Friulian language


Friulian or Friulan is a Romance language belonging to the Rhaeto-Romance 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 shares the same roots as Ladin, but over the centuries, it has diverged under the influence of surrounding languages, including German, Italian, Venetian, and Slovene. Documents in Friulian are attested from the 11th century and poetry and literature date as far back as 1300. By the 20th century, there was a revival of interest in the language.

History

A question that 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 them are common to other areas of the Roman Empire; often, it is cited that Fortunatianus, the bishop of Aquileia 342 - 357 AD, wrote a commentary to the Gospel in sermo rusticus, which, therefore, would have been quite divergent from the standard Latin of administration. The text itself did not survive so its language cannot be examined, but its attested existence testifies to a shift of languages while, for example, other important communities of Northern Italy were still speaking Latin. 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 many and much influence of the original population is shown in toponyms. Even influences from the Lombardic language - Friuli was one of their strongholds - are very frequent. In a similar manner, there are unique connections to the modern, nearby Lombard language.
In Friulian, there are also a plethora of words of German, Slovenian and Venetian origin. From that evidence, scholars today agree that the formation of Friulian dates back to circa 1000 AD, at the same time as other dialects derived from Latin. The first written records of Friulian have been found in administrative acts of the 13th century, but the documents became more frequent in the following century, when literary works also emerged. The main centre 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.

The "Ladin Question"

The idea of 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. The three languages are the only survivors of this family and all developed differently. Friulian was much less influenced by German. The scholar Francescato claimed subsequently that until the 14th century, the Venetian language shared many phonetic features with Friulian and Ladin and so he thought that Friulian was a much more conservative language. Many features that Ascoli thought were peculiar to the Rhaeto-Romance languages can, in fact, be found in other languages of Northern Italy.

Areas

Italy

Today, Friulian is spoken in the province of Udine, including the area of the Carnia Alps, but as well 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 in Trieste and Muggia, local 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.

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, Mexico, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, the United States, and South Africa. In those countries, there are associations of Friulian immigrants that try to protect their traditions and language.

Literature

The first texts in Friulian date back to the 13th century and are mainly commercial or juridical acts. The examples show that Friulian was used together with Latin, which was still the administrative language. The main examples of literature that have survived are poems from the 14th century and are usually dedicated to the theme of love and are probably inspired by the Italian poetic movement Dolce Stil Novo. The most notable work is Piruç myò doç inculurit ; it was composed by an anonymous author from Cividale del Friuli, probably in 1380.
Original textVersion in modern Friulian
Piruç myò doç inculurit
quant yò chi viot, dut stoi ardit		Piruç gno dolç inculurît
cuant che jo cj viôt, dut o stoi 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. A modern Friulian speaker can understand these texts with only 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.
NameCentury
Ermes di Colorêt16th
Pietro Zorutti19th
Pier Paolo Pasolini20th

Phonology

Consonants

Notes:
FrontCentralBack
Close
Close mid
Open mid
Open

Orthography

Some notes on orthography :
Long vowels are typical of the Friulian language and greatly influence the Friulian pronunciation of Italian.
Friulian distinguishes between short and long vowels: in the following minimal pairs :
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 six words are pronounced in four dialects. Each dialect uses a unique pattern of diphthongs and monophthongs for the long vowels:
Latin originWestCodroipoCarniaCentral
sêt "thirst"
pît "foot"
fîl "wire"
pôc "a little"
fûc "fire"
mûr "wall"

