Romagnol dialect

Romagnolo
Rumagnôl [rumə'ɲoə̯l]
Native to	Italy, San Marino
Region	Italy: Emilia-Romagna (Province of Ravenna, Province of Rimini, Province of Forlì-Cesena, part of the Province of Ferrara and around Imola in the Province of Bologna) Marche (part of the Province of Pesaro and Urbino) Tuscany (a few communes in the Province of Florence) Outside of Italy: San Marino
Ethnicity	1.1 million (2008)
Native speakers	ca. 430,000, assuming Romagnol and Emiliano retained at same rate (2006)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Gallo-Italic Emiliano–Romagnolo Romagnolo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	rgn
Glottolog	roma1328
Linguasphere	51-AAA-oki ... okl

Romagnol is a dialect of Emiliano-Romagnolo, a Romance language, mostly spoken in Romagna (Northern Italy, part of the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy), Republic of San Marino, northern Marche, and a few communes in northern Tuscany.

History

Romagnol, like other Romance languages, is descended from the Vulgar Latin spoken in the Roman Empire. It evolved alongside the Tuscan, which would form the basis of Standard Italian. Although Romagnol is often described as a dialect, it is not a variant of or descended from Italian.

What distinguishes Romagnol from other languages of Northern Italy is a complex set of historical, geographical and cultural factors:

• the Byzantine Greek heritage in the 6th, 7th and 8th centuries;
• a different exposure to Germanic influence (before and after the Migration Period);
• the different features of Latin spoken in the Italian peninsula north and south of the Northern Apennines;
• the existence of a "Celtic background" which, according to historical linguist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli (19th century), formed a substrate for all languages north of the Apennine Mountains (the only notable exception being the Venetian language).

Geographic distribution

Geographic distribution of Romagnol (shown in dark pink)

Western border

West of Romagna, the Emilian language is spoken. The border with Emilian-speaking areas is the Sillaro river, which runs 25 km east from Bologna to the west of (Castel San Pietro Terme). Emilian is spoken, to the east, in Imola, the language is Romagnol. In Emilia-Romagna, Emilian is spoken in all the rest of the region moving from the Sillaro river to the west, up to Piacenza.

Northern border

The Reno River is the border between Romagnol and the dialect of Ferrara. Romagnol is spoken also in some villages northwards of the Reno River, such as Argenta, Emilia–Romagna and Filo, where people of Romagnol origin live alongside people of Ferrarese origin. Ferrara goes into Emilian language territory.

Southern border

Outside Emilia-Romagna, Romagnol is spoken in the Republic of San Marino ("Sammarinese"), in the Marecchia Valley, in the Conca Valley (Montefeltro) and in all of the Pesaro e Urbino province.

Literature

16th to 19th century

The first appearance of a Romagnol literary work is "Sonetto romagnolo" by Bernardino Catti, from Ravenna, printed 1502. This is written in a mixture of Italian and Romagnol.

The first Romagnol poem dates back to the end of 16th century: E Pvlon matt. Cantlena aroica (Mad Nap), a mock-heroic poem based on Orlando Furioso and written by an anonymous author from San Vittore di Cesena. The original poem comprised twelve cantos, of which only the first four survived (1848 lines).

The first Romagnol poet to win fame was the cleric Pietro Santoni, (Fusignano, 1736–1823). He was the teacher of Vincenzo Monti, one of the most famous Italian poets of his time.

In 1840 the first Romagnol-Italian Dictionary was published by Antonio Morri, printed in Faenza.

20th century

The 20th century saw a flourishing of Romagnol literature. Theatrical plays, poems and books of a high quality were produced. Some of the best known Romagnol authors are:

• Raffaello Baldini, who won in 1988 the "Premio Viareggio" and in 1995 the "Premio Bagutta"
• Tonino Guerra (1920–2012), the main contemporary Romagnol
• Olindo Guerrini, with "Sonetti romagnoli"
• Aldo Spallicci

Characteristics

Romagnol has lexical and syntactic uniformity throughout its area. However, its pronunciation changes as one goes from the Po Valley to the hills.

