There is a long literary tradition of Ligurian poets and writers that goes from the 13th century to the present, such asLuchetto (the Genoese Anonym),Martin Piaggio [it;lij], andGian Giacomo Cavalli [it;lij].
TheItalian Government does not consider Ligurian a language, but rather a dialect ofItalian.[5] Hence, it is not protected by law.[6] Historically, Genoese (the dialect spoken in the city of Genoa) is the writtenkoiné, owing to its semi-official role as language of theRepublic of Genoa, its traditional importance in trade and commerce, and its vast literature.
Like other regional languages in Italy, the use of Ligurian and its dialects is in rapid decline.ISTAT[7] (the Italian Central Service of Statistics) says that in 2012 only 9% of the population used a language other than standard Italian with friends and family, which decreased to 1.8% with strangers. Furthermore, according to ISTAT, regional languages are more commonly spoken by uneducated people and the elderly, mostly in rural areas. Liguria is no exception. One can reasonably suppose the age pyramid to be strongly biased toward the elderly who were born beforeWorld War II, with proficiency rapidly approaching zero for newer generations. Compared to other regional languages of Italy, Ligurian has experienced a significantly smaller decline which could have been a consequence of its status or the early decline it underwent in the past. The language itself is actively preserved by various groups.
Because of the importance of Genoese trade, Ligurian was once spoken well beyond the borders of the modern province. It has since given way to standard varieties such asStandard Italian andFrench. In particular, the language is traditionally spoken in coastal, northernTuscany, southernPiedmont (part of theprovince of Alessandria around the areas ofNovi Ligure andOvada, and theProvince of Cuneo in the municipalities ofOrmea,Garessio,[8]Alto andCaprauna), western extremes ofEmilia-Romagna (some areas in theprovince of Piacenza), and inCarloforte onSan Pietro Island andCalasetta onSant'Antioco Island off SouthwestSardinia (known asTabarchino), where its use is ubiquitous and increasing. It is also spoken in the department of theAlpes-Maritimes ofFrance (mostly theCôte d'Azur from the Italian border to and includingMonaco), in the town ofBonifacio at the southern tip of the French island ofCorsica. It was spoken by a large community inGibraltar (UK) until about 1970. It has been adopted formally in Monaco under the nameMonégasque – locally,Munegascu – but without the status of official language (that is French). Monaco is the only place where a variety of Ligurian is taught in school, being mandatory in ground school.
TheMentonasc dialect, spoken in the East of theCounty of Nice, is considered to be a transitionalOccitan dialect to Ligurian; conversely, Roiasc and Pignasc spoken further North in the Eastern margin of the County are Ligurian dialects with Occitan influences.
Chart of Romance languages based on structural and comparative criteria
As a Gallo-Italic language, Ligurian is most closely related to theLombard,Piedmontese andEmilian-Romagnol languages, all of which are spoken in neighboring provinces. Unlike the aforementioned languages, however, it exhibits distinctItalian features. No link has, thus far, been demonstrated by linguistic evidence between Romance Ligurian and theLigurian language of the ancient Ligurian populations, in the form of a substrate or otherwise. Very little is known about ancient Ligurian itself due to the lack of inscriptions and the unknown origin of the Ligurian people. Onlyonomastics andtoponyms are known to have survived from ancient Ligurian, the nameLiguria itself being the most obvious example.[9]
Semivowels occur as allophones of/i/ and/u/, as well as in diphthongs./u/ is realized as a semivowel[w] after a consonant, or before a vowel (i.epoeivan[pwejvaŋ]), as well as after/k/, when the sequence is spelled⟨qu⟩.
No universally accepted orthography exists for Ligurian. Genoese, the prestige dialect, has two main orthographic standards.
One, known asgrafia unitäia (unitary orthography), has been adopted by the Ligurian-language press – including the Genoese column of the largest Ligurian press newspaper,Il Secolo XIX – as well as a number of other publishing houses and academic projects.[11][12][13][14] The other, proposed by the cultural associationA Compagna and theAcademia Ligustica do Brenno is the self-styledgrafia ofiçiâ (official orthography).[15][16] The two orthographies mainly differ in their usage of diacritics and doubled consonants.
The Ligurian alphabet is based on theLatin alphabet, and consists of 25 letters:⟨a⟩,⟨æ⟩,⟨b⟩,⟨c⟩,⟨ç⟩,⟨d⟩,⟨e⟩,⟨f⟩,⟨g⟩,⟨h⟩,⟨i⟩,⟨l⟩,⟨m⟩,⟨n⟩,⟨ñ⟩ or⟨nn-⟩,⟨o⟩,⟨p⟩,⟨q⟩,⟨r⟩,⟨s⟩,⟨t⟩,⟨u⟩,⟨v⟩,⟨x⟩,⟨z⟩.
