| Romagnol | |
|---|---|
| Rumagnòl | |
| Pronunciation | [rumɐˈɲoːl]/[rumɐˈɲoə̯l] |
| Native to | Italy,San Marino |
| Region | PrimarilyEmilia-Romagna,San Marino,Marche |
| Ethnicity | 1.1 million (2008)[1] |
Native speakers | Unknown,c. 430,000, assuming Romagnol and Emilian retained at same rate (2006)[2] |
| Dialects | Ravennate Forlivese Faentino Cesenate Riminese Sammarinese Gallo-Picene (disputed) |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | rgn |
| Glottolog | roma1328 |
| ELP | Romagnol |
| Linguasphere | ... okl 51-AAA-oki ... okl |
 Linguistic map of Romagna and neighbouring regions[image reference needed] | |
 Romagnol is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
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Romagnol (rumagnòl orrumagnôl;Italian:romagnolo) is aRomance language spoken in the historical region ofRomagna, consisting mainly of the southeastern part ofEmilia-Romagna,Italy. The name is derived from theLombard name for the region,Romagna.[3] Romagnol is classified asendangered because older generations have "neglected to pass on the dialect as a native tongue to the next generation".[4]
Romagnol belongs to theGallo-Italic family alongsidePiedmontese,Ligurian andLombard, forming withEmilian and as one of the two branches of theEmilian-Romagnol linguistic continuum.[5]
Further groupings of variants of Romagnol have not been set yet and both speakers and authors tend to refer to their own town or the nearest major province cities.
The variants of Romagnol form adialect continuum with their neighbouring varieties, while the more distant dialects might be less mutually intelligible. Variants spoken north of theSanterno river are considered by speakers of Sammarinese as being less, but still, intelligible, while past theSillaro such intelligibility is lost.
Forlivese is the centralvariety of Romagnol spoken in the city ofForlì and in its province.[6]
In Italian-speaking contexts, Forlivese (like most of the other non-Italian language varieties spoken within the borders of the Italian Republic) is often generically called a "dialect". This is often incorrectly understood as to meana dialect of Italian, which actually is not the case. Forlivese andItalian are different languages and are not mutually intelligible. Forlivese is a centralRomagna variety and is intelligible to speakers of other neighbouringRomagna varieties.
Like all otherdialects ofRomagna, Forlivese is a WesternRomance language related toFrench,Romansh andItalian.
However, the use of Forlivese is mostly limited to familiar terms and sentences, and is rare amongstForlì inhabitants.
Some pieces of literature and a recent translation of theGospels are available.
In hisDe vulgari eloquentia,Dante Alighieri also speaks of the Romagna dialect and cites the city of Forlì asmeditullium, that is, as the central place of Romagna, where the Romagna dialect evidently finds its most characteristic and peculiar form. Therefore the Forlì dialect is not a "variant" of the Romagna dialect, but its own and main version.[7]
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In the West, TheSillaro river marks the cultural and linguistic border betweenEmilian language speakers and Romagnol speakers; it runs 25 km east fromBologna to the west ofCastel San Pietro Terme. Romagnol is spoken to the east of this river and to the south of theReno river.
In the rest ofEmilia-Romagna Region, Emilian is spoken in all the rest of the region moving from the Sillaro river to the west, up toPiacenza, and to the north of the Reno, up to thePo.
The Reno river is the border between Romagnol and the dialect of Ferrara. Romagnol is spoken also in some villages northwards of the Reno river, such asArgenta and Filo, where people of Romagnol origin live alongside people of Ferrarese origin.Ferrara goes into Emilian language territory.
Outside Emilia-Romagna, Romagnol is spoken in the Republic ofSan Marino ("Sammarinese"), and in two municipalities located in theprovince of Florence,Marradi andPalazzuolo sul Senio.
In theprovince of Pesaro and Urbino ofMarche region,Gallo-Picene is spoken, but its status as sub-variant of Romagnol or as separate language is disputed.[citation needed]
Romagnol's first acknowledgement outside regional literature was in Dante Alighieri's treatiseDe vulgari eloquentia, whereinDante compares "the language of Romagna" to his nativeTuscan dialect.[8] Eventually, in 1629, the authorAdriano Banchieri wrote the treatiseDiscorso della lingua Bolognese, which countered Dante's claim that the Tuscan dialect was better, arguing his belief that Bolognese (an Emilian dialect influenced by Romagnol that saw wide use in writing) was superior in "naturalness, softness, musicality, and usefulness". Romagnol received more recognition after Romagna gained independence from thePapal States.[9]
The first appearance of a distinct Romagnol literary work is "Sonetto romagnolo" byBernardino Catti, fromRavenna, printed 1502. It is written in a mixture ofItalian and Romagnol[citation needed].
The first Romagnolpoem dates back to the end of the 16th century:E Pvlon matt. Cantlena aroica (Mad Nap), amock-heroic poem based onOrlando Furioso and written by an anonymous author fromSan Vittore di Cesena [it]. The original poem comprised twelve cantos, of which only the first four survived (1848 lines).[9]
The first Romagnol poet to win fame was thecleric Pietro Santoni, (Fusignano, 1736–1823). He was the teacher ofVincenzo Monti, one of the most famous Italian poets of his time.
In 1840, the first Romagnol-Italian Dictionary was published byAntonio Morri [it]; it was printed inFaenza.
The 20th century saw a flourishing of Romagnol literature. Theatrical plays, poems and books of a high quality were produced. Some of the best known Romagnol authors are:
Romagnol lacks a standardized orthography, leading to a huge varieties among authors.
