Minority languages see "legal status" | Regional languages see "legal status" | |
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There are a large number of local languages spoken in Italy, most of which are indigenous evolutions of Vulgar Latin, and thus are classified as Romance languages. Although they are sometimes referred to as regional languages, there is no uniformity within any Italian region, and speakers from one locale within a region are typically very aware of features that distinguish their local language from the speech of other places nearby. The official and most widely spoken language is Italian, a descendant of Tuscan.
Contents
- Map of Italy
- Recognition at the European level
- Recognition by the Italian state
- Recognition by the regions
- Conservation status
- Vulnerable
- Definitely endangered
- Severely endangered
- Classification
- Italo Dalmatian languages
- Sardinian language
- Northern Italy
- Southern Italy and islands
- Standardised written forms
- References
Map of Italy
All Romance varieties spoken in Italy, except Standard Italian, are often colloquially referred to as "dialects", although for some of them the term may coexist with other labels like "minority languages" or "vernaculars". However, the use of the term "dialect" to refer to the languages of Italy erroneously implies that the languages spoken in Italy are actual "dialects" in the prevailing linguistic sense of "varieties or variations of a language." This is generally not the case in regards to the languages of Italy, as they are, for the most part, not varieties of Standard Italian. Most of the regional languages of Italy evolved locally from Vulgar Latin alongside, but mostly independently, of what would become Standard Italian, long before the fairly recent spread of Standard Italian throughout Italy. In fact, Standard Italian is itself either a continuation of, or a dialect heavily based on, the Florentine Tuscan language. The indigenous local Romance speech types of Italy are thus better classified as separate languages evolved independently from Latin, rather than "dialects" or variations of the Standard Italian language. Conversely, with the spread of Standard Italian throughout Italy in the 20th century, local varieties of Standard Italian influenced to varying extents by the underlying local languages, most noticeably at the phonological level, have also developed throughout the peninsula; though regional boundaries seldom correspond to isoglosses distinguishing these varieties, they are commonly referred to as Regional Italian (italiano regionale).
There are several minority languages that belong to other Indo-European branches, such as Cimbrian (Germanic), Arbëresh (Albanian), the Slavomolisano dialect of Serbo-Croatian (Slavic), and Griko (Hellenic). Other non-indigenous languages are spoken by a substantial percentage of the population due to immigration.
Recognition at the European level
Italy is a signatory of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, but is yet to ratify the treaty, and therefore its provisions protecting regional languages do not apply in the country.
The Charter does not, however, establish at what point differences in expression result in a separate language, deeming it an "often controversial issue", and citing the necessity to take into account, other than purely linguistic criteria, also "psychological, sociological and political considerations".
Recognition by the Italian state
The following minority languages are officially recognized as "historical language minorities" by the Law no. 482/1999: Albanian, Catalan, German, Greek, Slovene, Croatian, French, Franco-Provençal, Friulian, Ladin, Occitan and Sardinian (Legge 15 Dicembre 1999, n. 482, Art. 2, comma 1). The selection of those varieties to the exclusion of numerous others is a matter of some controversy. The law also makes a distinction between those who are considered minority groups (Albanians, Catalans, Germanic peoples indigenous to Italy, Greeks, Slovenes and Croats) and those who are not (all the others).
The original Italian Constitution does not explicitly express that Italian is the official national language. Since the constitution was penned, there have been some laws and articles written on the procedures of criminal cases passed that explicitly state that Italian should be used:
Recognition by the regions
Conservation status
According to the UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, there are 31 endangered languages in Italy. The degree of endangerment is classified in different categories ranging from 'safe' (safe languages are not included in the atlas) to 'extinct' (when there are no speakers left).
The source for the languages' distribution is the Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger unless otherwise stated, and refers to Italy exclusively.
Vulnerable
Definitely endangered
Severely endangered
Classification
All living languages indigenous to Italy are part of the Indo-European language family. The source is the SIL's Ethnologue unless otherwise stated. Language classification can be a controversial issue, when a classification is contested by academic sources, this is reported in the 'notes' column.
They can be divided into Romance languages and non-Romance languages.
Italo-Dalmatian languages
Not included is Corsican, which is mainly spoken on the French island of Corsica. Istriot is only spoken in Croatia. Judeo-Italian is moribund.
Sardinian language
Sardinian is a distinct language group with significant phonological and morphological differences among its varieties. Ethnologue, not without controversy, even considers Sardinian as four separate languages, all being included along with Corsican in a hypothetical subgroup named Southern Romance, which has gained little support from linguists. UNESCO, while seeming to share the same opinion of Ethnologue by calling Gallurese and Sassarese alternately "Sardinian", considers them to be dialects of Corsican rather than Sardinian on the other hand. As is not infrequently the case in such controversies, the linguistic landscape of Sardinia is in principle most accurately described as being, for the most part, a dialect continuum.
Northern Italy
The Northern Italian languages are conventionally defined as those Romance languages spoken north of the La Spezia–Rimini Line, which runs through the northern Apennine Mountains just to the north of Tuscany; however, the dialects of Occitan and Franco-Provençal spoken in the extreme northwest of Italy (e.g. the Valdôtain in the Aosta Valley) are generally excluded. The classification of these languages is difficult and not agreed-upon, due both to the variations among the languages and to the fact that they share isoglosses of various sorts with both the Italo-Romance languages to the south and the Gallo-Romance languages to the northwest.
One common classification divides these languages into four groups:
Any such classification runs into the basic problem that there is a dialect continuum throughout northern Italy, with a continuous transition of spoken dialects between e.g. Venetian and Ladin, or Venetian and Emilio-Romagnolo (usually considered Gallo-Italian).
All of these languages are considered innovative relative to the Romance languages as a whole, with some of the Gallo-Italian languages having phonological changes nearly as extreme as standard French (usually considered the most phonologically innovative of the Romance languages). This distinguishes them significantly from standard Italian, which is extremely conservative in its phonology (and notably conservative in its morphology).
Southern Italy and islands
Approximate distribution of the regional languages of Sardinia and Southern Italy according to the UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger:
Standardised written forms
The following regional languages of Italy have a standardised written form. This may be widely accepted or used alongside more traditional written forms: