Besides Emilian, the Gallo-Italic family includes
Romagnol,
Piedmontese,
Ligurian and
Lombard, all of which maintain a level of mutual intelligibility with Emilian.
Dialectal varieties
"Mirandolese" redirects here. Not to be confused with
Mirandese.
The historical and geographical fragmentation of Emilian communities, divided in many local administrations (as
signorie then duchies, with reciprocal exchanges of land), has caused a high dialectal fragmentation, to the point the existence of an Emilian koiné has been questioned.
Mantuan, spoken in all but the very north of the
Province of Mantua in Lombardy. It has a strong Lombard influence.
Vogherese (Pavese-Vogherese), spoken in the
Province of Pavia in Lombardy. It is closely related phonetically and morphologically to Piacentine. It is also akin to Tortonese.[clarification needed]
Piacentine, spoken west of the
River Taro in the
Province of Piacenza and on the border with the province of Parma. The variants of Piacentine are strongly influenced by Lombard, Piedmontese, and Ligurian.
Parmesan, spoken in the
Province of Parma. Those from the area refer to the Parmesan spoken outside Parma as Arioso or Parmense, although today's urban and rural dialects are so mixed that only a few speak the original. The language spoken in
Casalmaggiore in the
Province of Cremona to the north of Parma is closely related to Parmesan.
Modenese, spoken in the centre of the
Province of Modena, although Bolognese is more widespread in the Castelfranco area.
Mirandolese, spoken in the northern part of the
Province of Modena, it is very different from the modenese dialect in the phonology, grammar and vocabulary.
Carrarese and Lunigiano dialects, spoken in
Carrara,
Lunigiana, in almost all of the
Province of Massa-Carrara in northwestern
Tuscany, and a good portion of the
Province of La Spezia in eastern
Liguria. Historically, this region has been part of Tuscany and the duchies of
Modena and
Parma at different times, so it has a close economic relationship with the Emilian area and is geographically proximate due to the
Magra and
Vara rivers.
Rounded front vowel sounds /y, ø, œ/ and a mid-central vowel sound /ə/ are mainly common in the Piacentino and western dialects.
In the Piacentino dialect, five vowel sounds being followed by /n/, are then recognized as nasalized [ĩẽãõũ], unless /n/ occurs between two vowel sounds.
Vowel length is also distinguished for the following vowels [iːeːɛːaːɔːoːuː].[6][7][8]
Writing system
Emilian is written using a
Latin script that has never been standardised, and spelling varies widely among the dialects.
The dialects were largely oral and rarely written until some time in the late 20th century; a large amount of written media in Emilian has been created since
World War II.
^Hajek, John (1997). "Emilia-Romagna". In Maiden, Martin; Parry, Mair (eds.). The Dialects of Italy. London: Routledge. p. 275.
Bibliography
Colombini, F. (2007). La negazione nei dialetti emiliani: microvariazione nell'area modenese (MA thesis).
University of Padua.
Rognoni, Luca (2013). "Il sistema fonologico del dialetto modenese". L'Italia dialettale: rivista di dialettologia italiana. Vol. 74. pp. 135–148.
ISBN9788846739957.
Further reading
Foresti, Fabio (1997). Bibliografia dialettale dell'Emilia-Romagna e della Repubblica di San Marino (BDER). Bologna: Compositori.
Mainoldi, Pietro (2000) [1950, Bologna: Società tipografica Mareggiani]. Manuale dell'odierno dialetto bolognese, Suoni e segni, Grammatica – Vocabolario. Forni.
ISBN9788827129173.
Tuttle, E. F. (1991). "Nasalization in Northern Italy: Syllabic Constraints and Strength Scales as Developmental Parameters". Rivista di Linguistica. III: 23–92.