Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Istriot language

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Native to
  
Croatia

Glottolog
  
istr1244

ISO 639-3
  
ist

Istriot language

Region
  
Istria many expelled by communist Yugoslavs into Italy

Native speakers
  
400 (2007) L2 speakers: 900 (2007)

Language family
  
Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Dalmatian? (see 'classification') Istriot

Istriot is a Romance language spoken by about 400 people in the southwestern part of the Istrian Peninsula in Croatia, particularly in Rovinj and Vodnjan. It should not be confused with the Istrian dialect of the Venetian language.

Contents

Classification

Istriot is a Romance language related to the Ladin populations of the Alps. According to the Italian linguist Matteo Bartoli, the Ladin area used to extend – until the year 1000 AD – from southern Istria to Friuli and eastern Switzerland.

Its classification remains unclear, due to the specificities of the language, which has always had a very limited number of speakers. Istriot can be viewed:

  • as an independent Northern Italian language, belonging neither to the Venetian language nor to the Gallo-Italic group (opinion shared by linguists Tullio De Mauro and Maurizio Dardano);
  • as a variety of the Rhaeto-Romance languages by the Istriot Antonio Ive
  • as an independent language of the Italo-Dalmatian group
  • as an autochthonous Romance language heavily influenced by Venetian, Friulian and Slavic superstrates by Mirko Deanović

    • When Istria was a region of the Kingdom of Italy, Istriot was considered by the authorities as a subdialect of Venetian.

    Its speakers never referred to it as "Istriot". Traditionally, it had six names after the six towns where it was spoken. In Vodnjan it was named "Bumbaro", in Bale "Vallese", in Rovinj "Rovignese", in Šišan "Sissanese", in Fažana "Fasanese" and in Galižana "Gallesanese". The term Istriot was coined by the 19th-century Italian linguist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli.

    This language is still spoken by few people in the istriot communities in Fertilia and Maristella, in Sardinia.

    There are about 1,000 speakers left, making it an endangered language.

    Vocabulary

    Comparison of Istriot with several closely related Romance languages and Latin:

    References

    Istriot language Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA