Emiliano-Romagnolo

Infobox language
name=Emiliano-Romagnolo
nativename=Emiliàn e rumagnòl
states=flag|Italy
flag|San Marino
speakers=2 million
familycolor=Indo-European
fam2=Italic
fam3=Romance
fam4=Italo-Western
fam5=Gallo-Italic
iso2=roa|iso3=eml

Emiliano-Romagnolo (also known as "Emilian-Romagnolo") is a Romance language mostly spoken in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. It belongs to the Northern Italian group within Romance languages (like Piedmontese, Lombard, Ligurian and Venetian), which is included in the wider group of western Romance languages (like French, Occitan and Catalan). It is considered as a minority language, structurally separated from Italian by the Ethnologue and by the "Red Book of Endangered Languages" of UNESCO. Although commonly referred to as an Italian dialect (even by its speakers), it does not descend from the Italian language. It lacks a koiné.

Geographic extent

It is spoken in the Northern Italian regions of Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy (provinces of Pavia and Mantua), the Central Italian regions of Tuscany (province of Massa-Carrara) and Marche (province of Pesaro e Urbino) and in the Republic of San Marino.

Varieties

Emiliano-Romagnolo varies considerably across the region, and several dialects exist (e.g.: Piacentino has much more in common with Lombard than with Central or Eastern Emiliano and it is hardly intelligible by a speaker from Bologna, the capital of Emilia-Romagna). A major distinction is usually made between Emiliano and Romagnolo, seen as separate languages by some linguists. The latter is spoken in the provinces of Forlì-Cesena, Ravenna, Rimini but also in Pesaro e Urbino, in the region of Marche, which formed the historical region of Romagna.

Emiliano-Romagnolo can be subdivided into two main subgroups, which in turn are made up further varieties:

*Emilian dialect
**Western Emiliano (Piacentino)
**Carrarese
**Lunigiano
**Massese (mixed with some Tuscanian features)
**Central Emiliano (Reggiano and Modenese)
**Center-Western Emiliano (Parmigiano)
**Southern Emiliano (Bolognese)
**North-Eastern Emiliano (Ferrarese)
*Romagnolo dialect
**Northern Romagnolo
**Southern Romagnolo

Two varieties are considered by most linguists as transitional idioms between Emiliano-Romagnolo and Lombard, since they have common features:
* Mantovano
* Vogherese-Pavese

Features

The variants of both dialects have common features with all the other languages of the Gallo-Italic group. The most important are:

*With respect to Italian, the loss of all final unstressed vowel except for "a" and the subsequent vowel stretching of the tonic sillable, that may generate a diphthong. In Bolognese we have: "mèder" (mother), dutåur (doctor), âlber (tree).
*Rounded vowels which are typical of the Gallo-Iberian area. In Carrarese and Western Emiliano there are four of them: ä, ü, ö, å (in Western Emiliano there is also ë, a sort of schwa similar to the "third vowel" of Piedmontese). In Bolognese there are two: (ä and å), in Central Emilian only ä. The phonetic of the same word may vary across the diffusion area of this idiom, as in the case of the word "snail", written as "lümäga" in Western Emiliano and as "lumèga" in Bolognese. Another typical feature of Emilian dialects is the loss of atonic syllables within a word. As an example we can have the Bolognese words: "śbdèl" (hospital), "bdòć" (louse), "dscårrer" (speak).
*Nasal alveolar sounds (transcribed in Bolognese with the graph ń) as in "cuséń" (cousin).
*The plural forms are made up either with a consonantic alternance, similarly to Germanic languages: "źnòć" (knee) and "źnûć" (knees); "dutåur" (doctor) and "dutûr" (doctors); "calzaider" (bucket) and "calzîder" (buckets), with special suffix changes: "martèl" (hammer) and "martî" (hammers); "fiôl" (son) and "fiû" (sons), "cuséna" (female cousin) and "cuséni" (female cousins) [but: "cuséna" (kitchen) and "cusén" (kitchens)] or with no modifications: "lèg" (lake) and "lèg" (lakes).
*Various verb classes
*The presence of a verbal system with an affermative conjugation and an interrogative conjugation (Example: the present tense form of the verb "fèr" - to do): "mé a fag" (I do) - "faghia" (do I do?); "té t fè" (You do) - "fèt" (Do you do?); "lò/lì al/la fà" (he/she does) - "fèl/fèla" (does he/she do?); "nuèter a fän" (We do) - "faggna" (Do we do?); "vuèter a fèv" (You (pl.) do) - "fèdi" (do you do?); "låur i/al fàn" (they [m/f] do); "fèni" (do they do?)
*The presence of two kind of personal pronouns (tonic and atonic pronouns) that are used -similarly as in French- in the verbal conjugation:::"me a sun andèe" - I went (compare with "moi, Je suis allé" in French)

