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| Faetar | |
|---|---|
| Faetano and Cellese Francoprovençal | |
| Pronunciation | [fajˈdar][1] |
| Native to |  Italy |
| Region |  Foggia |
Native speakers | < 1,000 (2010)[2] |
Early forms | |
| Latin (no official orthography) | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Franco-Provençal protected by statute inItaly[4] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | faet1240 Faeto and Celle San Vito Francoprovencal |
| IETF | frp-u-sd-itfg |
| External videos | |
|---|---|
| Faedar/Cellese speech | |
 “Cellese - 4 Oral Histories”, May 2, 2016, Endangered Language Alliance of Toronto. |
Faetar, fully known asFaetar–Cigliàje (Italian:Faetano–Cellese), is a variety of theFranco-Provençal language that is spoken in two small communities inFoggia,Italy:Faeto andCelle di San Vito, as well as émigré communities inOntario, Canada (primarilyToronto andBrantford).
Although Faetar shares many similarities with other varieties of Franco-Provençal, as well asItalian, it is distinct from both. Because Faeto and Celle di San Vito have been isolated from the rest of Italy by theDaunian mountains, and also due to the influence ofIrpinian dialects (spoken in almost all neighboring villages),[5] Faetar has evolved and changed over the centuries into a distinct language.
After a large wave of emigration from Italy after theSecond World War, many Faetano and Cellese settled inNorth America; with a relatively large group immigrating to Toronto, Canada. The language has been studied both in its native Italy, and in Toronto, because of its small number of speakers, its unique blend of Italian and Franco-Provençal features, and its changes brought on by language contact.
Although not given a distinct language code from Franco-Provençal, it is listed byUNESCO as "definitelyendangered".[6]
The Faetar language has its beginnings in the 13th century.[7] A Franco-Provençal group of soldiers was sent to the district of Apulia in theKingdom of Naples to fight thebattle of Benevento of 1266. After the battle, some soldiers remained and established communities in the region. Celle di San Vito was founded as a monastery on the mountainside to avoid an outbreak ofmalaria down the mountain, and Faeto was founded either on 8 July 1268, or 20 October 1274 by an edict fromCharles of Anjou.
In the 20th century, hundreds of Faetano and Cellese people left Italy and settled in theToronto area of Canada, and in small pockets of theUnited States, such as upstateNew York (Thedemonyms for the people from Faeto and Celle di San Vito are Faetani and Cellesi, respectively).[citation needed] The Toronto community has been studied recently to examine the effects of language contact, and to study the differences between the language in Toronto and in Italy.[2]
There have been at least two dictionaries and one grammar published since 2000 that describe the Faetar language in Italian.[8] It has also been studied extensively in English,[9] French,[10] and Italian[11] as aminority language, a language in contact, and for comparison with other Franco-Provençal languages.[12]
Faetar's grammar is similar to most other Romance languages with articles that agree with masculine and feminine nouns, and verbs that are inflected with different endings for person, number, and tense. Because of these inflected verbs, pronouns are not necessary. However, Faetar has a unique pronoun characteristic in that it has two versions of each pronoun. There is a "strong" pronoun and a "weak"pronoun. In conversation, both the strong and the weak can be used together (the strong always comes first), or only the strong, or only the weak, or no pronoun at all. The weak can also appear after a noun. For example:
(1)No overt subject pronoun
/ɛludʒórɛØstavalakaz/
and that day,[Ø=I] was at the house
(2)Weak pronoun
/eistávovakánt/
andit was vacant
(3)Strong pronoun
/noíʎɛstatútːo/
No,he was always…
(4)Strong + Weak pronoun
/íʎɛielumeprɛfɛríːtə/
She-strongshe-weakis my favourite[13]
This case of strong and weak pronouns has been the source of much study as to what constrains, if anything, the choice of pronouns in a given phrase.[12] This also makes Faetar a partialpro-drop language.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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