Romagnol
Romagnol is a dialect spoken in Romagna and San Marino . The western border to the Emilian dialect is the Sillaro , the northern border to the Ferrarese more or less the Reno , while to the south in the Apennines there are flowing transitions to the Tuscan. The Romagnol forms the transition between the Gallo-Roman and the central and southern Italian dialects. Today the dialects are increasingly declining in favor of Standard Italian, but many Romagna residents still speak a continuum of Romagnol and Standard Italian . The first linguistic studies of the Romagna dialect were carried out at the end of the 19th century. In 1910 the Austrian linguist Friedrich Schürr (1888–1980) dealt with Romagnol.
In the French town of Hussigny-Godbrange , which was a center of Italian immigration to Lorraine at the end of the 19th century , Romagnol was spoken until the end of the 1950s.
phonetics
The vocals
The multitude of vowels in Romagnol is very important because they have different meanings:
- a - open
- à - even more open
- â - followed by n, m, gn: nasal, partially closed
- e - closed
- ë - very open, tendency to ä in some areas
- è - open
- ê - closed
- é - closed, elongated
- é - followed by silent n: closed e
- i - weak, closed
- ì - same sound, but emphasized
- ì - followed by silent n: closed i
- o - closed
- ò - open
- ö - half open
- ô - closed
- ô - followed by the spoken n; very closed
- u - short and weak
- ù - likewise, emphasized
The A'
This was stressed in Latin a remains in the Florentine dialect and therefore in Italian unchanged: z. B. FACTU 'fatto' (made) - PATRE 'padre' (father) - LACU 'lago' (lake).
In Romagnol the situation is a little more complicated because it depends on whether the stressed a is in an open or a closed syllable.
Let us consider the following three examples in which the stressed a develops differently in Romagnol:
| Latin | Romagnol | Italian | |
| 1) | CARRU | car | carro |
| 2) | CARU | chêr | caro |
| 3) | CAMPU | câmp | campo |
The difference between 1) and 2) make the following consonants. In 1) the double R is a closed syllable, in 2) the single R is an open syllable. In the first case the a remains unchanged, in the second it becomes ê, that is, a closed, stretched e. In case 3) there is nasalization that does not exist in Italian.
The short 'e'
The short 'e' and the diphthong 'ae' in Latin remained unchanged in closed syllable in Italian, in open syllable it became 'ie'.
Examples: PEDE 'piede'; BELLU 'bello'.
This is not always the case in Romagnol. Usually the short 'e' becomes é (closed e) or i.
Syllable open
| Latin | Italian | Romagnol | |
| 1) | PEDE | piede | pi |
| 2) | DECE | dieci | dis |
Syllable closed
| Latin | Italian | Romagnol | |
| 3) | MEL | miele | mél |
| 4) | CAELU | cielo | zîl |
The short 'e' is retained in front of a nasal and is nasalized.
z. E.g .: GENTE - cent ; VENTU vent ; VENIO a vegn .
The long 'e'
The long 'e' and the diphthong 'oe' in Latin become the closed e (é) in Italian.
Examples: RETE 'rete'; PILU 'pelo'.
In Romagnol, the long 'e' in an open syllable is usually retained.
After a palatal it often becomes an 'i'.
| Latin | Romagnol | Italian | |
| 1) | CERA | zira | (cera) |
| 2) | CICER | zis | (cece) |
| 3) | PLICA | pjiga | (piega) |
In a closed syllable, the é opens to è.
| Latin | Romagnol | Italian | |
| 1) | TEGULA | tègia | (teglia di terracotta = terracotta shape) |
| 2) | BESTIA | bèssa | (biscia) |
| 3) | SICCU | sèch | (secco) |
The I'
In Italian, the stressed Latin i usually remains unchanged.
This also applies to the open syllable.
In a closed syllable it becomes the open 'e':
| Latin | Romagnol | Italian | |
| 1) | GRILLU | grèll | (grillo) |
| 2) | MILLE | mèll | (mille) |
| 3) | FRICTU | frètt | (fritto) |
Before a nasal, the 'i' becomes a nasal 'e'.
Examples: VINU ven ; PRIMU premm
The half vowel 'j'
The J comes from the Greek alphabet, in Italian it has been replaced by the i over time ; in Romagnol, however, it is used in the following contexts:
- as a semiconsonant before a vowel at the beginning of a word as in Jómla (Imola)
- between two vowels as in fôja (foglia); this was also the case for a long time in Italian
- At the end of a word after a vowel z. B. moj (moglie = woman)
- As a masculine specific plural article z. B. j'óman (gli uomini = the men)
- as a male personal pronoun for the third person plural z. B. j'arcörda i témp pasé (ricordano i tempi passati = they remember times past)
- as an adverb or demonstrative pronoun ci vi or ve .
- As a shortening of the imperative with pronouns -jal and -jan z. B. Dàjal '(Daglielo = give it to him)
- As a synthetic pronomial form. A j'e 'faró savé (Glielo farò sapere = I'll let him know)
The short 'o'
The short Latin 'o' usually becomes the diphthong uo in Italian .
