Niçard Dialect

( Classical orthography), ( Mistralian orthography, ), ( , ), or () is the dialect that was historically spoken in the city of Nice, and in a few surrounding communes. Niçard is generally considered a subdialect of Provençal, itself a dialect of Occitan.Jean-Philippe Dalbéra. ''Les parlers des Alpes Maritimes: étude comparative, essai de reconstruction''. London: Association Internationale d’Études Occitanes, 1994. Some Italian irredentists have claimed it as a Ligurian dialect.

Most residents of Nice and its region no longer speak Niçard, and the very few who do are fully bilingual in French as Nissard has lost its function of a vernacular language decades ago. Nonetheless, today there is a developing revival of the use of the language. Some local television news is presented in Niçard (with French subtitles) and street signs in the old town of Nice are written in the dialect as well as in French. The Niçard song is often regarded as the "anthem" of Nice.

Writing system

Niçard is written using two forms:
* ''Classical orthography''. Preferring the native traditions of the language, this form was developed by Robert Lafont (, 1951; , 1972) and Jean-Pierre Baquié (, 1984). It is regulated by the .
* ''Mistralian orthography''. Closer to written French, it was invented by the (although there also exists an ).

An Italian orthography was abandoned when Nice joined the French Empire in 1861. It was briefly reinstated in 1942 and 1943 when Italy occupied and administered the city.

Classification

The classifications of Occitan in dialects hesitate between defining Niçard as a specific dialect or including it in Maritime Provençal. Niçard shares some phonetical archaisms with Occitan areas as distant as Aranese, which is also using proparoxytone words. It is also sharing with Aranese a quite heavy influence of a neighbouring language (Catalan for Aranese, Italian for Niçard). Regional differences are broadly accepted by linguists and French national education authorities in Occitan. Domergue Sumien defined in his PhD thesis Occitan as a pluricentric language, and included Niçard among the seven regional standards to be taught. The French Ministry of National Education uses either “nissart-langue d’oc” or “occitan-langue d’oc nissart”.

