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Corsican (''corsu'' , ; full name: ''lingua corsa'' , ) is a
Romance language The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European languages, I ...
constituted by the
continuum Continuum may refer to: * Continuum (measurement), theories or models that explain gradual transitions from one condition to another without abrupt changes Mathematics * Continuum (set theory), the real line or the corresponding cardinal number ...
of the
Italo-Romance The Italo-Dalmatian languages, or Central Romance languages, are a group of Romance languages spoken in Italy, Corsica (France), and formerly in Dalmatia (Croatia). Italo-Dalmatian can be split into:Hammarström, Harald & Forkel, Robert & Haspe ...
dialects spoken on the
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
island of
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 ...
(
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
) and on the northern end of the island of
Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
(
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
). Corsican is related to the Tuscan varieties from the Italian peninsula, and therefore also to the Florentine-based standard Italian. Under the long-standing sway of Tuscany's
Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...
and Republic of
Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
over Corsica, Corsican used to play the role of a
vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
in combination with Italian functioning as the island's official language. In 1859, Italian was replaced by
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 ...
, owing to the French acquisition from 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 Lat ...
in 1768. Over the next two centuries, the use of French in the place of Italian grew to the extent that, by the
Liberation Liberation or liberate may refer to: Film and television * ''Liberation'' (film series), a 1970–1971 series about the Great Patriotic War * "Liberation" (''The Flash''), a TV episode * "Liberation" (''K-9''), an episode Gaming * '' Liberati ...
in 1945, all the islanders had a working knowledge of French. The 20th century saw a
language shift Language shift, also known as language transfer or language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceiv ...
, with the islanders changing their language practices to the extent that there were no monolingual Corsican speakers left by the 1960s. By 1995, an estimated 65 percent of islanders had some degree of proficiency in Corsican, and a minority amounting to around 10 percent used Corsican as a first language. To access the data, click on List by languages, Corsican, Corsican in France, then scroll to ''Geographical and language background''.


