Romanian dialects. – Romanian, or rather Istroromanian (which is one of the four fundamental dialects in which Romanian is subdivided; see romania: Lingua) is spoken only in Istria, in two groups of villages divided between them by Učka. The northern group now includes only the village of Seiane, of 540 inhabitants, in the municipality of Castelnuovo d’Istria in the province of Rijeka. The southern group is formed by the Romanians of the Valdarsa municipality and includes seven villages with a total of 2044 inhabitants. The Istrian is constantly losing ground to the Croatian, and now also to the Italian. The Istroromanian dialect has a remarkable individuality, having separated in a considerably ancient period; according to some scholars, it represents the last and most northern remnant of that language spoken by the so-called “Western Romanians” who from the Balkans had gone up to Krk and Istria and who left many traces of their passage also in Dalmatia; according to others, it should be considered almost as an offshoot of the Dacoromenus. The comprehensibility between an Istroromanian and a Romanian speaking one of the other three basic dialects (Dacoromeno, Aromeno and Meglenitico) is excluded.
Among the numerous characteristics of Istroromeno we will mention: in phonetics: 1. the passage of final ă to ę (both tonic and unstressed); p. eg, farę “afară”, sęrę “seară”, dę “dă”, l’ę “ia” [‹levat], etc .; 2. the reduction of the diphthong o to o : p. eg, codę “coadă”, noptę “noapte”, osele “oasele”; 3. the passage of u̯ to v , both in an intervocalic position, and as a second element of the diphthongs au , eu , and at the end of a word: p. e.g., dova “A doua”, nova “nouă = new”, avzit “auzit”, grăv “grâu”; 4. the change of nv into ( n ) m : p. eg, ( ă ) nmeţå “învăţà” (‹ invite , cf. alb. m ε soń ); 5. the contraction of e + a into a : p. eg, cåla “calea”; 6. rhotacism ( n > r ) almost identical to that found in the most ancient texts from Choromena, for which n intervocalic passes into r in the Latin elements: p. eg, burę “bună”, bire “ bine”, gal ′ irę “găină”, lărę “lână”, etc .; 7. a negative feature is the absence of the lip palatalization, which is found in the sub -anubian dialects and in part of the Dacoromeno; 8. phonetic characteristic due to the Slavic influence is the epentesis of an l ‘between a labial and an i̯ (then merged into the l ‘): p. eg., pl ′ erde “pierde”, fl ′ er “fier” (see Serbo -Croatian zdravlje from zdravje). In the morphology we will remember: 1. the change of m into n in the first person plural: p. eg, virin “venim”; 2. the analogical ending – u in the third person of the verbs of the first conjugation: p. eg, iel’åflu “ei află”; 3. the introduction of the present indicative form also in the present subjunctive of the first conjugation, in the third pers .: p. eg, neca åflę “sa afle”; 4. the numbering system which differs from that of other dialects (albeit strongly influenced by Croatian); 5. a new type of conjugation in – êi̯ which generally includes verbs borrowed from Italian. or from Croatian: p. eg, gambięi̯ ‹“ To change ”, urdinęi̯ ‹ “to order”, zecopęi̯ ‹“ zakopati ”; 6. the new imperfect in – åi̯a – ęi̯a – ii̯a : p. eg, aflåi̯a “aflà”, sedęi̯a “Şedeà”, verii̯a “venià”.
Finally, there are some syntactic characteristics (especially notable the greater extension of the use of the infinitive) and several lexical characteristics, both of conservation and innovation. Although Istroromanian retains some voices that have disappeared in the other dialects ( åsir ‹asinus, ií ‹ ire, etc.), the isolation of the speakers in a foreign environment, their bilingualism (and often trilingualism), has made the lexicon full of Croatian and Italian (Venetian) elements.
Catalan dialects. – A Catalan dialect is spoken in the city of Alghero. A Catalan garrison was left in that city by Peter IV of Catalonia-Aragon, after he had won the Genoese fleet in 1353; tamed in the following year, in a second expedition, a revolt, Alghero, was annexed to the Aragonese crown. In 1372 the Sardinians were expelled from the city.
According to timedictionary, the Alghero dialect corresponds significantly to the common Catalan: above all it is linked to the Barcelona dialect from which the first settlers came. There are few peculiarities of Algherese as opposed to common Catalan (for example, the passage of – d – primary or secondary into – r -, cat. Viuria , algh. Viuria , cat. Moneda , algh. Munera ) . The Sardinian influence is felt especially in the lexicon.
