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Gallo-Italic language spoken in Piedmont, Italy From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Piedmontese (English: /ˌpiːdmɒnˈtiːz/ PEED-mon-TEEZ; autonym: piemontèis [pjemʊŋˈtɛjz] or lenga piemontèisa; Italian: piemontese) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian dialect.[3] It is linguistically included in the Gallo-Italic languages group of Northern Italy (with Lombard, Emilian, Ligurian and Romagnol), which would make it part of the wider western group of Romance languages, which also includes French, Occitan, and Catalan. It is spoken in the core of Piedmont, in northwestern Liguria (near Savona), and in Lombardy (some municipalities in the westernmost part of Lomellina near Pavia).
![]() | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (June 2012) |
Piedmontese | |
---|---|
piemontèis | |
Native to | Italy |
Region | Northwest Italy: Piedmont Liguria Lombardy Aosta Valley |
Native speakers | 2,000,000 (2012)[1] |
Dialects | |
Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | pms |
Glottolog | piem1238 |
ELP | Piemontese |
Linguasphere | 51-AAA-of |
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![]() Piedmontese was classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger in 2010 | |
It has some support from the Piedmont regional government but is considered a dialect rather than a separate language by the Italian central government.[3]
Due to the Italian diaspora Piedmontese has spread in the Argentinian Pampas, where many immigrants from Piedmont settled. The Piedmontese language is also spoken in some states of Brazil, along with the Venetian language.
The first documents in the Piedmontese language were written in the 12th century, the sermones subalpini , when it was extremely close to Occitan, dating from the 12th century, a document devoted to the education of the Knights Templar stationed in Piedmont.
During the Renaissance, the oldest Piedmontese literary work of secular character, are the works of Zan Zòrs Alion, poet of the duchy of Montferrat, the most famous work being the opera Jocunda.
In the 1500s and 1600s, there were several pastoral comedies with parts in Piedmontese.
In the Baroque period, El Cont Piolèt, a comedy by Giovan Battista Tan-na d'Entraive was published.
Literary Piedmontese developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, but it did not gain literary esteem comparable to that of French or Italian, other languages used in Piedmont. Nevertheless, literature in Piedmontese has never ceased to be produced: it includes poetry, theatre pieces, novels, and scientific work.[4]
The first documents in the Piedmontese language were written in the 12th century, the sermones subalpini, when it was extremely close to Occitan.
In 2004, Piedmontese was recognised as Piedmont's regional language by the regional parliament,[5][6][7] although the Italian government has not yet recognised it as such. In theory, it is now supposed to be taught to children in school,[8] but this is happening only to a limited extent.
The last decade has seen the publication of learning materials for schoolchildren, as well as general-public magazines. Courses for people already outside the education system have also been developed. In spite of these advances, the current state of Piedmontese is quite grave, as over the last 150 years the number of people with a written active knowledge of the language has shrunk to about 2% of native speakers, according to a recent survey.[9] On the other hand, the same survey showed Piedmontese is still spoken by over half the population, alongside Italian. Authoritative sources confirm this result, putting the figure between 2 million (Assimil,[10] IRES Piemonte[11] and 3 million speakers (Ethnologue[12]) out of a population of 4.2 million people. Efforts to make it one of the official languages of the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics were unsuccessful.
Piedmontese is divided into three major groups
The variants can be detected in the variation of the accent and variation of words. It is sometimes difficult to understand a person that speaks a different Piedmontese from the one you are used to, as the words or accents are not the same.
The Eastern Piedmontese group is more phonologically evolved than its western counterpart.
The words that in the west end with jt, jd or t in the east end with [dʒ] e/o [tʃ] for example the westerns [lajt], [tyjt], and [vɛj] (milk, all and old) in the east are [lɑtʃ], [tytʃ] and [vɛdʒ].
A typical eastern features is [i] as allophone of [e]: in word end, at the end of infinitive time of the verb, like in to read and to be (western [leze], [ese] vs. eastern [lezi], [esi]) and at words feminine plural gender. Although this development is shared partially (in the case of the infinitive time) also by most of the western dialects, including the Turin one, that is the most spoken dialect of western piedmontese (and also of the whole piedmontese language).
A morphological variation that sharply divides east and west is the indicative imperfect conjugation of irregular verbs. In the east, the suffix ava/iva is used, while in the west asìa/isìa is used. The groups are also distinguished by differing conjugation of the present simple of the irregular verbs: dé, andé, sté (to give, to go, to stay).
