![]() | This article includes a list of general references, but it remains largely unverified because it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (June 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) |
Piedmontese | |
---|---|
piemontèis | |
Native to | Italy |
Region | Northwest Italy: Piedmont Liguria Lombardy Aosta Valley |
Native speakers | 700,000 (2012)[1] |
Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
Language codes | |
pms | |
Glottolog | piem1238 |
ELP | Piemontese[2] |
Linguasphere | 51-AAA-of |
![]() | |
Piedmontese (autonym: piemontèis [pjem't?jz] or lenga piemontèisa, in Italian: piemontese) is a language spoken by some 700,000 people mostly in Piedmont, northwestern region of Italy. Like most of the languages in Italy it is often considered a "dialect".[3] It is linguistically included in the Gallo-Italic languages group of Northern Italy (with Lombard, Emilian, Ligurian and Romagnolo), which would make it part of the wider western group of Romance languages, which also includes French, Occitan, and Catalan. It is spoken in the core of Piedmont, in northwestern Liguria, near Savona and in Lombardy (some municipalities in the westernmost part of Lomellina near Pavia).
It has some support from the Piedmont regional government, but is considered a dialect rather than a separate language by the Italian central government.[3]
Due to the italian immigration piedmontese has spread in the argentianian pampas, where many immigrants from Piedmont settled.
The first documents in the Piedmontese language were written in the 12th century, the sermones subalpini, when it was extremely close to Occitan. Literary Piedmontese developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, but it did not gain literary esteem comparable to that of French or Italian, other languages used in Piedmont. Nevertheless, literature in Piedmontese has never ceased to be produced: it includes poetry, theatre pieces, novels, and scientific work.[4]
In 2004, Piedmontese was recognised as Piedmont's regional language by the regional parliament,[5][6][7] although the Italian government has not yet recognised it as such. In theory, it is now supposed to be taught to children in school,[8] but this is happening only to a limited extent.
The last decade has seen the publication of learning materials for schoolchildren, as well as general-public magazines. Courses for people already outside the education system have also been developed. In spite of these advances, the current state of Piedmontese is quite grave, as over the last 150 years the number of people with a written active knowledge of the language has shrunk to about 2% of native speakers, according to a recent survey.[9] On the other hand, the same survey showed Piedmontese is still spoken by over half the population, alongside Italian. Authoritative sources confirm this result, putting the figure between 2 million (Assimil,[10] IRES Piemonte[11] and 3 million speakers (Ethnologue[12]) out of a population of 4.2 million people. Efforts to make it one of the official languages of the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics were unsuccessful.
Piedmontese is divide in tree major grups
Eastern piedmontese is much phonological evolved of his western counterpart.
The word that in the west end with jt,jd or t in the east end with [d?] e/o [t?] for example the westerns [lajt], [tyjt], and [v?j] ( milk, all and old) in the east are [l?t?], [tyt?] and [v?d?].
Eastern piedmontese has [i] as allophone of [e] at the end of word, both at the end of infinitive time of the verb, like in to read and to be (western [leze], [ese] vs. eastern [lezi], [esi]) and at words feminine plural gender, altought this devolpment is so early that is present in large areas of western Piedmont including Turin for the infinitive time.
A morphological variation that sharply divides east and west is the indicative imperfect conjugation of irregular verbs, in the east is present the suffix ava/iva, while in the west is asìa/isìa.
