Friulian language

Friulian (' or affectionately marilenghe in Friulian, friulano in Italian) is a Romance language belonging to the Rhaetian family, spoken in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia 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 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.

History

The origins of the language are quite obscure. A question which 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 these are common to other areas of the Roman Empire. 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 few, while much influence of the original population is showed in toponyms (names of villages which end in -acco, -icco are an example). Even influences from Longobardic language (Friuli was one of their strongholds) are very few; from this evidence scholars today agree that the formation of Friulian dates back to around 1000, at the same time as other dialects derived from Latin (see Vulgar Latin). The first written records of Friulian have been found in administrative acts of the XIII century, but these documents became more frequent in the following century, when literary works also emerged (Frammenti letterari for example); the main center 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.

Relationship with Ladin (La questione ladina)

The idea of a unity among Ladin, Romansh and Friulian comes from the famous Italian glottologist 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; today we can see only those three languages, isolated from one another, that evolved differently (in particular, Friulian was much less influenced by German). The scholar Francescato claimed subsequently that until the XIV century the Venetian language shared a good number of phonetic features with Friulian and Ladin, therefore he thought that Friulian was a much more conservative language. It is also interesting to note that before the arrival of the Romans, the border between Carni and Venetic populations was the river Liquentia (nowadays Livenza), which is still the border between Friulian and Venetian today. The most widely-held opinion is that these languages were part of a family but were split many centuries ago; also, many features that Ascoli thought were peculiar to the Reto-Romance languages can in fact be found in other languages of northern Italy.

The area of diffusion

In Italy

Today, Friulian is spoken in the province of Pordenone, but widely throughout the province of Udine, including the area of the Carnia Alps, in more than half of the province of Gorizia and in the eastern part of the province of Venice. In the past the language borders were a wider, since also in Trieste and Muggia particular 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),

In the 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, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, the United States, and South Africa. In these countries there are associations of Friulian immigrants (called Fogolâr furlan) who try to protect their traditions and language.

Literature

The first texts in Friulian date 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. The first examples of literature that have survived (much from this period has been lost) is poetry from theXIV century, poems which are mainly dedicated to the theme of love and which were 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.

quant yò chi viot, dut stoi ardit cuant che jo ti viôt, o stoi dut ardît

Original text	Version in modern Friulian
Piruç myò doç inculurit	Piruç mio dolç inculurît

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 (i.e. dum(n) lo), a word which means young boy or girl and was used frequently in the past ) a modern Friulian speaker can understand only with 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)
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	^*	^*	^*	^*
pît	^*	^*	^*	^*
pôc	^*	^*	^*	^*
fûc	^*	^*	^*	^*

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 (or las in northern Friuli) 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 system 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 those influential 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 one almost always hear treno, chances are that if you see the word in print it will be seen 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

Note that in northern Friuli the feminine plural is pronounced brutes instead of brutis.

To form the plural, normal rules are followed; given a masculine singular form, the corresponding feminine form is not so straightforward:

in most cases, 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 -p, 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 are many words that 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.
the 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)
some French words entered Friulian vocabulary: examples include pardabon, really and gustâ, to have lunch

Present condition of Friulian

Nowadays, Friulian is officially recognized in Italy supported by 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 number of musical groups which use Friulian for their songs, as well as some theatrical companies, Recently two movies have been made in Friulian (Tierç lion, Lidrîs cuadrade di trê), with positive reviews in Italian newspapers. 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.

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, 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.

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 (the area of the old Contea di Gorizia e Gradisca

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, also called concordiese, from Concordia Sagittaria

words end in -a
Venetian influence
some claims that this is the more conservative variant

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 (^*), 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 foreign 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 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
Other exemples with music and lyrics

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

¹ Language similarity table

External links

from ^* – the Rosetta Edition

Friuli | Languages of Italy | Minority languages | Rhaeto-Romance languages | Wikipedia articles needing copy edit

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