English | eastern | western | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
to give | to go | to stay | to give | to go | to stay | |
I | dagh | vagh | stagh | don | von | ston |
you | dè | vè | stè | das | vas | stas |
he/she/it | da | va | sta | da | va | sta |
we | doma | andoma | stoma | doma | andoma | stoma |
you | déj | andéj | stéj | deve | andeve | steve |
they | dan | van | stan | dan | van | stan |
/v/ is realized as labio-velar [w] between /a/ and /u/ and as [w] or [f] when in word-final position.[13][14]
Allophones of /a/ are [ɑ, ɒ] in stressed syllables and as [ɐ] when in unstressed position and at end of the word.
Piedmontese is written with a modified Latin alphabet. The letters, along with their IPA equivalent, are shown in the table below.
Letter | IPA value | Letter | IPA value | Letter | IPA value | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A a | /a/, [ɑ] | H h | ∅ | P p | /p/ | ||
B b | /b/ | I i | /i/ or (semivocalic) /j/ | Q q | /k/[lower-roman 1] | ||
C c | /k/ or /tʃ/[lower-roman 2] | J j | /j/ | R r | /r/~/ɹ/ | ||
D d | /d/ | L l | /l/ | S s | /s/, /z/[lower-roman 3] | ||
E e | /e/ or /ɛ/[lower-roman 4] | M m | /m/ | T t | /t/ | ||
Ë ë | /ə/ | N n | /n/ or /ŋ/[lower-roman 5] | U u | /y/, or (semivocalic) /w/, /ʊ̯/ | ||
F f | /f/ | O o | /ʊ/, /u/ or (semivocalic), /ʊ̯/ | V v | /v/, /ʋ/, or /w/[lower-roman 6] | ||
G g | /ɡ/ or /dʒ/[lower-roman 2] | Ò ò | /ɔ/ | Z z | /z/ | ||
Certain digraphs are used to regularly represent specific sounds as shown below.
All other combinations of letters are pronounced as written. Grave accent marks stress (except for o which is marked by an acute to distinguish it from ò) and breaks diphthongs, so ua and uà are /wa/, but ùa is pronounced separately, /ˈya/.
number | piedmontese | number | piedmontese | number | piedmontese | number | piedmontese |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | un | 11 | ondes | 30 | tranta | 200 | dosent |
2 | doi (m), doe (f) | 12 | dodes | 40 | quaranta | 300 | tersent |
3 | trei | 13 | terdes | 50 | sinquanta | 400 | quatsent |
4 | quatr | 14 | quatordes | 60 | sessanta | 500 | sinchsent |
5 | sinch | 15 | quindes | 70 | stanta | 600 | sessent |
6 | ses | 16 | sedes | 80 | otanta | 700 | setsent |
7 | set | 17 | disset | 90 | novanta | 800 | eutsent |
8 | eut | 18 | diseut | 100 | sent | 900 | neuvsent |
9 | neuv | 19 | disneuv | 101 | sent e un | 1000 | mila |
10 | des | 20 | vint | 110 | sentdes |
Some of the characteristics of the Piedmontese language are:
Piedmontese has a number of varieties that may vary from its basic koiné to quite a large extent. Variation includes not only departures from the literary grammar, but also a wide variety in dictionary entries, as different regions maintain words of Frankish or Lombard origin, as well as differences in native Romance terminology. Words imported from various languages are also present, while more recent imports tend to come from France and from Italian.
A variety of Piedmontese was Judeo-Piedmontese, a dialect spoken by the Piedmontese Jews until the Second World War, when most were killed during the Holocaust. Some survivors knew the language but as of 2015, the language had gone extinct. It had many loanwards from Provencal, Spanish and Hebrew. It kept many conservative features that Piedmontese abandoned over time.[18] The language never became as large in terms of words as larger Jewish languages like Yiddish, and it never developed a standardized writing system.
