language spoken by a certain social stratum,
- standard languages, which are standardized for public performance (e.g. written standard), and
- jargons, which are characterized by differences in vocabulary (or lexicon according to linguist jargon). Varieties of language such as dialects, idiolects and sociolects can be distinguished not only by their vocabulary and grammar, but also by differences in phonology (including prosody). If the distinctions are limited to phonology, one often uses the term accent of a variety instead of variety or dialect.

Standard and Non-standard Dialects

A standard dialect (also known as a standardized dialect or "standard language") is a dialect that is supported by institutions. Such institutional support may include government recognition or designation; presentation as being the "correct" form of a language in schools; published grammars, dictionaries, and textbooks that set forth a "correct" spoken and written form; and an extensive formal literature that employs that dialect (prose, poetry, nonfiction, etc.). There may be multiple standard dialects associated with a language. For example, Standard American English, Standard British English, and Standard Indian English may all be said to be standard dialects of the English language. A nonstandard dialect, like a standard dialect, has a complete vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, but is not the beneficiary of institutional support.

"Dialect" or "Language"

There are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing languages from dialects, although a number of paradigms exist, which render sometimes contradictory results. The exact distinction is therefore a subjective one, dependent on the user's frame of reference. Language varieties are often called dialects rather than languages
- solely because they are not (or not recognized as) literary languages,
- because the speakers of the given language do not have a state of their own,
- or because their language lacks prestige. The term idiom is used by some linguists instead of language or dialect when there is no need to commit oneself to any decision on the status with respect to this distinction. Anthropological linguists define dialect as the specific form of a language used by a speech community. In other words, the difference between language and dialect is the difference between the abstract or general and the concrete and particular. From this perspective, no one speaks a "language," everyone speaks a dialect of a language. Those who identify a particular dialect as the "standard" or "proper" version of a language are in fact using these terms to express a social distinction. Often, the standard language is close to the sociolect of the elite class. In groups where prestige standards play less important roles, "dialect" may simply be used to refer to subtle regional variations in linguistic practices that are considered mutually intelligible, playing an important role to place strangers, carrying the message of wherefrom a stranger originates (which quarter or district in a town, which village in a rural setting, or which province of a country); thus there are many apparent "dialects" of Slavey, for example, geographically widespread North American indigenous languages, by which the linguist simply means that there are many subtle variations among speakers who largely understand each other and recognize that they are each speaking "the same way" in a general sense. Modern day linguistics knows that the status of language is not solely determined by linguistic criteria, but it is also the result of a historical and political development. Romansh came to be a written language, and therefore it is recognized as a language, even though it is very close to the Lombardic alpine dialects. An opposite example is the case of the Chinese language whose variations are often considered dialects and not languages despite their mutual unintelligibility because they share a common literary standard and common body of literature. The Yiddish linguist Max Weinreich published the expression, "A shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un a flot" ("A language is a dialect with an army and a navy"), illustrating the fact that languages are created by assimilation. This is perhaps the most widely cited statement of an analogy that has been attributed to other authors. (Weinreich explicitly states that he did not coin it.) It has been suggested that the initial wording was provided by, Hubert Lyautey as, "Une langue, c'est un dialecte qui possède une armée, une marine et une aviation." ("A language is a dialect with an army, a navy and an air force." ). A separate article discusses the origin of the language-dialect aphorism in greater detail.

