HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

This article uses Logar transcription. The Torre Valley dialect or Ter Valley dialect ( , ) is the westernmost and the most
Romanized Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
Slovene dialect. It is one of the most endangered Slovene dialects and is threatened with extinction. It is also one of the most archaic Slovene dialects, together with the Gail Valley and Natisone Valley dialects, which makes it interesting for typological research. It is spoken mainly in the Torre Valley in the
Province of Udine The province of Udine ( it, provincia di Udine, fur, provincie di Udin, sl, videmska pokrajina, Resian: , german: Provinz Weiden) was a province in the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia of Italy, bordering Austria and Slovenia. Its capita ...
in
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, but also in western parts of the
Municipality of Kobarid The Municipality of Kobarid (; sl, Občina Kobarid) is a municipality in the Upper Soča Valley in western Slovenia, near the Italian border. The seat of the municipality is the town of Kobarid. The municipality was established on 3 October 1994 ...
in the
Slovene Littoral The Slovene Littoral ( sl, Primorska, ; it, Litorale; german: Küstenland) is one of the five traditional regions of Slovenia. Its name recalls the former Austrian Littoral (''Avstrijsko Primorje''), the Habsburg possessions on the upper Adria ...
in
Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...
. The dialect borders the Soča dialect to the east, the Natisone Valley dialect to the southeast, Resian to the north, and Friulian to the southwest and west. The dialect belongs to the Littoral dialect group, and it evolved from Venetian–Karst dialect base.


Geographical extension

The dialect is spoken mainly in northeastern Italy, in the province of
Friuli-Venezia Giulia (man), it, Friulana (woman), it, Giuliano (man), it, Giuliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_t ...
, roughly along the
Torre River The Torre ( Friulian: ''Tôr''; sl, Ter) is a river of the Province of Udine in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, northeast Italy. It is the main right tributary of the Isonzo; the Torre together with its own tributary the Natisone drain a large part of t ...
( sl, Ter) from Tarcento () upstream. It also extends beyond this; it is bounded by Monti Musi () to the north, by the Friulian plain to the west and south, and by Mount Joanaz () to the east, completely filling the area between the Natisone Valley and the Resian dialect. The dialect thus also extends into
Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...
, to the
Breginj Combe The Breginj Combe ( sl, Breginjski kot) is a valley in extreme western Slovenia.''Veliki splošni leksikon''. 1997. Vol. 1: A–Ch. Ljubljana: DZS, p. 508. It lies between the elongated ridge of Mount Stol () to the north and Mount Mia ( sl, Mija, ...
in the
Municipality of Kobarid The Municipality of Kobarid (; sl, Občina Kobarid) is a municipality in the Upper Soča Valley in western Slovenia, near the Italian border. The seat of the municipality is the town of Kobarid. The municipality was established on 3 October 1994 ...
in the
Slovene Littoral The Slovene Littoral ( sl, Primorska, ; it, Litorale; german: Küstenland) is one of the five traditional regions of Slovenia. Its name recalls the former Austrian Littoral (''Avstrijsko Primorje''), the Habsburg possessions on the upper Adria ...
, being spoken in villages such as Breginj, Logje, and Borjana. Larger settlements in the dialect area include Montefosca (), Prossenicco (), Canebola (), Cergneu (), Torlano (), Taipana (), Monteaperta (), Vedronza (), Lusevera (), Torre (), and Musi (). Historically, it included the village of Pers ( or ''Brieh''), the westernmost ethnically Slovene village.


Accentual changes

The Torre Valley dialect retains pitch accent on long syllables, which are still longer than short syllables. It has undergone only one accent shift on most of its territory: the > accent shift. However, the microdialects of Porzus (), Prossenicco, and Subit () have also undergone the > and > accent shifts, resulting in a new short stressed syllable. The microdialect of Subit still retains length on formerly stressed vowels after the latter shift.


Phonology

Alpine Slavic and later lengthened turned into , simplifying into in the south. Similarly, long also turned into , simplifying into in the south, whereas later lengthened turned into in the west, progressing all the way to in the south. Similarly, also varies between and , but the distribution is more sporadic. Nasal and evolved the same, but may not have merged with their non-nasal counterparts in all microdialects. Syllabic turned into ~ in the west and into in the east. Syllabic turned into in the west and in the east. Vowel reduction is not common. Akanye is present in some microdialects for and . Ukanye is more common, and simplified into in the west and to in the east. In some microdialects, particularly in the west, secondary nasalization of vowels occurs in sequences consisting of vowel + final /. Eastern dialects simplified into , whereas in the west it completely disappeared. In the far west (e.g., Torre), alveolar and post-alveolar sibilants merged. The consonant mostly turned into . Palatal is still palatal, and turned into .


Morphology

The morphology of the Torre Valley dialect differs greatly from that of standard Slovene, mainly because of influence of
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
. The neuter gender exists in the singular, but it has been feminized in plural. Dual forms are limited to the nominative and accusative cases, and verbs do not have separate dual forms, although the ending is used for the second-person plural, and is reserved for '' vikanje''. The dialect has two future forms: future I, formed with the verb 'want' in the present tense followed by an
infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is de ...
, and future II, formed in the same way as the future in standard Slovene. The dialect also has a
subjunctive The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of the utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude towards it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality s ...
, which is formed with + the imperative form. The
pluperfect The pluperfect (shortening of plusquamperfect), usually called past perfect in English, is a type of verb form, generally treated as a grammatical tense in certain languages, relating to an action that occurred prior to an aforementioned time i ...
still exists, as well as the long infinitive. The dialect also has ''-l'', ''-n'', and ''-ć'' (equivalent to standard Slovene ''-č'')
participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
s.


Writing and vocabulary

The dialect already appeared in written form in the Cividale manuscript in 1479, but it was not later used in written form. Today, because of the lack of a
language policy Language policy is an interdisciplinary academic field. Some scholars such as Joshua Fishman and Ofelia García consider it as part of sociolinguistics. On the other hand, other scholars such as Bernard SpolskyRobert B. Kaplanand Joseph Lo Bianc ...
and
Italianization Italianization ( it, italianizzazione; hr, talijanizacija; french: italianisation; sl, poitaljančevanje; german: Italianisierung; el, Ιταλοποίηση) is the spread of Italian culture, language and identity by way of integration or ass ...
, the dialect has a very small number of speakers and is threatened with extinction. In 2009, a dictionary of the Torre Valley dialect was published, based on material mainly collected at the end of the 19th century, but also in the 20th century.


References


Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Torre Valley dialect Slovene dialects Cultural heritage of Italy