Faetar language

Faetar
Faetano and Cellese Francoprovençal
Pronunciation[ˈfajdar]
Native toItaly
RegionFoggia
Native speakers
< 1,000 (2010)[1]
Early forms
Latin (no official orthography)
Official status
Official language in
Franco-Provençal protected by statute in Italy[3]
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottologfaet1240  Faeto and Celle San Vito Francoprovencal
IETFfrp-u-sd-itfg
External videos
Faedar/Cellese speech
video icon “Cellese - 4 Oral Histories”, May 2, 2016, Endangered Language Alliance of Toronto.

Faetar, fully known as Faetar–Cigliàje (Italian: Faetano–Cellese), is a variety of the Franco-Provençal language that is spoken in two small communities in Foggia, Italy: Faeto and Celle di San Vito, as well as émigré communities in Ontario, Canada (primarily Toronto and Brantford).

Although Faetar shares many similarities with other varieties of Franco-Provençal, as well as Italian, it is distinct from both. Because Faeto and Celle di San Vito have been isolated from the rest of Italy by the Daunian mountains, and also due to the influence of Irpinian dialects (spoken in almost all neighboring villages),[4] Faetar has evolved and changed over the centuries into a distinct language.

After a large wave of emigration from Italy after the Second World War, many Faetano and Cellese settled in North America; with a relatively large group immigrating to Toronto, Canada. The language has been studied both in its native Italy, and in Toronto, because of its small number of speakers, its unique blend of Italian and Franco-Provençal features, and its changes brought on by language contact.

Although not given a distinct language code from Franco-Provençal, it is listed by UNESCO as "definitely endangered".[5]

  1. ^ [1] Archived 6 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Nagy, N. Lexical change and language contact: Francoprovençal in Italy and Canada. in M. Meyerhoff, C. Adachi, A. Daleszynska & A. Strycharz (eds.) The Proceedings of Summer School of Sociolinguistics 2010, Edinburgh.
  2. ^ a b Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (24 May 2022). "Glottolog 4.8 - Oil". Glottolog. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on 11 November 2023. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  3. ^ Norme in materia di tutela delle minoranze linguistiche storiche (in Italian), Italian Parliament
  4. ^ Dieter Kattenbusch (1982). Das Frankoprovenzalische in Süditalien (in German). Tübingen.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ [2], UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.