Emilian ( egl, emigliàn, links=no, ; it, emiliano, links=no) is a Gallo-Italic language spoken in the

historical region Historical regions (or historical areas) are geographical regions which at some point in time had a cultural, ethnic, linguistic or political basis, regardless of latterday borders. They are used as delimitations for studying and analysing soc ...

of Emilia, which is now in the northwestern part of

Emilia-Romagna egl, Emigliàn (man) egl, Emiglièna (woman) rgn, Rumagnòl (man) rgn, Rumagnòla (woman) it, Emiliano (man) it, Emiliana (woman) or it, Romagnolo (man) it, Romagnola (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title ...

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

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 ...

. There is no standardised version of Emilian. Emilian-Romagnol has a default

word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how different languages employ different orders. C ...

of subject–verb–object and both

grammatical gender In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all noun ...

(masculine and feminine) and

grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and other languages present number categories of ...

(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 unstandardized language, part of the

Emilian-Romagnol Emilian-Romagnol is a linguistic continuum part of the Gallo-Romance languages spoken in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. It is divided into two main varieties: Emilian and Romagnol. While first registered under a single code ...

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated vari ...

with the bordering Romagnol varieties. Besides Emilian-Romagnol, the Gallo-Italic family includes Piedmontese, Ligurian and Lombard, all of which maintain a level of mutual intelligibility with Emilian, the latter further influenced by Italian.

Vocabulary

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

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 Casalmaggiore ( Casalasco-Viadanese: ) is a ''comune'' in the province of Cremona, Lombardy, Italy, located across the Po River. It was the birthplace of Italian composers Ignazio Donati and Andrea Zani. It became worldwide famous thanks to its ...

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 Luzzara ( Guastallese: ) is a '' comune'' in the province of Reggio Emilia, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It is located at the northern end of the province, on the right bank of the river Po. Luzzara is the birthplace of the composer Maurizio Cazz ...

and Reggiolo) of the province are not part of this group and closer to Mantovano. *Modenese, spoken in the centre of the Province of Modena, although Bolognese is more widespread in the Castelfranco area. * Mirandolese dialect, 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 The Metropolitan City of Bologna ( it, Città Metropolitana di Bologna) is a metropolitan city in the Emilia-Romagna region, Italy. Its capital is ''de facto'' the city of Bologna, though the body does not explicitly outline it. It was created b ...

but the Romagnol ''comuni'' of: Imola,

Dozza Dozza ( rgn, Dòza) () is an Italian '' comune'' in the province of Bologna. Dozza is known for its festival of the painted wall, which takes place every two years in September. During this festival, famous national and international artists paint ...

, Borgo Tossignano,

Fontanelice Fontanelice ( rgn, Funtâna) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Bologna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about southeast of Bologna. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 1,884 and an area of .All demographics ...

Castel del Rio Castel del Rio ( rgn, Castel d'e' Rì) is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Bologna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about southwest of Bologna. Historically, the town's countryside is a large producer of ...

, Mordano and

Casalfiumanese Casalfiumanese ( rgn, Casêl Fiumanés) is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Bologna in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, located about southeast of Bologna. Casalfiumanese borders the following municipalities: Borgo Tos ...

(all beyond the river

Santerno The Santerno is a river in Romagna in northern Italy. It is a major tributary of the river Reno. In Roman times, it was known as the ''Vatrenus'' (small ''Renus''), although, in the Tabula Peutingeriana, it was already identified as the ''Sante ...

); in around Castelfranco Emilia (Modena); in the Province of Ferrara ( Cento, Poggio Renatico, Sant'Agostino and Mirabello) and in Pavana ( Province of Pistoia,

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

). *Ferrarese, spoken in the Province of Ferrara (except for Cento and surroundings), southern Veneto, and

Comacchio Comacchio (; egl, label= Comacchiese, Cmâc' ) is a town and '' comune'' of Emilia Romagna, Italy, in the province of Ferrara, from the provincial capital Ferrara. It was founded about two thousand years ago; across its history it was first g ...

. *Carrarese and Lunigiano dialects, spoken in Carrara,

Lunigiana The Lunigiana () is a historical territory of Italy, which today falls within the provinces of Massa Carrara, Tuscany, and La Spezia, Liguria. Its borders derive from the ancient Roman settlement, later the medieval diocese of Luni, which no long ...

, in almost all of the

Province of Massa and Carrara The province of Massa-Carrara ( it, provincia di Massa-Carrara) is a province in the Tuscany region of central Italy. It is named after the provincial capital Massa, and Carrara, the other main town in the province. History The province of ...

in northwestern

, and a good portion of the Province of La Spezia in eastern

Liguria Liguria (; lij, Ligûria ; french: Ligurie) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is ...

. Historically, this region has been part of Tuscany and the duchies of Modena and

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second m ...

at different times, so it has a close economic relationship with the Emilian area and is geographically proximate due to the

Magra __NOTOC__ The Magra is a long river of Northern Italy, which runs through Pontremoli, Filattiera, Villafranca in Lunigiana and Aulla in the province of Massa-Carrara ( Tuscany); Santo Stefano di Magra, Vezzano Ligure, Arcola, Sarzana and Amegl ...

and

Vara Vara or VARA may refer to: Geography *Vara (river), in Liguria, Italy * Vara Parish, former municipality in Tartu County, Estonia * Vara, Estonia, village in Peipsiääre Parish, Tartu County, Estonia *Vara Municipality, municipality in western Sw ...

rivers. Other definitions include the following: * Massese (mixed with some Tuscan features) * Casalasco, spoken in Cremona, Lombardy.

Phonology

Consonants

* Affricate sounds can also be heard as alternates of fricative sounds /, / particularly among southern dialects. *In the Piacentino dialect, an // sound can be heard as either an alveolar trill [], or as a uvular fricative [] sound.

Vowels

* Rounded front vowel sounds /, , / and a mid-central vowel sound // are mainly common in the Piacentino and western dialects. *In the Piacentino dialect, five vowel sounds being followed by //, are then recognized as nasalized , unless // occurs between two vowel sounds. * Vowel length is also distinguished for the following vowels .

Writing system

Emilian is written using a

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern ...

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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

References

Bibliography

* Luca Rognoni, Il sistema fonologico del dialetto modenese. L'Italia Dialettale 74, pp. 135–148, 2013. * Colombini, F. 2007. La negazione nei dialetti emiliani: microvariazione nell’area modenese. University of Padua, MA Thesis.

External links

Emilian basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
{{Romance languages Emilia (region of Italy) Emilian-Romagnol language Languages of Italy Languages of Emilia-Romagna Languages of Lombardy Languages of Liguria pl:Język emilijski