(Redirected from Friulian)
'Friulian' ('' or affectionately ''marilenghe'' in Friulian, ''friulano'' in
Italian) is a
Romance language belonging to the
Rhaetian 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 comes from the same roots as the
Ladin Language although over the centuries it has diverged under the influence of surrounding languages including
German,
Italian,
Venetian, and
Slovenian. Documents in Friulian are attested from the
11th century, and poetry and literature dating as far back as 1300. By the
20th century, there was a revival of interest in the language, which has continued to this day.
History
A question which causes many debates 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 these are common to other areas of the Roman Empire. The language spoken before the arrival of the Romans in
181 BC was of Celtic origin, since the inhabitants belonged to the
Carni, a Celtic population. In modern Friulian the words of Celtic origins are few, while much influence of the original population is showed in toponyms (names of villages which end in ''-acco'', ''-icco'' are an example). Even influences from
Longobardic language —Friuli was one of their strongholds—are very few. From this evidence, scholars today agree that the formation of Friulian dates back to around
1000, at the same time as other dialects derived from Latin (see
Vulgar Latin). The first written records of Friulian have been found in administrative acts of the
13th century, but these documents became more frequent in the following century, when literary works also emerged (''Frammenti letterari'' for example). The main center at that time was
Cividale. The Friulian language has never acquired official status: legal statutes were first written in Latin, then in Venetian, and finally in Italian.
Relationship with Ladin (''La questione ladina'')
The idea of a unity among
Ladin,
Romansh and Friulian comes from 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. Today we can see only those three languages, isolated from one another, that evolved differently—in particular, Friulian was much less influenced by
German. The scholar Francescato claimed subsequently that until the
14th century the
Venetian language shared a good number of phonetic features with Friulian and Ladin; therefore he thought that Friulian was a much more conservative language. It is also interesting to note that before the arrival of the Romans, the border between Carni and
Venetic populations was the river ''Liquentia'' (nowadays
Livenza), which is still the border between Friulian and Venetian today. The most widely-held opinion is that these languages were part of a family but were split many centuries ago. Also, many features that Ascoli thought were peculiar to the Rhaeto-Romance languages can in fact be found in other languages of northern
Italy.
The area of diffusion
In Italy
Today, Friulian is spoken in the province of
Udine including the area of the Carnia
Alps, but widely throughout 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 also in
Trieste and
Muggia particular 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.
In the world
Friuli was until 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,
Australia,
Argentina,
Brazil, the
United States, and
South Africa. In these countries there are associations of Friulian immigrants (called ''Fogolâr furlan'') who try to protect their traditions and language.
Literature
Main articles: Friulian literature
The first texts in Friulian date back to the
13th century and are mainly commercial or juridical acts. We can see in these examples that Friulian was used together with Latin, which was still the administrative language. The prime examples of literature that have survived—much from this period has been lost—are poetry from the
14th century, which are mainly dedicated to the theme of love and were probably inspired by the Italian poetic movement
Dolce Stil Novo. The most famous work is ''Piruç myò doç inculurit'' (which means "My sweet, coloured pear"), composed by an anonymous author from
Cividale, probably in
1380.
| Original text | Version in modern Friulian |
| Piruç myò doç inculuritquant yò chi viot, dut stoi ardit | Piruç mio dolç inculurîtcuant che jo ti viôt, o stoi dut 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'', a word which means "child", which was used frequently in the past). A modern Friulian speaker can understand these texts with only a 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.
Famous poets and writers
★
Ermes di Colorêt (16th century)
★
Pietro Zorutti (19th century)
★
Pier Paolo Pasolini (20th century)
Phonology
Long vowels are typical of the Friulian language and this has a great influence also on Friulian pronunciation of Italian.
Friulian distinguishes between short and long vowels, e.g. in the following minimal pairs (long vowels are marked in the official orthography with a circumflex accent):
: ''lat'' (milk)
: ''lât'' (gone)
: ''fis'' (fixed, dense)
: ''fîs'' (sons)
: ''lus'' (luxury)
: ''lûs'' (light n.)
The 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 four words (''pît'' foot, ''sêt'' thirst, ''pôc'' (a) little, ''fûc'' fire) are pronounced in four dialects. Each dialect uses a unique pattern of diphthongs (yellow) and monophthongs (blue) for the long vowels:
| West | Codroipo | Carnia | Central |
| ''sêt'' | | | | |
| ''pît'' | | | | |
| ''pôc'' | | | | |
| ''fûc'' | | | | |
The double consonants (ll, rr, and so on), used frequently in Italian, are nearly absent in Friulian.