See also

*Occitan language
* Félibrige
* Nissa La Bella
* Italian irredentism in Nice

Notes

References

Sources

* Andrews James Bruyn (1875) ''Essai de grammaire du dialecte mentonnais avec quelques contes, chansons et musique du pays,'' Nice: no name e-ed. 1978, 1981, Menton: Société d’Art et d’Histoire du Mentonnais* Andrews James Bruyn (1877) ''Vocabulaire français-mentonnais,'' Nice: no name e-ed. 1977, Marseilles: Lafitte Reprints* Baquié Joan-Pèire (1987) (collab. Andrieu SAISSI) ''Empari lo niçard / Apreni lo provençau,'' Nice: CRDP Nice / CDDP Alpes Maritimes
* Barberis Francesco. ''Nizza italiana: raccolta di varie poesie italiane e nizzarde, corredate di note''. Editore Tip. Sborgi e Guarnieri (Nizza, 1871). University of California, 2007
* Bec Pierre (1970–71) (collab. Octave NANDRIS, Žarko MULJAČIĆ), ''Manuel pratique de philologie romane,'' Paris: Picard, 2 vol.
* Blaquièra J. (1985) ''Dictionnaire français-nissart, langue d'oc, dialecte niçois,'' self-edited
* Calvino Jean-Baptiste (1905) ''Nouveau dictionnaire niçois-français,'' Nice: Imprimerie des Alpes Maritimes e-ed. 1993 with the following title: ''Dictionnaire niçois-français, français-niçois,'' Nîmes: Lacour* Carles (Père) Pietro (1866) ''Piccolo vocabolario nizzardo-italiano,'' Nice
* Carles (Père) Pietro (1868) ''Piccolo vocabolario italiano-nizzardo,'' Nice
* Castellana Georges (1947) ''Dictionnaire niçois-français'' e-ed. 2001, Nice: Serre* CastellanaGeorges (1952) ''Dictionnaire français-niçois'' e-ed. 2001, Nice: Serre* Cerquiglini Bernard (2003) (dir.) Les langues de France, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France / Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication-DGLFLF: 125-136]
* Cerquiglini Bernard (2000) ''Histoire de la langue française 1945-2000''. Co-edited with Gérald Antoine. Paris: CNRS Editions, 2000.
* Clapié Jaume, & BAQUIÉ Joan Pèire (2003) ''Pichin lèxico ilustrat, petit lexique illustré, niçard-françés, français-niçois, '' Nice: Serre
* Compan André (1965) ''Grammaire niçoise'' e-ed. 1981, Nice: Serre* Compan André (1971) ''Anthologie de la littérature niçoise,'' coll. Biblioutèco d’istòri literàri e de critico, Toulon: L’Astrado
* Dalbera Jean-Philippe (1984) ''Les parlers des Alpes Maritimes: étude comparative, essai de reconstruction'' hD thesis Toulouse: Université de Toulouse 2 d. 1994, London: Association Internationale d’Études Occitanes* Dalbera Jean-Philippe (2003) “Les îlots liguriens de France” ERQUIGLINI Bernard (2003) (dir.) Les langues de France, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France / Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication-DGLFLF: 125-136* Escola de Bellanda (2002) ''Diciounari nissart-francés,'' Nice: Fédération des Associations du Comté de Nice / Serre
* Eynaudi Jules, & Cappati Louis (1931–1938) ''Dictionnaire de la langue niçoise,'' Niça: sn.
* Forner Werner ''A propos du ligure intémélien - La cote, l'arrière-pays'' Travaux du cercle linguistique de Nice 1996
* Forner Werner ''La dialettologia ligure. Problemi e prospettive'' in ''La dialettologia italiana oggi'' in G. Holtus, Tübingen 1985-1990
* Gasiglia Rémy (1984) ''Grammaire du nissart,'' sl.: Institut d’Études Niçoises
* Gauberti Pierre (1994) ''Dictionnaire encyclopédique de la langue de Peille'' ays Niçois Nice: Serre
* Gioffredo Pietro ''Storia dele Alpi marittime'' libri XXIV, in HPM 1839, Torino (originally published in 1662)
* Giordan Joseph (1968) ''Dictionnaire français-niçois: lexique complémentaire du parler de la ville de Nice et des pays environnants,'' sl.: sn.
* Gourdon Marie-Louise (1997) ''Contribution à l’histoire de la langue occitane. Étude des systèmes graphiques pour écrire l’occitan (niçois, provençal, languedocien) de 1881 à 1919: itinéraires et travaux de A.L. Sardou, J.B. Calvino, L. Funel, A. Perbosc, P. Estieu'' dD thesis Nice
* Liautaud René (1985) ''Essai de lexique français-entraunois avec correspondences en niçois,'' Nice: CRDP
* Miceu Giausep (1840) Grammatica nissarda: per emparà en pòou de temp lo patouas dòou paìs, Nice: Imprimarìa de la Sossietà tipografica e-ed. Marie-Louise GOURDON (1975) ''La Grammatica nissarda de Joseph Micèu: biographie, étude sur les dialectes, commentaires philologiques,'' Nice: imprimerie Pierotti* Pellegrini (Abbé) (1894) ''Lexique niçois-français,'' Nice: no name
* Petracco Siccardi, Giulia ''L'amfizona Liguria Provenza'' Alessandria 1989
* Petracco Siccardi, Giulia e Caprini, Rita ''Toponomastica storica della Liguria'', Genova, SAGEP, 1981
* Petracco Siccardi, Giulia ''Ligurien'' Lexicon der Romanistischen Linguistik II, 2, Tübingen, 1995
* Sardou Antoine Léandre, & Calvino Jean-Baptiste (1881) ''Grammaire de l’idiome niçois,'' Nice: Visconti e-ed. 1978, Marseilles: Laffitte Reprints* Scaliero Giuseppe (1830) ''Vocabolario nizzardo,'' Nice: no name
* Toscano Reinat (1998) ''Gramàtica niçarda,'' no place: Princi Néguer

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicard
Occitan language
Languages of France
Ligurian language (Romance)
City colloquials