Political factors

Depending on political realities and ideologies, the classification of speech varieties as dialects or languages and their relationship to other varieties of speech can be controversial and the verdicts inconsistent. English and Serbo-Croatian illustrate the point. English and Serbo-Croatian each have two major variants (British and American English, and Serbian and Croatian, respectively), along with numerous lesser varieties. For political reasons, analyzing these varieties as "languages" or "dialects" yields inconsistent results: British and American English, spoken by close political and military allies, are almost universally regarded as dialects of a single language, whereas the standard languages of Serbia and Croatia, which differ from each other to a similar extent as the dialects of English, are being treated by many linguists from the region as distinct languages, largely because the two countries oscillate from being brotherly to being bitter enemies. The Serbo-Croatian language article deals with this topic much more fully. Parallel examples abound. Macedonian, although mutually intelligible with Bulgarian and often considered to be a Bulgarian dialect, is touted in Republic of Macedonia as a language in its own right. In Lebanon, the right-wing Guardians of the Cedars, a fiercely nationalistic (mainly Christian) political party which opposes the country's ties to the Arab world, is agitating for "Lebanese" to be recognized as a distinct language from Arabic and not merely a dialect, and has even advocated replacing the Arabic alphabet with a revival of the ancient Phoenician alphabet. There have been cases of a variety of speech being deliberately altered to serve political purposes. One example is Moldovan. No such language existed before 1945, and most non-Moldovan linguists remain sceptical about its classification. After the Soviet Union annexed the Romanian province of Bessarabia and renamed it Moldavia, Romanian, a Romance language, the Cyrillic alphabet was restored and numerous Slavic words were imported into the language, in an attempt to weaken any sense of shared national identity with Romania. After Moldavia won its independence in 1991 (and changed its name to Moldova), it reverted to a modified Latin alphabet as a rejection of the perceived political connotations of the Cyrillic alphabet. In 1996, however, the Moldovan parliament, citing fears of "Romanian expansionism," rejected a proposal from President Mircea Snegur to change the name of the language back to Romanian, and in 2003 a Romanian-Moldovan dictionary was published, purporting to show that the two countries speak different languages. Linguists of the Romanian Academy reacted by declaring that all the Moldovan words were also Romanian words; while in Moldova, the head of the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Linguistics, Ion Bărbuţă, described the dictionary as a politically motivated "absurdity". In contrast, spoken languages of Han Chinese are usually referred as dialects of one Chinese language, to promote national unity. The article "Is Chinese a language or a family of languages?" has more details. The significance of the political factors in any attempt at answering the question "what is a language? is great enough to cast doubt on whether any strictly linguistic definition, without a socio-cultural approach, is possible. This is illustrated by the frequency with which the army-navy aphorism discussed at the end of the preceding section is cited.

The historical linguistics point of view

Many historical linguists view every speech form as a dialect of the older medium of communication from which it developed. This point of view sees the modern Romance languages as dialects of Latin, modern Greek as a dialect of ancient Greek, and Tok Pisin as a dialect of English. This paradigm is not entirely problem-free. It sees genetic relationships as paramount; the "dialects" of a "language" (which itself may be a "dialect" of a yet older tongue) may or may not be mutually intelligible. Moreover, a parent language may spawn several "dialects" which themselves subdivide any number of times, with some "branches" of the tree changing more rapidly than others. This can give rise to the situation where two dialects (defined according to this paradigm) with a somewhat distant genetic relationship are mutually more readily comprehensible than more closely related dialects. This pattern is clearly present among the modern Romance tongues, with Italian and Spanish having a high degree of mutual comprehensibility, which neither language shares with French, despite both languages being genetically closer to French than to each other: French has undergone more rapid change than have Spanish and Italian.

Concepts in dialectology

Concepts in dialectology include:

Mutual intelligibility

Some have attempted to distinguish dialects from languages by saying that dialects are mutually comprehensible while languages are not. But this concept may not be as clear-cut as it may at first seem. Italian speakers and Spanish speakers, for example, may be able to understand a considerable proportion of each other's closely-related Romance languages, whereas Lombards and Sicilians, speaking what are described as dialects of the same language, may encounter considerable barriers to mutual comprehension.

Diglossia

Another problem occurs in the case of diglossia, used to describe a situation where, in a given society, there are two closely-related languages, one of high-prestige, which is generally used by the government and in formal texts, and one of low-prestige, which is usually the spoken vernacular tongue. An example of this is sanskrit, which was considered the proper way to speak in northern India, but only accessible by the upper class, and prakrit which was the common (and informal or slang) speech at the time.