Classification by subjective analysis

As for Corsican, a bone of contention is whether it should be considered an Italian
dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
or its own
language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
, even while by French law it is a regional language. While there is near universal agreement that Corsican is typologically and traditionally
Italo-Romance The Italo-Dalmatian languages, or Central Romance languages, are a group of Romance languages spoken in Italy, Corsica (France), and formerly in Dalmatia (Croatia). Italo-Dalmatian can be split into:Hammarström, Harald & Forkel, Robert & Haspe ...
, its specific position therein is more controversial. Some scholars argue that Corsican belongs to the Centro-Southern Italian dialects, while others are of the opinion that it is closely related to Italy's Tuscan varieties, if not reputed to be part thereof.
Mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
between Italian and the dialects of Corsican is in fact very high, with particular reference to Northern Corsican. As for Southern Corsican, it has been noted that in spite of the geographical proximity its closest linguistic neighbour is not Sardinian, which constitutes a separate group and is not mutually intelligible at all, but rather the
Extreme Southern Italian The Extreme Southern Italian:According to the classification of Giovan Battista Pellegrini, se dialects are a set of dialects spoken in Salento, Calabria, Sicily and southern Cilento with common phonetic and syntactic characteristics such as to ...
lects like Siculo- Calabrian. It has been theorised, on the other hand, that a Sardinian variety, or a variety very similar to Sardo-Romance, might have been originally spoken in Corsica prior to the island's Tuscanisation under Pisan and Genoese rule. The matter is controversial in light of the historical, cultural and particularly strong linguistic bonds that Corsica had traditionally formed with the Italian Mainland from the Middle Ages until the 19th century: in contrast to the neighbouring
Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
, Corsica's installment into a diglossic system with Italian as the island's prestige language ran so deep that both Corsican and Italian might be even, and in fact were, perceived as two sociolinguistic levels of a single language. Corsican and Italian traditionally existed on a spectrum, whose proximity line was blurred enough that the locals needed little else but a change of
register Register or registration may refer to: Arts entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), the ...
to communicate in an official setting. "Tuscanising" their tongue, or as the Corsican elites would have once said, ''parlà in crusca'' ("speaking in ''crusca''", from the name of the Academy dedicated to the standardisation of the Italian language), allowed for a practice not of code-switching, but rather of code-mixing which is quite typical of the Mainland Italian dialects. Italian was perceived as "other" from Corsican, but not more so than the two main isoglosses of Northern and Southern Corsican were between each other by their respective native speakers. When
Pasquale Paoli Filippo Antonio Pasquale de' Paoli (; french: link=no, Pascal Paoli; 6 April 1725 – 5 February 1807) was a Corsican patriot, statesman, and military leader who was at the forefront of resistance movements against the Genoese and later ...
found himself exiled in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, he replied to
Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709  – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
's query on the peculiar existence of a "rustic language" very different from Italian that such a language existed only in Sardinia; in fact, the existence of Corsican as the island's native
vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
did not take anything away from Paoli's claims that Corsica's official language was Italian. Today's Corsican is the result of these historical vicissitudes, which have morphed the language to an idiom that bears a strong resemblance to the medieval Tuscan once spoken at the time of
Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
and Boccaccio, and still existing in peripheral Tuscany ( Lucca,
Garfagnana The Garfagnana () is a historical and geographical region of central Italy, today part of the province of Lucca, in Tuscany. It is the upper valley or basin of the river Serchio, and thus lies between the main ridge of the Northern Apennines to ...
, Elba, Capraia). The correspondence of modern Corsican to ancient Tuscan can be seen from almost any aspect of the language, ranging from the phonetics, morphology, lexicon to the syntax. One of the characteristics of standard Italian is the retention of the -''re'' infinitive ending, as in Latin ''mittere'' "send"; such infinitival ending is lost in Tuscan as well as Corsican, resulting in the outcome ''mette'' / ''metta'', "to put". Whereas the relative pronoun in Italian for "who" is ''chi'' and "what" is ''che''/''(che) cosa'', it is an uninflected ''chì'' in Corsican. Perhaps the biggest difference between standard Italian and Corsican is that the latter uses the ''u'' termination, whereas standard Italian has switched to the ''o'' ending. For example, the Italian demonstrative pronouns ''questo'' "this" and ''quello'' "that" become in Corsican ''questu'' or ''quistu'' and ''quellu'' or ''quiddu'': this feature was typical of the early Italian texts during the Middle Ages. Even after the acquisition of Corsica by
Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...
, Italian continued to be the island's language of education, literature, religion and local affairs. The affluent youth, such as the future Emperor of the French, still went to Italy to pursue higher studies (it has been estimated that Corsican presence in
Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...
amounted to a fourth of the
University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
's total student body in 1830), and local civil registers would not stop being written in Italian until 1855; it was on May 9, 1859 that Italian was replaced by French as the island's official language, even though the latter would start to take root among the islanders from 1882 onwards, through the Jules Ferry's laws aimed at spreading literacy across the French provinces. Even so, a specifically homegrown Corsican rather than Italian literature in Corsica would not be born but belatedly and, in its earliest phase, would not carry autonomous cultural instances; Corsican writers, such as Salvatore Viale, even prided themselves on their affiliation to the broader Italian sphere, considering Corsican «one of the least impure dialects of Italy». It was the Italian Fascist aggressive claims to the island in the 20th century, followed by their invasion, that provoked a popular backlash estranging the native islanders from standard Italian and, if anything, only accelerated their shifting to the French national language even further. By the
Liberation Liberation or liberate may refer to: Film and television * ''Liberation'' (film series), a 1970–1971 series about the Great Patriotic War * "Liberation" (''The Flash''), a TV episode * "Liberation" (''K-9''), an episode Gaming * '' Liberati ...
, any previously existing link between the two linguistic varieties and with Italy altogether had been severed; any promotion of Corsican, which had been politicized by the local collaborators with the regime, would be met with popular criticism and even suspicion of potentially harboring irredentist sentiments. From then on, Corsican would grow autonomously from Italian to become later in the 1970s a centerpiece of the ''Riacquistu'' ("reacquisition") movement for the rediscovery of Corsican culture.
Nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...
calls for Corsican to be put on the same footing as French led the French National Assembly to extend the 1951 Deixonne Law, which initially recognized only a few languages (
Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally ** Breton people ** Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Ga ...
, Basque,
Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
and
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 Occitan (; o ...
), to including Corsican as well, among others, not as a dialect of Italian, but as one of France's full-fledged regional languages in 1974 (see governmental support).


