Friulian ( / f r i ˈ uː l i ə n / free- OO -lee-ən ) or Friulan (natively furlan or marilenghe ; Italian : friulano ; Austrian German : Furlanisch ; Slovene : furlanščina ) is a Romance language belonging to the Rhaeto-Romance family, spoken in the Friuli region of northeastern Italy . Friulian has around 600,000 speakers, the vast majority of whom also speak Italian . It is sometimes called Eastern Ladin since it shares the same roots as Ladin , but over the centuries, it has diverged under the influence of surrounding languages, including German , Italian , Venetian , and Slovene . Documents in Friulian are attested from the 11th century and poetry and literature date as far back as 1300. By the 20th century, there was a revival of interest in the language.
58-647: Varmo ( Friulian : Vildivar ) is a comune (municipality) in the Regional decentralization entity of Udine in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) northwest of Trieste and about 30 kilometres (19 mi) southwest of Udine . Varmo borders the following municipalities: Bertiolo , Camino al Tagliamento , Codroipo , Morsano al Tagliamento , Rivignano , Ronchis , San Michele al Tagliamento . The Municipality of Varmo includes 9 towns, and various localities:
116-482: A commentary to the Gospel in sermo rusticus (the common/ rustic language), which, therefore, would have been quite divergent from the standard Latin of administration. The text itself did not survive so its language cannot be examined, but its attested existence testifies to a shift of languages while, for example, other important communities of Northern Italy were still speaking Latin. The languages spoken before
174-629: A common ancestor and synchronic variation . Dialectologists are concerned with grammatical features that correspond to regional areas. Thus, they are usually dealing with populations living in specific locales for generations without moving, but also with immigrant groups bringing their languages to new settlements. Immigrant groups often bring their linguistic practices to new settlements, leading to distinct linguistic varieties within those communities. Dialectologists analyze these immigrant dialects to understand how languages develop and diversify in response to migration and cultural interactions. Phonology
232-406: A consonant or in -i . A few masculine nouns end in -e , including sisteme (system) and probleme (problem). They are usually words coming from Ancient Greek . However, because most masculine nouns end in a consonant, it is common to find the forms sistem and problem instead, more often in print than in speech. There are also a number of masculine nouns borrowed intact from Italian , with
290-410: A consonant, including those ending in -zion , which are from Latin . Note that in some Friulian dialects the -e feminine ending is actually an -a or an -o, which characterize the dialect area of the language and are referred to as a/o-ending dialects (e.g. cjase is spelled as cjaso or cjasa - the latter being the oldest form of the feminine ending). Most masculine nouns end either in
348-555: A final -o , like treno (train). Many of the words have been fully absorbed into the language and even form their plurals with the regular Friulian -s rather than the Italian desinence changing. Still, there are some purists, including those influential in Friulian publishing, who frown on such words and insist that the "proper" Friulian terms should be without the final -o . Despite the fact that one almost always hears treno , it
406-415: A given time, usually the present, but a synchronic analysis of a historical language form is also possible. It may be distinguished from diachronic, which regards a phenomenon in terms of developments through time. Diachronic analysis is the main concern of historical linguistics. However, most other branches of linguistics are concerned with some form of synchronic analysis. The study of language change offers
464-413: A hybrid known as phono-semantic matching . In languages with a long and detailed history, etymology makes use of philology , the study of how words change from culture to culture over time. Etymologists also apply the methods of comparative linguistics to reconstruct information about languages that are too old for any direct information (such as writing) to be known. By analysis of related languages by
522-1288: A unique pattern of diphthongs (yellow) and monophthongs (blue) for the long vowels: Note that the vowels î and û in the standard language (based on the Central dialects) correspond to two different sounds in the Western dialects (including Codroipo). These sounds are not distributed randomly but correspond to different origins: Latin short E in an open syllable produces Western [ei] but Central [iː] , whereas Latin long Ī produces [iː] in both dialects. Similarly, Latin short O in an open syllable produces Western [ou] but Central [uː] , whereas Latin long Ū produces [uː] in both dialects. The word mûr , for example, means both "wall" (Latin MŪRUM ) and "(he, she, it) dies" (Vulgar Latin * MORIT from Latin MORITUR ); both words are pronounced [muːr] in Central dialects, but respectively [muːr] and [mour] in Western dialects. Long consonants (ll, rr, and so on), frequently used in Italian, are usually absent in Friulian. Friulian long vowels originate primarily from vowel lengthening in stressed open syllables when
580-476: A valuable insight into the state of linguistic representation, and because all synchronic forms are the result of historically evolving diachronic changes, the ability to explain linguistic constructions necessitates a focus on diachronic processes. Initially, all of modern linguistics was historical in orientation. Even the study of modern dialects involved looking at their origins. Ferdinand de Saussure 's distinction between synchronic and diachronic linguistics