Dialect continuum

A dialect continuum is a network of dialects in which geographically adjacent dialects are mutually comprehensible, but with comprehensibility steadily decreasing as distance between the dialects increases. A well-known example is the Afrikaans-Dutch-Frisian-German dialect continuum, a vast network of dialects with four recognized literary standards. Although standard Dutch and German are not mutually intelligible, a chain of dialects connects them, with no break in intelligibility between any geographically adjacent dialects along the continuum. A network of dialects similarly exists among the Eastern Slavic languages, among which Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian are recognized as three literary standards. The Serbo-Croatian language can also be viewed as a network of four major dialects and three literary standards. The Romance languages -- Portuguese, Castilian Spanish, Catalan, Provençal, French, Occitan, Corsican, Sardinian, Sicilian, Romansh, Friulian, other Italian dialects, Romanian, and others -- form another well-known continuum.

Diasystem

A diasystem refers to a single genetic language which has two or more standard forms. An example is Hindi-Urdu or Hindustani, which encompasses two main standard varieties, Urdu and Hindi.

Pluricentrism

A pluricentric language is a language with several standard versions.

The Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache framework

One analytical paradigm developed by professional linguists is known as the Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache framework. It has proved popular among linguists in Continental Europe, but is not so well known in English-speaking countries, especially among people who are not trained linguists. Although only one of many possible paradigms, it has the advantage of being constructed by trained linguists for the particular purpose of analyzing and categorizing varieties of speech, and has the additional merit of replacing such loaded words as "language" and "dialect" with the German terms of Ausbausprache, Abstandsprache, and Dachsprache, words that are not (yet) loaded with political, cultural, or emotional connotations. It may prove to be a tool helpful for enabling people to see some ancient and poisoned linguistic controversies through a different lens of perception.

Selected list of articles on dialects


- Varieties of Arabic
- Catalan dialect examples
- List of Chinese dialects
- List of dialects of the English language
- Flemish dialects
- Dialects of the French language
- Cypriot dialect
- Irish dialects
- Italian dialects
- Sicilian language
- Japanese dialects
- Korean dialects
- Norwegian dialects
- Gilaki and Mazandarani (Persian dialects)
- Warsaw dialect
- Portuguese dialects
- Dialects in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia
- Slovenian dialects
- Spanish dialects and varieties
- Swedish dialects in Ostrobothnia
- Bergensk, used in Bergen, Norway

See also


- Accent
- Ethnolect
- Isogloss
- Prestige dialect
- Diglossia
- Programming language dialect
- Dialect continuum
- Sprachbund

External links


- [http://www.terralingua.org/Definitions/DLangDialect.html Language or dialect?] (Terralingua)
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9215/arts.htm Incorporating Dialect Study into the Language Arts Class]
- [http://www.ericdigests.org/1997-4/dialects.htm Vernacular Dialects in U.S. Schools]
- [http://www.theverybestofstuff.de/contents/dialectology.html Fishermen's Dialect on the South-East Coast of Scotland.] Category:Language varieties and styles als:Dialekt ko:방언 ja:方言