The orthography adopted here is from Daniele Vitali'sL'ortografia Romagnola (2008).
Unlike Standard Italian, not all nouns end in atheme vowel. Masculine nouns lack theme vowels, and feminine nouns typically (but not always) terminate ina. Masculine nouns and adjectives undergo lexically-specifiedumlaut to form the plural, and feminine nouns and adjectives form the plural bya becomingi or being deleted after aconsonant cluster orgeminate consonant.[5]
| Romagnol | Italian | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Sacrêri (m. sg.) | Sacréri (m. pl.) | Sacrario | Sacrari |
| grând (sg.) | grènd (pl.) | grande | grandi |
Both languages derive their lexicon fromVulgar Latin, but some words differ in gender.
| Romagnol | Italian | Vulgar Latin | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| la risa | il riso | risus (masc.) | rice |
| la sècia | il secchio | siclum (masc.) | bucket |
Italian and Romagnol share many of the same features when it comes to verbs. Both languages usesubject–verb–object in simple sentences for theirword order. Verbs are conjugated according totense, mood, and person. Romagnol also has four conjugations, compared to Standard Italian's three: the first,-êr; the second,-ér; the third,-ar; and the fourth,-ìr. Marked differences in Romagnol from Standard Italian are thatpersonal pronouns are required, and some verbs in Romagnol use areflexive construction even if the speaker is not the second argument of the verb although Italian uses anintransitive construction.[10]
| Romagnol | Italian | English |
|---|---|---|
| Me a'm so lavê | (Io) mi sono lavato | I washed myself |
| Me a sò | (Io) sono | I am |
| Me a j'ò | (Io) ho | I have |
Impersonal verbs, which lack a canonical subject, in Romagnol use "avèr" but in Standard Italian use "essere." Even though the subject is null, anexpletive pronoun is inserted in the specifier position, much like "it" in English.
Also, whereas Standard Italian and other northern dialects omit thedefinite article before "singular names and names of relatives", Romagnol keeps it.[11]
Romagnol haslexical andsyntactic uniformity throughout its area. However, itspronunciation changes as one goes from thePo Valley to the hills.[citation needed]
It has an inventory of up to 20 vowels thatcontrast in the stressed position, compared to seven in Italian. They are marked in the orthography by using diacritics ona,e,i,o andu.[12][13]
The absence of an official institution regulating its orthography often leads to ambiguities in the transcription of vowel sounds.
Some words that inLatin aretrisyllabic or tetrasyllabic in whichu is notstressed are reduced in Romagnol to being onlymonosyllabic. An atonicsyllable is dropped.[citation needed]
| Latin | Romagnol | Italian | English | Emilian |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| geniculum | znöcc | ginocchio | knee | znocc |
| tepidus | tèvd | tiepido | tepid | tevad |
| oculus | öcc | occhio | eye | occ |
| frigidus | frèd | freddo | cold | fredd |
These three tables list the vowel inventory of the "classical" version of the northern macro-dialect of Romagnol.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | (ə~ɐ) | o |
| ɛ | ɔ | ||
| Low | a |
| Symbol | Value |
|---|---|
| ê | [eə̯] |
| ô | [oə̯] |
| ë | [ɛə̯] |
| ö | [ɔə̯] |
| Symbol | Value |
|---|---|
| ã/â | [ə̃] |
| ẽ | [ɛ̃] |
| õ | [õ] |
The following table lists the vowels above alongside their relative orthography:[12]
| Symbol in orthography[12] | "Classical" pronunciation[12] | Dialectal pronunciation | Example in Romagnol | Comparison with Italian | English meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ë | ɛə̯ | ɛæ̯ | bël | bello | "nice" (masculine singular) |
| è, e | ɛ | ɛ~ɜ | bèl | belli | "nice" (masculine plural) |
| ê | eə̯ | eɜ̯~iɜ̯ | fêr | fare | "to do" |
| é | e | ej | méla | mela | "apple" |
| ö | ɔə̯ | ɔɒ̯ | cöl | collo | "neck" |
| ô | oə̯ | oɞ̯ | rôda | ruota | "wheel" |
| ò, o | ɔ | ɔ~ɞ | òngg | undici | "eleven" |
| ó | o | ow | sól | sole | "sun" |
| ẽ | ɛ̃ | æ̃j̃ | bẽ | bene | "fine" (adverb) |
| ã, â | ə̃ | ɤ̃ | cã | cane | "dog" |
| õ | õ | õw̃ | bõ | buono | "good" |
| a | a | ɐ~ə | zèngia | cinghia | "belt" |
| à, a (when stressed) | a | äː | fàza | faccia | "face" |
| u | u | u | purtê | portato | "brought" |
| ù, u (when stressed) | u | ʊu̯ | dur | duro | "hard" (masculine singular) |
| i | i | i | istê | estate | "summer" |
| ì, i (when stressed) | i | iː~ɪi̯ | partìr | partire | "to leave" |
| Labial | Inter- dental | Dental/ Alveolar | Retroflex | Palato- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | (ŋ) | |||
| Stop | p b | t d | k ɡ | ||||
| Affricate | t͡ʃ d͡ʒ | ||||||
| Fricative | f v | θ ð | (s z) | ʂ ʐ | |||
| Lateral | l | ʎ | |||||
| Trill | r | ||||||
| Approximant | j | w |
The letterz is always pronounced as either [θ] or [ð] and not [t͡s] or [d͡z][12] as in Standard Italian.
[ŋ] occurs only before velar stops.
Romagnol, in addition to its larger inventory of vowels, also has more consonants compared to Standard Italian. Additionally, consonants have these differences from Standard Italian:[14][15]
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