Areas where Piedmontese is spoken (municipalities whereOccitan andArpitan presence is only de jure are included)
Areas where Piedmontese is spoken alongside other languages (Occitan, Arpitan andAlemannic) and areas of linguistic transition (withLigurian and withLombard)
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 theItalian diaspora Piedmontese has spread in theArgentinePampas, where many immigrants from Piedmont settled. The Piedmontese language is also spoken in some states of Brazil, along with theVenetian language.
The first documents in the Piedmontese language were written in the 12th century, thesermones subalpini [it], when it was extremely close toOccitan, dating from the 12th century, a document devoted to the education of the Knights Templar stationed in Piedmont.
During the Renaissance, the oldest Piedmontese literary work of secular character, are the works of Zan Zòrs Alion, poet of the duchy of Montferrat, the most famous work being the opera Jocunda.
In the 1500s and 1600s, there were several pastoral comedies with parts in Piedmontese.
In the Baroque period,El Cont Piolèt, a comedy by Giovan Battista Tan-na d'Entraive was published.
Literary Piedmontese developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, but it did not gain literary esteem comparable to that of French or Italian, otherlanguages used in Piedmont. Nevertheless,literature in Piedmontese has never ceased to be produced: it includespoetry,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[10][11] and 3 million[12] speakers out of a population of 4.2 million people. Efforts to make it one of the official languages of theTurin 2006 Winter Olympics were unsuccessful.
Western, which include the dialects ofTurin andCuneo.
Eastern, which in turn is divided into south-eastern (Astigiano, Roero, Monregalese, High Montferrat, Langarolo, Alessandrino) and north-eastern (Low Montferrat, Biellese, Vercellese, Valsesiano).
Canavese, spoken in theCanavese region in north-western Piedmont.
The variants can be detected in the variation of the accent and variation of words. It is sometimes difficult to understand a person that speaks a different Piedmontese from the one you are used to, as the words or accents are not the same.
The Eastern Piedmontese group is phonologically more innovative than its Western counterpart.
Words that in the West end in jt, jd or t in the East end in[dʒ] or[tʃ], for example Western[lajt],[tyjt], and[vɛj] (milk, all and old) correspond to Eastern[lɑtʃ],[tytʃ] and[vɛdʒ].
A typical Eastern feature is[i] as an allophone of/e/: at word end, at the end of verbal infinitives, as in "to read" and "to be" (Western[leze],[ese]vs. Eastern[lezi],[esi]) and infeminineplurals. Nevertheless, this development is also shared partially (in the case of the infinitive) by most Western dialects, including that of Turin, which is the most spoken dialect of Western Piedmontese and also of the whole language.
A morphological feature that sharply divides the East from the West is the indicative imperfect conjugation of irregular verbs. In the East, the suffix -ava/iva is used, while in the West, the corresponding suffix is -asìa/isìa. The groups are also distinguished by differing conjugations of the present simple of irregular verbs:dé,andé,sté (to give, to go, to stay).
A variety of Piedmontese wasJudeo-Piedmontese, a dialect spoken by the PiedmonteseJews until theSecond World War, when most were killed during theHolocaust. Some survivors knew the language but as of 2015, the language had gone extinct. It had many loanwards fromProvencal,Spanish andHebrew. It kept many conservative features that Piedmontese abandoned over time.[13] The language never became as large in terms of words as largerJewish languages likeYiddish, and it never developed a standardized writing system.