Origins

The common relationship between Corsica and central Italy can be traced from as far back as the
Etruscans The Etruscan civilization () was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, rou ...
, who asserted their presence on the island in as early as 500 BC. In 40 AD, the natives of Corsica did not reportedly speak Latin. The Roman exile,
Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born in ...
, reports that both coast and interior were occupied by natives whose language he was not able to understand. More specifically, Seneca claimed that the island's population was the result of the stratification of different ethnic groups, such as the
Greeks The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
, the Ligures (see the Ligurian hypothesis) and the Iberians, whose language had long since stopped being recognizable among the population due to the intermixing of the other two groups. The occupation of the island by the
Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal Kingdom, Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The ...
around the year 469 marked the end of authoritative influence by Latin speakers (see
Medieval Corsica The history of Corsica in the medieval period begins with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the invasions of various Germanic peoples in the fifth century AD, and ends with the complete subjection of the island to the authority of the ...
). If the natives of that time spoke
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, they must have acquired it during the late empire. Modern Corsican has been influenced by the languages of the major powers taking an interest in Corsican affairs; earlier by those of the medieval Italian powers, such as the
Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...
(828–1077), the Republic of Pisa (1077–1282) and 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 Lat ...
(1282–1768), and finally by France which, since 1859, has promulgated the official Parisian French. The term " gallicised Corsican" refers to the evolution of Corsican starting from about the year 1950, whereas "distanciated Corsican" refers to an idealized variety of Corsican following
linguistic purism Linguistic purism or linguistic protectionism is the prescriptive practice of defining or recognizing one variety of a language as being purer or of intrinsically higher quality than other varieties. Linguistic purism was institutionalized th ...
, by means of removing any French-derived elements.


Dialects


Corsica

The two most widely spoken forms of the Corsican language are the groups spoken in the Bastia and Corte area (generally throughout the northern half of the island, known as
Haute-Corse Haute-Corse (; co, Corsica suprana , or ; en, Upper Corsica) is (as of 2022) an administrative department of France, consisting of the northern part of the island of Corsica. The corresponding departmental territorial collectivity merged wi ...
, ''Cismonte'' or ''Corsica suprana''), and the groups spoken around
Sartène Sartène (; co, Sartè ; it, Sartena or ) is a commune in the department of Corse-du-Sud on the island of Corsica, France. Its history dates back to medieval times and granite buildings from the early 16th century still line some of the st ...
and
Porto-Vecchio Porto-Vecchio (, ; it, Porto Vecchio or ; co, Portivechju or ) is a commune in the French department of Corse-du-Sud, on the island of Corsica. Porto-Vecchio is a medium-sized port city placed on a good harbor, the southernmost of the mars ...
(generally throughout the southern half of the island, known as Corse-du-Sud, ''Pumonti'' or ). The dialect of
Ajaccio Ajaccio (, , ; French: ; it, Aiaccio or ; co, Aiacciu , locally: ; la, Adiacium) is a French commune, prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud, and head office of the ''Collectivité territoriale de Corse'' (capital city of Corsica). ...
has been described as in transition. The dialects spoken at Calvi 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 ...
are closer to the Genoese dialect, also known as Ligurian. This division along the Girolata-Porto Vecchio line was due to the massive immigration from Tuscany which took place in Corsica during the lower Middle Ages: as a result, the northern Corsican dialects became very close to a central Italian dialect like Tuscan, while the southern Corsican varieties could keep the original characteristics of the language which make it much more similar to Sicilian and, only to some extent, Sardinian.


Northern Corsican

The Northern Corsican macro variety (''Supranacciu'', ''Supranu'', ''Cismuntincu'' or ''Cismontano'') is the most widespread on the island and standardised as well, and is spoken in North-West Corsica around the districts of Bastia and Corte. The dialects of Bastia and
Cap Corse Cap Corse (; co, Capicorsu, ; it, Capo Corso, ), a geographical area of Corsica, is a long peninsula located at the northern tip of the island. At the base of it is the second largest city in Corsica, Bastia. Cap Corse is also a Communauté ...
belong to the Western Tuscan dialects; they being, with the exception of Florentine, the closest to standard Italian. All the dialects presenting, in addition to what has already been stated, the conditional formed in (e.g. "she would love") are generally considered ''Cismontani'' dialects, situated north of a line uniting the villages of Piana, Vico, Vizzavona,
Ghisoni Ghisoni () is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica. Population See also *Communes of the Haute-Corse department The following is a list of the 236 Communes of France, communes of the Haute-Corse Depar ...
and
Ghisonaccia Ghisonaccia (; co, Ghisunaccia) is a Communes of France, commune of the Haute-Corse Departments of France, department of France on the island of Corsica. Population See also * Communes of the Haute-Corse department * Railway stations in Co ...
, and also covering the subgroups from the Cap Corse (which, unlike the rest of the island and similarly to Italian, uses ''lu'', ''li'', ''la'', ''le'' as definite articles), Bastia (besides i > e and a > e, u > o: , , , ; a > o: , , ), Balagna, Niolo and Corte (which retain the general Corsican traits: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ).


