The Gallo-Italic, Gallo-Italian, Gallo-Cisalpine or simply Cisalpine languages constitute the majority of the

Romance languages The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

of northern Italy: Piedmontese, Lombard, Emilian, Ligurian, and Romagnol. In central Italy they are spoken in the northern

Marche Marche ( ; ), in English sometimes referred to as the Marches ( ) from the Italian name of the region (Le Marche), is one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. The region is located in the Central Italy, central area of the country, ...

s (Gallo-Italic of the Marches); in southern Italy in some language islands in Basilicata ( Gallo-Italic of Basilicata) and

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

(

Gallo-Italic of Sicily The Gallo-Italic, Gallo-Italian, Gallo-Cisalpine or simply Cisalpine languages constitute the majority of the Romance languages Languages of Italy#Northern Italy, of northern Italy: Piedmontese language, Piedmontese, Lombard language, Lombard, Em ...

).Fiorenzo Toso, ''Le minoranze linguistiche in Italia'', Il Mulino, Bologna 2008, p. 137. Although most publications define Venetian as part of the

Italo-Dalmatian The Italo-Dalmatian languages, or Central Romance languages, are a group of Romance languages spoken in Italy, Corsica (France), and formerly in Dalmatia (Croatia). Italo-Dalmatian can be split into:Hammarström, Harald & Forkel, Robert & Haspe ...

branch, both

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

and

Glottolog ''Glottolog'' is an open-access online bibliographic database of the world's languages. In addition to listing linguistic materials ( grammars, articles, dictionaries) describing individual languages, the database also contains the most up-to-d ...

group it into the Gallo-Italic languages. The languages are spoken also in the departement of Alpes-Maritimes in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and in

Ticino Ticino ( ), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts ...

and southern

Grisons The Grisons (; ) or Graubünden (),Names include: * ; *Romansh language, Romansh: ** ** ** ** ** **; * ; * ; * . See also list of European regions with alternative names#G, other names. more formally the Canton of the Grisons or the Canton ...

, both in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, and the microstates of

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

and

San Marino San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...

. They are still spoken to some extent by the

Italian diaspora The Italian diaspora (, ) is the large-scale emigration of Italians from Italy. There were two major Italian diasporas in Italian history. The first diaspora began around 1880, two decades after the Risorgimento, Unification of Italy, and ended ...

in countries with Italian immigrant communities. Having a Celtic substratum and a Germanic, mostly Lombardic, superstrate, Gallo-Italian descends from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

spoken in northern part of Italia (former

Cisalpine Gaul Cisalpine Gaul (, also called ''Gallia Citerior'' or ''Gallia Togata'') was the name given, especially during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, to a region of land inhabited by Celts (Gauls), corresponding to what is now most of northern Italy. Afte ...

). The group had for part of

late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

and the

early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages (historiography), Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start o ...

a close linguistic link with

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

and Raetia, west and north to the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

. From the

late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

, the group adopted various characteristics of the

languages of the south. As a result, the Gallo-Italic languages have characteristics of the

Gallo-Romance languages The Gallo-Romance branch of the Romance languages includes in the narrowest sense the ''langues d'oïl'' and Franco-Provençal. However, other definitions are far broader and variously encompass the Occitan or Occitano-Romance, Gallo-Italic o ...

to the northwest (including French and

Franco-Provençal Franco-Provençal (also Francoprovençal, Patois or Arpitan) is a Gallo-Romance languages, Gallo-Romance language that originated and is spoken in eastern France, western Switzerland, and northwestern Italy. Franco-Provençal has several di ...

), the Occitano-Romance languages to the west (including Catalan and Occitan) and the Italo-Dalmatian languages to the north-east, central and

south Italy South Italy ( or ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica, National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a Italian NUTS level 1 regions, first level NUTS region and a European Parliam ...

( Venetian, Dalmatian, Tuscan, Central Italian, Neapolitan, Sicilian). For this there is some debate over the proper grouping of the Gallo-Italic languages. They are sometimes grouped with Gallo-Romance,

/ref> but other linguists group them in Italo-Dalmatian.Walter De Gruyter, ''Italienisch, Korsisch, Sardisch'', 1988, p. 452.Michele Loporcaro, ''Profilo linguistico dei dialetti italiani'', 2013, p. 70.Martin Maiden, Mair Parry, ''Dialects of Italy'', 1997, Introduction p. 3. Anna Laura Lepschy, Giulio Lepschy, ''The Italian Language Today'', 1998, p. 41. Most Gallo-Italic languages have to varying degrees given way in everyday use to regional varieties of Italian. The vast majority of current speakers are diglossic with Italian. Among the regional languages of Italy, they are the most endangered, since in the main cities of their area (

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

) they are mainly used by the elderly.

