Emilian language

Emilian (Reggiano, Parmesan and Modenese: emigliân; Bolognese: emigliàn; Piacentino: emigliän; Italian: emiliano) is a Gallo-Italic unstandardised language spoken in the historical region of Emilia, which is now in the western part of Emilia-Romagna.

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

Classification

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

Dialectal varieties

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

Linguasphere Observatory recognises the following dialects:

• Mantuan, spoken in all but the very north of the Province of Mantua in Lombardy. It has a strong Lombard influence.
• Pavel speaking EmilianVogherese (Pavese-Vogherese), spoken in the Province of Pavia in Lombardy. It is closely related phonetically and morphologically to Piacentine. It is also akin to Tortonese.[clarification needed]
• Piacentine, spoken west of the River Taro in the Province of Piacenza and on the border with the province of Parma. The variants of Piacentine are strongly influenced by Lombard, Piedmontese, and Ligurian.
• Parmesan, spoken in the Province of Parma. Those from the area refer to the Parmesan spoken outside Parma as Arioso or Parmense, although today's urban and rural dialects are so mixed that only a few speak the original. The language spoken in Casalmaggiore in the Province of Cremona to the north of Parma is closely related to Parmesan.
• Reggiano (Arzân), spoken in the Province of Reggio Emilia, although the northern parts (such as Guastalla, Luzzara and Reggiolo) of the province are not part of this group and closer to Mantuan.
• Modenese, spoken in the centre of the Province of Modena, although Bolognese is more widespread in the Castelfranco area.
• Mirandolese, spoken in the northern part of the Province of Modena, it is very different from the modenese dialect in the phonology, grammar and vocabulary.
• Bolognese, spoken in all the Metropolitan City of Bologna but the Romagnol comuni of: Imola, Dozza, Borgo Tossignano, Fontanelice, Castel del Rio, Mordano and Casalfiumanese (all beyond the river Santerno); in around Castelfranco Emilia (Modena); in the Province of Ferrara (Cento, Poggio Renatico, Sant'Agostino and Mirabello) and in Pavana (Province of Pistoia, Tuscany).
• Ferrarese, spoken in the Province of Ferrara (except for Cento and surroundings), southern Veneto, and Comacchio.

• Carrarese and Lunigiano dialects, spoken in Carrara, Lunigiana, in almost all of the Province of Massa-Carrara in northwestern Tuscany, and a good portion of the Province of La Spezia in eastern Liguria. Historically, this region has been part of Tuscany and the duchies of Modena and Parma at different times, so it has a close economic relationship with the Emilian area and is geographically proximate due to the Magra and Vara rivers.

Other definitions include the following:[citation needed]

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

Vocabulary

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

Phonology

Consonants

• 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

• 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 [ĩẽãõũ], unless /n/ occurs between two vowel sounds.

• Vowel length is also distinguished for the following vowels [iːeːɛːaːɔːoːuː].

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.

Bibliography

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

Further reading

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

External links

• at the Global Lexicostatistical Database