Transitional area

Across the Northern and Southern borders of the line separating the Northern dialects from the Southern ones, there is a transitional area picking up linguistic phenomena associated with either of the two groups, with some local peculiarities. Along the Northern line are the dialects around Piana and
Calcatoggio Calcatoggio is a commune in the Corse-du-Sud department of France on the island of Corsica. Population See also *Tour d'Ancone *Communes of the Corse-du-Sud department An intentional community is a voluntary residential community whic ...
, from Cinarca with Vizzavona (which form the conditional tense like in the South), and
Fiumorbo The Fiumorbo ( co, U Fium'Orbu) is a coastal river in the department of Haute-Corse, Corsica, France. It is dammed in two places to supply irrigation water and hydroelectricity. Between the two dams it runs through the spectacular Défilé de l’ ...
through Ghisonaccia and Ghisoni, which have the retroflex sound (written ''-dd-'') for historical ; along the Southern line, the dialects of Ajaccio (retroflex ''-dd-'', realized as -''ghj''-, feminine plurals ending in ''i'', some Northern words like ''cane'' and ''accattà'' instead of ''ghjacaru'' and ''cumprà'', as well as ''ellu''/''ella'' and not ''eddu''/''edda''; minor variations: ''sabbatu'' > ''sabbitu'', ''u li dà'' > ''ghi lu dà''; final syllables often stressed and truncated: ''marinari'' > ''marinà'', > ''panattè'', ''castellu'' > ''castè'', ''cuchjari'' > ''cuchjà''), the
Gravona The Gravona is a river on the island of Corsica, France. It flows from the center of the island southwest to the Gulf of Ajaccio. Its entire course is in the Corse-du-Sud Department of France. It is long. The Gravona Valley conducts the main hi ...
area,
Bastelica Bastelica is a commune in the Corse-du-Sud department of France on the island of Corsica. It was the birthplace of Sampiero Corso. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Bastelicais'', ''Bastelicaises'', or ''Bastilcacci''. Geography Ba ...
(which would be classified as Southern, but is also noted for its typical rhotacism: ''Basterga'') and Solenzara, which did not preserve the Latin short vowels: ''seccu'', ''peru'', ''rossu'', ''croci'', ''pozzu'').