Examples: NOVU 'nuovo'; FOCU 'fuoco'; SCHOLA 'scuola'.
In Romagnol, the open syllable 'o' becomes the diphthong ô , which consists of a closed o and an indistinct a .
Examples: NOVU nôv ; COR côr , HORTU ôrt .
Words that end in –OCU are an exception. Here the ô becomes the u.
Examples: FOCU fugh , JOCU zugh ; COCU cugh .
The long 'o' and the short 'u'
In Italian both became closed o. Examples: CODA coda; VOCE voce; CRUCE croce; BUCCA bocca.
In the open syllable, this also applies to Romagnol.
Examples: VOCE vos ; SOLE sol ; CRUCE cros .
Closed syllable opens the ó for ò .
Examples: CRUSTA gròsta ; LUCTA lòta ; BUCCA bòca .
Before a nasal, the o and the short u become an o or are nasalized.
Examples: PLUMBU piomb ; UMBRA ombra .
The long 'u'
In Italian, the long u is always unchanged.
Examples: UVA and many others; LUMEN lume; IUNCU giunco.
In Romagnol, the long u is only retained in an open syllable.
Examples: MULU mul ; CRUDU crud ; LUCE lus .
In a closed syllable, the u becomes the o .
Examples: FRUCTU frott ; EXSUCTU sott (asciutto); USTIU oss (uscio); PULICE polsa .
Also before a nasal consonant the u opens to the o:
LUNA lona ; FUMU fom ; UNU on .
At the end of the word the u is shortened and becomes ó :
ILLU ó ; PLUS pió .
The consonants
- c - hard (k)
- c + a, o, u - as in Italian (k)
- c + e, i - as in Italian (ch)
- cc - like the latter at the end of the word (ch)
- ch + e, i - as in Italian (k)
- g - hard
- g + a, o, u - as in Italian (g)
- g + e, i - as in Italian (dsch)
- gg - like the latter at the end of the word (dsch)
- gh + e, i - as in Italian (g)
- gl + i - as in Italian (lj)
- g-li - separated
- gn - as in Italian (nj)
- h - mute in ch and gh
- m - silent in nasal endings
- n - silent in nasal endings
- r - silent in infinitive endings, if no vowel follows
- s - voiceless
- ş - voiced
- sc - as in Italian
- sc - voiceless s and ch
- z - voiceless
- ź - voiced
Monosyllabic
Under Lombard or Franconian influence, the stress accent increased, whereby unstressed syllables (except with vowel a) disappeared. So three and four syllable words can be monosyllabic, e.g. B .:
- Lat. GENUCULU- becomes ZNÒC (it.ginocchio = knee)
- Lat. OCULU- becomes ÒC (it. Occhio = eye)
- Lat. FRIGIDU- becomes FRÉDD (it. Freddo = cold)
grammar
The definite article
| Male | Female | Before words that begin with a vowel | |
| Singular | e ' | la | l ' |
| Plural | i | al | (m) j (f) àgli |
In contrast to Italian, there are no special articles for words that begin with 'z' and 's impura'.
Nouns
Male nouns usually end in a consonant, feminine in -a. The plural of masculine nouns is unchanged, only a, e and stressed o are ablaut . In females, the ending -a is dropped or becomes -i to avoid confusion with the masculine word, e.g. E.g .: amiga amighi (girlfriend).
Adjectives
For most adjectives , the same rules apply as for "normal" nouns, ie the masculine nouns are unchangeable, the feminine ones end in -a / -i.
Adverbs derived from adjectives
| Regularly | Irregular |
| -ment (finalment, sicurament) | ben (good), mèj (better), mel (bad), pèz (worse) |
Verbs
| I. conjug . | II. Conjug. | III. Conjug. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive Pres . | passê | nèssar | finì |
| Participle Pres. | suitable | wetting | finding |
| Past participle passport. | passé -da | né (d) | fnì -da |
Rules :
- For the present indicative
| pess (without ending: the root of the verb) |
| pessat ('t' as an ending to differentiate) |
| passa |
| passèn (-en) |
| passive (-iv) |
| passa (like 3rd person Sg. that applies to all times) |
- At Part. Pass. there are many contracted forms:
- scort (parlato = spoken);
- scäp (andato via in fretta = escaped)
- smengh (dimenticato = forgotten). Here an 'a' is added to the feminine sg. And 'edi' to the feminine pl.
literature
- Friedrich Schürr : Romagna dialects . Hölder, Vienna 1917/18
- Speech samples in phonetic transcription based on phonographic recordings (session report of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of November 17, 1915). 1917.
- Phonology (session report of the Imperial Academy of Sciences from May 1916). 1918.
- Friedrich Schürr: Living dialects . 1919.
Web links
- Istituto Friedrich Schürr with further links to Romagnol
- www.dialettiromagnoli.it
- Romagna-Italian dictionary by Libero Ercolani