638-399: A word which means "child"). A modern Friulian speaker can understand these texts with only little difficulty. The second important period for Friulian literature is the 16th century. The main author of this period was Ermes di Colorêt , who composed over 200 poems. Notes: Some notes on orthography (from the perspective of the standard, i.e. Central, dialect): Long vowels are typical of
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#1732779935582696-434: Is Piruç myò doç inculurit (which means "My pear, all colored"); it was composed by an anonymous author from Cividale del Friuli, probably in 1380. quant yò chi viot, dut stoi ardit cuant che jo ti viôt, dut o stoi ardît There are few differences in the first two rows, which demonstrates that there has not been a great evolution in the language except for several words which are no longer used (for example, dum(n) lo ,
754-521: Is agns . The same happens for the adjective bon (good), as its plural is bogns . A feature of Friulian are the clitic subject pronouns . Known in Friulian as pleonastics , they are never stressed; they are used together with the verb to express the subject and can be found before the verb in declarative sentences or immediately after it in case of interrogative or vocative ( optative ) sentences. Historical linguistics Historical linguistics , also known as diachronic linguistics ,
812-428: Is aspirated , but the p in spin is not. In English these two sounds are used in complementary distribution and are not used to differentiate words so they are considered allophones of the same phoneme . In some other languages like Thai and Quechua , the same difference of aspiration or non-aspiration differentiates words and so the two sounds, or phones , are considered to be distinct phonemes. In addition to
870-568: Is compensatory lengthening before lost consonants in certain circumstances, cf. pâri "father" < Latin patrem , vôli "eye" < Latin oc(u)lum , lîre "pound" < Latin libra . This produces long vowels in non-final syllables, and was apparently a separate, later development than the primary lengthening in open syllables. Note, for example, the development of Vulgar Latin */ɛ/ in this context: */ɛ/ > */jɛ/ > iê /jeː/ , as in piêre "stone" < Latin PETRAM , differing from
928-437: Is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages in order to establish their historical relatedness. Languages may be related by convergence through borrowing or by genetic descent, thus languages can change and are also able to cross-relate. Genetic relatedness implies a common origin among languages. Comparative linguists construct language families , reconstruct proto-languages , and analyze
986-401: Is a sub-field of linguistics which studies the sound system of a specific language or set of languages. Whereas phonetics is about the physical production and perception of the sounds of speech, phonology describes the way sounds function within a given language or across languages. Phonology studies when sounds are or are not treated as distinct within a language. For example, the p in pin
1044-540: Is almost always written tren . The Friulian definite article (which corresponds to "the" in English) is derived from the Latin ille and takes the following forms: Before a vowel, both il and la can be abbreviated to l' in the standard forms - for example il + arbul (the tree) becomes l'arbul. Yet, as far as the article la is concerned, modern grammar recommends that its non elided form should be preferred over
1102-512: Is available, such as Uralic and Austronesian . Dialectology is the scientific study of linguistic dialect , the varieties of a language that are characteristic of particular groups, based primarily on geographic distribution and their associated features. This is in contrast to variations based on social factors, which are studied in sociolinguistics , or variations based on time, which are studied in historical linguistics. Dialectology treats such topics as divergence of two local dialects from
1160-532: Is fundamental to the present day organization of the discipline. Primacy is accorded to synchronic linguistics, and diachronic linguistics is defined as the study of successive synchronic stages. Saussure's clear demarcation, however, has had both defenders and critics. In practice, a purely-synchronic linguistics is not possible for any period before the invention of the gramophone , as written records always lag behind speech in reflecting linguistic developments. Written records are difficult to date accurately before
1218-500: Is grounded in the Uniformitarian Principle , which posits that the processes of language change observed today were also at work in the past, unless there is clear evidence to suggest otherwise. Historical linguists aim to describe and explain changes in individual languages, explore the history of speech communities, and study the origins and meanings of words ( etymology ). Modern historical linguistics dates to
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#17327799355821276-441: Is linguistic change in progress. Synchronic and diachronic approaches can reach quite different conclusions. For example, a Germanic strong verb (e.g. English sing ↔ sang ↔ sung ) is irregular when it is viewed synchronically: the native speaker's brain processes them as learned forms, but the derived forms of regular verbs are processed quite differently, by the application of productive rules (for example, adding -ed to