Southern Corsican

The Southern Corsican macro variety (''Suttanacciu'', ''Suttanu'', ''Pumontincu'' or ''Oltramontano'') is the most archaic and conservative group, spoken in the districts of Sartène and Porto-Vecchio. Unlike the Northern varieties and similarly to Sardinian, the group retains the distinction of the Latin short vowels ''ĭ'' and ''ŭ'' (e.g. ''pilu'', ''bucca''). It is also strongly marked by the presence of the voiced retroflex stop, like Sicilian (e.g. ''aceddu'', ''beddu'', ''quiddu'', ''ziteddu'', ''famidda''), and the conditional tense formed in ''-ìa'' (e.g. ''(idda) amarìa'' "she would love"). All the ''Oltramontani'' dialects are from an area located to the South of Porticcio,
Bastelica Bastelica is a commune in the Corse-du-Sud department of France on the island of Corsica. It was the birthplace of Sampiero Corso. The inhabitants of the commune are known as ''Bastelicais'', ''Bastelicaises'', or ''Bastilcacci''. Geography Ba ...
, Col di Verde and Solenzara. Notable dialects are those from around
Taravo The Taravo ( co, Taravu, italic=no) is a river on the island of Corsica, France. It is long. Its source is in the mountainous middle of the island, southeast of Monte Renoso. It flows generally southwest, through Palneca, Cozzano and Guitera-les- ...
(retroflex -''dd''- only for historical : ''frateddu'', ''suredda'', ''beddu''; preservation of the
palatal lateral approximant The voiced palatal lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a rotated lowercase letter (not to be confused with lowercas ...
: ''piglià'', ''famiglia'', ''figliolu'', ; does not preserve the Latin short vowels: ''seccu'', ''peru'', ''rossu'', ''croci'', ''pozzu''), Sartène (preserving the Latin short vowels: ''siccu'', ''piru'', ''russu'', ''cruci'', ''puzzu''; changing historical ''-rn-'' to ''-rr-'': ''forru'', ''carri'', ''corru''; substituting the stop for the palatal lateral approximant: ''piddà'', ''famidda'', ''fiddolu'', ''voddu''; imperfect tense like ''cantàvami'', ''cantàvani''; masculine plurals ending in ''a'': ''l'ochja'', ''i poma''; having ''eddu/edda/eddi'' as personal pronouns), the Alta Rocca (the most conservative area in Corsica, being very close to the varieties spoken in Northern Sardinia), and the Southern region located between the hinterlands of Porto-Vecchio and Bonifacio (masculine singulars always ending in ''u'': ''fiumu'', ''paesu'', ''patronu''; masculine plurals always ending in ''a'': ''i letta'', ''i solda'', ''i ponta'', ''i foca'', ''i mura'', ''i loca'', ''i balcona''; imperfect tense like ''cantàiami'', ''cantàiani'').


Sardinia

Some Italo-Romance languages that might have originated from Southern Corsican, but are also heavily influenced by the
Sardinian language Sardinian or Sard ( , or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language spoken by the Sardinians on the Western Mediterranean island of Sardinia. Many Romance linguists consider it the language that is closest to Latin among all its genealogica ...
, are spoken in the neighbouring island of
Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
. Gallurese is spoken in the extreme north of the island, including the region of
Gallura Gallura ( sdn, Gaddura or ; sc, Caddura ) is a region in North-Eastern Sardinia, Italy. The name ''Gallùra'' is allegedly supposed to mean "stony area". Geography Gallùra has a surface of and it is situated between 40°55'20"64 latitude ...
, while
Sassarese Sassarese (natively ''sassaresu'' or ''turritanu''; sc, tataresu ) is an Italo-Dalmatian language and transitional variety between Sardinian and Corsican. It is regarded as a Corso–Sardinian language because of Sassari's historic ties w ...
is spoken in
Sassari Sassari (, ; sdc, Sàssari ; sc, Tàtari, ) is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 127,525 inhabitants, and a Functional Urban Area of about 260,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island, ...
and in its neighbourhood, in the northwest of
Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
. Their geographical position in Sardinia has been theorised to be the result of different migration waves from the already tuscanized Corsicans and the Tuscans, who then proceeded to settle in Sardinia and slowly displace the indigenous Logudorese Sardinian varieties spoken therein (at present,
Luras Luras ( sc, Lùras, Gallurese: ''Lùris'') is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Sassari in the Italian region Sardinia, located about north of Cagliari and about west of Olbia. Luras borders the following municipalities: Arzachen ...
is the only town in the middle of Gallura that has retained the original language). On the
Maddalena archipelago The Maddalena Archipelago is a group of islands in the Strait of Bonifacio between Corsica (France) and Sardinia (Italy). The whole archipelago makes the territory of the ''La Maddalena'' comune in Sardinia. Geography The archipelago consists ...
, which was culturally Corsican but had been annexed to the Savoyard Kingdom of Sardinia a short while before Corsica was ceded by
Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
to France in 1767, the local dialect (called ''isulanu'' or ''maddaleninu'') was brought by fishermen and shepherds from Bonifacio over a long period of immigration in the 17th and 18th centuries. Though influenced by Gallurese, it has maintained the original characteristics of Southern Corsican. In the dialect of ''maddalenino'', as it is known in Italian, there are also numerous words of Genoese and Ponzese origin. Although Gallurese and Sassarese both belong to
Italo-Dalmatian The Italo-Dalmatian languages, or Central Romance languages, are a group of Romance languages spoken in Italy, Corsica (France), and formerly in Dalmatia (Croatia). Italo-Dalmatian can be split into:Hammarström, Harald & Forkel, Robert & Haspe ...
, which is a group typologically different from Sardinian, it has long been a subject of debate whether the two should be included as dialects either of Corsican or of Sardinian or, in light of their historical development, even considered languages of their own. It has been argued that all these varieties should be placed in a single category,
Southern Romance The Southern Romance languages are a primary branch of the Romance languages. According to the classification of linguists such as Leonard (1980) and Agard (1984), the Southern Romance family is composed of Sardinian, Corsican, and the southern ...
, but such classification has not garnered universal support among linguists. On 14 October 1997, Article 2 Item 4 of Law Number 26 of the Autonomous Region of Sardinia granted "the Sassarese and Gallurese dialects" («''al dialetto sassarese e a quello gallurese''») equal legal status with the other languages indigenous to
Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
. Thus, even though they would technically not be covered by the national law pertaining to the historical linguistic minorities, among which is Sardinian, Sassarese and Gallurese are nonetheless recognized by the Sardinian government on a regional level.


