Gallo-Italic
Geographic
distribution:		 Italy, San Marino, Switzerland, Monaco
Linguistic classification: Indo-European
Subdivisions:

The Gallo-Italic[1][2][3][4][5] or Gallo-Italian[6] language group is a genetic subgroup of the Romance languages. Its place within Romance, however, is in dispute: whether it belongs in Gallo-Romance languages or the Italo-Dalmatian languages.[7] The Venetian language is usually considered to belong to a different dialect community,[4] but some scholars include it too among Gallo-Italic dialects.[6]

Contents

Geographical distribution [link]

Gallo-Italic in shades of green

Traditionally spoken in Northern Italy, Southern Switzerland, San Marino and Monaco, most Gallo-Italic languages have given way in everyday use to Standardized Italian. The vast majority of current speakers are bilingual with Italian. These languages are still spoken by immigrants in countries with Northern Italian immigrant communities. Ligurian is formalised in Monaco as Monegasque.

Subdivisions [link]

General classification [link]

Phonology [link]

The Gallo-Italic languages differ somewhat in their phonology from one language to another, but the following are the most important characteristics, as contrasted with standard Italian:

Vowels:

  • Most Gallo-Italic languages delete all unstressed final vowels except /a/, e.g. Lombard òm "man", füm "smoke", nef "snow", fil "wire", röda "wheel" (Italian uomo, fumo, neve, filo, ruota). They remain, however, in Ligurian, with passage of -o to -u, except after n; e.g. ramu, rami, lüme, lümi "branch, branches, light, lights" (Italian ramo, rami, lume, lumi), but can, chen /kaŋ, keŋ/ "dog, dogs" (Italian cane, cani).
  • u /u/ tends to change to ü /y/, as in French, as in Lombard füm (Italian fumo "smoke") and Ligurian lüme, Piedmont lüm (Italian lume "light"). In some parts, e.g. southern Piedmont, this has further developed into /i/, e.g. fis (Italian fuso), lim (Italian lume "light"). In some mountainous parts of Piedmont, however (e.g. Canavese, Biellese, Ossolano), this change is blocked before final /a/, leading to masculine crü (Italian crudo "raw") but feminine cru(v)a (Italian cruda).
  • So-called "metaphony" is very common, affecting original open stressed è /ɛ/ and ò /ɔ/ when followed by /i/ or sometimes /o/ (operating before final vowels were dropped). This leads at first to diphthongs ie and uo, but in many dialects these progress further, typically to monophthongs i and ö /ø/. Unlike standard Italian diphthongization, this typically operates both in open and closed syllables, hence in Lombardy (where typically /i/ but not /o/ triggers metaphony) quest (Italian questo "this") vs. quist (Italian questi "these").
  • Stressed closed é /e/ and sometimes ó /o/, when occurring in an open syllable (followed by at most one consonant) often diphthongize to /ei/ and /ou/, as in Old French; e.g. Piedmont beive (Italian bere < *bévere "to drink"), teila (Italian tela "cloth"), meis (Italian mese "month"). In Piedmont, /ei/ develops further into either /ɛ/ or /i/, e.g. tèla /tɛla/ < *teila (Italian tela "cloth"), sira (Italian sera "evening"), mis (Italian mese "month").
  • Stressed /a/ in an open syllable often fronts to ä /æ/ or è /ɛ/.

Consonants:

  • Lenition affects single consonants between vowels. Voiced /d/ and /g/ drop; voiced /b/ becomes /v/ or drops; unvoiced /t/ and /k/ become voiced /d/ and /g/, or drop; unvoiced /p/ becomes /b/, /v/, or drops. /s/ between vowels voices to /z/. /l/ between vowels sometimes becomes /r/, and this /r/ sometimes drops. Double consonants are reduced to single consonants, but not otherwise lenited. /n/ becomes velarized to /ŋ/. These changes occur before a final vowel drops. After loss of final vowels, however, further changes sometimes affect the newly final consonants, with voiced obstruents often becoming voiceless, and final /ŋ/ sometimes dropping. Liguria, especially in former times, showed particularly severe lenition, with total loss of intervocalic /t/, /d/, /g/, /b/, /v/, /l/, /r/ (probably also /p/, but not /k/) in Old Genoese, hence müa (Latin matura "early"), a éia e âe? (Italian aveva le ali? "does it have wings?"; modern a l'aveiva e ae? with restoration of various consonants due to Tuscan influence). In Liguria and often elsewhere, collapse of adjacent vowels due to loss of an intervocalic consonant produced new long vowels, notated with a circumflex.
  • Italian palatoalveolar /ʧ/ and /ʤ/ are often reduced/assibilitated to /s/ and /z/, respectively. This typically does not occur in Lombardy, however, and parts of Liguria have intermediate /ts/ and /dz/.
  • Italian /kj/ from Latin /kl/ is further palatalized to /ʧ/; similarly /gj/ from Latin /gl/ becomes /ʤ/. In Liguria, /pj/ and /bj/ from Latin /pl/ and /bl/ are affected in the same way, e.g. Ligurian cian (Italian piano "soft") and giancu (Italian bianco "white").
  • Latin /kt/ develops variously into /jt/ or /ʧ/ (contrast Italian /tt/).