Southern Italy

Southern Italy, often referred to in Italian as the Mezzogiorno (a term first used in 19th century in comparison with French Midi ) encompasses six of the country's 20 regions:
- Basilicata
- Campania
- Calabria
- Puglia
- Sicilia
- Sardinia Sicilia although it is geographically and administratively included in Insular Italy, it has a unique history and tradition, home to the first Parliament government in all of Europe. The regions of Abruzzo and Molise may be added as a reference to boundaries of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. In addition, the European office for statistics (Eurostat) lists these two regions within Southern Italy. Geographically, Southern Italy is much drier and hotter than the rest of Italy, and historically, has been exposed to significantly different influences than the rest of the peninsula, and in particular, to Greek settlement and the Arab invasions of Sicily. These factors and others have left their mark on today's Mezzogiorno: population density, for example, is much less compared to Northern Italy, with at the same time a higher proportion of large towns to small villages; wealth and education levels are not as high; and the day-to-day culture of the inhabitants is much more Mediterranean, clan-oriented, rural, and Catholic than that of the more industrialized North. Some Northern Italians have thus come to speak of a "Mezzogiorno problem", viewed as an inherent and incurable climate of poverty and corruption and a sink-hole of government funds; such sentiments have fueled the rise of the Lega Nord movement seeking to accomplish a secession from Italy of the Northern regions, the so‑called Padania.

Related categories


- Northern Italy
- Central Italy
- Insular Italy Category:Geography of Italy

French language

French (French: français) is the third of the Romance languages in terms of number of speakers, after Spanish and Portuguese, being spoken by about 67 million people as a mother tongue, and altogether by some 128 million people, which includes second-language speakers who use French for daily communication. French is thus the 18th most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, and 9th in terms of daily speakers. It is an official language in 29 countries. It is also an official or administrative language in various communities and organisations (such as the European Union, IOC, United Nations and Universal Postal Union). Before World War II, French was considered the international language, particularly in such fields as diplomacy, trade, shipping, and transportation.

History

The Roman invasion of Gaul

The French language is a Romance language, meaning that it is descended from Latin. Before the Roman invasion of what is modern-day France by Julius Cæsar (58–52 BC), France was inhabited largely by a Celtic people that the Romans referred to as Gauls, although there were also other linguistic/ethnic groups in France at this time, such as the Iberians in southern France and Spain, the Ligurians on the Mediterranean coast, Greek colonies such as Massalia (i.e. present-day Marseille), Phoenician outposts, and the Vascons on the Spanish/French border. Although in the past many Frenchmen liked to refer to their descent from Gallic ancestors (nos ancêtres les Gaulois), perhaps fewer than 200 words with a Celtic etymological origin remain in French today (largely place and plant names and words dealing with rural life and the earth). In the reverse direction, some words for Gallic objects which were new to the Romans and for which there were no words in Latin were imported into Latin – for example, clothing items such as les braies. Latin quickly became the lingua franca of the entire Gallic region for mercantile, official and educational purposes, yet it should be remembered that this was Vulgar Latin, the colloquial dialect spoken by the Roman army and its agents and not the literary dialect of Cicero.

The Franks

From the third century on, Western Europe was invaded by Germanic tribes from the east, and some of these groups settled in Gaul. For the history of the French language, the most important of these groups are the Franks in northern France, the Alemanni in the German/French border, the Burgundians in the Rhone valley and the Visigoths in the Aquitaine region and Spain. These Germanic-speaking groups had a profound effect on the Latin spoken in their respective regions, altering both the pronunciation and the syntax. They also introduced a number of new words: perhaps as much as 15% of modern French comes from Germanic words, including many terms and expressions associated with their social structure and military tactics.

Langue d'Oïl

Linguists typically divide the languages spoken in medieval France into three geographical subgroups: Langue d'oïl and Langue d'oc are the two major groups; the third group, Franco-Provençal, is considered a transitional language between the two other groups. The Oïl–Oc divide is broadly comparable to the divide illustrated by the use of "yes" in English and "aye" in Scots. Langue d'oïl, the languages which use oïl (in modern usage, oui) for "yes", is the language group in the north of France. These languages, like Picard, Walloon, Francien and Norman, were influenced by the Germanic languages spoken by the Frankish invaders. From the time period Clovis I on, the Franks extended their rule over northern Gaul. Over time, the French language developed from either the Oïl language found around Paris (the Francien theory) or from a standard administrative language based on common characteristics found in all Oïl languages (the lingua franca theory). Langue d'oc, the languages which use oc for "yes", is the language group in the south of France and northern Spain. These languages, such as Gascon and Provençal, have relatively little Frankish influence. (Modern French has two words for "yes", oui and si; the latter is used to contradict negative statements. Si derives from Latin sic "thus", and is cognate to the word for "yes" in Spanish, Italian, and Catalan. Oïl/oui derive, according to Larousse, from Latin hoc ille "thus he (did)".)