Examples of the main Corsican varieties compared with standard Italian and Elba's Tuscan dialect


Number of speakers

The situation of Corsican with regard to French as the country's
national language A national language is a language (or language variant, e.g. dialect) that has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a nation. There is little consistency in the use of this term. One or more languages spoken as first languages in the te ...
is analogous to that of many other French regions and provinces, which have or used to have a traditional language of their own, even though the islanders' switch from their local idiom to regional French has happened relatively later and the presence of Corsican, albeit declining, is still strongly felt among the population. In 1980, about 70 percent of the island's population "had some command of the Corsican language." In 1990, out of a total population of about 254,000, the percentage had declined to 50 percent, with 10 percent of the island's residents using it as a first language. The language appeared to be in serious decline when the French government reversed its unsupportive stand and initiated some strong measures to save it. The January 2007 estimated population of Corsica was 281,000, whereas the figure for the March 1999 census, when most of the studies—though not the linguistic survey work referenced in this article—were performed, was about 261,000. Only a fraction of the population at either time spoke Corsican with any fluency. According to an official survey run on behalf of the ''Collectivité territoriale de Corse'' which took place in April 2013, in Corsica, the Corsican language had a number of speakers between 86,800 and 130,200, out of a total population amounting to 309,693 inhabitants. 28% of the overall population was able to speak Corsican well, whilst an additional 14% had a capacity to speak it "quite well." The percentage of those who had a solid oral understanding of the language varies between a minimum of 25 percent in the 25–34 age group and the maximum of 65 percent in the over-65 age group: almost a quarter of the former age group reported that they were not able to understand Corsican, while only a small minority of the older people did not understand it. While 32 percent of the population of Northern Corsica was reported to speak Corsican quite well, this percentage dropped to 22 percent for Southern Corsica. Moreover, 10 percent of the population of Corsica spoke only French, while 62 percent code-switched between French and at least some Corsican. 8 percent of the Corsicans knew how to write correctly in Corsican, while about 60 percent of the population did not know how to write in Corsican. While 90 percent of the population was in favor of a Corsican-French bilingualism, 3 percent would have liked to have only Corsican as the official language in the island, and 7 percent would have preferred French to have this role.
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
classifies Corsican as a "definitely endangered language." The Corsican language is a key vehicle for Corsican culture, which is notably rich in proverbs and in
polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
song.


Governmental support

When the French Assembly passed the Deixonne Law in 1951, which made it possible for regional languages to be taught at school, Alsatian,
Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
and Corsican were not included on the ground of being classified as ''dialectes allogènes'' of German, Dutch and Italian respectively, i.e. dialects of foreign languages and not languages in themselves. Only in 1974 were they too politically recognized as regional languages for their teaching on a voluntary basis. The 1991 "Joxe Statute", in setting up the Collectivité Territoriale de Corse, also provided for the
Corsican Assembly The Corsican Assembly ( co, Assemblea di Corsica; french: L'Assemblée de Corse) is the unicameral legislative body of the territorial collectivity of Corsica. It has its seat at the , in the Corsican capital of Ajaccio. After the 2017 territo ...
, and charged it with developing a plan for the optional teaching of Corsican. The
University of Corsica Pasquale Paoli The University of Corsica Pasquale Paoli ( Corsican: ''Università di Corsica Pasquale Paoli''; french: Université de Corse Pascal Paoli) is a French university, based in Corte, Haute-Corse, with secondary campuses in Ajaccio, Biguglia and Ca ...
at Corte, Haute-Corse took a central role in the planning. At the primary school level Corsican is taught up to a fixed number of hours per week (three in the year 2000) and is a voluntary subject at the secondary school level, but is required at the University of Corsica. It is available through adult education. It can be spoken in court or in the conduct of other government business if the officials concerned speak it. The Cultural Council of the Corsican Assembly advocates for its use, for example, on public signs.