Emiliano-Romagnolo is not mutually intelligible with Italian and the two languages belong to different branches of the Romance language family tree (respectively Western Romance and Italo-Dalmatian). An uncommon feature for a Romance language is the extensive use of idiomatic phrasal verbs (verb-particle constructions) much in the same way as in English and other Germanic languages, above all in Western Emiliano, Vogherese-Pavese and Mantovano.Examples: "dèr so" (lit. give up, same as in English); "fèr so" (lit. do up, meaning: to tidy up); "dèr zå" (lit. give down, meaning: to brush or to beat); "mètter vî" (lit. to put away, meaning: to lock); "dîr so" (lit. to tell up, meaning: to call up); "dèr vî" (lit. to give away, same as in English);

Usage

The use of Emiliano-Romagnolo has in the past been stigmatized in Emiliano-Romagnolo speaking areas, due to a number of historical and social reasons; speaking the 'dialect' was considered a sign of poor schooling or low social status. It now appears to have lost its negative connotations: native speakers use it to address close friends and family, so its usage has come to mean "I feel well, I feel in the company of friends". Emiliano-Romagnolo is also commonly used in manufacturing industry or construction workplaces, where it is not uncommon to find foreign immigrants who speak it with workmates.

A few words

*Yes - Sé, Ói (bolognese); sì (piacentino)
*No - Nå (bolognese); no (piacentino)
*I love you - A t vói bän (bolognese); a t' vöi bëin (piacentino)
*Thanks, Thank you - A t aringrâzi (bolognese); a t' ringrasi (piacentino)
*Good morning - Bån dé (bolognese); bon giùran (piacentino)
*Good bye - A se vdrän (bolognese); arvëdas (piacentino)
*I - Mé, A (bolognese); me, mi (piacentino)
*And - E
*How much is it - Quant véńnel? csa cåsstel? (bolognese); cus al custa, quant al custa, cus al vegna? (paicentino)
*What's your name? - Cum t ciâmet? (bolognese); cma ta ciamat? (piacentino)
*My name is... - A m ciâm ... (bolognese); me/mi a m' ciam... (piacentino)
*Tree - Âlber (bolognese); pianta, ärbul (piacentino)
*England - Inghiltèra
*London - Lånndra
*Emilia - Romagna - Emégglia-Rumâgna (bolognese); Emilia-Rumagna (piacnetino)
*Bologna - Bulåggna (bolognese); Bulogna (piacnetino)
*City - Zitè
*Coffee - Cafà (bolognese); café (piacentino)
*Wine - Vén (bolognese); vëin (piacentino)
*Water - Âcua
*Nine - Nôv (bolognese); növ (piacentino)
*Sun - Såul (bolognese); sul (piacentino)
*Language - Längua (bolognese); lëingua (piacentino)
*God - Dìo (bolognese); diu (piacentino)
*See you - A t salût
*Excuse me - Scuśèm, ch'al scûśa bän (bolognese); scüsìm, scüsèm (piacentino)
*Do you speak English/Emilian? - Dscårret in inglaiś/emigliàn?
*Nation - Naziån
*Father - Pèder
*Mother - Mèder
*Brother - Fradèl
*Sister - Surèla
*Doctor - Dutåur
*America - Amêrica
*Africa - Âfrica
*Antarctica - Antàrrtide
*Italy- Itâglia
*Germany - Germâgna
*Army - Esêrzit
*World - Månnd
*Peace - Pèś
*War - Guèra

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=eml Emiliano Romagnolo on Ethnologue]
* [http://www.bulgnais.com A website on the Bolognese dialect]
* [http://www.parmaindialetto.it/DIALETTO/DIALETTO.htm A website on the Parmigiano dialect]
* [http://bettolapc.interfree.it/dialetto/dialetto.html A website on the Piacentino dialect]
* [http://ww2.comune.fe.it/dialetto/index.phtml?id=1 A website on the Ferrarese dialect]
* [http://argaza.racine.ra.it/ A website on the Romagnolo dialect]