Other linguistic groups

The early middle ages also saw the influence of other linguistic groups on the dialects of France: From the 5th to the 8th centuries, Celtic-speaking peoples from southwestern Britain (Wales, Cornwall, Devon) travelled across the English Channel, both for reasons of trade and as a result of the Anglo-Saxon invasions of England. They established themselves in Bretagne (Brittany). Their language was a dialect of the Brythonic languages, which has been named Breton in more recent centuries. It is part of the larger Celtic language family, though the modern dialects reflect a noticeable influence from French in their vocabulary. From the 6th to the 7th centuries, the Vascons crossed over the Pyrénées, a mountain range in the south of France. Their presence influenced the Occitan language spoken in southwestern France, resulting in the dialect called Gascon. Scandinavian vikings invaded France from the 9th century onwards and established themselves in what would come to be called Normandie (Normandy). They took up the langue d'oïl spoken there and contributed many words to French related to maritime activities, amongst other things. With their conquest of England in 1066, the Normans brought their language. The dialect that developed there as a language of administration and literature is referred to as Anglo-Norman. Anglo-Norman served as the language of the ruling classes and commerce in England from the time of the conquest until 1362, when the use of English became dominant again. Because of the Norman Conquest, the English language has borrowed a considerable amount of its vocabulary from French. The Arab peoples also supplied many words to French around this time period, including words for luxury goods, spices, trade stuffs, sciences and mathematics.

History of French

For the period up to around 1300, some linguists refer to the oïl languages collectively as Old French (ancien français). The earliest extant text in French is the Oaths of Strasbourg from 842; Old French became a literary language with the chansons de geste that told tales of the paladins of Charlemagne and the heroes of the Crusades. By the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539 King Francis I made French the official language of administration and court proceedings in France, ousting the Latin that had been used before then. With the imposition of a standardised chancery dialect and the loss of the declension system, the dialect is referred to as Middle French (moyen français). Following a period of unification, regulation and purification, the French of the 17th to the 18th centuries is sometimes referred to as Classical French (français classique), although many linguists simply refer to French language from the 17th century to today as Modern French (français moderne). The foundation of the Académie française (French Academy) in 1634 by Cardinal Richelieu created an official body whose goal has been the purification and preservation of the French language. This group of 40 members is known as the Immortals, not, as some erroneously believe, because they are chosen to serve for the extent of their lives (which they are), but because of the inscription engraved on the official seal given to them by their founder Richelieu—"À l'immortalité" ("to the Immortality (of the French language)"). The foundation still exists and contributes to the policing of the language and the adaptation of foreign words and expressions. Some recent modifications include the change from software to logiciel, packet-boat to paquebot, and riding-coat to redingote. The word ordinateur for computer was however not created by the Académie, but by a linguist appointed by IBM (see :fr:ordinateur). From the 17th to the 19th centuries, France was the leading power of continental Europe; thanks to this, together with the influence of the Enlightenment, French was the lingua franca of educated Europe, especially with regards to the arts, literature, and diplomacy; monarchs like Frederick II of Prussia and Catherine the Great of Russia could both speak and write in French. Through the Académie, public education, centuries of official control and the role of media, a unified official French language has been forged, but there remains a great deal of diversity today in terms of regional accents and words. For some critics, the "best" pronunciation of the French language is considered to be the one used in Touraine (around Tours and the Loire River valley), but such value judgments are fraught with problems, and with the ever increasing loss of lifelong attachments to a specific region and the growing importance of the national media, the future of specific "regional" accents is difficult to predict.

