| Italian Dialects |
Article Index for Italian |
Hotel Reservations in Italia |
Website Links For Italian |
Information AboutItalian Dialects |
|
LANGUAGES OR DIALECTS Certain people assert that some dialects have language status (sometimes for political reasons, such as the Northern League ). Being the definition of Language and Dialect a matter of standard, this issue can be matter of lengthy debates. According to Ethnologue , some of these idioms (normally termed ''dialects'' by their own users) can belong to different branches of the family of Romance Languages . Some of these variations can be different enough to be classified as separate languages. However, there is a substantial disagreement within the scholarly community over a consistent set of parameters for that end. ORIGIN OF ITALIAN DIALECTS Due to the long history of separation in many small states and Colonization by foreign powers (especially France , Spain and Austria-Hungary ) that Italy went through since the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Italian reunification in 1861 , there has been ample opportunity for linguistic diversification. However, most states used either the colonial language as the official one, or Latin in the case of independent Italian states (such as the Vatican ). Rarely was the local vernacular used in official documents, and as such a formal grammar for most vernaculars was usually not established. Private citizens who could write would use vernacular as an informal way to write notes, as Leonardo Da Vinci did, using Latin instead for more important publications. The question of synthesising an Italian language from the various dialects was the main goal in the life of Alessandro Manzoni , who advocated to build a national language mainly on the Florence vernacular, that had gained prestige since Dante Alighieri had used it in his Divina Commedia . It would therefore be a mistake to use the expression "Dialects of Italian", since they did not derive from Italian, but straight from Vulgar Latin : it was Italian that derived from dialects, not the other way around. Dialects remained the common parlance of the population until about the 1950s . With progressive increases in Literacy , Standard Italian became gradually accepted as the national language, but until World War II people of lower classes, who could not afford schooling or simply had no use for a national language, continued to use their own dialects in their daily lives. It is probably in this period that the Stigma against using dialects in public arose, since it was a sign of low Social Status . CURRENT USAGE The solution to the so-called language question that had troubled Manzoni so much came from and Turin , resulted in a generation that could confidentially speak only Standard Italian, and normally only understand some of their parents' dialects. As a result of these phenomena, dialects in Italy stand stronger in the South (where no immigration occurred), in rural areas (where there has been less blending and less influence from trade unions), among older generations. Being unable to speak Italian still carries a stigma, and even strongly pro-dialect political forces such as the Northern League rarely resort to anything else than Standard Italian to write or speak publicly. DIALECTS OF ITALIAN AND DIALECTS OF ITALY Dialects of Italian are regional Varieties which are closely related to Standard Italian , while the terms '''Dialects of Italy''' is suggested for those idioms, such as Piedmontese , Lombard , Emiliano-Romagnolo , Ligurian , Venetian , Neapolitan , Sicilian who show considerable differences in Grammar , Syntax and Vocabulary . Many "dialects of Italy" should thus be considered distinct languages in their own right, and actually are assigned to separate branches on the Romance Language family tree by Ethnologue and other academic works. However, for historical, cultural and political reasons, these idioms have not yet been given an official status, nor have they developed a unified written standard. It should be remembered that Sardinian , Ladin and to a certain degree Friulian are considered as completely distinct languages. LIST OF VARIETIES See also: List Of Languages Of Italy
EXTERNAL LINKS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SEE ALSO
|