The Gallo-Italic, Gallo-Italian, Gallo-Cisalpine or simply Cisalpine languages constitute the majority of the Romance languages of northern Italy. They are Piedmontese, Lombard, Emilian, Ligurian, and

Romagnol Romagnol ( or ; it, romagnolo) is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken in the historical region of Romagna, consisting mainly of the southeastern part of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The name is derived from the Lombard language, Lombard name ...

. Although most publications define

Venetian Venetian often means from or related to: * Venice, a city in Italy * Veneto, a region of Italy * Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area Venetian and the like may also refer to: * Venetian language, a Romance language s ...

as part of the Italo-Dalmatian branch, both

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ...

and

Glottolog ''Glottolog'' is a bibliographic database of the world's lesser-known languages, developed and maintained first at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany (between 2015 and 2020 at the Max Planck Institute for ...

group it into the Gallo-Italic languages. These languages are spoken also in the departement of Alpes-Maritimes in France, Ticino and southern

Grisons The Grisons () or Graubünden,Names include: *german: (Kanton) Graubünden ; * Romansh: ** rm, label= Sursilvan, (Cantun) Grischun ** rm, label=Vallader, (Chantun) Grischun ** rm, label= Puter, (Chantun) Grischun ** rm, label=Surmiran, (Cant ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and the microstates of Monaco and San Marino. They are still spoken to some extent by the

Italian diaspora , image = Map of the Italian Diaspora in the World.svg , image_caption = Map of the Italian diaspora in the world , population = worldwide , popplace = Brazil, Argentina, United States, France, Colombia, Canada, P ...

in countries with Italian immigrant communities. Having a Celtic

substratum In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for "layer") or strate is a language that influences or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum or sup ...

and a Germanic, mostly Lombardic,

superstrate In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for "layer") or strate is a language that influences or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum or sup ...

, Gallo-Italian descends from the Latin spoken in northern part of Italia (former

Cisalpine Gaul Cisalpine Gaul ( la, Gallia Cisalpina, also called ''Gallia Citerior'' or ''Gallia Togata'') was the part of Italy inhabited by Celts (Gauls) during the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. After its conquest by the Roman Republic in the 200s BC it was con ...

). The group had for part of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages a close linguistic link with Gaul and Raetia, west and north to the Alps. From the late Middle Ages, the group adopted various characteristics of the Italo-Dalmatian languages of the south. As a result, the Gallo-Italic languages have characteristics both of the Gallo-Romance languages to the northwest (including

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

and Arpitan), the Occitano-Romance languages to the west (including Catalan and Occitan) and the Italo-Dalmatian languages to the north-east,

central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

and south Italy (

, Dalmatian, Tuscan,

Central Italian Central Italian (Italian: ''dialetti mediani'') refers to Italo-Romance varieties spoken in the so-called ''Area Mediana'', which covers a swathe of the central Italian peninsula. ''Area Mediana'' is also used in a narrower sense to describe the ...

, Neapolitan, Sicilian). For this there is some debate over the proper grouping of the Gallo-Italic languages. They are sometimes grouped with Gallo-Romance,

/ref> but other linguists group them in Italo-Dalmatian.Walter De Gruyter, ''Italienisch, Korsisch, Sardisch'', 1988, p. 452.Michele Loporcaro, ''Profilo linguistico dei dialetti italiani'', 2013, p. 70.Martin Maiden, Mair Parry, ''Dialects of Italy'', 1997, Introduction p. 3. Anna Laura Lepschy,

Giulio Lepschy Giulio Ciro Lepschy, FBA (born 14 January 1935) is an Italian academic. He was Professor of Italian at the University of Reading from 1975 to 1997. Born in 1935, Lepschy attended the University of Pisa and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa. H ...

, ''The Italian Language Today'', 1998, p. 41. Most Gallo-Italic languages have to varying degrees given way in everyday use to regional varieties of Italian. The vast majority of current speakers are

diglossic In linguistics, diglossia () is a situation in which two dialects or languages are used (in fairly strict compartmentalization) by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety (labeled "L ...

with Italian. Among the regional languages of Italy, they are the most endangered, since in the main cities of their area ( Milan, Turin, Genoa, Bologna) they are mainly used by the elderly.

History

Geographical distribution

Within this sub-family, the language with the largest geographic spread is Lombard, spoken in the Italian region of

Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...