Grammar
Morphology
Articles
In Friulian,
nouns referring to inanimate objects or abstract concepts can have either masculine or feminine
grammatical gender: e.g. "''il mûr''" ("the wall", masculine), "''la cjadree''" ("the chair", feminine).
Articles take the following forms, derived from the Latin ''ille'' and ''unus'':
| Definite articles |
|---|
| 'Number' | 'Masculine' | 'Feminine' |
| 'Singular' | il | la |
| 'Plural' | i | lis |
Before a vowel, both il and la can be abbreviated to l'.
The indefinite article in Friulian (corresponding to "a" in English) varies according to gender.
Note that these are the standard forms; in spoken language you can hear also ''el'' (in northern
Friuli) or ''al'' (in southern and western Friuli) instead of ''il'', ''li'' (or ''las'' in northern
Friuli) instead of ''lis'' and ''le'' instead of ''la'', but these should be avoided in written language. Remember that the final ''-e'' of ''une'' is pronounced.
Also a partitive article exists; it has only one form, ''des'' (for example, ''des vacjis'' means some cows).
Nouns
Nouns in Friulian, as in other
Romance languages, are either masculine or feminine in gender.
Feminine
Most feminine nouns end in -e. (Remember, this final -e is pronounced.)
Examples:
★ ''cjase'' = house (from Latin "casa, -ae" hut)
★ ''lune'' = moon (from Latin "luna, -ae")
★ ''scuele'' = school (from Latin "schola, -ae")
Some feminine nouns, however, end in a consonant, including those ending in -zion (from
Latin).
★ ''man'' = hand (from Latin "manŭs, -ūs" f)
★ ''lezion'' = lesson (from Latin "lectio, -nis" f)
Masculine
Most masculine nouns end either in a consonant or in -i.
★ ''cjan'' = dog
★ ''gjat'' = cat
★ ''fradi'' = brother
★ ''libri'' = book
A few masculine nouns end in -e, including ''sisteme'' (system) and ''probleme'' (problem). These are usually words coming from ancient Greek. However, because most masculine nouns end in a consonant, it is not uncommon to find the forms system and problem instead—though this is more likely to occur in print than in speech.
There are also a number of masculine nouns which have been borrowed intact from
Italian, that is, with a final -o, like ''treno'' (train). Many of these words have been fully absorbed into the language, even forming their plurals with the regular Friulian -s rather than the Italian -i. Still, there are some purists, including those influential in Friulian publishing, who frown on such words, insisting that the "proper" Friulian terms should be without the final -o. So despite the fact that one almost always hear treno, chances are that if you see the word in print it will be seen as ''tren''.
Adjectives
A Friulian
adjective must agree in gender and number with the noun it qualifies. Most adjectives have four forms for singular (masculine and feminine) and plural (masculine and feminine), for example ''brut'' (ugly):
| Declination |
|---|
| 'Number' | 'Masculine' | 'Feminine' |
| 'Singular' | brut | brute |
| 'Plural' | bruts | brutis |
Note that, in northern
Friuli, the feminine plural is pronounced ''brutes'' instead of ''brutis''.
To form the plural, normal rules are followed; given a masculine singular form, the corresponding feminine form is not so straightforward:
★ in most cases, just add an ending -e (''curt'', ''curte'')
★ if the final letter is a -c, feminine is in -cje, -cje, -che, -ghe
★ if the final letter is a -f, feminine is in -ve
★ if the final letter is a -p, feminine is in -be
★ if the final letter is a -t, feminine is in -de
Rules for the formation of plurals
To form the plural of nouns ending in -e, whether feminine or masculine, change the final -e to -is.
★ ''taule'', ''taulis'' = table, tables
★ ''cjase'', ''cjasis'' = house, houses
★ ''lune'', ''lunis'' = moon, moons
★ ''scuele'', ''scuelis'' = school, schools
★ ''sisteme'', ''sistemis'' = system, systems
To form the plural of almost all other nouns, simply add a final 's'. Note: this final s is always pronounced as a soft s, that is, like the s of the
English word cats, and never with the hard z-sound of the s in dogs.