Isolated varieties in Sicily [link]

Further information: Gallo-Italic of Sicily

Varieties of Gallo-Italic languages are also found in Sicily, corresponding with the central-eastern parts of the island that received large numbers of immigrants from Northern Italy, called Lombards, during the decades following the Norman conquest of Sicily (around 1080 to 1120). Given the time that has lapsed and the cross-fertilisation that has occurred between these varieties and the Sicilian language itself, these dialects are best described as Gallo-Italic. The major centres where these dialects can still be heard today include Piazza Armerina, Aidone, Sperlinga, San Fratello, Nicosia, and Novara di Sicilia. Northern Italian dialects did not survive in some towns in the province of Catania that developed large Lombard communities during this period, namely Randazzo, Paternò and Bronte. However, the Northern Italian influence in the local varieties of Sicilian is marked. In the case of San Fratello, some linguists have suggested that the Gallo-Italic dialect present today has Provençal as its basis, having been a fort manned by Provençal mercenaries in the early decades of the Norman conquest (bearing in mind that it took the Normans 30 years to conquer the whole of the island).

Other varieties of Gallo-Italic languages, locally spoken from 13th and 14th century, are also found in Basilicata, more precisely in the province of Potenza (Tito, Picerno, Pignola and Vaglio Basilicata), Trecchina, Rivello, Nemoli and San Costantino.

See also [link]

References [link]

  1. ^ Rohlfs 1975, pp. 1-20.
  2. ^ Jud & Jaberg 1928.
  3. ^ Meyer-Lübke 1920, p. 17.
  4. ^ a b Pellegrini 1977.
  5. ^ Pellegrini 1975, pp. 55-87.
  6. ^ a b Ethnologue.
  7. ^ Allasino 2007, p. 9.

Works cited [link]

Further reading [link]

  • Canzoniere Lombardo – by Pierluigi Beltrami, Bruno Ferrari, Luciano Tibiletti, Giorgio D'Ilario – Varesina Grafica Editrice, 1970.
  • Brevini, Franco – Lo stile lombardo : la tradizione letteraria da Bonvesin da la Riva a Franco Loi / Franco Brevini – Pantarei, Lugan – 1984 (Lombard style: literary tradition from Bonvesin da la Riva to Franco Loi )
  • Comrie, Bernard; Matthews, Stephen; Polinsky, Maria, eds. (2003). The Atlas of languages : the origin and development of languages throughout the world. New York: Facts On File. p. 40. 
  • (in Italian) Studi di lingua e letteratura lombarda offerti a Maurizio Vitale [Studies in Lombard language and literature presented to Maurizio Vitale]. Pisa: Giardini. 1983. 
  • Mussafia, Adolfo. 1873. Beitrag zur kunde der Norditalienischen Mundarten im XV. Jahrhunderte. Wien.
  • Sanga, Glauco (1990). "La lingua Lombarda" (in Italian). Koiné in Italia, dalle origini al cinquecento: atti del convegno di Milano e Pavia 25-26 settembre [Koinés in Italy, from the origin to 500]. Biblioteca di lingue e culture locali. Bèrghem (Bergamo): Lubrina. 
  • Wurm, Stephen A. (2001). Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing. Paris: UNESCO Publishing. p. 29. 
Italics indicate extinct languages; bold indicates languages with more than 5 million speakers; languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left.

https://wn.com/Gallo-Italic_languages

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