Gallo-Italic languages

== Geographical distribution ==

Within this sub-family, the language with the largest geographic spread is Lombard, spoken in the Italian region of Lombardy, in eastern Piedmont and western Trentino. Outside Italy it is widespread in Switzerland in the canton of Ticino, and some southern valleys of the canton of the Grisons. Piedmontese refers to the languages spoken in the region of Piedmont and the north west corner of Liguria. Historically, the Piedmontese-speaking area is the plain at the foot of the Western Alps, and ends at the entrance to the valleys where Occitan and Franco-Provençal are spoken. In recent centuries, the language has also spread into these valleys, where it is also more widely spoken than these two languages, thus the borders of Piedmontese have reached the western alps watershed that is the border with France. The speaking area of Ligurian or Genoese cover the territory of the former Republic of Genoa, which included much of nowadays Liguria, and some mountain areas of bordering regions near the Ligurian border, the upper valley of Roya river near Nice, in Carloforte and Calasetta in Southern Sardinia, and Bonifacio in Corsica. Emilian is spoken in the historical-cultural region of Emilia, which forms part of Emilia-Romagna, but also in many areas of the bordering regions, including southern Lombardy, south-eastern Piedmont, around the town of Tortona, province of Massa and Carrara in Tuscany and Polesine in Veneto, near the Po delta. With Romagnol, spoken in the historical region of Romagna, forms the Emilian-Romagnol linguistic continuum. Gallo-Piceno (gallo-italic of the Marches or gallico-marchigiano) is spoken in the province of Pesaro and Urbino and in the northern part of the province of Ancona (Marche). Once classified as a dialect of Romagnol, now there is a debate about considering it a separated Gallo-Italic language. Isolated varieties in Sicily and in Basilicata (Southern Gallo-Italic variants) Varieties of Gallo-Italic languages are also found in Sicily, == General classification ==

• Gallo-Italic • Piedmontese • Ligurian • Lombard • Western Lombard dialects • Eastern Lombard dialects • Emilian • Romagnol • Gallo-Piceno • Gallo-Italic of Basilicata • Gallo-Italic of Sicily • (Venetian) == Phonology ==

Gallo-Italic languages are often said to resemble Western Romance languages like French, Spanish, or Portuguese, and in large part it is due to their phonology. The Gallo-Italic languages differ somewhat in their phonology from one language to another, but the following are the most important characteristics, as contrasted with Italian: Vowels • Most Gallo-Italic languages have lost all unstressed final vowels except , e.g. Lombard òm "man", füm "smoke", nef "snow", fil "wire", röda "wheel" (Italian uomo, fumo, neve, filo, ruota). They remain, however, in Ligurian, with passage of -o to -u, except after n; e.g. ramu, rami, lüme, lümi "branch, branches, light, lights" (Italian ramo, rami, lume, lumi), but can, chen "dog, dogs" (Italian cane, cani). • u tends to evolve as ü , as in French and Occitan, as in Lombard füm (Italian fumo "smoke") and Ligurian lüme, Piedmont lüm (Italian lume "light"). In some parts, e.g. southern Piedmont, this has further developed into , e.g. fis (Italian fuso), lim (Italian lume "light"). In some mountainous parts of Piedmont, however (e.g. Biellese, Ossolano), this development was blocked before final , leading to masculine crü (Italian crudo "raw") but feminine cru(v)a (Italian cruda). • Metaphony is very common, affecting original open stressed è and ò when followed by or sometimes (operating before final vowels were dropped). This leads at first to diphthongs ie and uo, but in many dialects these progress further, typically to monophthongs i and ö . Unlike standard Italian diphthongization, this typically operates both in open and closed syllables, hence in Lombardy (where typically but not triggers metaphony) quest (Italian questo "this") vs. quist (Italian questi "these"). • Stressed closed é and sometimes ó , when occurring in an open syllable (followed by at most one consonant) often diphthongized to and , as in Old French; e.g. Piedmont beive (Italian bere < *bévere "to drink"), teila (Italian tela "cloth"), meis (Italian mese "month"). In some dialects, developed further into either or , e.g. tèla < *teila (Italian tela "cloth"), sira (Italian sera "evening"), mis (Italian mese "month"). • Stressed in an open syllable often fronts to ä or è . Consonants • Lenition affects single consonants between vowels. and drop; becomes or drops; and become and , or drop; becomes , , or drops. between vowels voices to . between vowels sometimes becomes , and this sometimes drops. Double consonants are reduced to single consonants, but not otherwise lenited. becomes velarized to . These changes occur before a final vowel drops. After loss of final vowels, however, further changes sometimes affect the newly final consonants, with voiced obstruents often becoming voiceless, and final sometimes dropping. Liguria, especially in former times, showed particularly severe lenition, with total loss of intervocalic , , , , , , (probably also , but not ) in Old Genoese, hence müa (Latin matura "early"), a éia e âe? (Italian aveva le ali? "did it have wings?"; modern ''a l'aveiva e ae?'' with restoration of various consonants due to Italian influence). In Liguria and often elsewhere, collapse of adjacent vowels due to loss of an intervocalic consonant produced new long vowels, notated with a circumflex. • and preceding , or often assibilitated historically to and , respectively. This typically does not occur in Lombardy, however, and parts of Liguria have intermediate and , while Piemontese varieties typically have differential developments, with assibilating (sent '100'), but retaining palatalization (gent 'people'). • Latin palatalized to (Piemontese ciav, Romagnol ceva 'key'); similarly from Latin develops as . In Liguria, and from Latin and are affected in the same way, e.g. Ligurian cian (Italian piano "soft") and giancu (Italian bianco "white"). • Latin develops into , or , varying by locale (contrast Italian ). Lexical comparison == Comparisons of the sentence: "She always closes the window before dining."==