★ ''man'', ''mans'' = hand, hands
★ ''lezion'', ''lezions'' = lesson, lessons
★ ''cjan'', ''cjans'' = dog, dogs
★ ''gjat'', ''gjats'' = cat, cats
★ ''fradi'', ''fradis'' = brother, brothers
★ ''libri'', ''libris'' = book, books
★ ''treno'', ''trenos'' = train, trains
★ ''braç'', ''braçs'' = arm, arms (from Latin "bracchium")
★ ''guant'', ''guants'' = glove, gloves (compare English "gauntlet")
Please note that, in some Friulian dialects, there are many words whose final consonant becomes silent when the +s is added. These words include just about all those whose singular form ends in -t. The plural of ''gjat'', for example, is written as ''gjats'', but is pronounced in much of Friuli as though it were ''gjas'', and that of ''plat'' (that means 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 a silent f and p, respectively (clâs, clas), so that the longer a in the former is all that distinguishes it from the latter. Note also that 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); an example is messaç / messaçs (message).
Exceptions
Masculine nouns ending in -l or -li form their plurals by substituting -i for the l or the li.
★ ''cjaval'', ''cjavai'' = horse, horses (from Latin "caballus")
★ ''fîl'', ''fîi'' = string, strings (from Latin "filum")
★ ''cjapiel'', ''cjapiei'' = hat, hats
★ ''cjaveli'', ''cjavei'' = hair, hairs
★ ''voli'', ''voi'' = eye, eyes
★ ''zenoli'', ''zenoi'' = knee, knees (from Latin "genu")
Feminine nouns ending in -l are pluralized regularly.
★ ''piel'', ''piels'' = skin, skins
★ ''val'', ''vals'' = valley, valleys
Some masculine nouns which end in -t are pluralized by changing the final -t to -cj.
★ ''dint'', ''dincj'' = tooth, teeth (from Latin "dens, -tis")
★ ''dut'', ''ducj'' = all (of one thing), all (of several things) (from Latin "totus")
Nouns ending in s do not change spelling when pluralized (even though some speakers may pronounce the plural -s differently from the singular -s).
★ ''vues'' = bone, bones
★ ''pes'' = fish (singular or plural) (from Latin "piscis")
★ ''mês'' = month, months (from Latin "mensis")
The plural of ''an'' (year) has several forms depending on dialect, including ain, ains, agn and agns. Regardless of pronunciation, the written form is ''agns''.
Clitic subject pronouns
A feature of Friulian are the clitic
subject pronouns. These, known in Friulian as ''pleonastics'', are never stressed; they are used together with the verbs to express the subject, and can be found before the
verb in
declarative sentences or immediately after it in case of
interrogative or vocative (''otative'') sentences.
| Weak pronouns |
|---|
| 'Declaration' | 'Question' | 'Invocation' |
| 'I' | o | -io | -io |
| 'You' | tu | -tu | -tu |
| 'He' | al | -ial | -ial |
| 'She' | e | -ie | -ie |
| 'We' | o | -o | -o |
| 'You' | o | -o | -o |
| 'They' | -a | -o | -o |
An example: ''jo o lavori'' means I work; ''jo lavorio?'' means Do I work?, while ''lavorassio'' means I wish I worked.
Verbs
★ Friulian verbal
infinitives have one of four endings, either -â, -ê, -i, -î; if you remove the ending you get the root which is used to form the other forms (''fevel - â'', to speak). In the case of irregular verbs, even the root changes. These kind of verbs are commonly used (''jessi'', to be, ''vê'', to have, ''podê'', to be able to). Frequently people use verbs in combination with adverbs to restrict the meaning.
| Verbs, present, declarative form |
|---|
| 'Person | 'fevelâ (to speak)' | 'lâ (to go)' | 'jessi (to be)' |
| 'Jo' | o fevel-i | o v-oi | o soi |
| 'Tu' | tu fevel-is | tu v-âs | tu sês |
| 'Lui' | al fevel-e | al v-a | al è |
| 'Nô' | o fevel-ìn | o l-in | o sin |
| 'Vô' | o fevel-ais | o v-ais (l-ais) | o sês |
| 'Lôr' | a fevel-in | a v-an | a son |
Adverbs
An adjective can be made into an
adverb by adding -mentri to the ending of the feminine singular form of the adjective (''lente'' becomes ''lentementri'', slowly), though it can sometimes
[1] lose the -e of the adjective (''facile'' becomes ''facilmentri'', easily). These type of formation is more common in written language; in spoken language people use frequently other forms or locutions (i.e. ''a planc'' for slowly).