1334-525: Is the influence of the Latin spoken in Aquileia and surrounding areas. Some claim that it had peculiar features that later passed into Friulian. Epigraphs and inscriptions from that period show some variants if compared to the standard Latin language, but most of them are common to other areas of the Roman Empire. Often, it is cited that Fortunatianus , the bishop of Aquileia c. 342–357 AD, wrote
1392-455: Is the scientific study of how languages change over time. It seeks to understand the nature and causes of linguistic change and to trace the evolution of languages. Historical linguistics involves several key areas of study, including the reconstruction of ancestral languages, the classification of languages into families , ( comparative linguistics ) and the analysis of the cultural and social influences on language development. This field
1450-496: Is the study of patterns of word-formation within a language. It attempts to formulate rules that model the knowledge of speakers. In the context of historical linguistics, formal means of expression change over time. Words as units in the lexicon are the subject matter of lexicology . Along with clitics , words are generally accepted to be the smallest units of syntax ; however, it is clear in most languages that words may be related to one another by rules. These rules are understood by
1508-493: Is worth"). Friulian is quite different from Italian in its morphology; it is, in many respects, closer to French . In Friulian as in other Romance languages , nouns are either masculine or feminine (for example, " il mûr " ("the wall", masculine), " la cjadree " ("the chair", feminine). Most feminine nouns end in -e , which is pronounced, unlike in Standard French: Some feminine nouns, however, end in
1566-415: Is written as gjats but is pronounced in much of Friuli as if it were gjas . The plural of plat 'dish', though written as plats , is often pronounced as plas . Other words in this category include clâf (key) and clap (stone), whose plural forms, clâfs and claps, are often pronounced with no f or p, respectively (clâs, clas) so the longer a in the former is all that distinguishes it from
1624-710: The Austronesian languages and on various families of Native American languages , among many others. Comparative linguistics became only a part of a more broadly-conceived discipline of historical linguistics. For the Indo-European languages, comparative study is now a highly specialized field. Some scholars have undertaken studies attempting to establish super-families, linking, for example, Indo-European, Uralic, and other families into Nostratic . These attempts have not met with wide acceptance. The information necessary to establish relatedness becomes less available as
1682-588: The Lombardic language — Friuli was one of their strongholds — are present. In a similar manner, there is a unique connection to the modern, nearby Lombard language . In Friulian, there is also a plethora of words of German , Slovenian and Venetian origin. From that evidence, scholars today agree that the formation of new Friulian dates back to circa 500 AD, at the same time as other dialects derived from Latin (see Vulgar Latin ). The first written records of new Friulian have been found in administrative acts of
1740-471: The comparative method and internal reconstruction . The focus was initially on the well-known Indo-European languages , many of which had long written histories; scholars also studied the Uralic languages , another Eurasian language-family for which less early written material exists. Since then, there has been significant comparative linguistic work expanding outside of European languages as well, such as on
1798-400: The comparative method and the method of internal reconstruction . Less-standard techniques, such as mass lexical comparison , are used by some linguists to overcome the limitations of the comparative method, but most linguists regard them as unreliable. The findings of historical linguistics are often used as a basis for hypotheses about the groupings and movements of peoples, particularly in
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1856-482: The comparative method , linguists can make inferences about their shared parent language and its vocabulary. In that way, word roots that can be traced all the way back to the origin of, for instance, the Indo-European language family have been found. Although originating in the philological tradition, much current etymological research is done in language families for which little or no early documentation
1914-475: The origin of language ) studies Lamarckian acquired characteristics of languages. This perspective explores how languages adapt and change over time in response to cultural, societal, and environmental factors. Language evolution within the framework of historical linguistics is akin to Lamarckism in the sense that linguistic traits acquired during an individual's lifetime can potentially influence subsequent generations of speakers. Historical linguists often use
1972-466: The province of Pordenone , in half of the province of Gorizia , and in the eastern part of the province of Venice . In the past, the language borders were wider since in Trieste and Muggia , local variants of Friulian were spoken. The main document about the dialect of Trieste, or tergestino , is "Dialoghi piacevoli in dialetto vernacolo triestino", published by G. Mainati in 1828. Friuli was, until
