Friulian language
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{{language |name=Friulian |nativename=Furlan |familycolor=Indo-European |states=Italy |region=Friuli-Venezia Giulia |speakers=600,000 |fam2=Romance |fam3=Italo-Western |fam4=Western Romance |fam5=Gallo-Iberian |fam6=Gallo-Romance |fam7=Gallo-Rhaetian |nation=Officially recognized in Italy (Law 482/1999) |agency=Osservatori Regjonâl de Lenghe e de Culture Furlanis |iso2=fur|iso3=fur |map=Image:La lingua furlana.jpg}} Friulian (friulano in Italian, furlan or affectionately marilenghe in Friulian) is a Romance language belonging to the Rhaetian family, spoken in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of north-east 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.
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The area of diffusion
In Italy
Today, Friulian is spoken in the province of Udine, in the majority of the province of Pordenone, in more than half of the province of Gorizia and in the eastern part of the province of Venice.
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) that try to protect their traditions and language. Image:Friulian speaking area.png
Literature
The first texts in Friulian are dated back in XIII century and they are mainly commercial or juridical acts; we can see in these example that Friulian was used together with Latin, which was still the administrative language. First examples of literature that reached our days (most part of the production of this periods got in fact lost) are poetries from XIV century, which are mainly dedicated to the theme of love and was 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 anonym author from Cividale, probably in 1380.
| Original text | Version in modern Friulian |
| Piruç myò doç inculurit
quant yò chi viot, dut stoi ardit | Piruç mio dolç inculurît
cuant che jo ti viôt, o stoi dut ardît |
There are few differences in the first two rows, which demonstrates that there hasn't been a big evolution in the language; except for several words which are not used anymore (i.e. dum(n)lo), a word which means young boy or girl and was used frequently in the past centuries) a modern Friulian speaker can understand a little difficulty these texts.
The second important period for Friulian literature is XVI century; the main author of this period is Ermes di Colorêt, that composed over 200 poetries.
Famous poets and writers
- Ermes di Colorêt (XVI century)
- Pietro Zorutti (XIX century)
- Caterina Percoto (XIX century)
- Pier Paolo Pasolini (XX century)
Grammar
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 | [seit] | [se:t] | [seit] | [se:t] |
| pît | [peit] | [peit] | [pi:t] | [pi:t] |
| pôc | [pouk] | [po:k] | [pouk] | [po:k] |
| fûc | [fouk] | [fouk] | [fu:k] | [fu:k] |
The double consonants (ll, rr, and so on), used frequently in Italian, are nearly absent in Friulian.
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.
| Indefinite articles | |
|---|---|
| Masculine | un |
| Feminine | une |
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 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
- lune = moon
- scuele = school
Some feminine nouns, however, end in a consonant, including those ending in -zion (from Latin).
- man = hand
- lezion = lesson (from Latin "lectio, -onis")
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 sistem 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 influential people 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 you almost always hear treno, chances are good that if you see the word in print it'll be as tren.
Adjectives
A Friulian adjective must agree in gender and number with the noun it qualifies. Most adjectives have 4 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 |
To form the plural, normal rules are followed; given a masculine singular form, the corresponding feminine form is not so straightforward:
- you my 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 -f, 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
- guant, guants = glove, gloves
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
- fîl, fîi = string, strings
- cjapiel, cjapiei = hat, hats
- cjaveli, cjavei = hair, hairs
- voli, voi = eye, eyes
- zenoli, zenoi = knee, knees
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
- dut, ducj = all (of one thing), all (of several things)
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)
- mês = month, months
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.
Weak pronouns
A feature of Friulian, though it can also be found for example in Catalan, are the weak pronouns. These, known in Friulian as pleonastics o clitics, are never emphasized vocally; they are used together with the verbs to reinforce 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; lavorio jo? 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 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 part of the Friulian vocabulary is derived from Latin; needless to say, there has been substantial phonological and morphological changes throughout its history. Therefore many words are shared with Romance languages1, 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 are also a good number of toponyms of slavic origins.
- there is also a base of words who 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; tapona, to cover. For the latter category, troi, path; bragons, trousers.
- also Venetian language influenced Friulian vocabulary, for example canucje, straw.
- scientific terms are often of Greek origins, and there are also some Arab terms in Friulian (lambic, still)
- in the end also some French words entered Friulian vocabulary: examples include pardabon, really and gustâ, to have lunch
Present condition of Friulian
Image:Road sign in Friulian.jpg
Nowadays, Friulian is officially recognized in Italy with the 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 few musical groups which use Friulian for their songs, as well as some theatrical companies. In about 40 per cent of the communities in the Province of Udine, road signs are both in 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.
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. Usually, Friulian of central areas of Friuli is considered standard, but not everybody agrees. Image:Fevele par furlan.jpg
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
- 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
- words end in -a
- strong Venetian influence
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 XX century, Pier Paolo Pasolini, wrote his works in Western Friulian, since he learned the language from his mother who was from Casarsa ([1]), near Pordenone.
It's worth to note that in XIII 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 interstingly 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 XVI 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 pretty unnatural 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 o 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 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
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
- Furlan English Dictionary from [2] - the Rosetta Editionaf:Friulaans
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