Vocabulary
Most of the Friulian vocabulary is derived from Latin. Needless to say, there have been substantial phonological and morphological changes throughout its history. Therefore many words are shared with
Romance languages,
[2] but other languages have contributed too:
★
German words were introduced in particular in the
Middle Ages, during the
Patrie dal Friûl, when the influence from this culture was quite strong (i.e. ''bearç'', backyard; ''bussâ'', to kiss).
★
Slavic words were brought by immigrants that several times were called to
Friuli to repopulate lands where the inhabitants had been killed due to
Hungarian invasions in
10th century (i.e. ''cjast'', barn; ''zigâ'', to shout). There is also a good number of toponyms of Slavic origins.
★ There are many words that have Germanic (probably
Longobardic origins) and Celtic roots (what still remains of the languages spoken before Roman colonizations). Examples of the first category are ''sbregâ'', to tear; ''sedon'', spoon; ''taponâ'', to cover. For the latter category, ''troi'', path; ''bragons'', trousers.
★ The
Venetian language influenced Friulian vocabulary, for example ''canucje'', straw.
★ scientific terms are often of Greek origin, and there are also some
Arab terms in Friulian (''lambic'', still)
★ Some
French words entered the Friulian vocabulary: examples include ''pardabon'', really and ''gustâ'', to have lunch
★ Many
English words (such as computer, monitor, mouse and so on) have entered the Friulian vocabulary through Italian.
★
Italian itself has a growing influence on Friulian vocabulary, especially as far as neologisms are concerned (e.g. ''treno'' meaning train, ''aereo'' meaning airplane). Such neologisms are currently used, although not accepted in the official diccionary.
Present condition of Friulian
Road signs in Italian and Friulian
Nowadays, Friulian is officially recognized in
Italy, supported by law 482/1999, which protects linguistic minorities. Therefore, teaching of Friulian has been introduced in many primary schools. An online newspaper is active, and there are also a number of musical groups which use Friulian for their songs as well as some theatrical companies. Recently two movies have been made in Friulian (''Tierç lion'', ''Lidrîs cuadrade di trê''), with positive reviews in Italian newspapers. In about 40 per cent of the communities in the
Province of Udine, road signs are in both Friulian and Italian. There is also an official translation of the
Holy Bible. In
2005, a famous brand of beer used Friulian for one of its commercials.
The main association to foster the use and development of Friulian is the ''Societât filologjiche furlane'', founded in
Gorizia in
1919.
Toponyms
Every city and village in Friuli has two
names, one in
Italian and one in Friulian. Only the Italian is official and used in administration, although it is widely expected that the Friulian ones will receive partial acknowledgement in the near future. For example, the city of
Udine is called ''Udin'' in Friulian, while the town of
Tolmezzo is called ''Tumieç''.
Challenges of standardisation
A challenge that Friulian shares with other minorities is to create a standard language and a unique writing system. The regional law 15/1996 approved a standard orthography, which represents the basis of a common variant and should be used in toponyms, official acts, written documents. These standard is based on Central Friulian, which was traditionally the language used in literature already in 1700 and afterwards (the biggest examples are probably Pieri Çorut's works), but with some changes:
★ the
diphthong 'ie''' replaces ''ia'', e.g. ''fier'' (iron) ''instead of fiar'' or ''tiere (soil, Earth)'' instead of ''tiare''.
★ the use of 'vu' instead of ''u'' at the beginning of word, e.g. ''vueli'' (oil) instead of ''ueli ''or ''vueit (empty)'' instead of ''ueit''.
★ the use of 'i between vocals', for example ''ploie (rain)'' instead of ''ploe''.
Standard Friulian is called in Friulian ''furlan standard'', ''furlan normalizât'', or, using a
Greek word ''
coinè''.
Advertisement in a magazine to promote usage of Friulian
Criticism against standard Friulian
There have been several critics of the standardization of Friulian, mainly from speakers of local variants which can differ a lot from it; they also argue that the standard could eventually kill local variants. The answer of the supporters of standardization are the various advantages that a unique form can bring to the language, above all it can help to stop the influence of
Italian language in the
neologisms, which pose a serious threat to Friulian's future development. They also explain this is a written standard, and it doesn't affect pronunciation, that can follow local variants.