Modern issues

There is some debate in today's France about the preservation of the French language and the influence of English (see franglais), especially with regard to international business, the sciences and popular culture. There have been laws (see Toubon law) enacted which require that all print ads and billboards with foreign expressions include a French translation and which require quotas of French-language songs (at least 40%) on the radio. There is also pressure, in differing degrees, from some regions as well as minority political or cultural groups for a measure of recognition and support for their regional languages.

Geographic distribution

regional language
French is an official language in the following countries or parts thereof: La Francophonie is an international organization of French-speaking countries and governments.

Legal status in France

Per the Constitution of France, French is the official language of the Republic since 1792 [http://www.languefrancaise.net/dossiers/dossiers.php?id_dossier=50]. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. See Toubon Law. Contrary to a misunderstanding common in the American and British media, France does not prohibit the use of foreign words in websites or any other private publication, which would anyway contradict constitutional guarantees on freedom of speech. The misunderstanding may have arisen from a similar prohibition in the Canadian province of Quebec which made strict application of the Charter of the French Language between 1977 and 1993, although these regulations addressed language used in advertising and the provision of commercial services offered within the province, not the language of private communication. There exist in addition to French a variety of languages spoken in France by minorities; see Languages of France.

Legal status in Canada

About 12% of the world's francophones are Canadian, and French is one of Canada's two official languages, with English; various provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms deal with the right of Canadians to access services in English and French all across Canada. By law, the federal government must operate and provide services in both English and French; proceedings of the Parliament of Canada must be translated into both English and French; and all Canadian products must be labelled in both English and French. Overall about 22% of Canadians speak French as a first language and 18% are bilingual. French has been the only official language of Quebec since 1974, although it is commonly (and incorrectly) believed that the designation of French as the sole official language occurred in 1977 with the adoption of the Charter of the French Language (which is popularly referred to as Bill 101). By far the provision of Bill 101 with the most significant impact has been that which mandates French-language education, unless a child's parents or siblings have received the major part of their own education in English within Canada. That provision has reversed a historical trend whereby a large number of immigrant children were being sent to English schools by their parents. In so doing, Bill 101 has greatly contributed to the "visage français" (French face) of Quebec. Other provisions of Bill 101, on the other hand, have been ruled unconstitutional over the years, including those mandating French-only commercial signs, court proceedings, and debates in the legislature. Some of those provisions have remained in effect, for a while, using the constitutional "notwithstanding" clause that permits a non-compliant law to temporarily remain. No "notwithstanding provision" is currently in effect. In 1993 the Charter was changed to allow signage in other languages so long as French is markedly "predominant". The Charter also provides for a measure of access by Anglophones to health and social services in their own language. The only province which has French as an official language is New Brunswick. In Ontario and Manitoba, French does not have full official status, although the provincial governments do provide full French-language services in all communities where significant numbers of francophones live. All of the other provinces do make some effort to accommodate the needs of their francophone citizens, although the level and quality of French-language service varies significantly from province to province.

Legal status in Switzerland

French is an official language in Switzerland. It is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandy.

Dialects of French


- Acadian French
- African French
- Belgian French
- Cajun French
- Canadian French
- Cambodian French
- Louisiana Creole French
- français d'Aoste
- français-germanique
- Indian French
- Levantine French
- Maghreb French
- Newfoundland French
- North American French
- Oceanic French
- Quebec French
- South East Asian French
- Swiss French
- West Indian French
- [http://www.linguasphere.org/langues_romanes.pdf linguasphere on Romance languages]

Languages derived from French


- Antillean Creole
- Haitian Creole
- Lanc-Patuá
- Mauritian Creole
- Michif
- Louisiana Creole French
- Réunionese Creole
- Seychellois Creole
- Tay Boi

Sounds

:Main article: French phonology and orthography French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are