And different coniugation of the present simple of the irregular verbs: dé, andé, sté (to give, to go, to stay).
english | eastern | western | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
to give | to go | to stay | to give | to go | to stay | |
i | dagh | vagh | stagh | don | von | ston |
you | da | va | sta | das | vas | stas |
he/she/it | da | va | sta | da | va | sta |
we | doma | andoma | stoma | doma | andoma | stoma |
you | dè | andè | stè | deve | andeve | steve |
they | dan | van | stan | dan | van | stan |
Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop | voiceless | p | t | k | ||
voiced | b | d | ? | |||
Affricate | voiceless | t | ||||
voiced | d | |||||
Fricative | voiceless | f | s | |||
voiced | v | z | ||||
Nasal | m | n | ? | ? | ||
Trill | r | |||||
Approximant | plain | j | w | |||
lateral | l |
The /w/ sound occurs as the sound of /v/ in word-final position. When occurring intervocalically between an a [a] or an o [u], /v/ is pronounced as a non-syllabic [u?].[13][14]
Allophones of /a/ are [?, ?] in stressed syllables.
Piedmontese is written with a modified Latin alphabet. The letters, along with their IPA equivalent, are shown in the table below.
Letter | IPA value | Letter | IPA value | Letter | IPA value | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A a | , | H h | ? | P p | |||
B b | I i | or (semivocalic) | Q q | [i] | |||
C c | or [ii] | J j | R r | ~ | |||
D d | L l | S s | , [iii] | ||||
E e | or [iv] | M m | T t | ||||
Ë ë | N n | or [v] | U u | , or (semivocalic) , | |||
F f | O o | , /u/ or (semivocalic), | V v | , , or [vi] | |||
G g | or [ii] | Ò ò | Z z |
Certain digraphs are used to regularly represent specific sounds as shown below.
Digraph | IPA value | Digraph | IPA value | Digraph | IPA value | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
gg | gh | cc | |||||
gli | [a] | ss | gn | ||||
sc | /sk/, /st?/ | sc, scc | /st?/ | eu | |||
sg, sgg | /zd?/ |
All other combinations of letters are pronounced as written. Grave accent marks stress (except for o which is marked by an acute to distinguish it from ò) and breaks diphthongs, so ua and uà are /wa/, but ùa is pronounced separately, /'ya/.
number | piedmontese | number | piedmontese | number | piemontese | number | piedmontese |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | un | 11 | ondes | 30 | tranta | 200 | dosent |
2 | doi (m), doe (f) | 12 | dodes | 40 | quaranta | 300 | tersent |
3 | trei | 13 | terdes | 50 | sinquanta | 400 | quatsent |
4 | quatr | 14 | quatordes | 60 | sessanta | 500 | sinchsent |
5 | sinch | 15 | quindes | 70 | stanta | 600 | sessent |
6 | ses | 16 | sedes | 80 | otanta | 700 | setsent |
7 | set | 17 | disset | 90 | novanta | 800 | eutsent |
8 | eut | 18 | diseut | 100 | sent | 900 | neuvsent |
9 | neuv | 19 | disneuv | 101 | sent e un | 1000 | mila |
10 | des | 20 | vint | 110 | sentdes |
Some of the characteristics of the Piedmontese language are:
Piedmontese has a number of varieties that may vary from its basic koiné to quite a large extent. Variation includes not only departures from the literary grammar, but also a wide variety in dictionary entries, as different regions maintain words of Frankish or Lombard origin, as well as differences in native Romance terminology. Words imported from various languages are also present, while more recent imports tend to come from France and from Italian.
A variety of Piedmontese was Judeo-Piedmontese, a dialect spoken by the Piedmontese Jews until the Second World War.