, in eastern Piedmont and western Trentino. Outside Italy it is widespread in Switzerland in the canton of Ticino, and some southern valleys of the canton of the

. The Emilian language, western part of the Emilian-Romagnol dialect continuum, is spoken in the historical-cultural region of Emilia, which forms part of Emilia-Romagna, but also in many areas of the bordering regions, including southern Lombardy, south-eastern Piedmont, around the town of Tortona, province of Massa and Carrara in Tuscany and Polesine in Veneto, near the

Po delta The Po ( , ; la, Padus or ; Ligurian language (ancient), Ancient Ligurian: or ) is the longest river in Italy. It flows eastward across northern Italy starting from the Cottian Alps. The river's length is either or , if the Maira (river), Mair ...

. Romagnol, spoken in the historical region of

Romagna Romagna ( rgn, Rumâgna) is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna, North Italy. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to t ...

, including also the northern part of the region of

Marche Marche ( , ) is one of the twenty regions of Italy. In English, the region is sometimes referred to as The Marches ( ). The region is located in the central area of the country, bordered by Emilia-Romagna and the republic of San Marino to the ...

, statistically in Central Italy, fading, towards Ancona, into the median dialects, through Gallo-Picene speeches, sometimes ascribed to Romagnol. Piedmontese refers to the languages spoken in the region of Piedmont and the north west corner of Liguria. Historically, the Piedmontese-speaking area is the plain at the foot of the Western Alps, and ends at the entrance to the valleys where Occitan and Arpitan are spoken. In recent centuries, the language has also spread into these valleys, where it is also more widely spoken than these two languages, thus the borders of Piedmontese have reached the western alps

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

that is the border with France. The speaking area of Ligurian or Genoese cover the territory of the former Republic of Genoa, which included much of nowadays Liguria, and some mountain areas of bordering regions near the Ligurian border, the upper valley of

Roya river The Roya ( French, ), Roia (Italian), or Ròia (Brigasc, Occitan) is a river of France and Italy, discharging into the Ligurian Sea. It is long, of which in France. Its drainage basin is about , of which in France.Nice, in Carloforte and Calasetta in Southern Sardinia, and

Bonifacio Bonifacio may refer to: Places * Bonifacio, Corse-du-Sud, a town in Corsica, France * Strait of Bonifacio, separating Corsica from Sardinia * Bonifacio, Misamis Occidental, a municipality in the Philippines * Bonifacio Global City, a central bu ...

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

Isolated varieties in Sicily and in Basilicata (Southern Gallo-Italic variants)

Varieties of Gallo-Italic languages are also found in Sicily, corresponding with the central-eastern parts of the island that received large numbers of immigrants from Northern Italy, called Lombards, during the decades following the Norman conquest of Sicily (around 1080 to 1120). Given the time that has lapsed and the influence from the Sicilian language itself, these dialects are best generically described as Southern Gallo-Italic. The major centres where these dialects can still be heard today include Piazza Armerina, Aidone,

Sperlinga Sperlinga is a comune in the province of Enna, in the central part of the island of Sicily, in southern Italy. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("the prettiest villages in Italy"). Geography Sperlinga is at about above sea level, o ...

, San Fratello,

Nicosia Nicosia ( ; el, Λευκωσία, Lefkosía ; tr, Lefkoşa ; hy, Նիկոսիա, romanized: ''Nikosia''; Cypriot Arabic: Nikusiya) is the largest city, capital, and seat of government of Cyprus. It is located near the centre of the Mesaor ...

, and

Novara di Sicilia Novara di Sicilia (Gallo-Italic of Sicily: Nuè; Sicilian: ''Nuvara'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Messina in the Italian region of Sicily, located about east of Palermo and some southwest of Messina. Novara di ...

. Northern Italian dialects did not survive in some towns in the province of Catania that developed large Lombard communities during this period, namely Randazzo, Paternò and Bronte. However, the Northern Italian influence in the local varieties of Sicilian are marked. In the case of San Fratello, some linguists suggested that the nowadays dialect has

Provençal Provençal may refer to: *Of Provence, a region of France * Provençal dialect, a dialect of the Occitan language, spoken in the southeast of France *''Provençal'', meaning the whole Occitan language *Franco-Provençal language, a distinct Roman ...

as its basis, having been a fort manned by Provençal mercenaries in the early decades of the Norman conquest (bearing in mind that it took the Normans 30 years to conquer the whole of the island). Other dialects, attested from 13th and 14th century, are also found in

Basilicata it, Lucano (man) it, Lucana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = ...

, more precisely in the province of

Potenza Potenza (, also , ; , Potentino dialect: ''Putenz'') is a ''comune'' in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata (former Lucania). Capital of the Province of Potenza and the Basilicata region, the city is the highest regional capital and one ...

( Tito,

Picerno Picerno is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. It is bounded by the ''comuni'' of Balvano, Baragiano, Potenza, Ruoti Ruoti ( Ruotese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Pot ...

