- Canzés
Infobox Language
name = Canzés, Canzees
familycolor = Indo-European
states =Italy
speakers = ~2,000
fam2 = Italic
fam3 = Romance
fam4 = Italo-Western
fam5 = Western
fam6 = Gallo-Romance
fam7 = Gallo-Italic
fam8 = Lombard
fam9 =Western Lombard
fam10 =Brianzöö
iso2=roa |lc1=lmo |ld1=Lombard |ll1=Lombard languageCanzés (also written Canzees) is a variety of
Western Lombard language spoken in the commune ofCanz ,Italy .Features
It's similar to common
Brianzöö , to varieties of Vallassina and those ofComo , but it have also similarities withMilanese because of historical ties withMilan . Lexicon is partially common with otherBrianzöö and partially original; in comparison with commonBrianzöö , Canzés has a broader variety of style tones, from peasant ones to courtly ones; confronting with modernMilanese , Canzés preserves better archaic lexicon and it's less contaminated by Italian.Phonetically, it's evident, for example, the predominance of vowel /a/ or similar (written "a"), instead of unstressed /e/ (written "e"). In Canzés, instead of
Milanese nasalization of vowel, there is avelar nasal (written "n") with abbreviation of the vowel. There aren't geminate consonants in words, excepting half-geminateaffricate (written "z"), that never change to /s/. The final consonants are always voiceless. Written "v" have a very weak sound, almost semivocalic. There are also vowel allophones as /ɪ/ and /ʊ/, /æ/ and /ɑ/ (both written "a") and opener /y/ (written "ü", sometimes "i" when variant of /i/), in addition to basicWestern Lombard vowels: /a/ (written "a"), /e/ (written "é"), /ɛ/ (written "è"), /i/ (written "i"), /o/ (written "ó"), /ɔ/ (written "ò"), /ø/ (written "ö") with /œ/ (written "ö", sometimes "ü" when variant of /y/), /u/ (written "u") and normal /y/ (written "ü"). Vowels /u:/ and /o:/ are inverted (for example: "cóo", head; "cuut", whetstone) as to many othersBrianzöö andMilanese varieties. Syllables closed by /l/ and based on vowel "a", often change it with /ɔ/ (written "ò"), that, like other rounded consonants also in otherWestern Lombard varieties, change to /u/ when unstressed. Letter "s" before consonant is usually aspirated. There are many phaenomena of assimilation or adaptation, caused by meeting of two words, especially in crashes of consonants. In the word "culzùn", trousers, you can see the adesinential plural, the use of /uŋ/, not /õː/, the conservation of "z", the mutation "cal-" > "còl-" > "cul-".The origin of this language is the insertion of Latin on the
Celt icsubstratum , because the inhabitant of the region wereInsubres , Lambrani,Lepontii , Orobi (local populations already merged withGaul s). On that there have been asuperstratum of Langobardic and others, besides influences from Spanish, French and Austrian dominations. Canzés is famous as the language of Wizards and vagabonds and is seldom spoken today.Consonants
Literature
In the little written literature, almost totally
poetry , bloomed in the 1970s basing onBrianzöö andMilanese literatures (born inXIII century ), it's used a simpleorthography , adherent to the pronunciation and based on Italian andMilanese ones, usingdieresis , letter "j" for semivocalic "i", not applying the circumflex accent but the redoubling of long vowels, or the redoubling of consonant for short vowels. The wide oral literature is composed byproverb s,poem s,legend s,prayer s, that have histories of several centuries. An important role of Canzés and other local languages is intoponym s, often derived from Celtic words, and traditionalgentilic s.Examples
There are some examples of written and oral literature.
Use
There are variants also within the borough, according to the social class and the zone, for influence in the first case from
Milanese and from commonBrianzöö , in the second case from the neighbouring villages. You can say that every joint family has own dialect of Canzés because, until the half ofXX century , every joint family was very united and isolated in the "cuurt" (the local kind of courtyard) world.Canzés, even if it has a consistent heritage of oral and witten literature, besides high importance for the local identity, doesn't have an official recognisement, so it's getting uncommon in young generations.
Western Lombard has a general recognisement, but no one from State.UNESCO andEthnologue considerLombard language as union ofWestern Lombard ,Eastern Lombard and intermediate varieties.Bibliography
* Tiziano Corti, "In ucasiun", 2005.
* Cumitaa F.N., "Librett da la Festa di Nost", 1988-2003.
* Stefano Prina, "Al Cadreghin - gazetin di bagaj da Canz", 2003-2007 (in particular n° 9bis of 2006).
* Gigliola Campiotti, "Proverbi e modi di dire Lariani", 1997.
* Andrea Rognoni, "Grammatica dei dialetti della Lombardia", 2005.
* Several authors, "Parlate e dialetti della Lombardia. Lessico comparato", 2003.
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