Language family Indo-EuropeanVastese | ||
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ISO 639-3 nap Its ISO 639-3 is under discussion | ||
Vastese (Vastese: Lu Uâʃtaréule or Lu indialett di lu Uašt, meaning "the dialect of Vasto") is a Romance language spoken in the town of Vasto. It is considered its own language based upon the mutual unintelligibility of it and Italian. It is not spoken by any other town, even the nearby town of Cupello, which is only 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) away.
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History
The name Lu Uâʃtaréule is known to have originated in the sixth century AD.
Demography
Today Vastese is spoken monolingually only by residents of Vasto in their 80's and 90's, and bilingually by many residents in their 70's, and many middle aged residents are Passive speakers, and most younger than them have no comprehension.
In other countries
The Vasto Club in Australia is a club organized for migrants to Australia from Vasto.
Phonology
Vastese utilizes more vowel distinction than Italian. It has vowels that are not in Italian, such as the open front unrounded vowel /æ/. Vastese uses an open back rounded vowel /ɒ/ for the start of the word uâʃtə. It also uses the mid central vowel /ə/. Vastese also uses several diphthongs not used in italian such as /aʊ/, /eʊ/, and /aɪ/.
The influence of /i/, /u/, /Ī/, or /Ū/ upon /æ/, turns it into either /e/ or /je/.