Theligature⟨æ⟩ indicates the sound/ɛː/, as inçit(t)æ 'city'/siˈtɛː/. Thec-cedilla⟨ç⟩, used for the sound/s/, generally only occurs before⟨e⟩ or⟨i⟩, as inriçetta 'recipe'/riˈsɛtta/. The letter⟨ñ⟩, also written as⟨nn-⟩ (or more rarely⟨n-n⟩,⟨n-⟩,⟨nh⟩, or simply⟨nn⟩), represents the velar nasal/ŋ/ before or after vowels, such as incanpaña 'bell'/kɑŋˈpɑŋŋɑ/, or the feminineindefinite pronounuña/ˈyŋŋɑ/.
There are five diacritics, whose precise usage varies between orthographies. They are:
Theacute accent⟨´⟩, can be used for⟨é⟩ and⟨ó⟩ to represent the sounds/e/ and/u/.
Thegrave accent⟨`⟩, can be used on the stressed vowels⟨à⟩/a/,⟨è⟩/ɛ/,⟨ì⟩/i/,⟨ò⟩/ɔ/, and⟨ù⟩/y/.
Thecircumflex⟨ˆ⟩, used for thelong vowels⟨â⟩/aː/,⟨ê⟩/eː/,⟨î⟩/iː/,⟨ô⟩/uː/, and⟨û⟩/yː/ at the end of a word.
Thediaeresis⟨¨⟩, used analogously to the circumflex to mark long vowels, but within a word:⟨ä⟩/aː/,⟨ë⟩/eː/,⟨ï⟩/iː/, and⟨ü⟩/yː/. It is also used to mark the long vowel⟨ö⟩/ɔː/, in any position.
The multigraphs are:
⟨cs⟩, used for the sound/ks/ as inbòcs 'box'/bɔks/.
⟨eu⟩, for/ø/.
⟨ou⟩, for/ɔw/.
⟨scc⟩ (written as⟨sc-c⟩ in older orthographies) which indicates the sound/ʃtʃ/.
Tutte e personn-e nascian libere e pæge in dignitæ e driti. Son dotæ de raxon e coscensa e gh'an da agî l'unn-a verso l'atra inte 'n spirito de fradelansa.
Ògni personn-a a gh'à tutti i driti e e libertæ proclamæ inte questa Diciaraçion, sensa nisciunn-a distinçion de razza, cô, sesso, lengoa, religion, òpinion politica ò d'atro tipo, òrigine naçionale ò sociale, poxiçion econòmica, nascimento, ò quæ se segge atra condiçion. Pe de ciù, no se faiâ nisciunn-a diferensa fondâ in sciâ condiçion politica, giuridica ò internaçionale do Paize ò do teritöio a-o quæ e personn-e apartegnan, segge pe-i Paixi indipendenti che pe-i teritöi sott'aministraçion fiduciaia, sens'outonomia, ò sotomissi a ògni atra limitaçion de sovranitæ.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
^"Liguri". Enciclopedie on line.Treccani.it (in Italian). Rome:Treccani -Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. 2011.Le documentazioni sulla lingua dei Liguri non ne permettono una classificazione linguistica certa (preindoeuropeo di tipo mediterraneo? Indoeuropeo di tipo celtico?).
^Toso, Fiorenzo (1997).Grammatica del genovese: varietà urbana e di koiné. Recco: Le Mani.
^"GEPHRAS".GEPHRAS. University of Innsbruck. Archived fromthe original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved11 August 2020.
^"Catalogo poesia" [Catalogue of poetry] (in Italian). Editrice Zona. Archived fromthe original on 2 March 2020. Retrieved11 August 2020.
^"Biblioteca zeneise" [Genoese library] (in Italian and Ligurian). De Ferrari editore.Archived from the original on 12 August 2020. Retrieved11 August 2020.
^"Grafîa ofiçiâ" [Official orthography] (in Ligurian). Academia Ligustica do Brenno.Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved15 March 2019.
^Bampi, Franco (2009).Grafîa ofiçiâ. Grafia ufficiale della lingua genovese. Bolezùmme (in Ligurian and Italian).Genoa, Italy: S.E.S. – Società Editrice Sampierdarenese.ISBN978-8889948163.
Dalbera, Jean-Philippe (1984).Les parlers des Alpes Maritimes : étude comparative, essai de reconstruction (Thesis). Université de Toulouse 2.
Dalbera, Jean-Philippe (1994).Les parlers des Alpes Maritimes : étude comparative, essai de reconstruction. Londres: Association Internationale d'Études Occitanes.
Werner Forner, "Le mentonnais entre toutes les chaises ? Regards comparatifs sur quelques mécanismes morphologiques" [Caserio & al. 2001: 11–23]
^Venetian is either grouped with the rest of the Italo-Dalmatian or the Gallo-Italic languages, depending on the linguist, but the major consensus among linguists is that in the dialectal landscape of northern Italy, Veneto dialects are clearly distinguished from Gallo-Italic dialects.