Note that the vowels î and û in the standard language correspond to two different sounds in the Western dialects. These sounds are not distributed randomly but correspond to different origins: Latin short in an open syllable produces Western but Central, whereas Latin long produces in both dialects. Similarly, Latin short in an open syllable produces Western but Central, whereas Latin long produces in both dialects. The word mûr, for example, means both "wall" and " dies" ; both words are pronounced in Central dialects, but respectively and in Western dialects.
Long consonants, frequently used in Italian, are usually absent in Friulian.
Friulian long vowels originate primarily from vowel lengthening in stressed open syllables when the following vowel was lost. Friulian vowel length has no relation to vowel length in Classical Latin. For example, Latin yields vâl "it is worth" with a long vowel, but Latin yields val "valley" with a short vowel. Long vowels aren't found when the following vowel is preserved, e.g.:
It is quite possible that vowel lengthening occurred originally in all stressed open syllables, and was later lost in non-final syllables. Evidence of this is found, for example, in the divergent outcome of Vulgar Latin, which becomes in originally closed syllables but in Central Friulian in originally open syllables, including when non-finally. Examples: siet "seven" < Vulgar Latin < Latin, word-final pît "foot" < Vulgar Latin < Latin, non-word-final tivit "tepid, lukewarm" < Vulgar Latin < Latin.
An additional source of vowel length is compensatory lengthening before lost consonants in certain circumstances, cf. pâri "father" < Latin, vôli "eye" < Latin, lîre "pound" < Latin. This produces long vowels in non-final syllables, and was apparently a separate, later development than the primary lengthening in open syllables. Note, for example, the development of Vulgar Latin in this context: > > iê, as in piêre "stone" < Latin, differing from the outcome in originally open syllables.
Additional complications:
Synchronic analyses of vowel length in Friulian often claim that it occurs predictably in final syllables before an underlying voiced obstruent, which is then devoiced. Analyses of this sort have difficulty with long-vowel contrasts that occur non-finally or not in front of obstruents.

Morphology

Friulian is quite different from Italian in its morphology; it is, in many respects, closer to French.

Nouns

In Friulian as in other Romance languages, nouns are either masculine or feminine, "la cjadree".

Feminine

Most feminine nouns end in -e, which is pronounced, unlike in Standard French:
Some feminine nouns, however, end in a consonant, including those ending in -zion, which are from Latin.
Most masculine nouns end either in a consonant or in -i.
A few masculine nouns end in -e, including sisteme and probleme. They are usually words coming from Ancient Greek. However, because most masculine nouns end in a consonant, it is common to find the forms sistem and problem instead, more often in print than in speech.
There are also a number of masculine nouns borrowed intact from Italian, with a final -o, like treno. Many of the words have been fully absorbed into the language and even form their plurals with the regular Friulian -s rather than the Italian desinence changing. Still, there are some purists, including those influential in Friulian publishing, who frown on such words and insist that the "proper" Friulian terms should be without the final -o. Despite the fact that one almost always hears treno, it is almost always written tren.

Articles

The Friulian definite article is derived from the Latin ille and takes the following forms:
NumberMasculineFeminine
Singularilla
Pluralilis

Before a vowel, both il and la can be abbreviated to l' in the standard forms - for example il + arbul becomes l'arbul. Yet, as far as the article la is concerned, modern grammar recommends that its non elided form should be preferred over the elided one: la acuile although in speech the two a sounds are pronounced as a single one. In the spoken language, various other articles are used.
The indefinite article in Friulian derives from the Latin unus and varies according to gender:
A partitive article also exists: des for feminine and dai for masculine: des vacjis – some cows and dai libris - some books

Adjectives

A Friulian adjective must agree in gender and number with the noun it qualifies. Most adjectives have four forms for singular and plural :
NumberMasculineFeminine
Singularbrutbrute
Pluralbrutsbrutis

.
The feminine is formed in several ways from the masculine:
To form the plural of masculine and feminine nouns ending in -e, the -e is changed to -is
The plural of almost all other nouns is just -s. It is always pronounced as voiceless , as in English cats, never as voiced , as in dogs.
In some Friulian dialects, there are many words whose final consonant becomes silent when the -s is added. The 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 if it were gjas. The plural of plat 'dish', though written as plat, is often pronounced as plas. Other words in this category include clâf and clap, whose plural forms, clâfs and claps, are often pronounced with no f or p, respectively so the longer a in the former is all that distinguishes it from the latter. A final -ç, which is pronounced either as the English "-ch" or as "-s", is pluralized in writing as -çs, regardless of whether the pluralized pronunciation is "-s" or "-ts" : messaç / messaçs.

