Intemelio dialect

Intemelio
Native to Monaco, France, Italy
Native speakers
approximately 10,000 (date missing)
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog None
Linguasphere 51-AAA-ohb (Imperia)
Monaco -with Menton- was the extreme western area of the Republic of Genoa (green color) in 1664. Intemelio was spoken in this area, primarily between Ventimiglia and Sanremo.

Intemelio is a Ligurian dialect spoken historically from the Principality of Monaco to the Italian province of Imperia.

History

Since before the Renaissance the Ligurian language was spoken in all the territories of the Republic of Genoa : in the western area of this republic one of its groups (spoken mainly on the coast between Monaco and Sanremo) was called Intemelio and was centered on Ventimiglia[1]

In the actual Italian area of Ventimiglia there it is the most renowned Intemelio: the "Ventimigliese", that stretches from the coast until Piedmont.

The Royasc dialect is connected to the "Ventimigliese", as a mountainous version of the intemelio that has some occitan influences.

In Sanremo the local intemelio dialect is heavily influenced by the Genoese dialect.

Actual use

Intemelio is used by nearly 10,000 people in the area of Ventimiglia of the province of Imperia, but other 40,000 are able to understand it and speak a few sentences of this dialect in western Liguria.

A few thousands speak fluently the local variants of intemelio in France and Monaco: Monegasque, Mentonasc and Brigasc.

Anecdote

The Ligurian area of Seborga speaks the "ventimigliese" dialect Intemelio and the so-called Principality of Seborga considered the possibility of using this dialect as the official language.[2]

See also

References

  1. The counts of Ventimiglia (in Italian)
  2. Seborga official site

Bibliography

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 5/22/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.