2030-493: The -e is changed to -is (whilst a/o-ending dialects simply add an s) The plural of almost all other nouns is just -s. It is always pronounced as voiceless [s], as in English cats , never as voiced [z], as in dogs . In some Friulian dialects, there are many words whose final consonant becomes silent when the -s is added. The words include just about all those whose singular form ends in -t. The plural of gjat , for example,
2088-436: The 13th century and are mainly commercial or juridical acts. The examples show that Friulian was used together with Latin, which was still the administrative language. The main examples of literature that have survived (much from this period has been lost ) are poems from the 14th century and are usually dedicated to the theme of love and are probably inspired by the Italian poetic movement Dolce Stil Novo . The most notable work
2146-473: The 13th century, but the documents became more frequent in the following century, when literary works also emerged ( Frammenti letterari for example). The main centre at that time was Cividale . The Friulian language has never acquired primary official status: legal statutes were first written in Latin, then in Venetian and finally in Italian. The idea of unity among Ladin , Romansh and Friulian comes from
2204-610: The 14th century, the Venetian language shared many phonetic features with Friulian and Ladin and so he thought that Friulian was a much more conservative language. Many features that Ascoli thought were peculiar to the Rhaeto-Romance languages can, in fact, be found in other languages of Northern Italy . Today, Friulian is spoken in the province of Udine , including the area of the Carnia Alps , but as well throughout
2262-537: The 1960s, an area of deep poverty, causing a large number of Friulian speakers to emigrate. Most went to France , Belgium , and Switzerland or outside Europe , to Canada , Mexico , Australia , Uruguay , Argentina , Brazil , Venezuela , the United States , and South Africa . In those countries, there are associations of Friulian immigrants (called Fogolâr furlan ) that try to protect their traditions and language. The first texts in Friulian date back to
2320-560: The Friulian language and greatly influence the Friulian pronunciation of Italian. Friulian distinguishes between short and long vowels: in the following minimal pairs (long vowels are marked in the official orthography with a circumflex accent): Friulian dialects differ in their treatment of long vowels. In certain dialects, some of the long vowels are actually diphthongs. The following chart shows how six words ( sêt thirst, pît foot, fîl "wire", pôc (a) little, fûc fire, mûr "wall") are pronounced in four dialects. Each dialect uses
2378-502: The Italian historical linguist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli , who was born in Gorizia . In 1871, he presented his theory that these three languages are part of one family, which in the past stretched from Switzerland to Muggia and perhaps also Istria . The three languages are the only survivors of this family and all developed differently. Friulian was much less influenced by German . The scholar Francescato claimed subsequently that until
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2436-704: The arrival of the Romans in 181 BC were Rhaetic , Venetic and Celtic . The inhabitants belonged to the Raeti , a likely pre-Indo-European language population, the Italic Veneti , and the Carni , a Celtic population. In modern Friulian, the words of Rhaetic, Venetic or Celtic origin include terms referring to mountains, woods, plants, or animals, as well as local toponyms and onomastics (e.g. names of villages with -acco , -icco ). Even influences from
2494-484: The basic form of a verb as in walk → walked ). That is an insight of psycholinguistics , which is relevant also for language didactics , both of which are synchronic disciplines. However, a diachronic analysis shows that the strong verb is the remnant of a fully regular system of internal vowel changes, in this case the Indo-European ablaut ; historical linguistics seldom uses the category " irregular verb ". The principal tools of research in diachronic linguistics are
2552-441: The development of the modern title page . Often, dating must rely on contextual historical evidence such as inscriptions, or modern technology, such as carbon dating , can be used to ascertain dates of varying accuracy. Also, the work of sociolinguists on linguistic variation has shown synchronic states are not uniform: the speech habits of older and younger speakers differ in ways that point to language change. Synchronic variation
2610-516: The elided one: la acuile (the eagle) although in speech the two a sounds are pronounced as a single one. In the spoken language, various other articles are used. The indefinite article in Friulian (which corresponds to a and an in English) derives from the Latin unus and varies according to gender: A partitive article also exists: des for feminine and dai for masculine: des vacjis – some cows and dai libris - some books A Friulian adjective must agree in gender and number with
2668-408: The final -t to -cj Some masculine nouns ending in -t form their plurals by palatalising the final -t to -cj: Nouns ending in "s" do not change spelling in the plural, but some speakers may pronounce the plural -s differently from the singular -s. The plural of an (year) has several forms depending on dialect, including ain , ains , agn and agns . Regardless of pronunciation, the written form
2726-478: The following vowel was lost. Friulian vowel length has no relation to vowel length in Classical Latin. For example, Latin valet yields vâl "it is worth" with a long vowel, but Latin vallem yields val "valley" with a short vowel. Long vowels aren't found when the following vowel is preserved, e.g.: It is quite possible that vowel lengthening occurred originally in all stressed open syllables, and
