Areas where Piedmontese is spoken (municipalities where Occitan and Arpitan presence is only de jure are included)
Areas where Piedmontese is spoken alongside other languages (Occitan, Arpitan and Alemannic) and areas of linguistic transition (with Ligurian and with Lombard)
It has some support from the Piedmont regional government but is considered a dialect rather than a separate language by the Italian central government.[3]
Due to the Italian diaspora Piedmontese has spread in the ArgentinePampas, where many immigrants from Piedmont settled. The Piedmontese language is also spoken in some states of Brazil, along with the Venetian language.
Literature
The first documents in the Piedmontese language were written in the 12th century, the sermones subalpini [it], when it was extremely close to Occitan, dating from the 12th century, a document devoted to the education of the Knights Templar stationed in Piedmont.
During the Renaissance, the oldest Piedmontese literary work of secular character, are the works of Zan Zòrs Alion, poet of the duchy of Montferrat, the most famous work being the opera Jocunda.
In the 1500s and 1600s, there were several pastoral comedies with parts in Piedmontese.
In the Baroque period, El Cont Piolèt, a comedy by Giovan Battista Tan-na d'Entraive was published.
Literary Piedmontese developed in the 17th and 18th centuries, but it did not gain literary esteem comparable to that of French or Italian, other languages used in Piedmont. Nevertheless, literature in Piedmontese has never ceased to be produced: it includes poetry, theatre pieces, novels, and scientific work.[4]
History
The first documents in the Piedmontese language were written in the 12th century, the sermones subalpini, when it was extremely close to Occitan.
Current status
In 2004, Piedmontese was recognised as Piedmont's regional language by the regional parliament,[5][6][7] although the Italian government has not yet recognised it as such. In theory, it is now supposed to be taught to children in school,[8] but this is happening only to a limited extent.
The last decade has seen the publication of learning materials for schoolchildren, as well as general-public magazines. Courses for people already outside the education system have also been developed. In spite of these advances, the current state of Piedmontese is quite grave, as over the last 150 years the number of people with a written active knowledge of the language has shrunk to about 2% of native speakers, according to a recent survey.[9] On the other hand, the same survey showed Piedmontese is still spoken by over half the population, alongside Italian. Authoritative sources confirm this result, putting the figure between 2 million[10][11] and 3 million[12] speakers out of a population of 4.2 million people. Efforts to make it one of the official languages of the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics were unsuccessful.
Regional variants
Geographical variants of Piedmontese
Piedmontese is divided into three major groups
Western which include the dialects of Turin and Cuneo.
Eastern which in turn is divided into south-eastern (Astigiano, Roero, Monregalese, High Montferrat, Langarolo, Alessandrino) and north-eastern (Low Montferrat, Biellese, Vercellese, Valsesiano).
Canavese, spoken in the Canavese region in north-western Piedmont.
The variants can be detected in the variation of the accent and variation of words. It is sometimes difficult to understand a person that speaks a different Piedmontese from the one you are used to, as the words or accents are not the same.
Eastern and western group
The Eastern Piedmontese group is phonologically more innovative than its Western counterpart.
Words that in the West end in jt, jd or t in the East end in [dʒ] or [tʃ], for example Western [lajt], [tyjt], and [vɛj] (milk, all and old) correspond to Eastern [lɑtʃ], [tytʃ] and [vɛdʒ].
A typical Eastern feature is [i] as an allophone of /e/: at word end, at the end of verbal infinitives, as in "to read" and "to be" (Western [leze], [ese]vs. Eastern [lezi], [esi]) and in feminineplurals. Nevertheless, this development is also shared partially (in the case of the infinitive) by most Western dialects, including that of Turin, which is the most spoken dialect of Western Piedmontese and also of the whole language.
A morphological feature that sharply divides the East from the West is the indicative imperfect conjugation of irregular verbs. In the East, the suffix -ava/iva is used, while in the West, the corresponding suffix is -asìa/isìa. The groups are also distinguished by differing conjugations of the present simple of irregular verbs: dé, andé, sté (to give, to go, to stay).
Allophones of /a/ are [ɑ,ɒ] in stressed syllables and as [ɐ] when in unstressed position and at end of the word.
Phonological process
Apocope, i.e., dropping of all of the unstressed vowels at word end,[15]: 92–94 except /a/, which is usually centralized to [ɐ].[15]: 296–297
Syncope i.e., weakening or dropping of unstressed pro-tonic[16]: 169–171 and post-tonic vowels: /me'luŋ/ > /mə'luŋ/ > /m'luŋ/,[17]: 37 same happens in French, and other Gallo-Romance languages. In some cases, prothesis of [ə] or [ɐ] is also present to make some consonant clusters easier to pronounce (ex. novod, "nephew" , [nʊˈvud] > [nvud] > [ɐnˈvud],[16][17][page needed] this feature is also present in Emilian.[16][page needed]
Nasalization of vowels in front of /n/, as in Western Romance, and then shift of nasalization from the vowel to /n/ with development of the /ŋn/ cluster, and subsequent dropping of [n] (/'buna/> /'bũna/> /'buŋna/ > /'buŋa/).[17]: 51
Development of vowels /ø/ and /y/ from [ɔ] and [uː] of Latin, respectively.[17]: 36–37
Latin groups of occlusives [kt] and [gd] become [jd]-, as in Gallo-Romance: NOCTEM > neuit [nøi̯d]; LACTEM > làit [lɑi̯d]. Some dialects have reached the more advanced stage, with palatalization of [i̯d] to [d͡ʒ] (for example Vercelli dialect [nød͡ʒ] and [lad͡ʒ]), as happens in Spanish, Occitan, and Brazilian Portuguese.[15]: 350–351
Palatization of [kl] and [gl] : Latin CLARUS > ciàr [tʃɑi̯r], "light", GLANDIA > gianda [ˈdʒɑŋdɐ] "nut".[15]: 552–558 [17]: 39
The Latin unvoiced occlusive /p/, /t/, /k/, are voiced (becoming /b/, /d/, /g/), and then lenited and usually drop: FORMICAM > formìa; APRILEM > avril, CATHÉDRA > careja.[17]: 50
Latin /k/-/g/ before front vowels, became post-alveolar affricates /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/, then /t͡s/ and /d͡z/ due to typical Western Romanceassibilation, later /t͡s/ and /d͡z/ became fricatives: /s/ and /z/: CINERE > sënner; CENTUM > sent; GINGIVA > zanziva.[17]: 38
Alphabet
Piedmontese is written with a modified Latin alphabet. The letters, along with their IPA equivalent, are shown in the table below.