Lexical comparison with other Romance languages and English:
Gallo-Italic and Venetian | Occitano-Romance | Occitano- and Ibero-Romance | Gallo-Romance | Italo-Dalmatian | Ibero-Romance | Eastern Romance | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
English | Piedmontese | Ligurian | Emilian | Venetian | Occitan | Catalan | Aragonese | Arpitan | French | Sicilian | Italian | Spanish | Portuguese | Romanian |
chair | cadrega/ careja | carêga | scrâna | carèga | cadièra | cadira | silla | cheyére | chaise | sìeggia | sedia | silla | cadeira | scaun, catedră |
to take | pijé/ciapé | pigiâ/ciapà | ciapèr | ciapar | prene, agafar | agafar, agarrar, replegar | agafar, replegar | prendre/acrapar | prendre | pigghiàri | prendere, pigliare | coger, tomar, pillar | pegar, tomar | a lua |
to go/come out | surtì/seurte | sciortì | sortìr | isìr/sortir | sortir, sal(h)ir, eissir | sortir/eixir | salir, sallir, ixir, salldre | sortir/salyir | sortir | nèsciri | uscire | salir | sair | a ieși |
to fall | droché/tombé | càzze | crodèr | cajar | caire/tombar | caure | cayer, caire | chèdre | tomber | càriri | cadere, cascare | caer, tumbar | cair, tombar | cădere |
home | ca/meison | ca | ca | caxa/cà | casa/meison | ca/casa | casa | mêson/cà | maison | casa | casa | casa | casa | casă |
arm | brass | brasso | brâs | bras | braç | braç | braço | brès | bras | vrazzu | braccio | brazo | braço | braț |
number | nùmer | nùmero | nómmer | nùmaro | nòmbre | nombre | número | nombro | nombre/numéro | nùmmuru | numero | número | número | număr |
name | nòm | nòme | nóm | nòme | nom | nom | nombre, nom | nom | nom | nomu | nome | nombre | nome | nume |
apple | pom | méia/póma | pàm | pómo | poma | poma, maçana | maçana, poma | poma | pomme | muma/mela | mela | manzana | maçã | măr |
to work | travajé | travagiâ | lavorè | travajar | trabalhar | treballar | treballar | travalyér | travailler | travagghiari | lavorare | trabajar | trabalhar | a lucra |
bat (animal) | ratavolòira | ràttopenûgo | papastrel | signàpola/nòtoła | ratapenada | ratpenat, moricec | moriziego, moricec | rata volage | chauve-souris | taddarita | pipistrello | murciélago | morcego | liliac |
school | ëscòla | schêua | scöa | scóła | escòla | escola | escuela, escola | ècuola | école | scola | scuola | escuela | escola | școală |
wood (land) | bòsch | bòsco | bòsch | bósco | bosc | bosc | bosque | bouesc | bois | voscu | bosco | bosque | bosque | pădure |
Mr. (Mister) | monsù | sciô | sior | siór | sénher | senyor | sinyor | monsior | monsieur | gnuri | signore | señor | senhor, seu | domn |
Mrs. (Misses/Missus) | madama | sciâ | siora | sióra | sénhera | senyora | sinyora | madama | madame | gnura | signora | señora | senhora, dona | doamnă |
summer | istà | istà | istê | istà | estiu | estiu | verano | étif | été | astati | estate | verano, estío | verão, estio | vară |
yesterday | jer | vêi | iêr | jéri | gèr/ier | ahir | ahiere | hièr | hier | aìeri | ieri | ayer | ontem | ieri |
today | ancheuj | ancheu | incō | incò | uèi/ancuei | avui/hui | hue | enqu'houè | aujourd'hui | ùoggi | oggi | hoy | hoje | azi |
tomorrow | dman | domân | dmân | domàn | deman | demà | manyana, deman, maitín | deman | demain | rumani | domani | mañana | amanhã | mâine |
English | Piedmontese | Ligurian | Emilian | Venetian | Occitan | Catalan | Aragonese | Arpitan | French | Sicilian | Italian | Spanish | Portuguese | Romanian |
Sunday | dominica/domigna | dumenega | dumenica | doménega | dimenge | diumenge | dominge | demenge | dimanche | rumìnica | domenica | domingo | domingo | duminică |
Monday | lùn-es | lunesdì | munedé | luni | diluns | dilluns | luns | delon | lundi | lunidìa | lunedì | lunes | segunda-feira | luni |
Tuesday | màrtes | mâtesdì | martedé | marti | dimars | dimarts | març | demârs | mardi | màrtiri | martedì | martes | terça-feira | marți |
Wednesday | mèrcol | mâcordì | mercordé | mèrcore | dimecrès | dimecres | miercres | demécro | mercredi | mèrcuri | mercoledì | miércoles | quarta-feira | miercuri |
Thursday | giòbia | zéuggia | giovedé | zòba | dijòus | dijous | jueus | dejo | jeudi | iòviri | giovedì | jueves | quinta-feira | joi |
Friday | vënner | venardì | venerdé | vénare | divendres | divendres | viernes | devendro | vendredi | viènniri | venerdì | viernes | sexta-feira | vineri |
Saturday | saba | sabbò | sâbet | sabo | dissabte | dissabte | sabado | dessandro | samedi | sabbatu | sabato | sábado | sábado | sâmbătă |