2784-409: The historical changes that have resulted in the documented languages' divergences. Etymology studies the history of words : when they entered a language, from what source, and how their form and meaning have changed over time. Words may enter a language in several ways, including being borrowed as loanwords from another language, being derived by combining pre-existing elements in the language, by
2842-427: The late 18th century, having originally grown out of the earlier discipline of philology , the study of ancient texts and documents dating back to antiquity. Initially, historical linguistics served as the cornerstone of comparative linguistics , primarily as a tool for linguistic reconstruction . Scholars were concerned chiefly with establishing language families and reconstructing unrecorded proto-languages , using
2900-658: The latter. A final -ç, which is pronounced either as the English "-ch" (in central Friulian) or as "-s", is pluralized in writing as -çs, regardless of whether the pluralized pronunciation is "-s" or "-ts" (it varies according to dialect): messaç / messaçs (message). Masculine nouns ending in -l or -li form their plurals by palatalising final -l or -li to -i. Notice how these very often correspond to French nouns that form an irregular plural in - x : cheval-chevaux, chapeau-chapeaux, cheveu-cheveux, oeil-yeux, genou-genoux . Feminine nouns ending in -l have regular plurals. Masculine nouns ending in -st form their plurals by palatalising
2958-601: The main town of Varmo, Santa Marizza (with Levata), Gradiscutta, Belgrado (with Casali di Belgrado), Roveredo, Romans, Canussio (with Isola Maura, beyond the Tagliamento River), Madrisio (with Casenove) and Cornazzai (with Santa Marizzutta, Casali Pepe and S. P. Ponte di Madrisio). This article on a location in Friuli-Venezia Giulia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Friulian language A question that causes many debates
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#17327799355823016-577: The minimal meaningful sounds (the phonemes), phonology studies how sounds alternate, such as the /p/ in English, and topics such as syllable structure, stress , accent , and intonation . Principles of phonology have also been applied to the analysis of sign languages , but the phonological units do not consist of sounds. The principles of phonological analysis can be applied independently of modality because they are designed to serve as general analytical tools, not language-specific ones. Morphology
3074-441: The noun it qualifies. Most adjectives have four forms for singular (masculine and feminine) and plural (masculine and feminine): (Like for nouns, for a/o-ending dialects the plural is simply obtained by adding an s - e.g. brute corresponds to bruta/bruto and its plural form brutis is brutas/brutos ). The feminine is formed in several ways from the masculine: To form the plural of masculine and feminine nouns ending in -e,
3132-484: The outcome /i(ː)/ in originally open syllables (see above). Additional complications: Synchronic analyses of vowel length in Friulian often claim that it occurs predictably in final syllables before an underlying voiced obstruent , which is then devoiced. Analyses of this sort have difficulty with long-vowel contrasts that occur non-finally (e.g. pâri "father" mentioned above) or not in front of obstruents (e.g. fi "fig" vs. fî "son", val "valley" vs. vâl "it
3190-472: The prehistoric period. In practice, however, it is often unclear how to integrate the linguistic evidence with the archaeological or genetic evidence. For example, there are numerous theories concerning the homeland and early movements of the Proto-Indo-Europeans , each with its own interpretation of the archaeological record. Comparative linguistics , originally comparative philology ,
3248-739: The speaker, and reflect specific patterns in how word formation interacts with speech. In the context of historical linguistics, the means of expression change over time. Syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages . Syntax directly concerns the rules and principles that govern sentence structure in individual languages. Researchers attempt to describe languages in terms of these rules. Many historical linguistics attempt to compare changes in sentence between related languages, or find universal grammar rules that natural languages follow regardless of when and where they are spoken. In terms of evolutionary theory, historical linguistics (as opposed to research into
3306-415: The time increases. The time-depth of linguistic methods is limited due to chance word resemblances and variations between language groups, but a limit of around 10,000 years is often assumed. Several methods are used to date proto-languages, but the process is generally difficult and its results are inherently approximate. In linguistics, a synchronic analysis is one that views linguistic phenomena only at
3364-788: Was later lost in non-final syllables. Evidence of this is found, for example, in the divergent outcome of Vulgar Latin */ɛ/ , which becomes /jɛ/ in originally closed syllables but /i(ː)/ in Central Friulian in originally open syllables, including when non-finally. Examples: siet "seven" < Vulgar Latin */sɛtte/ < Latin SEPTEM , word-final pît "foot" < Vulgar Latin */pɛde/ < Latin PEDEM , non-word-final tivit /ˈtivit/ "tepid, lukewarm" < Vulgar Latin */tɛpedu/ < Latin TEPIDUM . An additional source of vowel length
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