Pignola Pignola is an Italian town in the province of Potenza in Basilicata. It borders to the east with Anzi, to the south-west with Abriola, to the west with Tito and to the north with Potenza Potenza (, also , ; , Potentino dialect: ''Putenz'') i ...

and

Vaglio Basilicata Vaglio Basilicata is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. It is bounded by the comuni of Albano di Lucania, Brindisi Montagna, Cancellara, Pietragalla, Potenza, Tolve and Tricarico. It i ...

), Trecchina, Rivello, Nemoli and San Costantino.

General classification

* ''Gallo-Italic'' ** Piedmontese ** Ligurian ** Lombard *** Western Lombard dialect *** Eastern Lombard dialect **

Emilian-Romagnol language Emilian-Romagnol is a linguistic continuum part of the Gallo-Romance languages spoken in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. It is divided into two main varieties: Emilian and Romagnol. While first registered under a single code in ...

*** Emilian dialects ***

Romagnol dialect Romagnol (''rumagnòl'') is a group of closely-related dialects part of Emilian-Romagnol continuum which are spoken in the historical region of Romagna, which is now in the southeastern part of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The name is derived from the ...

s **(

) ** Gallo-Italic of Sicily ** Gallo-Italic of Basilicata **

Judeo-Italian Judeo-Italian (or Judaeo-Italian, Judæo-Italian, and other names including Italkian) is an endangered Jewish language, with only about 200 speakers in Italy and 250 total speakers today. The language is one of the Italian languages. Some wor ...

Phonology

Gallo-Italic languages are often said to resemble Western Romance languages like French, Spanish, or Portuguese, and in large part it is due to their phonology. The Gallo-Italic languages differ somewhat in their phonology from one language to another, but the following are the most important characteristics, as contrasted with Italian: Bernard Comrie, Stephen Matthews, Maria Polinsky (eds.), The Atlas of languages : the origin and development of languages throughout the world. New York 2003, Facts On File. p. 40. Stephen A. Wurm, Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing. Paris 2001, UNESCO Publishing, p. 29. Glauco Sanga: La lingua Lombarda, in Koiné in Italia, dalle origini al 500 (Koinés in Italy, from the origin to 1500), Lubrina publisher, Bèrghem Studi di lingua e letteratura lombarda offerti a Maurizio Vitale, (Studies in Lombard language and literature) Pisa : Giardini, 1983 Brevini, Franco – Lo stile lombardo : la tradizione letteraria da Bonvesin da la Riva a Franco Loi / Franco Brevini – Pantarei, Lugan – 1984 (Lombard style: literary tradition from Bonvesin da la Riva to Franco Loi ) Mussafia Adolfo, Beitrag zur kunde der Norditalienischen Mundarten im XV. Jahrhunderte (Wien, 1873) Pellegrini, G.B. "I cinque sistemi dell'italoromanzo", in Saggi di linguistica italiana (Turin: Boringhieri, 1975), pp. 55–87. Rohlfs, Gerhard, Rätoromanisch. Die Sonderstellung des Rätoromanischen zwischen Italienisch und Französisch. Eine kulturgeschichtliche und linguistische Einführung (Munich: C.H. Beek'sche, 1975), pp. 1–20. Canzoniere Lombardo – by Pierluigi Beltrami, Bruno Ferrari, Luciano Tibiletti, Giorgio D'Ilario – Varesina Grafica Editrice, 1970.

Vowels

*Most Gallo-Italic languages have lost all unstressed final vowels except , e.g. Lombard ''òm'' "man", ''füm'' "smoke", ''nef'' "snow", ''fil'' "wire", ''röda'' "wheel" (Italian ''uomo, fumo, neve, filo, ruota''). They remain, however, in Ligurian, with passage of ''-o'' to ''-u'', except after ''n''; e.g. ''ramu, rami, lüme, lümi'' "branch, branches, light, lights" (Italian ''ramo, rami, lume, lumi''), but ''can, chen'' "dog, dogs" (Italian ''cane, cani''). *''u'' tends to evolve as ''ü'' , as in French and Occitan, as in Lombard ''füm'' (Italian ''fumo'' "smoke") and Ligurian ''lüme'', Piedmont ''lüm'' (Italian ''lume'' "light"). In some parts, e.g. southern Piedmont, this has further developed into , e.g. ''fis'' (Italian ''fuso''), ''lim'' (Italian ''lume'' "light"). In some mountainous parts of Piedmont, however (e.g. Biellese, Ossolano), this development was blocked before final , leading to masculine ''crü'' (Italian ''crudo'' "raw") but feminine ''cru(v)a'' (Italian ''cruda''). * Metaphony is very common, affecting original open stressed ''è'' and ''ò'' when followed by or sometimes (operating before final vowels were dropped). This leads at first to diphthongs ''ie'' and ''uo'', but in many dialects these progress further, typically to monophthongs ''i'' and ''ö'' . Unlike standard Italian diphthongization, this typically operates both in open and closed syllables, hence in Lombardy (where typically but not triggers metaphony) ''quest'' (Italian ''questo'' "this") vs. ''quist'' (Italian ''questi'' "these"). *Stressed closed ''é'' and sometimes ''ó'' , when occurring in an open syllable (followed by at most one consonant) often diphthongized to and , as in Old French; e.g. Piedmont ''beive'' (Italian ''bere'' < *''bévere'' "to drink"), ''teila'' (Italian ''tela'' "cloth"), ''meis'' (Italian ''mese'' "month"). In some dialects, developed further into either or , e.g. ''tèla'' < ''*teila'' (Italian ''tela'' "cloth"), ''sira'' (Italian ''sera'' "evening"), ''mis'' (Italian ''mese'' "month"). *Stressed in an open syllable often fronts to ''ä'' or ''è'' .