History

Geographical distribution

Within this sub-family, the language with the largest geographic spread is Lombard, spoken in the Italian region of

Lombardy The Lombardy Region (; ) is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in northern Italy and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Lombardy is ...

, in eastern

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

and western

Trentino Trentino (), officially the Autonomous Province of Trento (; ; ), is an Autonomous province#Italy, autonomous province of Italy in the Northern Italy, country's far north. Trentino and South Tyrol constitute the Regions of Italy, region of Tren ...

. Outside Italy it is widespread in Switzerland in the canton of

, and some southern valleys of the canton of the

. Piedmontese refers to the languages spoken in the region of Piedmont and the north west corner of

Liguria Liguria (; ; , ) 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 roughly coextensive with ...

. Historically, the Piedmontese-speaking area is the plain at the foot of the Western Alps, and ends at the entrance to the valleys where Occitan and Franco-Provençal are spoken. In recent centuries, the language has also spread into these valleys, where it is also more widely spoken than these two languages, thus the borders of Piedmontese have reached the western alps watershed that is the border with France. The speaking area of Ligurian or Genoese cover the territory of the former

Republic of Genoa The Republic of Genoa ( ; ; ) was a medieval and early modern Maritime republics, maritime republic from the years 1099 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italy, Italian coast. During the Late Middle Ages, it was a major commercial power in ...

, which included much of nowadays Liguria, and some mountain areas of bordering regions near the Ligurian border, the upper valley of Roya river near

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionCarloforte and Calasetta in Southern

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

, and Bonifacio in

Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...

. Emilian is spoken in the historical-cultural region of Emilia, which forms part of

Emilia-Romagna Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an Regions of Italy, administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia (region), Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 m ...

, but also in many areas of the bordering regions, including southern Lombardy, south-eastern Piedmont, around the town of Tortona,

province of Massa and Carrara The province of Massa-Carrara () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is named after the provincial capital Massa, Tuscany, Massa, and Carrara, the other main town in the province. History The province of "Mass ...

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...

and Polesine in Veneto, near the Po delta. With Romagnol, spoken in the historical region of

Romagna Romagna () is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna, in northern Italy. Etymology The name ''Romagna'' originates from the Latin name ''Romania'', which originally ...

, forms the Emilian-Romagnol linguistic continuum. Gallo-Piceno (''gallo-italic of the Marches'' or ''gallico-marchigiano'') is spoken in the province of Pesaro and Urbino and in the northern part of the province of Ancona ( the Marches).Francesco Avolio,
Dialetti
', in Treccani Encyclopaedia, 2010. Once classified as a dialect of Romagnol, now there is a debate about considering it a separated Gallo-Italic language.

Isolated varieties in Sicily and in Basilicata (Southern Gallo-Italic variants)

Varieties of Gallo-Italic languages are also found in

, corresponding with the central-eastern parts of the island that received large numbers of immigrants from Northern Italy, called

Lombards The Lombards () or Longobards () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who conquered most of the Italian Peninsula between 568 and 774. The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written betwee ...

, during the decades following the Norman conquest of Sicily (around 1080 to 1120). Given the time that has lapsed and the influence from the Sicilian language itself, these dialects are best generically described as Southern Gallo-Italic. The major centres where these dialects can still be heard today include

Piazza Armerina Piazza Armerina (Gallo-Italic of Sicily: ''Ciazza''; Sicilian: ''Chiazza'') is a ''comune'' in the province of Enna of the autonomous island region of Sicily, southern Italy. History The city of Piazza (as it was called before 1862) developed ...

, Aidone,

Sperlinga Sperlinga is a comune in the province of Enna, in the central part of the island of Sicily, in southern Italy. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy"). Geography Sperlinga is at about above sea l ...

, San Fratello,

Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...