Romagnol has some features that make it different from other Gallo-Italic languages:

• A very large number of vowels (about 20, in comparison the 7 in Standard Italian).
• A strong importance of consonants in the word. Some words that in Latin were trisyllabic or tetrasyllabic (where 'u' is without stress) are reduced in Romagnol to monosyllables. The atonic syllable(s) is cut off:

Latin	Romagnol	Italian	English	Emilian
geniculum	znöcc	ginocchio	knee	znocc
tepidus	tèvvd	tiepido	tepid	tevad
oculus	öcc	occhio	eye	occ
frigidus	frèdd	freddo	cold	fredd

Phonology

Vowels

The following table has the nasal vowels, oral vowels and diphthongs in the northern (around Lugo) variety of Romagnol:

IPA symbol	Orthography	Example in Romagnol	IPA pronunciation	English meaning
ɛɐ̯~ɛː	ë	bël	[ˈbɛɐ̯l]	"nice" (masculine, singular)
ɛ~e̞	è	bèll	[ˈbe̞lː]	"nice" (masculine, plural)
eə̯	ê	fê	[ˈfeə̯]	"to do"
eɪ̯	é	méla	[ˈmeɪ̯lə]	"apple"
ɔɐ̯~ɔː	ö	cöl	[ˈkɔɐ̯l]	"neck"
oə̯	ô	rôda	[ˈroə̯d̪ɐ]	"wheel"
ɔ~o̞~o	ò	òng	[ˈo̞ɲd͡ʒ]	"eleven"
oː~ow	ó	sól	[ˈʂowl]	"sun"
æ̃ɨ̃~ɛ̃ɨ̃~ɛ̃ː	ẽ,èn	bẽ	[ˈbæ̃ɨ̃]	"fine"
ɤ̃ː	ã,â	cã	[ˈkɤ̃ː]	"dog"
ɔ̃w~õw	õ,on	bõ	[ˈbɔ̃w]	"good"
äː	à	fàza	[ˈfäːθɐ]	"face"
ɐ~ə	a	mnëstra	[ˈmnɛɐ̯ʂt̪rɐ]	"pasta"
uː~ʊu̯	u, ù	dùr	[ˈd̪uːr]	"hard" (masculin, singular)
iː~ɪi	ì	fnì	[fˈniː]	"ended"
i	i	zinqvãnta	[θiŋ̩ˈkvɤ̃ntə]	"fifty
ĩː	ĩ	pĩ	[ˈpĩː]	"full"

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-Dental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-Alveolar	Palatal	Retroflex	Velar
Nasal	m (m)			n (n)		ɲ (gn)		(ŋ)
Stop	p (p) b (b)			t (t) d (d)				k (c,ch) ɡ (g,gh)
Affricate					tʃ (c,cc) dʒ (g)
Fricative		f (f) v (v)	θ (z) ð (ẓ)				ʂ (s) ʐ (ş)
Approximant						j (j)
Lateral				l (l)
Trill				r (r)

Bibliography

• Anonimo, Pvlon Matt, Cantléna aroica, (1591) (edited by Gaspare Bagli), Bologna: Zanichelli, 1887
• Ercolani, L., Vocabolario romagnolo-italiano (Ravenna, 1963).
• Morri, A., Vocabolario romagnolo-italiano (Ravenna, 1970 - riprinted from the original, Faenza, 1840).
• Polloni, A., Toponomastica romagnola (Olschki, 1966).
• Gregor, D. B., Romagnol. Language and Literature (1971)
• Schurr, F., Romagnolische Mundarten (Sitz.d.kais.Ak.d.W., Vienna, 1917).
• Schurr, F., Romagnolische Dialektstudien, Lautlehre (1918); Lebende Mundarten (1919).
• Schurr, F., «II Plaustro», December 31, 1911 (Anno 1, n. 6), Forlì.

External links

• Official website of Institute Friedrich Schurr
• Romagnol basic lexicon (Ravenna subdialect) at the Global Lexicostatistical Database