Lexical comparison with other Romance languages and English:
Gallo-italic and Venetian | Occitano-romance | Gallo-romance | Italo-dalmatian | Ibero-romance | Balkan-romance | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
English | Piedmontese | Ligurian | Emilian | Venetian | Occitan | Catalan | Arpitan | French | Sicilian | Italian | Spanish | Portuguese | Romanian |
chair | cadrega | carêga | scrâna | carega | cadièra | cadira | cheyére | chaise | sìeggia | sedia | silla | cadeira | scaun, catedr? |
to take | pijé/ciapé | pigiâ/ciapà | ciapèr | ciapàr | prene | prendre | prendre/acrapar | prendre | pigghiàri | prendere, pigliare | coger, tomar, pillar | pegar, tomar | a lua |
to go/come out | surtì/seurte | sciortì | sortìr | isìr/sortir | sortir | sortir/eixir | sortir/salyir | sortir | nèsciri | uscire | salir | sair | a ie?i |
to fall | droché/tombé | càzze | crodèr | cajàr | caire/tombar | caure | chèdre | tomber | càriri | cadere, cascare | caer, tumbar | cair, tombar | c?dere |
home | ca/meison | ca | ca | ca | casa/meison | ca/casa | mêson/cà | maison | casa | casa | casa | casa | cas? |
arm | brass | brasso | brâs | braç | braç | braç | brès | bras | vrazzu | braccio | brazo | braço | bra? |
number | nùmer | nùmero | nómmer | nùmaro | nòmbre | nombre | nombro | nombre | nùmmuru | numero | número | número | num?r |
name | nòm | nòme | nòm | nòme | nom | nom | nom | nom | nomu | nome | nombre | nome | nume |
apple | pom | méia/póma | pàm | pómo | poma | poma | poma | pomme | muma/mela | mela | manzana | maçã | m?r |
to work | travajér | travagiâ | lavorè | travajàr | trabahlar | treballar | travalyér | travailler | travagghiari | lavorare | trabajar | trabalhar | a lucra |
bat (animal) | ratavolòira | ràttopenûgo | papastrèl | signàpola | ratapenada | ratpenat | rata volage | chauve-souris | taddarita | pipistrello | murciélago | morcego | liliac |
school | scòla | schêua | scòla | scòla | escòla | escola | ècuola | école | scola | scuola | escuela | escola | ?coal? |
wood (land) | bòsch | bòsco | bòsch | bósco | bosc | bosc | bouesc | bois | voscu | bosco | bosque | bosque | p?dure |
Mr | monsù | sciô | sior | siór | sénher | senyor | monsior | monsieur | gnuri | signore | señor | senhor, seu | domn |
Mrs | madama | sciâ | siora | sióra | sénhera | senyora | madama | madame | gnura | signora | señora | senhora, dona | doamn? |
summer | istà | istà | istê | istà | estiu | estiu | étif | été | astati | estate | verano, estío | verão, estio | var? |
today | ancheuj | ancheu | inc? | incò | uèi/ancuei | avui/hui | enqu'houè | aujourd'hui | ùoggi | oggi | hoy | hoje | azi |
tomorrow | dman | domân | dmân | domàn | deman | demà | deman | demain | rumani | domani | mañana | amanhã | mâine |
yesterday | jer | vêi | iêr | gèri | gèr/ier | ahir | hièr | hier | aìeri | ieri | ayer | ontem | ieri |
Monday | lùnes | lunesdì | munedé | luni | diluns | dilluns | delon | lundi | lunidìa | lunedì | lunes | segunda-feira | luni |
Tuesday | màrtes | mâtesdì | martedé | marti | dimars | dimarts | demârs | mardi | màrtiri | martedì | martes | terça-feira | mar?i |
Wednesday | mèrcol | mâcordì | mercordé | mercòre | dimecrès | dimecres | demécro | mercredi | mèrcuri | mercoledì | miércoles | quarta-feira | miercuri |
Thursday | giòbia | zéuggia | giovedé | zioba | dijòus | dijous | dejo | jeudi | iòviri | giovedì | jueves | quinta-feira | joi |
Friday | vënner | venardì | venerdé | vénere | divendres | divendres | devendro | vendredi | viènniri | venerdì | viernes | sexta-feira | vineri |
Saturday | saba | sabbò | sâbet | sabo | dissabte | dissabte | dessandro | samedi | sabbatu | sabato | sábado | sábado | sâmb?t? |
Sunday | dumìnica | dumenega | dumenica | doménega | dimenge | diumenge | demenge | dimanche | rumìnica | domenica | domingo | domingo | duminic? |