Romagnol dialects

Romagnol
rumagnòl
Pronunciation	[rumɐˈɲoːl]/[rumɐˈɲoə̯l]
Native to	Italy, San Marino
Region	Primarily Emilia-Romagna, San Marino
Ethnicity	1.1 million (2008)[1]
Native speakers	Unknown, c. 430,000, assuming Romagnol and Emilian retained at same rate (2006)[2]
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Gallo-Italic Romagnol
Language codes
ISO 639-3	rgn
Glottolog	roma1328
ELP	Romagnol
Linguasphere	51-AAA-oki ... okl
Geographic distribution of Romagnol (shown in dark pink)
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Romagnol dialects (rumagnòl) are a group of closely-related dialects spoken in the historical region of Romagna, which is now in the south-eastern part of Emilia-Romagna, Italy. The name is derived from the Lombard name for the region, Romania.^[3] Romagnol is also spoken outside the region, particularly in the Provincia di Pesaro e Urbino and in the independent country of San Marino.^[4] It is classified as an endangered language because older generations have "neglected to pass on the dialect as a native tongue to the next generation".^[5]

Classification[]

While contemporaneous with modern Standard Italian, it is technically a member of the Gallo-Italic branch and more comparable to the “northern group” of Italian dialects.^[6] This includes the dialects Emilian, Ligurian, Lombard, and Piedmontese. It is sometimes considered a subdialect of a larger Emilian-Romagnol language, which encompasses a broad continuum of dialects spanning the region of Emilia-Romagna.

Geographic distribution[]

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. Romagnol is spoken to the east of this river and to the south of the Reno river. In Emilia-Romagna, Emilian is spoken in all the rest of the region moving from the Sillaro river to the west, up to Piacenza, and to the north of the Reno, up to the Po.

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") and in two municipalities located in the province of Florence, Marradi and Palazzuolo sul Senio.

History[]

Romagnol's first acknowledgement outside regional literature was in Dante Alighieri's treatise De vulgari eloquentia, wherein Dante compares “the language of Romagna” to his native Tuscan dialect.^[7] Eventually, in 1629, the author Adriano Banchieri wrote the treatise Discorso della lingua Bolognese, which countered Dante's claim that the Tuscan dialect was better, arguing his belief that Bolognese (a subdialect of Romagnol that saw wide use in writing) was superior in “naturalness, softness, musicality, and usefulness.” Romagnol received more recognition after Romagna gained independence from the Papal States.^[8]

Literature[]

16th to 19th century[]

The first appearance of a distinct Romagnol literary work is "Sonetto romagnolo" by Bernardino Catti, from Ravenna, printed 1502. It is written in a mixture of Italian and Romagnol^{[citation needed]}.

The first Romagnol poem dates back to the end of the 16th century: E Pvlon matt. Cantlena aroica (Mad Nap), a mock-heroic poem based on Orlando Furioso and written by an anonymous author from  [it]. The original poem comprised twelve cantos, of which only the first four survived (1848 lines).^[8]

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  [it], 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," known for long pessimistic poems and prose^[8]
• Tonino Guerra (1920–2012), wrote poems during his exile to WWII-era Germany, focusing on people of suffering and poverty^[8]
• Olindo Guerrini, with "Sonetti romagnoli"^{[citation needed]}
•  [it], an antifascist exiled from Romagna. He wrote poems such as "Rumâgna" that were often descriptive of Romagna^[8]

Grammar[]

Morphology[]

Unlike Standard Italian, not all nouns end in a theme vowel. Masculine nouns lack theme vowels, and feminine nouns typically (but not always) terminate in a. Masculine nouns and adjectives undergo lexically-specified ablaut to form the plural, and feminine nouns and adjectives form the plural by a becoming i or being deleted after a consonant cluster or a double consonant.^[6]

Romagnol		Italian
Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Sacrêri (m. sg.)	Sacréri (m. pl.)	Sacrario	Sacrari
grând (sg.)	grènd (pl.)	grande	grandi

Both languages derive their lexicon from Vulgar Latin, but some words differ in gender.

