Emilian language

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Unstandardized language spoken in Emilia, Italy

title: "Emilian language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["emilia-(region-of-italy)", "emilian-romagnol-language", "languages-of-italy", "languages-of-emilia-romagna", "languages-of-lombardy", "languages-of-liguria"] description: "Unstandardized language spoken in Emilia, Italy" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilian_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Unstandardized language spoken in Emilia, Italy ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Emilian
nativename	emigliân, emigliàn, emigliän
pronunciation
states	Italy
region	Primarily Emilia-Romagna. Border variants spoken in near Lombardy, Tuscany and Veneto's provinces.
ethnicity	3.3 million (2008)
speakers	Unknown, 1.3 million (2006 estimate)
date	2006
ref
familycolor	Indo-European
fam2	Italic
fam3	Latino-Faliscan
fam4	Latinic
fam5	Romance
fam6	Italo-Western
fam7	Western Romance
fam8	Gallo-Iberian?
fam9	Gallo-Romance
fam10	Gallo-Italic
fam11	Emilian–Romagnol
dia1	Judeo-Mantuan
dia2	Bolognese
dia3	Parmesan
dia4	Ferrarese
script	Latin
iso3	egl
glotto	emil1241
glottorefname	Emiliano
lingua	51-AAA-oka ... -okh
notice	IPA
map	Dialet dla laingua Emijana.png
map2	Lang Status 60-DE.svg
mapcaption2
::

Emilian (Reggiano, Parmesan and Modenese: emigliân; Bolognese: emigliàn; Piacentino: emigliän; ) is a Gallo-Italic unstandardised language spoken in the historical region of Emilia, which is now in the western part of Emilia-Romagna.

Emilian has a default word order of subject–verb–object and both grammatical gender (masculine and feminine) and grammatical number (singular and plural). There is a strong T–V distinction, which distinguishes varying levels of politeness, social distance, courtesy, familiarity or insult. The alphabet, largely adapted from the Italian (Tuscan) one, uses a considerable number of diacritics.

Classification

Main article: Gallo-Italic languages

Emilian is a Gallo-Italic language. Besides Emilian, the Gallo-Italic family includes Romagnol, Piedmontese, Ligurian and Lombard, all of which maintain a level of mutual intelligibility with Emilian.

{{anchor|Dialects}}Dialectal varieties

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.

Linguasphere Observatory recognises the following dialects:

Mantuan, spoken in all but the very north of the Province of Mantua in Lombardy. It has a strong Lombard influence.
[[File:Pavel speaking Emilian.webm|thumb|Pavel speaking Emilian]]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.
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.
Reggiano (Arzân), spoken in the Province of Reggio Emilia, although the northern parts (such as Guastalla, Luzzara and Reggiolo) of the province are not part of this group and closer to Mantuan.
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.
Bolognese, spoken in all the Metropolitan City of Bologna but the Romagnol comuni of: Imola, Dozza, Borgo Tossignano, Fontanelice, Castel del Rio, Mordano and Casalfiumanese (all beyond the river Santerno); in around Castelfranco Emilia (Modena); in the Province of Ferrara (Cento, Poggio Renatico, Sant'Agostino and Mirabello) and in Pavana (Province of Pistoia, Tuscany).
Ferrarese, spoken in the Province of Ferrara (except for Cento and surroundings), southern Veneto, and Comacchio. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Manifesto_in_dialetto_carrarese.jpg" caption="Poster in Carrarese dialect"] ::
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.

Other definitions include the following:

Massese (mixed with some Tuscan features)
Casalasco, spoken in Casalmaggiore, Lombardy.
Comacchiese, as distinct from Ferrarese

Vocabulary

There is no widespread standard orthography. The words below are written in a nonspecific Emilian script. ::data[format=table title="Words in Emilian{{Cite book |last1=Lepri |first1=Luigi |title=Dizionario bolognese-italiano, italiano bolognese / Dizionèri bulgnais-itagliàn, itagliàn-bulugnais |last2=Vitali |first2=Daniele |publisher=Pendragon |year=2007 |isbn=978-88-8342-594-3 |location=Bologna |language=it}}{{Cite book |url=http://panizzi.comune.re.it/Sezione.jsp?idSezione=2614 |title=Vocabolario reggiano-italiano |publisher=Torreggiani |year=1832 |location=Reggio |language=it |via=Biblioteca Panizzi}}"]

Emilian	IPA	English
êit, èlt		high
lêregh		wide
longh, loangh		long, tall
tōl, tegh	,	to take
fâṡ, fâż		beech
bdoall		birch
znêr, żnèr		January
fervêr		February
ed, ad		and
dîṡ		to say, ten (only in Bolognese)
ê, é		(he/she) is
aloura		so, then
::

Phonology

Consonants

::data[format=table title="Consonants in the Bolognese dialect"] | Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alv./ Palatal | Velar | Stop/ Affricate | voiceless | voiced | Fricative | voiceless | voiced | Nasal | Rhotic | Approximant | central | lateral | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ::

Affricate sounds [, ] can also be heard as alternates of fricative sounds /, / particularly among southern dialects.
In the Piacentino dialect, an // sound can be heard as either an alveolar trill [], or as a uvular fricative [] sound.

Vowels

::data[format=table]

Front	Central	Back	Close	Mid	Open




::

Rounded front vowel sounds /, , / and a mid-central vowel sound // are mainly common in the Piacentino and western dialects.
In the Piacentino dialect, five vowel sounds being followed by //, are then recognized as nasalized , unless // occurs between two vowel sounds.
Vowel length is also distinguished for the following vowels .

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.

References

Bibliography

References

Miani, Ivan. (2008-04-12). "Request for New Language Code Element in ISO 639-3, page 1ISO 639-3 Registration Authority Request for New Language Code Element in ISO 639-3".
Istituto nazionale di statistica. (2007-04-20). "La lingua italiana, i dialetti e le lingue straniere, Anno 2006".
"51-AAA-ok. emiliano + romagnolo". Linguasphere.
(2007). "Dizionario bolognese-italiano, italiano bolognese / Dizionèri bulgnais-itagliàn, itagliàn-bulugnais". Pendragon.
(1832). "Vocabolario reggiano-italiano". Torreggiani.
Foresti, Fabio. (2009). "Profilo linguistico dell'Emilia-Romagna". Laterza.
(2009). "Dizionario bolognese-italiano italiano-bolognese / Dizionèri bulgnaiṡ-itagliàn itagliàn-bulgnaiṡ". Pendragon.
Hajek, John. (1997). "The Dialects of Italy". Routledge.

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