Apocope, i.e., dropping of all of the unstressed vowels at word end,[16]: 92–94 except /a/, which is usually centralized to [ɐ].[16]: 296–297
Syncope i.e., weakening or dropping of unstressed pro-tonic[17]: 169–171 and post-tonic vowels: /me'luŋ/ > /mə'luŋ/ > /m'luŋ/,[18]: 37 same happens inFrench, and otherGallo-Romance languages. In some cases,prothesis of [ə] or [ɐ] is also present to make some consonant clusters easier to pronounce (ex. novod, "nephew" , [nʊˈvud] > [nvud] > [ɐnˈvud],[17][18][page needed] this feature is also present inEmilian.[17][page needed]
Nasalization of vowels in front of /n/, as inWestern Romance, and then shift of nasalization from the vowel to /n/ with development of the /ŋn/ cluster, and subsequent dropping of [n] (/'buna/> /'bũna/> /'buŋna/ > /'buŋa/).[18]: 51
Development of vowels /ø/ and /y/ from [ɔ] and [uː] of Latin, respectively.[18]: 36–37
Latin groups of occlusives [kt] and [gd] become [jd]-, as inGallo-Romance: NOCTEM > neuit [nøi̯d]; LACTEM > làit [lɑi̯d]. Some dialects have reached the more advanced stage, with palatalization of [i̯d] to [d͡ʒ] (for exampleVercelli dialect [nød͡ʒ] and [lad͡ʒ]), as happens inSpanish,Occitan, andBrazilian Portuguese.[16]: 350–351
Palatization of [kl] and [gl] : Latin CLARUS > ciàr [tʃɑi̯r], "light", GLANDIA > gianda [ˈdʒɑŋdɐ] "nut".[16]: 552–558 [18]: 39
The Latin unvoiced occlusive /p/, /t/, /k/, are voiced (becoming /b/, /d/, /g/), and thenlenited and usually drop: FORMICAM > formìa; APRILEM > avril, CATHÉDRA > careja.[18]: 50
Latin /k/-/g/ before front vowels, became post-alveolar affricates /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/, then /t͡s/ and /d͡z/ due to typicalWestern Romanceassibilation, later /t͡s/ and /d͡z/ became fricatives: /s/ and /z/: CINERE > sënner; CENTUM > sent; GINGIVA > zanziva.[18]: 38
All other combinations of letters are pronounced as written.Grave accent marks stress (except foro which is marked by anacute to distinguish it fromò) and breaks diphthongs, soua anduà are/wa/, butùa is pronounced separately,/ˈya/.
Some of the characteristics of the Piedmontese language are:
The presence ofclitic so-called verbal pronouns for subjects, which give a Piedmontese verbal complex the following form: (subject) + verbal pronoun + verb, as in(mi) i von 'I go'. Verbal pronouns are absent only in the imperative form.
The bound form of verbal pronouns, which can be connected to dative and locative particles (a-i é 'there is',i-j diso 'I say to him').
The interrogative form, which adds an enclitic interrogative particle at the end of the verbal form (Veus-to…? 'Do you want to...?'])
The absence of ordinal numerals higher than 'sixth', so that 'seventh' iscol che a fà set 'the one which makes seven'.
The existence of three affirmative interjections (that is, three ways to say yes):si, sè (from Latinsic est, as in Italian);é (from Latinest, as inPortuguese);òj (from Latinhoc est, as in Occitan, or maybehoc illud, as inFranco-Provençal, French and OldCatalan andOccitan).
The absence of thevoiceless postalveolar fricative/ʃ/ (like thesh in Englishsheep), for which an alveolar S sound (as in Englishsun) is usually substituted.
The existence of an S-C combination pronounced [stʃ].
The existence of avelar nasal [ŋ] (like theng in Englishgoing), which usually precedes a vowel, as inlun-a 'moon'.
The existence of the third Piedmontese vowel Ë, which is very short (close to the vowel in Englishsir).
The absence of the phonological contrast that exists in Italian between short (single) and long (double) consonants, for example, Italianfata 'fairy' andfatta 'done (F)'.
The existence of aprosthetic Ë sound when consonantal clusters arise that are not permitted by the phonological system. So 'seven stars' is pronouncedset ëstèile (cf.stèile 'stars').
Piedmontese has a number of varieties that may vary from its basickoiné 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 ofFrankish orLombard origin, as well as differences in native Romance terminology. Words imported from various languages are also present, while more recent imports tend to come fromFrance and from Italian.
^Piemontèis d'amblé - Avviamento Modulare alla conoscenza della Lingua piemontese; R. Capello, C. Comòli, M.M. Sánchez Martínez, R.J.M. Nové; Regione Piemonte/Gioventura Piemontèisa; Turin, 2001
^F. Rubat Borel, M. Tosco, V. Bertolino.Il Piemontese in Tasca, a Piedmontese basic language course and conversation guide, published by Assimil Italia (the Italian branch ofAssimil, the leading French producer of language courses) in 2006.ISBN88-86968-54-X.assimil.it
^E. Allasino, C. Ferrer, E. Scamuzzi, T. Telmon (October 2007)."Le Lingue del Piemonte".www.ires.piemonte.it. Istituto di Ricerche Economiche e Sociali Piemonte.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL InternationalISO 639-3, pms (Piemontese) Retrieved 13 June 2012
^Brero, Camillo; Bertodatti, Remo (2000).Grammatica della lingua piemontese. Torino: Ed.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Parry, Mair (1997).Piedmont. The dialects of Italy: London: Routledge. pp. 237–244.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^abcdHull, Geoffrey (2017).The Linguistic Unity of Northern Italy and Rhaetia: Historical Grammar of the Padanian Language. Volume 1: Historical Introduction, Phonology.
^abcRohlfs, Gerhard.Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti (in Italian).
^abcdefgCornagliotti, Anna (2015).Repertorio Etimologico Piemontese (in Italian).
^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.
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