Variants of Friulian
Four dialects of Friulian can be distinguished, all
mutually intelligible. They are usually distinguished by the last vowel of many parts of speech (including nouns, adjectives, adverbs), following this scheme:
★ Central Friulian, spoken around
Udine
:
★ words end in -e
:
★ used in official documents and generally considered standard
:
★ some people sees it as the less original, since it doesn't show interesting features which can be found in other variants
★ Northern Friulian, spoken in
Carnia
:
★ several variants; language can vary with the valleys; words can end in -o, -e, or -a
★ South-eastern Friulian, spoken in
Bassa Friulana, and Isontino, spoken in the area along the
Isonzo River (the area of the old
Contea di Gorizia e Gradisca
:
★ words end in -a
:
★ some features of the pronunciation have been lost; this dialect is closer to Italian
★ Western Friulian, including Pordenonese, spoken in the
Province of Pordenone, also called ''concordiese'', from
Concordia Sagittaria
:
★ words end in -a
:
★ Venetian influence
:
★ some claims that this is the more conservative variant
For example, the word ''home'' becomes ''cjase'' in Central Friulian, and ''cjasa'' or ''cjaso'' in other areas. It is also notable that the most famous intellectual who used friulian during the 20th century.
Pier Paolo Pasolini, wrote his works in Western Friulian, since he learned the language from his mother who was from
Casarsa/Cjasarsa (
[1]), near
Pordenone.
It's worth to note that in
13th century, early literary works in Friulian were based on the language spoken in
Cividale, which was at that time the most important town in Friuli. These works show endings in -o, which, interestingly, nowadays is restricted to some villages in
Carnia. Later, the main city of
Friuli became
Udine and the most common ending was -a; only from the
16th century on, -e endings were used in standard Friulian.
Writing systems
In the official writing system, approved by the
Province of Udine and used in official documents, Friulian is written using the
Latin alphabet, plus the c-
cedilla (ç). The letter q is used only for personal names and historical toponyms, in every other case is replaced by c. Besides that, k, x, w, and y appear only in loan words, so they are not considered part of the alphabet.
:Aa Bb Cc Çç Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Zz
There are also
grave accents (à, è, ì, ò and ù) and
circumflex accents (â, ê, î, ô, and û), which are put above the
vowels to distinguish between homophonic words or to show where there is stress (the former) and show long vowels (the latter).
Other systems
An alternative system is called
Faggin-Nazzi from the names of the scholars who proposed it. It is less common, probably also because it is more difficult for a beginner due to its use of letters such as č that are typical of
Slavic languages, but seem foreign to native Italian speakers. These letters are used in order to more accurately reflect particular features of Friulian phonology.
Some examples
★ Hello, my name is Jack!
★ :''Mandi, jo mi clami Jacum!''
★ Today the weather is really hot!
★ :''Vuê al è propite cjalt!''
★ I really have to go now, see you
★ :''O scugni propite lâ cumò, ariviodisi''
★ I can’t go out with you tonight, I have to study
★ :''No pues vignî fûr cun te usgnot, o ai di studiâ''
References
The grammar section is based on
An introduction to Friulian by R. Pontisso. Some parts are also based loosely on ''Gramatiche furlane'' by Fausto Zof, Edizioni Leonardo, Udine 2002.
Notes
1. Such is the case of Friulian adjectives deriving from Latin adjectives of the second class.
2. Language similarity table
External links
★
Official Friulian orthography
★
Lenghe.net – Online bilingual magazine (Friulian/Italian)
★
Online magazine and resources
★
The juridical defence of Friulian (in English)
★
Ethnologue report for Friulian
★
Course of Friulian
★
Friulian Journal of Science – an association to foster the use of Friulian in the scientific world
★
''Fogolâr furlan'' of Toronto
★
''Fogolâr Furlan'' of Windsor
★
Societat Filologjiche Furlane
★
Centri interdipartimentâl pe ricercje su la culture e la lenghe dal Friûl "Josef Marchet"
★
Friulian version of Firefox browser
★
Centri Friûl Lenghe 2000, with online tools
★
Friulians in South America
★
Furlan English Dictionary from
Webster's Online Dictionary – the Rosetta Edition
★
C-evo Furlan – a computer game in Friulian
★
Serling – friulian language linguistic services
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