Faetar, fully known as Faetar-Cigliàje ( Italian: ) is a

Franco-Provençal language Franco-Provençal (also Francoprovençal, Patois or Arpitan) is a language within Gallo-Romance originally spoken in east-central France, western Switzerland and northwestern Italy. Franco-Provençal has several distinct dialects and is sep ...

that is spoken in two small communities in

Foggia Foggia (, , ; nap, label= Foggiano, Fògge ) is a city and former ''comune'' of Apulia, in Southern Italy, capital of the province of Foggia. In 2013, its population was 153,143. Foggia is the main city of a plain called Tavoliere, also know ...

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 ...

Faeto Faeto ( frp, Fayéte, ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Foggia in the Apulia region of southeast Italy. It is a mountain village lying astride the Apennines and renowned for its prosciutto, an Italian dry-cured ham known as . Residen ...

and Celle di San Vito, as well as émigré communities in

Ontario, Canada Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

(primarily

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

and Brantford). Although Faetar shares many similarities with other varieties of Franco-Provençal, as well as Italian, it is distinct from both. Because Faeto and Celle di San Vito have been isolated from the rest of Italy by

Daunian mountains Daunian Mountains (in Italian Monti della Daunia or Monti Dauni, or also improperly Subappennino Dauno) are a mountain range in southern Italy, constituting the eastern appendix of the Campanian Apennines. They occupy the western fringe of Capi ...

, and also due to the influence of

Irpinian dialect The Irpinian dialect, or Irpino, is the dialect of Neapolitan language spoken in almost all of the comuni in the Province of Avellino in the Italian region of Campania. It differs from other varieties in certain phrases, pronunciation and the ...

s (spoken in almost all neighboring villages), Faetar has evolved and changed over the centuries into a distinct language. After a large wave of emigration from Italy after the

Second World War 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 ...

, many Faetano and Cellese settled in North America; with a relatively large group immigrating to Toronto, Canada. The language has been studied both in its native Italy, and in Toronto, because of its small number of speakers, its unique blend of Italian and Franco-Provençal features, and its changes brought on by language contact. Although not given a distinct language code from Franco-Provençal, it is listed by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...

as "definitely

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

".
UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

History

The Faetar language has its beginnings in the 13th century.
, Accenti provenzali sui monti Dauni, by Antonio Ricucci, April 30, 2012 (in Italian). A Franco-Provençal group of soldiers was sent to the district of Apulia in the

Kingdom of Naples The Kingdom of Naples ( la, Regnum Neapolitanum; it, Regno di Napoli; nap, Regno 'e Napule), also known as the Kingdom of Sicily, was a state that ruled the part of the Italian Peninsula south of the Papal States between 1282 and 1816. It was ...

to fight the battle of Benevento of 1266. After the battle, some soldiers remained and established communities in the region. Celle di San Vito was founded as a monastery on the mountainside to avoid an outbreak of

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or deat ...

down the mountain, and Faeto was founded either on 8 July 1268, or 20 October 1274 by an edict from

Charles of Anjou Charles I (early 1226/12277 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou, was a member of the royal Capetian dynasty and the founder of the second House of Anjou. He was Count of Provence (1246–85) and Forcalquier (1246–48, 1256–85) ...

. In the 20th century, hundreds of Faetano and Cellese people left Italy and settled in the Toronto area of Canada, and in small pockets of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, such as upstate

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

(The

demonyms A demonym (; ) or gentilic () is a word that identifies a group of people (inhabitants, residents, natives) in relation to a particular place. Demonyms are usually derived from the name of the place (hamlet, village, town, city, region, province, ...

for the people from Faeto and Celle di San Vito are Faetani and Cellese, respectively). The Toronto community has been studied recently to examine the effects of language contact, and to study the differences between the language in Toronto and in Italy.

Language

There have been at least two dictionaries and one grammar published since 2000 that describe the Faetar language in Italian.Rubino, Vincenzo et al. 2007. Dizionario Italiano-Francoprovenzale (F-I) di Faeto. Sportello Linguistico Francoprovenzale. Foggia, Italy. It has also been studied extensively in English,Perta, Carmela. 2008. Can language politics ensure languages survival? Evidence from Italy. Language and Linguistics Compass 2.6: 1216-1224. French,Colecchio, Linda & Michele Pavia. 2008. Les patrimoines linguistiques dans le cadre du développement local: enjeux seulement symboliques ou également économiques? la situation de Faeto. Abstract for a paper presented at Les droits linguistiques: droit à la reconnaissance, droit à la formation. Université de Teramo. and Italian Bitonti, Alessandro. 2012. Luoghe, lingue, contatto: Italiano, dialetti, e francoprovenzale in Puglia. Tesi. Università di Lecce. as a

minority language A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) an ...

, a language in contact, and for comparison with other Franco-Provençal languages.Heap, D. & N. Nagy. 1998. Subject pronoun variation in Faetar and Francoprovencal. Papers in Sociolinguistics. NWAVE-26 a l'Universite Laval. Quebec: Nota bene. 291-300. Faetar's grammar is similar to most other Romance languages with articles that agree with masculine and feminine nouns, and verbs that are inflected with different endings for person, number, and tense. Because of these inflected verbs, pronouns are not necessary. However, Faetar has a unique pronoun characteristic in that it has two versions of each pronoun. There is a "strong" pronoun and a "weak"

pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun ( abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would n ...

. In conversation, both the strong and the weak can be used together (the strong always comes first), or only the strong, or only the weak, or no pronoun at all. The weak can also appear after a noun. For example: (1) No overt subject pronoun ''and that day, �=I'' was at the house'' (2) Weak pronoun ''and it was vacant'' (3) Strong pronoun ''No, he was always…'' (4) Strong + Weak pronoun ''She-''strong ''she-''weak ''is my favourite'' Nagy, N.; Iannozzi, M.; & D. Heap. In Press. Faetar Null Subjects: A Variationist Study of Heritage Language In Contact. International Journal of the Sociology of Language. This case of strong and weak pronouns has been the source of much study as to what constrains, if anything, the choice of pronouns in a given phrase. This also makes Faetar a partial

pro-drop language A pro-drop language (from "pronoun-dropping") is a language where certain classes of pronouns may be omitted when they can be pragmatically or grammatically inferable. The precise conditions vary from language to language, and can be quite int ...

References

{{Languages of Italy Franco-Provençal language Languages of Apulia Endangered diaspora languages Endangered Romance languages Languages of Canada Culture of Toronto Brantford Italian-Canadian culture