Emilian dialects

Emilian
emigliân
Pronunciation	IPA: [emiˈʎaːŋ]
Native to	Italy
Region	Primarily Emilia
Ethnicity	3.3 million (2008)
Native speakers	Unknown, c. 1.3 million (2006 estimate) (2006)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Gallo-Italic Emilian
Dialects	Bolognese, Ferrarese, Modenese, Reggiano, Parmigiano, Piacentino, Mantovano, Carrarino, Vogherese-Pavese
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	egl
Glottolog	emil1241
Linguasphere	51-AAA-oka ... -okh
Geographic distribution of Emilian (shown in light pink)

The Emilian language (Emilian: emigliàn, emiliân; Italian: emiliano) represents one of the major branches of the Gallo-Italic languages. Its very core is confined to the land between the river Reno and the river Taro, that is between the provinces of Parma and Western Bologna. In the area outside of this core region it is spoken a transition language between the other Gallo-Italic varieties. For example, West of the river Taro to Piacenza it is spoken a transition language between Emilian and Western Lombard; while east of the river Reno it is spoken a transition language between Emilian and Romagnol. This is due to the very nature of Gallo-Italic languages which form a large continuum of each other, as such there is no definite border separating distinctive Gallo-Italic varieties, but only transition regions.

There is no standardised version of Emilian.

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 uses a considerable number of diacritics.

Classification

Main article: Gallo-Italic languages

Emilian language is one of the two branches of the Emilian-Romagnol language, today an obsolete term to define the Emilian and Romagnol languages, considered as separated, one of unstandardized Gallo-Italic languages. The Emilian dialects naturally form a natural dialect continuum with the bordering Romagnol varieties, while the more distant dialects might be less mutually intelligible. Besides Emilian-Romagnol, the Gallo-Italic family includes Piedmontese, Ligurian and Lombard, all of which maintain a level of mutual intelligibility with Emilian and Romagnol, the latter further influenced by Italian.

Vocabulary

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

Words in Emilian

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:

• Mantovano, spoken in all but the very north of the Province of Mantua in Lombardy. It has a strong Lombard influence.
• Vogherese (Pavese-Vogherese), spoken in the Province of Pavia in Lombardy. It is closely related phonetically and morphologically to Piacentino. It is also akin to Tortonese.
• Piacentino, spoken west of the River Taro in the Province of Piacenza and on the border with the province of Parma. The variants of Piacentino are strongly influenced by Lombard, Piedmontese, and Ligurian.
• Parmigiano, spoken in the Province of Parma. Those from the area refer to the Parmigiano 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 Parmigiano.
• 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 Mantovano.
• Modenese, spoken in the Province of Modena, although Bolognese is more widespread in the Castelfranco area. In the northern part of the province of Modena, the lowlands around the town of Mirandola, a Mirandolese sub-dialect of Modenese is spoken, while on the Modenese Appennino a conservative variety of Modenese (Frignanese) is spoken.
• 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 and 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:

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

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants in the Bolognese dialect

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	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] are 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	y		u
Mid	e	ø	ə	o
	ɛ	œ		ʌ	ɔ
Open	æ		a

• 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].

Writing system

Emilian is written using a Latin script that has never been standardised. As a result, spelling varies widely across the dialects. The dialects were largely oral and rarely written until some in the late 20th century; a large amount of written media in Emilian has been made since World War II.

Bibliography

• 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

External links

• Emilian basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database