The Parmigiano dialect, sometimes anglicized as the Parmesan dialect, (al djalètt pramzàn) is a variety of the Emilian language spoken in the Province of Parma, the western-central portion of the Emilia-Romagna administrative region.

Terminology

The term dialetto, usually translated as dialect in English, is commonly used in reference to all local Romance languages native to Italy, many of which are not mutually intelligible with Standard Italian and all of which have developed from Vulgar Latin independently. Parmigiano is no exception and is a variety of Emilian, not of Italian.

Classification

Parmigiano is a dialect of Emilian, which is identified as "seriously endangered" by UNESCO.

Emilian is part of the Gallo-Italic family, which also includes Romagnol, Piedmontese, Ligurian, and Lombard. Among these, Ligurian in particular has influenced Parmigiano.

History Parmigiano has much of the history as Emilian, but at some point, it diverged from other versions of that linguistic group. It now lies somewhere between Western Emilian, which includes Piacentino, and Central Emilian, which includes Reggiano and Modenese. Like the other Emilian dialects, it has fewer speakers than ever because of political, social and economic factors, but La Repubblica has suggested that it is changing. It is still declining but more slowly, as parents are keen to preserve their ancestral roots.Gilmour

Its origins are with Gauls, who occupied the Parma area in around 400 BC, who had stayed there after the invasion of the Romans. The lexicon was therefore a type of Latin influenced by Gaulish. The Gauls, or Celts, left their mark on modern Parmigiano in some words today, such as gozèn "pig", scrana "chair" and sôga "rope". As a result of Spanish and especially French invasions, Parmigiani began to use words which came from a French language that had Latin roots. That is seen in tirabusòn "corkscrew" (similar to Modern French's tire-bouchon) vert "open" (French: ouvert), pòmm da téra "potato" (French: pomme de terre) and many other words.

Geographic distribution Parmigiano is mainly spoken in the province of Parma. The vocabulary and vowels vary across the region, particularly between the urban and rural dialects, as there was once little mobility from within to outside the city walls. The dialect spoken outside Parma is often called Arioso or Parmense within the city itself, but variation is less pronounced than it once was. The dialect spoken in Casalmaggiore in the Province of Cremona to the north of Parma is closely related to Parmigiano. Parmigiano subdialects have three forms: Low Parmigiano, which is native to a northern part of the province that lies between the Po and the Via Aemilia and whose largest town is Colorno. Western Parmigiano, which is heard around Fidenza and Salsomaggiore Terme and has been strongly influenced by Piacentino, another Emilian language. High Parmigiano, which has been affected by Ligurian and is spoken in the Apennine region to the south.

An example of the variation is the word bombèn "very well". In 1861, the popular forms were moltbein and monbén, but it has also taken these forms: montben, mondbén, moltbén, moltbein, monbén, and mombén. In the "Western Parmigiano" it's used a variety of locutions with the same meaning of bombèn, such as bèn a bota or bèn da bòn.

Official status Like other varieties of Emilian, Parmigiano is not recognised as a minority dialect in the European Union or in Italy. Since 27 June 2000, Italy has been a signatory of the Council of Europe's European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which aims to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe, but it has not ratified it.

Phonology

Consonants LabialCoronalPostalveolar /PalatalDorsalNasalmn̪ɲŋOcclusiveunv.pt̪t͡ʃkv.bd̪d͡ʒgFricativeunv.fs̠(ʃ)v.vz̠ApproximantwljRhoticr(ʁ)

The phonemic status of /ŋ/ is debated. While most sources claim that /ŋ/ contrasts with /n/ in coda position, this assertion is challenged by Michelini, who instead asserts that [ŋ] is merely a word-final allophone of /n/ following vowels with simple intonation. A peculiarity of Parmigiano, which it does however share with some other Emilian dialects, is the cluster /ŋn/. /s, z/ are retracted alveolar [s̠, z̠], while /n, t, d/ are dental [n̪, t̪, d̪]. /ʃ/ is only present in recent loanwords from Italian, and is variously substituted by /s̠/. [ʁ] is a common realization of /r/. Its presence varies by speaker.

