Fornes (second syllable stressed) is the dialect native to
Forni di Sopra
Forni di Sopra ( fur, For Disore, Carnian dialect: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Udine, in the Dolomite Alps mountain range in northeastern Italy. It is located at the top of the Tagliamento river valley. Languages spoken inclu ...
and
Forni di Sotto
Forni di Sotto ( fur, For Disot) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Udine in the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about northwest of Trieste and about northwest of Udine. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population ...
, two villages which, from 1300 to 1700 AD, were governed separately from the surrounding areas by the
Savorgnani family of
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
and known as 'I Forni Savorgnani'.
As the two villages are 9 km (over 5 miles) from each other and there was traditionally poor communication in the snowy months of the year, these villages' dialects diverged and are still markedly different both from each other and from the language spoken further down the mountains (
Friulian).
According to studies by some institutions (examples to follow) which study
Ladin languages these two dialects moved away from Friulian to become 'Raetic-Dolomitic-Ladin' similar to Ladin languages spoken in
Grisons,
Switzerland, while keeping Friulian characteristics.
To give one of many examples, the word ''sheep'' (plural) translates as ''las minas'' in Forni di Sopra ''lis fedis'' in Forni di Sotto, and ''lis pioris'' in Friuli. For comparison, the Italian is ''le pecore''.
Languages of Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Friulian language
Ladin language
Rhaeto-Romance languages
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