Consonants

* Lenition affects single consonants between vowels. and drop; becomes or drops; and become and , or drop; becomes , , or drops. between vowels voices to . between vowels sometimes becomes , and this sometimes drops. Double consonants are reduced to single consonants, but not otherwise lenited. becomes velarized to . These changes occur before a final vowel drops. After loss of final vowels, however, further changes sometimes affect the newly final consonants, with voiced obstruents often becoming voiceless, and final sometimes dropping. Liguria, especially in former times, showed particularly severe lenition, with total loss of intervocalic , , , , , , (probably also , but not ) in Old Genoese, hence ''müa'' (Latin ''matura'' "early"), ''a éia e âe?'' (Italian ''aveva le ali?'' "did it have wings?"; modern ''a l'aveiva e ae?'' with restoration of various consonants due to Italian influence). In Liguria and often elsewhere, collapse of adjacent vowels due to loss of an intervocalic consonant produced new long vowels, notated with a circumflex. * and preceding , or often assibilitated historically to and , respectively. This typically does not occur in Lombardy, however, and parts of Liguria have intermediate and , while Piemontese varieties typically have differential developments, with assibilating (''sent'' '100'), but retaining palatalization (''gent'' 'people'). *Latin palatalized to (Piemontese ''ciav'', Romagnol ''ceva'' 'key'); similarly from Latin develops as . In Liguria, and from Latin and are affected in the same way, e.g. Ligurian ''cian'' (Italian ''piano'' "soft") and ''giancu'' (Italian ''bianco'' "white"). *Latin develops into , or , varying by locale (contrast Italian ).

Lexical comparison

Comparisons of the sentence, "She always closes the window before dining." between different Gallo-Italic languages

References

Sources

* Bernard Comrie, Stephen Matthews, Maria Polinsky (eds.), The Atlas of languages : the origin and development of languages throughout the world. New York 2003, Facts On File. p. 40. * Stephen A. Wurm, Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger of Disappearing. Paris 2001, UNESCO Publishing, p. 29. * Glauco Sanga: La lingua Lombarda, in Koiné in Italia, dalle origini al 500 (Koinés in Italy, from the origin to 1500), Lubrina publisher, Bèrghem * Studi di lingua e letteratura lombarda offerti a Maurizio Vitale, (Studies in Lombard language and literature) Pisa : Giardini, 1983 * Brevini, Franco – Lo stile lombardo : la tradizione letteraria da Bonvesin da la Riva a Franco Loi / Franco Brevini – Pantarei, Lugan – 1984 (Lombard style: literary tradition from Bonvesin da la Riva to Franco Loi ) *Hull, Geoffrey ''The Linguistic Unity of Northern Italy and Rhaetia: Historical Grammar of the Padanian Language'' 2 vols. Sydney: Beta Crucis Editions, 2017. * Mussafia Adolfo, Beitrag zur kunde der Norditalienischen Mundarten im XV. Jahrhunderte (Wien, 1873) * Pellegrini, G.B. "I cinque sistemi dell'italoromanzo", in ''Saggi di linguistica italiana'' (Turin: Boringhieri, 1975), pp. 55–87. * Rohlfs, Gerhard, ''Rätoromanisch. Die Sonderstellung des Rätoromanischen zwischen Italienisch und Französisch. Eine kulturgeschichtliche und linguistische Einführung'' (Munich: C.H. Beek'sche, 1975), pp. 1–20. * ''Canzoniere Lombardo'' – by Pierluigi Beltrami, Bruno Ferrari, Luciano Tibiletti, Giorgio D'Ilario – Varesina Grafica Editrice, 1970.

External links

{{Romance languages