Vowels FrontCentralBackCloseiuClose-mideoOpen-midɛɔOpena There is considerable debate regarding the phonemic nature of vowels in Parmigiano. Traditionally, it is analysed as having a length contrast between vowels, with each vowel having a short and a long variant. Other studies suggest that vowel length is allophonic and determined by the length of the next consonant. Most recently, it has been shown that a better description of the contrast mentioned above is one of pitch accent (or intonation, as Michelini terms it). What was considered to originally have been a short stressed vowel shows "simple intonation" (flat tone), and originally long stressed vowels show "rising intonation" (rising tone). Vowels followed by /l, m, n, r/ which are in turn followed by a consonant are considered to have simple intonation, but rising intonation applies to the whole unit: the sonorants are treated as if they were the falling element of a diphthong. Finally, there exists a falling intonation, which is phonemic on very few words: bènla ("skunk"), tènra ("tender", f.sg.), sèndra ("ash"). Otherwise, falling intonation can substitute rising intonation in sentence final imperative verbs.

Writing system

Parmigiano is written using the Latin alphabet, but spelling can vary within a dialect. It has never been standardised, and the language is rarely written.

Still, a number of Parmigiano-Italian dictionaries have been published. Angelo Mazza and translator Clemente Bondi were prolific writers of poetry in Parmigiano. Most of the works were first published in the late 1700s or the early to mid-1800s.

Currently, one of the most widely adopted orthographies is that devised by Guglielmo Capacchi, author of perhaps the most complete Italian-Parmigiano dictionary to date. A more recent orthography was created in 2017 by Guido Michelini, with the aim to convey the exact pronunciation to readers that may be unfamiliar with spoken Parmigiano.

Comparison between orthographies

Vowels IPACapacchi orthographyMichelini orthographyunstressedstressedunstressedsimple intonationrising intonationfalling intonationshortlong/a/aàaàaààa/ɛ/eèäeèeèèe/e/ééeéée/i/iìiìiììi/ɔ/oòoòoòòo/o/óóoóóo/u/uùuùuùùu

Consonants IPAConditionsCapacchi orthographyMichelini orthographyusuallyafter short stressed vowel/m/mmmm/n/Not word-finallynnnnWord-finallynʼnnʼ/ŋ/nn/ŋn/ -nʼnⁿn/ɲ/gnggngn/p/pppp/t/tttt/k/Before consonant or back vowelccccWord-finallychcchBefore front vowelch/tʃ/Before back vowelcicciciWord-finally or before consonantcʼccʼćBefore front vowelcccc/b/bbbb/d/dddd/g/Before consonant or back vowelggggWord-finallyghgghBefore front vowelgh/dʒ/Before back vowelgiggigiWord-finally or before consonantgʼggʼǵBefore front vowelgggg/f/ffff/s̠/ssss/s̠t͡ʃ/Before back vowelsʼcissʼcisćiWord-finally or before consonantsʼcʼssʼcʼsćBefore front vowelsʼcssʼc/ʃ/Only in loanwordsscsscsc/v/vvvv/z̠/zzzz/l/llll/r/rrrr/ʁ//j/jjjj/w/u -u

Grammar Parmigiano is a synthetic language like Italian and French (but much less so than Classical Latin) and shares several notable features with most other Romance languages:

loss of Latin's declension and the neuter grammatical gender for nouns development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives new tenses formed from auxiliaries

Nouns and most pronouns are inflected for number (singular or plural); adjectives, for number and gender (masculine or feminine), agreeing with their respective nouns; personal pronouns, for person, number, gender, and case; and verbs, for mood, tense, and the person and number of their subjects. Case is primarily marked using word order and prepositions, and certain verb features are marked using auxiliary verbs.

Verbs Verbs in Parmigiano are usually divided into four conjugations based on their ending in the infinitive form: -är, -ér, -or, -ìr.