Exceptions

Masculine nouns ending in -l or -li form their plurals by palatalising final -l or -li to -i.
Notice how these very often correspond to French nouns that form an irregular plural in -x: cheval-chevaux, chapeau-chapeaux, cheveu-cheveux, oeil-yeux, genou-genoux.
Feminine nouns ending in -l have regular plurals.
Masculine nouns ending in -st form their plurals by palatalising the final -t to -cj
Some masculine nouns ending in -t form their plurals by palatalising the final -t to -cj:
Nouns ending in "s" do not change spelling in the plural, but some speakers may pronounce the plural -s differently from the singular -s.
The plural of an has several forms depending on dialect, including ain, ains, agn and agns. Regardless of pronunciation, the written form is agns.
The same happens for the adjective bon, as its plural is bogns.

Clitic subject pronouns

A feature of Friulian are the clitic subject pronouns. Known in Friulian as pleonastics, they are never stressed; they are used together with the verb to express the subject and can be found before the verb in declarative sentences or immediately after it in case of interrogative or vocative sentences.
DeclarationQuestionInvocation
Io-io-io
You tu-tu-tu
Heal-ial-ial
Sheeieie
Weo-o-o
You o-o-o
They-a-o-o

An example: jo o lavori means "I work"; lavorio? means "Do I work?", while lavorassio means "I wish I worked".

Verbs

Personfevelâ lâ jessi
Joo fevel-io v-oio soi
Tutu fevel-istu v-âstu sês
Luial fevel-eal v-aal è
Nôo fevel-ìno l-ino sin
Vôo fevel-aiso v-ais o sês
Lôra fevel-ina v-ana son

Adverbs

An adjective can be made into an adverb by adding -mentri to the ending of the feminine singular form of the adjective, but it can sometimes lose the -e of the adjective. It is more common in the written language; in the spoken language people frequently use other forms or locutions.

Vocabulary

Most vocabulary is derived from Latin, with substantial phonological and morphological changes throughout its history. Therefore, many words are shared with the Romance languages,
Here the composition:
Nowadays, Friulian is officially recognized in Italy, supported by law 482/1999, which protects linguistic minorities. Therefore, optional teaching of Friulian has been introduced in many primary schools. An online newspaper is active, and there are also a number of musical groups singing in Friulian and some theatrical companies. Recently, two movies have been made in Friulian, with positive reviews in Italian newspapers. In about 40% of the communities in the Province of Udine, road signs are in both Friulian and Italian. There is also an official translation of the Bible. In 2005, a notable 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, but 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, the town of Tolmezzo Tumieç and the town of Aviano is called both Avian and Pleif.

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. The standard is based on Central Friulian, which was traditionally the language used in literature already in 1700 and afterwards but with some changes:
Standard Friulian is called in Friulian furlan standard, furlan normalizât or from Greek, coinè.

Criticism

There have been several critics of the standardisation of Friulian, mainly from speakers of local variants that differ substantially from the proposed standard; they also argue that the standard could eventually kill local variants. The supporters of standardisation refer to 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 point out that it is a written standard without affecting pronunciation, which can follow local variants.
Opponents of the standardisation, on the other hand, insist that the standard language, being artificially created, is totally inadequate to represent the local variations, particularly from differences in the phonetic pronunciation of the words in each variant that may, in some cases, even require special and different diacritics for writing a single variant.

Variants of Friulian

Four dialects of Friulian can be at least distinguished, all mutually intelligible. They are usually distinguished by the last vowel of many parts of speech, following this scheme:
The word for home is cjase in Central Friulian and cjasa or cjaso in other areas. Pier Paolo Pasolini wrote his works in Western Friulian since he learned the language from his mother who was from Casarsa/Cjasarsa, near Pordenone.
In the 13th century, early literary works in Friulian were based on the language spoken in Cividale del Friuli, which was the most important town in Friuli. The endings in -o, which now 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 script with the c-cedilla. The letter q is used only for personal names and historical toponyms, and in every other case, it 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.
There are also grave accents and circumflex accents, which are put above the vowels to distinguish between homophonic words or to show stress and show long vowels.

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 for its use of letters, such as č, that are typical of Slavic languages but seem foreign to native Italian speakers.

Examples

Notations

The grammar section is based on by R. Pontisso. Some parts are also based loosely on Gramatiche furlane by Fausto Zof, Edizioni Leonardo, Udine 2002.

Footnotes