Romagnol	Italian	Latin	English
la risa	il riso	risus (masc.)	rice
la sècia	il secchio	siclum (masc.)	bucket

Syntax[]

Italian and Romagnol share much of the same features when it comes to verbs. Both languages use subject-verb-object in simple sentences for their word order. Verbs are conjugated according to tense, mood, and person. Romagnol also has four conjugations, compared to Standard Italian's three: the first, -êr; the second, -ér; the third, -ar; and the fourth, -ìr. Marked differences in Romagnol from Standard Italian are that personal pronouns are required, and some verbs in Romagnol use a reflexive construction even if the speaker is not the second argument of the verb although Italian uses an intransitive construction.^[9]

Romagnol	Italian	English
Me a'm so lavê	(Io) mi sono lavato	I washed myself
Me a sò	(Io) sono	I am
Me a j'ò	(Io) ho	I have

Impersonal verbs, which lack a canonical subject, in Romagnol use "avèr" but in Standard Italian use "essere." Even though the subject is null, an expletive pronoun is inserted in the specifier position, much like "it" in English.

• Italian: è piovuto, It rained
• Romagnol: l'à piuvù, It rained

Also, whereas Standard Italian and other northern dialects omit the definite article before "singular names and names of relatives", Romagnol keeps it.^[10]

Phonology[]

Romagnol has lexical and syntactic uniformity throughout its area. However, its pronunciation changes as one goes from the Po Valley to the hills.^{[citation needed]}

It has an inventory of up to 20 vowels that contrast in the stressed position, compared to 7 in Italian. They are marked in the orthography by using diacritics on a, e, i, o and u.^[11][12]

The absence of an official institution regulating its orthography often leads to ambiguities in the transcription of vowel sounds.

Syllable structure[]

Some words that in Latin are trisyllabic or tetrasyllabic in which u is not stressed are reduced in Romagnol to being only monosyllabic. An atonic syllable is dropped.^{[citation needed]}

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

Vowels[]

These three tables list the vowel inventory of the "classical" version of the northern macro-dialect of Romagnol.

Monophthongs

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e	(ə~ɐ)	o
	ɛ		ɔ
Low		a

Diphthongs

Symbol	Value
ê	[eə̯]
ô	[oə̯]
ë	[ɛə̯]
��	[ɔə̯]

Nasal Vowels

Symbol	Value
ã/â	[ə̃]
ẽ	[ɛ̃]
õ	[õ]

The following table lists the vowels above alongside their relative orthography:^[11]

Symbol in orthography[11]	"Classical" pronunciation[11]	Dialectal pronunciation around Lugo (RA)[11]	Example in Romagnol	Comparison with Italian	English meaning
ë	ɛə̯	ɛæ̯	bël	bello	"nice" (masculine singular)
è, e	ɛ	ɛ~ɜ	bèl	belli	"nice" (masculine plural)
ê	eə̯	eɜ̯~iɜ̯	fêr	fare	"to do"
é	e	ej	méla	mela	"apple"
ö	ɔə̯	ɔɒ̯	cöl	collo	"neck"
ô	oə̯	oɞ̯	rôda	ruota	"wheel"
ò, o	ɔ	ɔ~ɞ	òngg	undici	"eleven"
ó	o	ow	sól	sole	"sun"
ẽ	ɛ̃	æ̃j̃	bẽ	bene	"fine" (adverb)
ã, â	ə̃	ɤ̃	cã	cane	"dog"
õ	õ	õw̃	bõ	buono	"good"
a	a	ɐ~ə	zèngia	cinghia	"belt"
à, a (when stressed)	a	äː	fàza	faccia	"face"
u	u	u	purtê	portato	"brought"
ù, u (when stressed)	u	ʊu̯	dur	duro	"hard" (masculine singular)
i	i	i	istê	estate	"summer"
ì, i (when stressed)	i	iː~ɪi̯	partìr	partire	"to leave"

Consonants[]

	Labial	Inter- dental	Dental/ Alveolar	Retroflex	Palato- alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m		n			ɲ	(ŋ)
Stop	p b		t d				k ɡ
Affricate					t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
Fricative	f v	θ ð	(s z)	ʂ ʐ
Lateral			l			ʎ
Trill			r
Approximant						j	w

The letter z is always pronounced as either [θ] or [ð] and not [t͡s] or [d͡z]^[11] as in Standard Italian.

[ŋ] occurs only before velar stops.

Romagnol, in addition to its larger inventory of vowels, also has more consonants compared to Standard Italian. Additionally, consonants have these differences from Standard Italian:^[4][13]

• In central dialects, word-final n is deleted, and the preceding vowel is nasalised, as is shown above.
• /dʒ/ and /tʃ/ can occur word-finally and are usually distinguished by the doubling of the final consonants (cc or gg).
• /ʂ/ and /ʐ/ may be realised as alveolars [s] and [z] by some speakers from the influence of Standard Italian.
• The voicing of those consonants is always contrastive.

References[]