LIGURIAN LANGUAGE (ROMANCE)

:''Ligurian is also the name of an extinct language of Italy.''
'Ligurian' is a Romance language, currently spoken in Liguria, northern Italy, and parts of the Mediterranean coastal zone of France, and Monaco. Genoese (''Zeneize'' or ''Zeneise'') one of the most well-known dialects, spoken in Genoa, the principal city of Liguria.
It belongs to the Northern Italian group within the Romance languages.
The language may be dying out, but is still widely spoken by many, especially the elderly, out of a population of 1,920,848.

Contents

Geographic extent

Linguistic structure

Alphabet

Vocabulary

External link

Geographic extent

Besides Liguria, the language is also spoken in Northern Tuscany, Piedmont (part of the province of Alessandria), Emilia-Romagna (some areas in the province of Piacenza), the Alpes-Maritimes of France (in some villages near Nice), and in parts of Sardinia (Italy), Corsica (France), and the country of Monaco. It has been adopted formally in Monaco as the Monegasque language; or locally, Munegascu.

Linguistic structure

Ligurian exhibits distinct Italian features, while also having features of other Romance languages. No link between Romance Ligurian and the Ligurian language of the ancient Ligurian populations, in the form of a substrate or otherwise, can be demonstrated by linguistic evidence. There does exist, however, toponomastic derivations from ancient Ligurian.

Alphabet

The ligurian alphabet has:

★ 6 vowels: 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u', 'y'

★ 18 consonants: 'b', 'c', 'ç', 'd', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'v', 'x', 'z'.

Vocabulary

★ a péia: pear (It. and Sp. ''pera'')

★ u méi: apple (It. ''mela'')

★ u setrun: orange (cf. Fr. ''citron''; replacing Gen. ''limon''--cf. It. ''limone'')

★ u fîgu: fig (It. ''fico'' Fr. ''figue'')

★ u pèrsegu: peach (Fr. ''pêche'', Cat. ''préssec'')

★ u rîbes: currant

★ u franbuâse: raspberry (Fr. ''framboise'')

★ a sêsgia: cherry (it. ''ciliegia'', Fr. ''cerise'')

★ u mêlu: strawberry

★ a nûsge: hazelnut (Fr. ''noisette'')

★ l'arbicòca: apricot (Cat. ''albercoc'')

★ l'üüga: grape (Sp. ''uva'')

★ u pinjöö: pine nut (It. ''pinolo'')

★ arvî: to open (It. ''aprire'', Fr. ''ouvrir'', Sp. ''abrir'')

★ serâ: to close (Sp. ''cerrar'')

★ u cèeu: light

★ a cà: home, house (casa; Cat. and Ven: ''ca'')

★ l'öövu: egg (It. ''uovo'')

★ l'ögiu: eye (It. ''occhio'', Fr. ''l'œil'', Cat. ''ull'')

★ a buca: mouth (bocca)

★ a tésta: head (It. ''testa'')

★ a schèn-a: back (Cat. ''esquena'')

★ u cüü: derriere, buttock (Fr. and Cat. ''cul'')

★ u brasu: arm (Fr. ''bras'')

★ a gamba: leg (It. ''gamba'', Fr. ''jambe'', Cat. ''cama'')

★ u cöö: heart (Fr. ''cœur'')

External link

★ Ethnologue report