There are three persons (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and two numbers (singular, plural) in finite moods. The finite moods are indicative, subjunctive, conditional and imperative. The indicative further has 3 simple tenses (present, imperfect, future) and 3 compound tenses (perfect, plurperfect, future perfect). The subjunctive has 2 simple tenses (present, imperfect) and 2 compound tenses (past, plurperfect). The conditional has one simple tense (present) and one compound tense (past).

Non-finite moods are the present infinitive, the past infinitive (compound tense), the present gerund, the past gerund and the past participle. The present participle is not used, and the gerund is very rare, most of its original functions being expressed periphrastically.

Conjugation of regular verbs in -är Indicative: -är; gerund: -ànd; past participle: -è (m.sg., m.pl.), -äda (f.sg.), -ädi (f.pl.) NumberPersonIndicativeSubjunctiveConditionalImperativePresentImperfectFuturePresentImperfectPresentPresentSingular1stmi a -mi a -ävami a -aròmi a -ami a -ìssmi a -arè/-arìss2ndti t -ti t -ävti t -arèti t -ti t -ìssti t -arìss -a3rdmlu al -alu al -ävalu al -aràlu al -alu al -ìsslu al -arè/arìssflè la -alè la -ävalè la -aràlè la -alè la -ìsslè la -arè/arìssPlural1stnuätor a -èmmanuätor a -ävonnuätor a -arèmmanuätor a -èmmanuätor a -ìssonnuätor a -arìsson -èmma2ndvuätor a -ìvuätor a -ävovvuätor a -arìvuätor a -ìvuätor a -ìssovvuätor a -arìssov -ì3rdlór i -onlór i -ävonlór i -arànlór i -onlór i -ìssonlór i -arìsson

Conjugation of regular verbs in -ér Indicative: -ér; gerund: -énd; past participle: -ù (m.sg., m.pl.), -uda (f.sg.), -udi (f.pl.) NumberPersonIndicativeSubjunctiveConditionalImperativePresentImperfectFuturePresentImperfectPresentPresentSingular1stmi a -mi a -ävami a -ròmi a -ami a -ìssmi a -rè/-rìss2ndti t -ti t -ävti t -rèti t -ti t -ìssti t -rìss -3rdmlu al -lu al -ävalu al -ràlu al -alu al -ìsslu al -rè/-rìssflè la -lè la -ävalè la -ràlè la -alè la -ìsslè la -rè/-rìssPlural1stnuätor a -èmmanuätor a -ävonnuätor a -rèmmanuätor a -èmmanuätor a -ìssonnuätor a -rìsson -èmma2ndvuätor a -ìvuätor a -ävovvuätor a -rìvuätor a -ìvuätor a -ìssovvuätor a -rìssov -ì3rdlór i -onlór i -ävonlór i -rànlór i -onlór i -ìssonlór i -rìsson

Conjugation of regular verbs in -or Indicative: -or (stressed on the root); gerund: -énd; past participle: -ù (m.sg., m.pl.), -uda (f.sg.), -udi (f.pl.) NumberPersonIndicativeSubjunctiveConditionalImperativePresentImperfectFuturePresentImperfectPresentPresentSingular1stmi a -mi a -ävami a -ròmi a -ami a -ìssmi a -rè/-rìss2ndti t -ti t -ävti t -rèti t -ti t -ìssti t -rìss -3rdmlu al -alu al -ävalu al -ràlu al -alu al -ìsslu al -rè/-rìssflè la -alè la -ävalè la -ràlè la -alè la -ìsslè la -rè/-rìssPlural1stnuätor a -èmmanuätor a -ävonnuätor a -rèmmanuätor a -èmmanuätor a -ìssonnuätor a -rìsson -èmma2ndvuätor a -ìvuätor a -ävovvuätor a -rìvuätor a -ìvuätor a -ìssovvuätor a -rìssov -ì3rdlór i -onlór i -ävonlór i -rànlór i -onlór i -ìssonlór i -rìsson

Conjugation of regular verbs in -ìr Indicative: -ìr; gerund: -énd; past participle: -ì (m.sg., m.pl.), -ida (f.sg.), -idi (f.pl.)