Literature

According to the anthropologist Dumenica Verdoni, writing new literature in modern Corsican, known as the ''Riacquistu'', is an integral part of affirming Corsican identity. Some individuals have returned from careers in continental France to write in Corsican, including Dumenicu Togniotti, director of the ''Teatru Paisanu'', which produced polyphonic musicals, 1973–1982, followed in 1980 by Michel Raffaelli's ''Teatru di a Testa Mora'', and Saveriu Valentini's ''Teatru Cupabbia'' in 1984. Modern prose writers include Alanu di Meglio, Ghjacumu Fusina, Lucia Santucci, and Marcu Biancarelli. There were writers working in Corsican in the 1700s and 1800s.
Ferdinand Gregorovius Ferdinand Gregorovius (19 January 1821, Neidenburg, East Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia – 1 May 1891, Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria) was a German historian who specialized in the medieval history of Rome. Biography Gregorovius was the son of Neide ...
, a 19th-century traveller and enthusiast of Corsican culture, reported that the preferred form of the literary tradition of his time was the ''vocero'', a type of polyphonic ballad originating from funeral obsequies. These laments were similar in form to the chorales of Greek drama except that the leader could improvise. Some performers were noted at this, such as the 1700s Mariola della Piazzole and Clorinda Franseschi. However, the trail of written popular literature of known date in Corsican currently goes no further back than the 17th century. An undated corpus of proverbs from communes may well precede it (see under ''External links'' below). Corsican has also left a trail of legal documents ending in the late 12th century. At that time the monasteries held considerable land on Corsica and many of the churchmen were notaries. Between 1200 and 1425 the monastery of Gorgona, which belonged to the
Order of Saint Benedict The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict ( la, Ordo Sancti Benedicti, abbreviated as OSB), are a Christian monasticism, monastic Religious order (Catholic), religious order of the Catholic Church following the Rule of Saint Benedic ...
for much of that time and was in the territory of
Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the cit ...
, acquired about 40 legal papers of various sorts related to Corsica. As the church was replacing Pisan prelates with Corsican ones there, the legal language shows a transition from entirely Latin through partially Latin and partially Corsican to entirely Corsican. The first known surviving document containing some Corsican is a bill of sale from Patrimonio dated to 1220. These documents were moved to Pisa before the monastery closed its doors and were published there. Research into earlier evidence of Corsican is ongoing.


Alphabet and spelling

Corsican is written in the standard
Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
, using 21 of the letters for native words. The letters j, k, w, x, and y are found only in foreign names and French vocabulary. The digraphs and trigraphs ''chj'', ''ghj'', ''sc'' and ''sg'' are also defined as "letters" of the alphabet in its modern scholarly form (compare the presence of ''ch'' or ''ll'' in the old Spanish alphabet) and appear respectively after ''c'', ''g'' and ''s''. The primary diacritic used is the
grave accent The grave accent () ( or ) is a diacritical mark used to varying degrees in French, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian and many other western European languages, as well as for a few unusual uses in English. It is also used in other languages using t ...
, indicating word stress when it is not penultimate. In scholarly contexts, disyllables may be distinguished from
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
s by use of the diaeresis on the former vowel (as in Italian and distinct from French and English). In older writing, the
acute accent The acute accent (), , is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accent in the Latin and Greek alphabets, precomposed ch ...
is sometimes found on stressed , the
circumflex The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from la, circumflexus "bent around"a ...
on stressed , indicating respectively () and () phonemes. Corsican has been regarded as a dialect of Italian historically, similar to the Romance lects developed on the Italian peninsula, and in writing, it also resembles Italian (with the generalised substitution of -''u'' for final -''o'' and the articles ''u'' and ''a'' for ''il/lo'' and ''la'' respectively; however, both the dialect of
Cap Corse Cap Corse (; co, Capicorsu, ; it, Capo Corso, ), a geographical area of Corsica, is a long peninsula located at the northern tip of the island. At the base of it is the second largest city in Corsica, Bastia. Cap Corse is also a Communauté ...
and Gallurese retain the original articles ''lu'' and ''la''). On the other hand, the phonemes of the modern Corsican dialects have undergone complex and sometimes irregular phenomena depending on phonological context, so the pronunciation of the language for foreigners familiar with other Romance languages is not straightforward.


