Romagnol dialect

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

Distinguishing characteristics

The Romagnol language has lexical and syntactic uniformity throughout its spoken area. However, its pronunciation changes away 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:

Phonology

Vowels

The following table sums up the nasal vowels, oral vowels and diphthongs that can be found in the northern (around Lugo) variety of Romagnol.

Consonants

Bibliography

For a list of words relating to Romagnol dialect, see the Romagnol language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• 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.

References

External links

Romagnol dialect test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

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

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