German Dialects in Italy Part II

By | February 8, 2022

Val Canale. – Another linguistic peninsula is the Val Canale (ie the upper course of the Fella), up to Pontebba Nuova. The profound difference between the two villages on both sides of the old border (Pontebba-Pontafel), now considerably overcome, is explained by the fact that the border crossed here from about 1000 onwards. The linguistic problem is complicated by the fact that German and Slovenian meet in Val Canale; the first is the usual language of Pontebba Nuova, Lusnizza, S. Caterina, Malborghetto and Tarvisio, the second that of three small towns at the mouth of the Val Bruna: Ugovizza, Valbruna and Camporosso. In the main and oldest settlements of Pontebba Nuova, Malborghetto and Tarvisio, which were industrial centers and market places, the Italian population was overwhelmed during the course of the century. XV, but Venetian remained the commercial language. The Slovenian colonization seems prior to the German one: at least in Camporosso it certainly overlapped with local elements. The dialect spoken here is of the Carinthian type.

Colonies of Alto Perginese ,  Thirteen Municipalities ,  Seven Municipalities . – While in South Tyrol the German gained noticeably in the modern era, these German colonies have been in significant decline for centuries. History, toponymy and onomastics teach that the current very modest German islet of Alto Perginese (Palù, Frassilongo) was flanked at EOS by other allocations from the Roncegno mountain to the community of Pinè. In geographical continuation of the Veronese island of the Thirteen Municipalities, Lavarone, Terragnolo, Folgaria and Vallarsa were once Germans in southern Trentino and, while today German is limited to the innermost part of the Thirteen Municipalities, it once arrived in Badia Calavena and S. Pietro (see  Italy dial., VII, pp. 83-90). The same fact is repeated in the Seven Municipalities of Vicenza, where German is now restricted to Roana, Rozzo, Foza and Ronchi, while the toponymic data include the entire hilly system of Asiago in the intedescata area and connect the Seven and Thirteen Municipalities with the German islands. absorbed in N. and O. del Pasubio. But in the interior of this mountainous territory the communication difficulties did not allow the merging into a single dialectal type of the single and independent Baiuvian settlements: similar but not identical is the German of the Seven and Thirteen Municipalities (called, very improperly, “Cimbrian” ); it is differentiated from the lusernate which in turn detaches itself considerably from the mòcheno (Alto Perginese). Since, with the exception of the mocheno, for which it is a more recent settlement, and for Lavarone and Folgaria, which are older colonies (around 1166 and 1150), the other German islands of Trentino-Veronese-Vicenza are contemporary foundations from the second half of the century. XIII, the dialectal differences are explained by admitting that the settlers arrived in their final locations from different points of the Bavarian territory. A feature common to all German colonies on Italian soil is, as was to be expected, archaism, so that Bavarian innovations from the mid-thirteenth century onwards are not documented. The seriousness of the Perginese colony shines precisely in the displacement of A feature common to all German colonies on Italian soil is, as was to be expected, archaism, so that Bavarian innovations from the mid-thirteenth century onwards are not documented. The seriousness of the Perginese colony shines precisely in the displacement of A feature common to all German colonies on Italian soil is, as was to be expected, archaism, so that Bavarian innovations from the mid-thirteenth century onwards are not documented. The seriousness of the Perginese colony shines precisely in the displacement of  ad  ò  e di  ä  ad   which is missing in the nearby dialectal islands, which date back to an earlier period. Therefore, if also in the latter  ê  we diphthongas in  ea  ( béata  from mat  wêtac  “disease”) or  ô , also from  ei , it gives  òa  ( hòazanheissen  “to call”); if the diphthongs mat  ou ,  awi ,  ie ,  uo ,  iu ,  üe , correspond  to òa ,  öu ,  ia,  ua ,  au ,  üa  ( lòavan  –  laufen  “running”  höbe  –  Heu  “hay”,  khnia  –  Knie  “knee”,  schua  “shoe”  khaughe  – mat  Kiuwe  “jaw”,  müade  –  müde , “tired”;  î ,  û ,  iu  correspond to the most modern diphthongs  ai ,  au ,  aü  ( zait ,  haus ,  khraüz “Time, house, cross”), these are evolutions already advanced in Bavarian at the time in which these colonies were deduced. Conservative phenomena in consonantism are: the remainder of the  intervocalic  as lene, without the further decaying to  v , the somewhat squashed pronunciation of the  s , the maintenance of   in the mid-high ted. in cases where modern Bavarian uses  f , the degradation of   to   in the prefix  be  –  wo  and in examples of the type  wĭschof  –  Bischof  “bishop”,  wāwost  –  Papst “Papa”, the distinction between the strong   and the lene  d , which between vowels reaches a spirant. Remarkable in the dialect of the Seven Municipalities the preservation of the timbre of the ancient full unstressed vowels, for example. di –  and –  in the nominative of the weak masculine and feminine nouns and di – or  in the comparative, archaic phase of which there is no trace in the other islands.

Colonies of Friuli and Monte Rosa . – According to itypeauto, the alloglot islands of Friuli and Monte Rosa date back to the same period. Val Sesia was colonized in the century. XII by emigrants from the Canton of Valais, Macugnaga between 1261 and 1291 by plows from the Saas Valley, Ornavasso between 1275 and 1307 by settlers from Naters. Sappada in the Upper Cadore, Sauris in the Friulian Val Lumiëi and Timau at the bottom of the But valley speak a very similar dialect, of Pùstera or Carinthian origin with less archaic features of the “Cimbro”.

German Dialects in Italy 2