Phonology


Vowels

As in Italian, the grapheme appears in some digraphs and trigraphs in which it does not represent the phonemic vowel. All vowels are pronounced except in a few well-defined instances. is not pronounced between and : ''sciarpa'' ; or initially in some words: ''istu'' . Vowels may be nasalized before (which is assimilated to before or ) and the palatal nasal consonant represented by . The nasal vowels are represented by the vowel plus , or . The combination is a digraph or trigraph indicating the nasalized vowel. The consonant is pronounced in weakened form. The same combination of letters might not be the digraph or trigraph but might be just the non-nasal vowel followed by the consonant at full weight. The speaker must know the difference. Example of nasal: is pronounced and not . The Northern and central dialects in the vicinity of the
Taravo The Taravo ( co, Taravu, italic=no) is a river on the island of Corsica, France. It is long. Its source is in the mountainous middle of the island, southeast of Monte Renoso. It flows generally southwest, through Palneca, Cozzano and Guitera-les- ...
river adopt the Italian seven-vowel system, whereas all the Southern ones around the so-called "archaic zone" with its centre being the town of Sartène (including the Gallurese dialect spoken in Northern Sardinia) resort to a five-vowel system without length differentiation, like Sardinian. The vowel inventory, or collection of phonemic vowels (and the major allophones), transcribed in
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...
symbols, is:


Consonants


See also

*
Corsican Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free multilingualism, multilingual open source wiki-based online encyclopedia open collaboration, edited and maintained by a Wikipedia community, community of volunteer editors, started on as an English Wikipedia, E ...
* Gallurese dialect *
Languages of France Of the languages of France, French is the sole official language according to the second article of the French Constitution. French, a Gallo-Romance language, is spoken by nearly the entire population of France. In addition to French, several ...
*
Sassarese language Sassarese (natively ''sassaresu'' or ''turritanu''; sc, tataresu ) is an Italo-Dalmatian language and transitional variety between Sardinian and Corsican. It is regarded as a Corso–Sardinian language because of Sassari's historic ties wi ...


References


Bibliography

*Guarnerio P.E. (1902). ''Il sardo e il còrso in una nuova classificazione delle lingue romanze''. AGI 16. *Tagliavini C. (1972). ''Le origini delle lingue neolatine''. Bologna: Pàtron. *Giovanni Battista Pellegrini (1977). ''Carta dei dialetti d'Italia''. Pisa: Pacini. *Jacques Fusina, Fernand Ettori (1981). ''Langue Corse Incertitudes et Paris''. Ajaccio: Scola Corsa *Manlio Cortelazzo (1988). ''Gliederung der Sprachräume/Ripartizione dialettale'', in ''Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik'' (LRL IV), edited by G. Holtus, M. Metzeltin e C. Schmitt, vol. IV, Tübingen, Niemeyer. *Régine Delamotte-Legrand, Frédéric François, Louis Porcher (1997). ''Langage, éthique, éducation: Perspectives croisées'', Publications de l'Université de Rouen et du Havre. * * * * *Jean-Marie Arrighi (2002). ''Histoire de la Corse'', Editions Jean-Paul Gisserot, Paris. *Jean-Marie Arrighi (2002). ''Histoire de la Langue Corse''. Editions Jean-Paul Gisserot, Paris. *Fiorenzo Toso (2003). ''Lo spazio linguistico corso tra insularità e destino di frontiera''. Linguistica (Ljubljana) letnik 43. številka 1. *Hervé Abalain (2007). ''Le français et les langues historiques de la France''. Éditions Jean-Paul Gisserot. * *Jean Sibille (2010). ''Langues de France et territoires : raison des choix et des dénominations'' In : ''Langue et espace''. Pessac : Maison des Sciences de l’Homme d’Aquitaine. *


External links


Corsican language, alphabet and pronunciation
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Corsican Language Dialects of Italian Languages of France Languages of Sardinia