, and Novara di Sicilia. Northern Italian dialects did not survive in some towns in the

province of Catania The province of Catania (; ) was a province in the autonomous island region of Sicily, Italy. Its capital was the city of Catania. It had an area of and a total population of about 1,116,917 as of 31 December 2014. Historically known also as ...

that developed large Lombard communities during this period, namely Randazzo, Paternò and Bronte. However, the Northern Italian influence in the local varieties of Sicilian are marked. In the case of San Fratello, some linguists suggested that the nowadays dialect has Provençal language, Provençal as its basis, having been a fort manned by Provençal mercenaries in the early decades of the Norman conquest (bearing in mind that it took the Normans 30 years to conquer the whole of the island). Other dialects, attested from 13th and 14th century, are also found in Basilicata, more precisely in the province of Potenza (Tito, Basilicata, Tito, Picerno, Pignola and Vaglio Basilicata), Trecchina, Rivello, Nemoli and San Costantino Albanese, San Costantino.

General classification

* ''Gallo-Italic'' ** Piedmontese ** Ligurian ** Lombard *** Western Lombard dialects *** Eastern Lombard dialects ** Emilian ** Romagnol *** Gallo-Piceno ** Gallo-Italic of Basilicata **

**( Venetian)

Phonology

Gallo-Italic languages are often said to resemble Western Romance languages like French, Spanish, or Portuguese, and in large part it is due to their phonology. The Gallo-Italic languages differ somewhat in their phonology from one language to another, but the following are the most important characteristics, as contrasted with Italian language, Italian: Bernard Comrie, Stephen Matthews, Maria Polinsky (eds.), The Atlas of languages : the origin and development of languages throughout the world. New York 2003, Facts On File. p. 40. Stephen A. Wurm, Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing. Paris 2001, UNESCO Publishing, p. 29. Glauco Sanga: La lingua Lombarda, in Koiné in Italia, dalle origini al 500 (Koinés in Italy, from the origin to 1500), Lubrina publisher, Bèrghem Studi di lingua e letteratura lombarda offerti a Maurizio Vitale, (Studies in Lombard language and literature) Pisa : Giardini, 1983 Brevini, Franco – Lo stile lombardo : la tradizione letteraria da Bonvesin da la Riva a Franco Loi / Franco Brevini – Pantarei, Lugan – 1984 (Lombard style: literary tradition from Bonvesin da la Riva to Franco Loi ) Mussafia Adolfo, Beitrag zur kunde der Norditalienischen Mundarten im XV. Jahrhunderte (Wien, 1873) Pellegrini, G.B. "I cinque sistemi dell'italoromanzo", in Saggi di linguistica italiana (Turin: Boringhieri, 1975), pp. 55–87. Rohlfs, Gerhard, Rätoromanisch. Die Sonderstellung des Rätoromanischen zwischen Italienisch und Französisch. Eine kulturgeschichtliche und linguistische Einführung (Munich: C.H. Beek'sche, 1975), pp. 1–20. Canzoniere Lombardo – by Pierluigi Beltrami, Bruno Ferrari, Luciano Tibiletti, Giorgio D'Ilario – Varesina Grafica Editrice, 1970.

Vowels

*Most Gallo-Italic languages have lost all unstressed final vowels except , e.g. Lombard ''òm'' "man", ''füm'' "smoke", ''nef'' "snow", ''fil'' "wire", ''röda'' "wheel" (Italian ''uomo, fumo, neve, filo, ruota''). They remain, however, in Ligurian, with passage of ''-o'' to ''-u'', except after ''n''; e.g. ''ramu, rami, lüme, lümi'' "branch, branches, light, lights" (Italian ''ramo, rami, lume, lumi''), but ''can, chen'' "dog, dogs" (Italian ''cane, cani''). *''u'' tends to evolve as ''ü'' , as in French and Occitan, as in Lombard ''füm'' (Italian ''fumo'' "smoke") and Ligurian ''lüme'', Piedmont ''lüm'' (Italian ''lume'' "light"). In some parts, e.g. southern Piedmont, this has further developed into , e.g. ''fis'' (Italian ''fuso''), ''lim'' (Italian ''lume'' "light"). In some mountainous parts of Piedmont, however (e.g. Biellese, Ossolano), this development was blocked before final , leading to masculine ''crü'' (Italian ''crudo'' "raw") but feminine ''cru(v)a'' (Italian ''cruda''). *metaphony (Romance languages), Metaphony is very common, affecting original open stressed ''è'' and ''ò'' when followed by or sometimes (operating before final vowels were dropped). This leads at first to diphthongs ''ie'' and ''uo'', but in many dialects these progress further, typically to monophthongs ''i'' and ''ö'' . Unlike standard Italian diphthongization, this typically operates both in open and closed syllables, hence in Lombardy (where typically but not triggers metaphony) ''quest'' (Italian ''questo'' "this") vs. ''quist'' (Italian ''questi'' "these"). *Stressed closed ''é'' and sometimes ''ó'' , when occurring in an open syllable (followed by at most one consonant) often diphthongized to and , as in Old French; e.g. Piedmont ''beive'' (Italian ''bere'' < *''bévere'' "to drink"), ''teila'' (Italian ''tela'' "cloth"), ''meis'' (Italian ''mese'' "month"). In some dialects, developed further into either or , e.g. ''tèla'' < ''*teila'' (Italian ''tela'' "cloth"), ''sira'' (Italian ''sera'' "evening"), ''mis'' (Italian ''mese'' "month"). *Stressed in an open syllable often fronts to ''ä'' or ''è'' .

