Emilian dialects

Emilian (Emilian: emigliàn, emiliân; Italian: emiliano) is a Gallo-Italic language spoken in the historical region of Emilia, which is now in the northwestern part of Emilia-Romagna, Northern Italy. There is no standardised version of Emilian.

Emilian
emigliân
PronunciationIPA: [emiˈʎaːŋ]
Native toItaly
RegionPrimarily Emilia
Ethnicity13 million (2020)[1]
Native speakers
c. 9.3 million (2019 estimate) (2019)[2]
DialectsBolognese, Ferrarese, Modenese, Mirandolese, Frignarese, Carpigianian, Reggiano, Parmigian, Piacentin, Mantovan, Carrarin, Vogherese-Pavese
Latin
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
Slovenia
Language codes
ISO 639-3egl
Glottologemil1241
Linguasphere51-AAA-oka ... -okh
Geographic distribution of Emilian (shown in light pink)

Emilian-Romagnol 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

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

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

Vocabulary

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

Words in Emilian[3][4]
Emilian IPA English
êit, èlt [ɛ:jt] high
lêregh [ˈlɛ:rɐg] wide
longh, loangh [loŋg] long, tall
tōl, tegh [to:l], [teg] to take
fâṡ, fâż [fa:z] / [fa:ð̠] beech
bdoall [b.dœl] birch
znêr, żnèr [ð̠nɛ:r] January
fervêr [fɐrˈvɛr] February
ed, ad [ɐd] and
dîṡ [di:z] to say, ten (only in Bolognese)
ê, é [e] (he/she) is
aloura [ɐˈlɔu̯rɐ] so, then

Dialects

Linguasphere Observatory recognises the following dialects:[5]

Other definitions include the following:

  • Massese (mixed with some Tuscan features)
  • Casalasco, spoken in Cremona, Lombardy.

Phonology

Consonants

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

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 [ĩ ẽ ã õ ũ], unless /n/ occurs between two vowel sounds.
  • Vowel length is also distinguished for the following vowels [iː eː ɛː aː ɔː oː uː].[6][7][8]

Writing system

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

  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. 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.
  4. Vocabolario reggiano-italiano (in Italian). Reggio: Torreggiani. 1832 via Biblioteca Panizzi.
  5. "51-AAA-ok. emiliano + romagnolo". Linguasphere.
  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

  • Luca Rognoni, Il sistema fonologico del dialetto modenese. L'Italia Dialettale 74, pp. 135–148, 2013.
  • Colombini, F. 2007. La negazione nei dialetti emiliani: microvariazione nell’area modenese. University of Padua, MA Thesis.

Further reading

  • Pietro Mainoldi, Manuale dell'odierno dialetto bolognese, Suoni e segni, Grammatica – Vocabolario, Bologna, Società tipografica Mareggiani 1950 (Rist. anast.: Sala Bolognese, A. Forni 2000)
  • Fabio Foresti, Bibliografia dialettale dell'Emilia-Romagna e della Repubblica di San Marino (BDER), Bologna, IBACN Emilia-Romagna / Compositori 1997
  • E. F. Tuttle, Nasalization in Northern Italy: Syllabic Constraints and Strength Scales as Developmental Parameters, Rivista di Linguistica, III: 23–92 (1991)
  • Luigi Lepri e Daniele Vitali, Dizionario Bolognese-Italiano Italiano-Bolognese, ed. Pendragon 2007
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