Valdôtain (; local dialect: ''Valdotèn'', ''Valdŏtèn'', ''Valdouhtan'') is a

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 linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

of Arpitan (

Franco-Provençal Franco-Provençal (also Francoprovençal, Patois or Arpitan) is a language within Gallo-Romance originally spoken in east-central France, western Switzerland and northwestern Italy. Franco-Provençal has several distinct dialects and is separ ...

) spoken in the

Aosta Valley , Valdostan or Valdotainian it, Valdostano (man) it, Valdostana (woman)french: Valdôtain (man)french: Valdôtaine (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = Official languages , population_blank1 = Italian French ...

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 ...

. It is commonly known as ''

patois ''Patois'' (, pl. same or ) is speech or language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. As such, ''patois'' can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects or vernaculars, but not commonly to jargon o ...

'' or ''patoué''.

Diffusion

The Aosta Valley represents nowadays the only region of the

area where this language is still widely spoken as native by all age ranges of the population.

Vocabulary examples

Several subdialects of Valdôtain exist that exhibit unique features in terms of phonetics and vocabulary.

Linguistic studies

Valdôtain has been the subject of detailed study at the Bureau régional pour l'ethnologie et la linguistique (BREL) in

Aosta Aosta (, , ; french: Aoste , formerly ; frp, Aoûta , ''Veulla'' or ''Ouhta'' ; lat, Augusta Praetoria Salassorum; wae, Augschtal; pms, Osta) is the principal city of Aosta Valley, a bilingual region in the Italian Alps, north-northwest of ...

as well as in the Centre d'études francoprovençales in Saint-Nicolas.

Music

The main modern singers and songwriters in Valdôtain are: * Louis de Jyaryot, from Ayas; * Maura Susanna, from Saint-Vincent; * Magui Bétemps, from

Valtournenche Valtournenche (local Valdôtain: ) is a town and '' comune'' in the Aosta Valley region of north-western Italy, above the sea level. It is named after and covers most of the ''Valtournenche'', a valley on the left side of the Dora Baltea, from ...

. The traditional Aostan songs in Valdôtain and in French form the core of the activity of the band Trouveur valdotèn.

Poetry

Here is a selection of some of the most important poets in Valdôtain:

References

Bibliography

* Jules Brocherel, ''Le Patois et la langue française en Vallée d'Aoste'' éd. V. Attinger, Neuchâtel * Aimé Chenal, ''Le franco-provençal valdotain. Morphologie et Syntaxe'', Aoste, Musumeci éditeur, 1986, * Alexis Bétemps, ''La langue française en Vallée d'Aoste de 1945 à nos jours'', Milan, T.D.L., * Hans-Erich Keller, Études linguistiques sur les parlers valdôtains, éd. A. Francke S.A., Berne, 1958. * Ernest Schüle, Histoire linguistique de la Vallée d’Aoste, dans "Bulletin du Centre d’études francoprovençales" n° 22, Imprimerie Valdôtaine, Aoste, 1990. * Xavier Favre, ''Histoire linguistique de la Vallée d’Aoste'', dans "Espace, temps et culture en Vallée d’Aoste", Imprimerie Valdôtaine, Aoste, 1996. * François-Gabriel Frutaz, ''Les origines de la langue française en Vallée d’Aoste'', Imprimerie Marguerettaz, Aoste, 1913. * Édouard Bérard, ''La langue française dans la Vallée d’Aoste'', Aoste, 1861. * Alexis Bétemps, ''Les Valdôtains et leur langue'', préface de Henri Armand, Imprimerie Duc, Aoste, 1979. * Alexis Bétemps, ''Le bilinguisme en Vallée d’Aoste : problèmes et perspectives'', dans "Les minorités ethniques en Europe", par les soins de A.-L. Sanguin, l’Harmattan, Paris, 1993, pages 131-135. * Bétemps, Alexis, ''Le francoprovençal en Vallée d’Aoste. Problèmes et prospectives'', dans ''Lingua e comunicazione simbolica nella cultura walser'', VI. Walsertreffen (6ème rencontre des Walsers), Fondazione Monti, Ausola d’Assola, 1989, p. 355-372