All other combinations of letters are pronounced as written. Grave accent marks stress (except for o which is marked by an acute to distinguish it from ò) and breaks diphthongs, so ua and uà are /wa/, but ùa is pronounced separately, /ˈya/.
Some of the characteristics of the Piedmontese language are:
The presence of clitic so-called verbal pronouns for subjects, which give a Piedmontese verbal complex the following form: (subject) + verbal pronoun + verb, as in (mi) i von 'I go'. Verbal pronouns are absent only in the imperative form.
The bound form of verbal pronouns, which can be connected to dative and locative particles (a-i é 'there is', i-j diso 'I say to him').
The interrogative form, which adds an enclitic interrogative particle at the end of the verbal form (Veus-to…? 'Do you want to...?'])
The absence of ordinal numerals higher than 'sixth', so that 'seventh' is col che a fà set 'the one which makes seven'.
The existence of three affirmative interjections (that is, three ways to say yes): si, sè (from Latin sic est, as in Italian); é (from Latin est, as in Portuguese); òj (from Latin hoc est, as in Occitan, or maybe hoc illud, as in Franco-Provençal, French and Old Catalan and Occitan).
The absence of the voiceless postalveolar fricative/ʃ/ (like the sh in English sheep), for which an alveolar S sound (as in English sun) is usually substituted.
The existence of an S-C combination pronounced [stʃ].
The existence of a velar nasal [ŋ] (like the ng in English going), which usually precedes a vowel, as in lun-a 'moon'.
The existence of the third Piedmontese vowel Ë, which is very short (close to the vowel in English sir).
The absence of the phonological contrast that exists in Italian between short (single) and long (double) consonants, for example, Italian fata 'fairy' and fatta 'done (F)'.
The existence of a prosthetic Ë sound when consonantal clusters arise that are not permitted by the phonological system. So 'seven stars' is pronounced set ëstèile (cf. stèile 'stars').
Piedmontese has a number of varieties that may vary from its basic koiné to quite a large extent. Variation includes not only departures from the literary grammar, but also a wide variety in dictionary entries, as different regions maintain words of Frankish or Lombard origin, as well as differences in native Romance terminology. Words imported from various languages are also present, while more recent imports tend to come from France and from Italian.
Judeo-Piedmontese
A variety of Piedmontese was Judeo-Piedmontese, a dialect spoken by the Piedmontese Jews until the Second World War, when most were killed during the Holocaust. Some survivors knew the language but as of 2015, the language had gone extinct. It had many loanwards from Provencal, Spanish and Hebrew. It kept many conservative features that Piedmontese abandoned over time.[18] The language never became as large in terms of words as larger Jewish languages like Yiddish, and it never developed a standardized writing system.
Lexical comparison
Lexical comparison with other Romance languages and English:
^Piemontèis d'amblé - Avviamento Modulare alla conoscenza della Lingua piemontese; R. Capello, C. Comòli, M.M. Sánchez Martínez, R.J.M. Nové; Regione Piemonte/Gioventura Piemontèisa; Turin, 2001
^F. Rubat Borel, M. Tosco, V. Bertolino. Il Piemontese in Tasca, a Piedmontese basic language course and conversation guide, published by Assimil Italia (the Italian branch of Assimil, the leading French producer of language courses) in 2006. ISBN88-86968-54-X. assimil.it
^E. Allasino, C. Ferrer, E. Scamuzzi, T. Telmon (October 2007). "Le Lingue del Piemonte". www.ires.piemonte.it. Istituto di Ricerche Economiche e Sociali Piemonte.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International ISO 639-3, pms (Piemontese) Retrieved 13 June 2012
^Brero, Camillo; Bertodatti, Remo (2000). Grammatica della lingua piemontese. Torino: Ed.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Parry, Mair (1997). Piedmont. The dialects of Italy: London: Routledge. pp. 237–244.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
^ abcdHull, Geoffrey (2017). The Linguistic Unity of Northern Italy and Rhaetia: Historical Grammar of the Padanian Language. Volume 1: Historical Introduction, Phonology.
^ abcRohlfs, Gerhard. Grammatica storica della lingua italiana e dei suoi dialetti (in Italian).
^ abcdefgCornagliotti, Anna (2015). Repertorio Etimologico Piemontese (in Italian).
^Venetian is either grouped with the rest of the Italo-Dalmatian or the Gallo-Italic languages, depending on the linguist, but the major consensus among linguists is that in the dialectal landscape of northern Italy, Veneto dialects are clearly distinguished from Gallo-Italic dialects.
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