Mentonasc (; Mentonasco in Italian, Mentonnais or Mentonasque in French) is a Romance dialect historically spoken in and around

Menton Menton (; , written ''Menton'' in classical norm or ''Mentan'' in Mistralian norm; it, Mentone ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italian border. Me ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. It is classified as a dialect of

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...

and a sub-dialect of

Vivaro-Alpine Vivaro-Alpine ( oc, vivaroalpenc, vivaroaupenc) is a variety of Occitan spoken in southeastern France (namely, around the Dauphiné area) and northwestern Italy (the Occitan Valleys of Piedmont and Liguria). There is also a small Vivaro-Alpine ...

, with some strong influence from the neighbouring Intemelian Ligurian dialect spoken from

Ventimiglia Ventimiglia (; lij, label= Intemelio, Ventemiglia , lij, label= Genoese, Vintimiggia; french: Vintimille ; oc, label= Provençal, Ventemilha ) is a resort town in the province of Imperia, Liguria, northern Italy. It is located southwest of ...

to San Remo.

Classification

Mentonasc is considered to be a transitional language; it is an intermediate language between

and Ligurian, which is why the classification of Mentonasc is often debated. However, it is traditionally assigned to the

Occitan language Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Vall ...

by French scholars and to Ligurian dialects by Italian scholars. The Mentonasc dialect bears strong similarities with the common alpine dialects, such as, Royasque or Pignasque. It differs quite significantly especially in the ear from Ligurian coastal dialects (

Northern Italian Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...

), like those of

(

Intemelio dialect Intemelio is a Ligurian dialect spoken historically from the Principality of Monaco to the Italian province of Imperia. History Since the Renaissance the Ligurian language was spoken in all the territories of the Republic of Genoa; in the wes ...

) or

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

(

Monégasque dialect Monégasque (''munegascu'' une'gasku it, monegasco; french: monégasque) is the variety of Ligurian spoken in Monaco. It is closely related to the Ligurian dialects spoken in Ventimiglia and is considered a national language of Monaco, th ...

History

When the area of Menton was part of the

Republic of Genoa The Republic of Genoa ( lij, Repúbrica de Zêna ; it, Repubblica di Genova; la, Res Publica Ianuensis) was a medieval and early modern maritime republic from the 11th century to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italian coast. During the La ...

and later of the

Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...

, Mentonasc was used in all of the coastal area between Monaco and

, and in the hinterland. In the 19th century Mentonasc was used in the territories of the ''Free Cities of Menton & Roquebrune'', an independent statelet created in connection with the Italian

Risorgimento The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

. When

annexed the Free Cities in 1861, Mentonasc began its decline, substituted by the French language.

Geographic distribution

The Mentonasc dialect is currently spoken by about 10% of the population in

, Roquebrune, and the surrounding villages ( Castellar, Castillon,

Gorbio Gorbio (; oc, Gòrbi) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France. Gorbio may be seen in the video for Celine Dion's song ''Falling Into You''. Population The inhabitants are called ''Gorbarins''. See also *Com ...

, Sainte-Agnès, Moulinet and

Sospel Sospel (; Mentonasc: Sospèl, Italian Sospello) is a commune (municipality) and former schismatic episcopal seat (1381-1418) in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France near the Italian border and not far from Monte Carlo. Hist ...

). Now the language is being taught within the

French educational system Education in France is organized in a highly centralized manner, with many subdivisions. It is divided into the three stages of primary education (''enseignement primaire''), secondary education (''enseignement secondaire''), and higher educatio ...

, as a variety of Niçard (i.e. Provençal and

), so this may change.

Official status

No countries currently have Mentonasc as an official language.

Vocabulary

Below is a chart of some nouns and verbs found in French, translated into Mentonasc.

Literature

There are some texts and songs that have been published recently in

(most from the twentieth century.) Among the various publications: ''A Lambrusca de Paigran'' (la Vigne vierge de Grand-père) by Jean-Louis Caserio, illustrations by M. and F. Guglielmelli, SAHM, Menton, 1987. ''Brandi Mentounasc, Livret de Poésies Bilingue'' by Jean Ansaldi, 2010. ''Ou Mentounasc per ou Bachelerà, le Mentonasque au Baccalauréat,'' by JL Caserio, 5th edition, 2008., etc.

Examples

Video of the National Anthem of Menton being sung in Mentonasc

References

* Caserio, J. (2005, April 24). Lexiques français Mentonnais et Mentonnais Français. Retrieved February 10, 2016, from http://www.sahm06.com/spip.php?article14 * Dalbéra (1984) = Dalbéra, Jean-Philippe. ''Les parlers des Alpes Maritimes : étude comparative, essai de reconstruction'' hesis Toulouse: Université de Toulouse 2, 1984 �d. 1994, London: Association Internationale d’Études Occitanes* Sumien (2009) = Sumien, Domergue.
Classificacion dei dialèctes occitans
, ''Lingüistica Occitana'' 7, Septembre de 2009, p. 1-44. ISSN * Venturini (1983) = Venturini, Alain. "Le parler mentonasque", ''Lou Sourgentin'' 56, April 1983

Notes

{{Authority control Articles in class projects/Rutgers Occitan language Provençal language Languages of France Menton