Consonants

*Lenition affects single consonants between vowels. and drop; becomes or drops; and become and , or drop; becomes , , or drops. between vowels voices to . between vowels sometimes becomes , and this sometimes drops. Double consonants are reduced to single consonants, but not otherwise lenited. becomes velarized to . These changes occur before a final vowel drops. After loss of final vowels, however, further changes sometimes affect the newly final consonants, with voiced obstruents often becoming voiceless, and final sometimes dropping. Liguria, especially in former times, showed particularly severe lenition, with total loss of intervocalic , , , , , , (probably also , but not ) in Old Genoese, hence ''müa'' (Latin ''matura'' "early"), ''a éia e âe?'' (Italian ''aveva le ali?'' "did it have wings?"; modern ''a l'aveiva e ae?'' with restoration of various consonants due to Italian influence). In Liguria and often elsewhere, collapse of adjacent vowels due to loss of an intervocalic consonant produced new long vowels, notated with a circumflex. * and preceding , or often assibilitated historically to and , respectively. This typically does not occur in Lombardy, however, and parts of Liguria have intermediate and , while Piemontese varieties typically have differential developments, with assibilating (''sent'' '100'), but retaining palatalization (''gent'' 'people'). *Latin palatalized to (Piemontese ''ciav'', Romagnol ''ceva'' 'key'); similarly from Latin develops as . In Liguria, and from Latin and are affected in the same way, e.g. Ligurian ''cian'' (Italian ''piano'' "soft") and ''giancu'' (Italian ''bianco'' "white"). *Latin develops into , or , varying by locale (contrast Italian ).

Lexical comparison

Comparisons of the sentence: "She always closes the window before dining."

References

Sources

* Bernard Comrie, Stephen Matthews, Maria Polinsky (eds.), The Atlas of languages: the origin and development of languages throughout the world. New York 2003, Facts On File. p. 40. * Stephen A. Wurm, Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger of Disappearing. Paris 2001, UNESCO Publishing, p. 29. * Glauco Sanga: La lingua Lombarda, in Koiné in Italia, dalle origini al 500 (Koinés in Italy, from the origin to 1500), Lubrina publisher, Bèrghem * Studi di lingua e letteratura lombarda offerti a Maurizio Vitale, (Studies in Lombard language and literature) Pisa : Giardini, 1983 * Brevini, Franco – Lo stile lombardo : la tradizione letteraria da Bonvesin da la Riva a Franco Loi / Franco Brevini – Pantarei, Lugan – 1984 (Lombard style: literary tradition from Bonvesin da la Riva to Franco Loi ) *Hull, Geoffrey ''The Linguistic Unity of Northern Italy and Rhaetia: Historical Grammar of the Padanian Language'' 2 vols. Sydney: Beta Crucis Editions, 2017. * Mussafia Adolfo, Beitrag zur kunde der Norditalienischen Mundarten im XV. Jahrhunderte (Wien, 1873) * Pellegrini, G.B. "I cinque sistemi dell'italoromanzo", in ''Saggi di linguistica italiana'' (Turin: Boringhieri, 1975), pp. 55–87. * Rohlfs, Gerhard, ''Rätoromanisch. Die Sonderstellung des Rätoromanischen zwischen Italienisch und Französisch. Eine kulturgeschichtliche und linguistische Einführung'' (Munich: C.H. Beek'sche, 1975), pp. 1–20. * ''Canzoniere Lombardo'' – by Pierluigi Beltrami, Bruno Ferrari, Luciano Tibiletti, Giorgio D'Ilario – Varesina Grafica Editrice, 1970.

External links

{{Romance languages Gallo-Italic languages,