Italo-Dalmatian languages

Italo-Dalmatian
Geographic distribution:	Italy, Corsica, Croatia
Linguistic classification:	Indo-European Italic Romance (varies) Italo-Dalmatian
Glottolog:	ital1286[1]

The Italo-Dalmatian languages, or Central Romance languages, are a group of Romance languages of Italy, Corsica, and, formerly, the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia.

Italo-Dalmatian can be split into:^[2]

• Italo-Romance, which includes most central and southern Italian languages.
• Dalmatian Romance, which includes Dalmatian and Istriot.

The generally accepted four branches of the Romance languages are Western Romance, Italo-Dalmatian, Sardinian and Eastern Romance. But there are other ways that the languages of Italo-Dalmatian can be classified in these branches:

• Italo-Dalmatian is sometimes included in Eastern Romance (which includes Romanian), leading to: Western, Sardinian, and Eastern branches.
• Italo-Dalmatian is sometimes included in Western Romance (which includes the Gallic and Iberian languages) as Italo-Western, leading to: Italo-Western, Sardinian, and Eastern branches.
• Italo-Romance is sometimes included in Italo-Western, with Dalmatian Romance included in Eastern Romance, leading to: Italo-Western, Sardinian, and Eastern branches.
• Corsican (from Italo-Dalmatian) and Sardinian are sometimes included together as Southern Romance, or Island Romance, leading to: Western, Italo-Dalmatian, Southern, and Eastern branches.

Languages

Based on mutual intelligibility, Dalby lists four languages: Corsican, Italian (Tuscan–Central), Neapolitan–Sicilian, and Dalmatian.^[3] A more detailed account of the languages and dialects includes:

Dalmatian Romance

• Dalmatian language, spoken in the Dalmatia region of Croatia. Became extinct in the 19th century
  • Regional varieties of Dalmatian: Ragusan, Vegliot, Zara
• Istriot, spoken on the Istrian peninsula of Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy. Istriot is sometimes considered not to belong to Italo-Dalmatian.

Italo-Romance

• Tuscan: this includes Standard Italian and various forms of Regional Italian, including the Tuscan dialect
  • Corsican is related to Tuscan, with dialects of Gallurese and arguably of Sassarese
• Central Italian, or Latin–Umbrian–Marchegian, includes the varieties of Romanesco and Marchigiano
• Neapolitan, spoken in central–southern Italy
  • Neapolitan proper, spoken in and around Naples and in Campania
  • Abbruzzese
  • Apulian
  • Basilicatine–Lucanian
  • Molisano
• Sicilian: spoken in Sicily; a small portion of southern Campania; central and southern Calabria; and Salento in southern Apulia.
• Some Italian linguists group the Gallo-Italic languages with Italo-Romance.^[4]

Judeo-Italian

The Judeo-Italian languages are varieties of Italian used by Jewish communities between the 10th and the 20th centuries in Italy and in Corfu and Zakynthos in the Ionian Islands.

Italo-Romance languages and dialects

There are four main groups of Central-Southern (Centro-Meridionale) Italian dialects or languages:

• Tuscan–Corsican: group of dialects spoken in the Italian region of Tuscany, and the French island of Corsica.
  • Northern Tuscan dialects:
    • Florentine is spoken in the city of Florence, and was the basis for Standard Italian.
    • Other dialects: Pistoiese; Pesciatino or Valdinievolese; Lucchese; Versiliese; Viareggino; Pisano-Livornese.
  • Southern Tuscan dialects:
    • Dialects of Aretino-Chianaiolo, Senese, Grossetano.
  • Corsican, spoken on Corsica, is thought to be descended mainly from Tuscan.^[5]
    • Gallurese and Sassarese, spoken on the northern tip of Sardinia, can be considered as dialects of Corsican.
• Central Italian, or Latin-Umbrian-Marchegian dialects: mainly spoken in the regions of: Lazio (which includes Rome); Umbria; central Marche; a small part of Abruzzo and Tuscany.
  • Romanesco, spoken in Rome and Lazio.
  • Castelli Romani: spoken in the Castelli Romani, in the Provence of Rome, Lazio.
  • Tuscia or Viterbo: spoken in the Province of Viterbo, Lazio.
  • Ciociaro: spoken in Ciociaria, in the Province of Frosinone, Lazio.
  • Umbrian: spoken in Umbria.
  • Central Marchigiano: spoken in central Marche.
  • Sabino: spoken in the city of L'Aquila (Abruzzo) and the Province of Rieti (Lazio).

• Southern Italian, or the Neapolitan language, is spoken in: southern Marche; southern Lazio; Abruzzo; Molise; Campania (including Naples); Basilicata; and the north of both Apulia and Calabria.
  • Campano dialects of Neapolitan, Irpino, Southern Laziale: spoken in Naples and Campania; and southern Lazio.
  • Abruzzese-Southern Marchigiano: spoken in the Abruzzo region and southern Marche region.
  • Molisan: spoken in the Molise region.
  • Basilicatine (Lucanian): spoken in the region of Basilicata, also known as Lucania.
  • Pugliese, or Apulian: spoken in the northern region of Apulia.
  • Cosentino, also known as or Northern Calabrian:^[6] spoken in the Province of Cosenza, in northern Calabria.
• Extreme Southern Italian, or the Sicilian language, is spoken on the island of Sicily; and in the south of both Calabria and Apulia; and some of Campania.
  • Sicilian, spoken on the island of Sicily: Western Sicilian; Central Metafonetica; Southeast Metafonetica; Ennese; Eastern Nonmetafonetica; Messinese.
  • Sicilian dialects on other islands: Isole Eolie, on the Aeolian Islands; Pantesco, on the island of Pantelleria.
  • Calabro,^[6] or Central-Southern Calabrian:^[6] dialects are spoken in the central and southern areas of the region of Calabria.
  • Salentino, spoken in the Salento region of southern Apulia.
  • Southern Cilentan (sometimes classified as a Campano dialect): spoken in southern tip of Cilento, which is southern Province of Salerno, in the Campania region.

In addition, some Gallo-Italic languages are spoken in Central-Southern Italy.

See also

• Languages of Italy
• Italian language
• Regional Italian

References

1. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Italo-Dalmatian". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
2. Hammarström, Harald & Forkel, Robert & Haspelmath, Martin & Nordhoff, Sebastian. 2014. "Italo-Dalmatian" Glottolog 2.3. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
3. David Dalby, 1999/2000, The Linguasphere register of the world's languages and speech communities. Observatoire Linguistique, Linguasphere Press. Volume 2. Oxford.
4. For example, Giovan Battista Pellegrini, Tullio De Mauro, Maurizio Dardano, Tullio Telmon (see Enrico Allasino et al. Le lingue del Piemonte, IRES – Istituto di Ricerche Economico Sociali del Piemonte, Torino, 2007, p. 9) and Vincenzo Orioles (see Classificazione dei dialetti parlati in Italia).
5. Harris, Martin; Vincent, Nigel (1997). Romance Languages. London: Routlegde. ISBN 0-415-16417-6.
6. Calabrian in Italian: Calabrese (pl. Calebresi). Synonyms: Calabro, Calabra, Calabri, calabre (m., f., m.pl., f.pl.). Sicilian: calabbrìsi, calavrìsi. See: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/calabrese https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/calabro