The Bergamasque dialect is the western variant of the

Eastern Lombard Eastern Lombard is a group of closely related variants of Lombard, a Gallo-Italic dialect spoken in Lombardy, mainly in the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia and Mantua, in the area around Cremona and in parts of Trentino. Its main variants are Be ...

group of the

Lombard language Lombard (native name: ,Classical Milanese orthography, and . , Ticinese orthography. Modern Western orthography. or ,Eastern unified orthography. depending on the orthography; pronunciation: ) is a language, belonging to the Gallo-Italic family ...

. It is mainly spoken in the

province of Bergamo The Province of Bergamo ( it, provincia di Bergamo; lmo, proìnsa de Bèrghem) is a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. It has a population of 1,112,187 (2017), an area of , and contains 243 ''comuni''. Its capital is the city of Bergamo. ...

and in the area around

Crema Crema or Cremas may refer to: Crema * Crema, Lombardy, a ''comune'' in the northern Italian province of Cremona * Crema (coffee), a thin layer of foam at the top of a cup of espresso * Crema (dairy product), the Spanish word for cream * ''Cremà ...

, in central

Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...

. Bergamasque has official status in the province of Bergamo, according to the Regional Law 25/2016.

Classification

Bergamasque is a

Romance language 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 languages, I ...

and belongs to the

Gallo-Italic The Gallo-Italic, Gallo-Italian, Gallo-Cisalpine or simply Cisalpine languages constitute the majority of the Romance languages of northern Italy. They are Piedmontese, Lombard, Emilian, Ligurian, and Romagnol. Although most publications de ...

branch. Its position on the language family is genetically closer to

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

, French, etc. than to

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Geographic distribution

Bergamasque is primarily spoken in the province of

Bergamo Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...

and in the area around

, in central

. Bergamasque is generally mutually intelligible for speakers of

's variants of neighbouring areas (i.e. from

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...

) but this is not always true for distant peripheric areas, especially in alpine valleys. Differences include either lexical, grammatical and phonetic aspects. Bergamasque is often referred to as a dialect of the Italian language; this is not entirely correct, as Bergamasque and Italian are not mutually intelligible. Following the migrations of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Bergamo dialect was transplanted and is spoken in various communities of southern Brazil, for example in the municipality of

Botuverá Botuverá is a municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil. The municipality contains part of the Canela Preta Biological Reserve, a full protected area. See also *List of municipalities in Santa Catarina This i ...

Speakers

Monolingual Monoglottism (Greek μόνος ''monos'', "alone, solitary", + γλῶττα , "tongue, language") or, more commonly, monolingualism or unilingualism, is the condition of being able to speak only a single language, as opposed to multilingualism. ...

Bergamasque speakers are now virtually non-existent. All Lombard speakers also speak

, and their command of each of the two languages varies according to their

geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

position as well as their socio-

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

situation, the most reliable predictor being the speakers' age.200
report
by the Italian institute for national statistics.(

ISTAT The Italian National Institute of Statistics ( it, Istituto nazionale di statistica; Istat) is the main producer of official statistics in Italy. Its activities include the census of population, economic censuses and a number of social, economic ...

)

Samples of literary works in Bergamasque

Another example

The Lord's Prayer English- Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Italian- Bergamasque-

Bibliography

Bortolo Belotti Bortolo Belotti (26 August 1877 – 24 July 1944) was an Italian politician of the first half of 20th century. Life Born in Zogno, son of a wealthy family, he studied law at the University of Pavia and then became a lawyer. In 1907, he joined ...

, ''Storia di Bergamo e dei bergamaschi''. *Carmelo Francia, Emanuele Gambarini, ''Dizionario italiano-bergamasco'', Bergamo, Grafital, 2001. *Carmelo Francia, Emanuele Gambarini, ''Dizionario bergamasco-italiano'', Bergamo, Grafital, 2004. *Umberto Zanetti, ''La grammatica bergamasca'', Bergamo, Sestante, 2004. . *

References

External links

Orbilat
- An interesting site more for western lombard, but the map of the distribution of the two main varieties is noteworthy.
Italian/Bergamasque Dictionary - Carmelo Francia, Emanuele Gambarini - Ducato di piazza Pontida Ducato di piazza Pontida (folkloristical and linguistic association)
*
collection of comedies in Bergamasque

a dictionary for the Bergamasque variety of

Casirate d'Adda Casirate d'Adda (locally ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Bergamo in the Italian region of Lombardy, located about east of Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, ...

village, in Italian. {{Languages of Italy Eastern Lombard language