A sign in Venetian reading "Here we also speak Venetian"

Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken by over five million people,^[1] mostly in the Veneto region of Italy. The language is called vèneto in Venetian, veneto in Italian; the variant spoken in Venice is called venezsiàn/venesiàn or veneziano, respectively. Although commonly referred to as an Italian dialect (diałeto, dialetto), even by its speakers, it displays notable structural differences from Italian proper. It belongs to the Northern Italian group within Romance languages. Flag of Rio Grande do Sul See other Brazilian States Capital Porto Alegre Largest City Porto Alegre Area 282,062 km² Population   - Total   - Density 10. ... Capital Florianópolis Largest city Joinville Demonym catarinense or barriga-verde Government  -  Governor Luiz Henrique  -  Vice Governor Leonel Pavan Area  -  Total 95. ... Chipilo is a small city in the state of Puebla, Mexico. ... The Mexican state of Puebla is located in the center of the country, to the east of Mexico City. ... County Tulcea County Status County capital Mayor Constantin Hogea, Democratic Party , since 2004 Population (2002) 91,875 Geographical coordinates , Web site http://www. ... A satellite image of the Adriatic Sea. ... This article is in need of attention. ... A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common proto-language. ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ... Hypothetical distribution of languages in Iron Age Italy during the sixth century BC. The Italic subfamily is a member of the Centum branch of the Indo-European language family. ... The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ... Italo-Western redirects here. ... Gallo-Romance languages Gallo-Italian languages Lombard Piedmontese Emilian-Romagnol Venetian Ligurian Gallo-Rhaetian languages Oïl languages(including French) Burgundian Champenois Franc-Comtois French Gallo Lorrain Norman Anglo-Norman Channel Island Norman Auregnais Dgèrnésiais Jèrriais Sercquiais Picard Poitevin-Saintongeais Walloon Rhaetian languages Friulian Ladin Romansh *Franco... The Gallo-Romance branch of Romance languages includes French, Oïl languages, Catalan, and Occitan, among other languages. ... Gallo-Italic or Cisalpine is a language family within the Gallo-Romance languages. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1280x1024, 309 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Venetian language Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1280x1024, 309 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Venetian language Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to... The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ... Veneto or Venetia, is one of the 20 regions of Italy. ... For other uses, see Venice (disambiguation). ... The Italian people generally indicates as Italian dialects all vernacular idioms spoken in Italy other than Italian and other recognized languages. ... Northern Italian (traditional name in Romance linguistics) or Padanian (recent name) or Cisalpine (rare name) is a linguistic set with different definitions. ... The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ...

On March 28, 2007 the Regional Council of Vèneto officially recognized the existence of the Venetan Language (Łéngua Vèneta) by passing with a vast majority the law on the "tutela e valorizzazione della lingua e della cultura veneta" with the vote of both ruling and opposition parties.

Venetan proper can be distinguished from Venetian Italian, the dialect of Italian influenced by local Venetian features that is also spoken in the region. Compare:

(1) Venetan: Marco el xe drio rivar ('Marco is arriving')

(2) Venetian Italian: Marco (el) sta rivando

(3) Standard Italian: Marco sta arrivando

Venetian should also not be confused with Venetic, an apparently unrelated (and extinct) Indo-European language that was spoken in the Veneto region around the 6th century BC. Venetic is an extinct Indo-European language that was spoken in ancient times in the Veneto region of Italy, between the Po River delta and the southern fringe of the Alps. ...

History

A street sign in Venice using the Venetian calle, as opposed to the Italian via.

Venetian descends from Vulgar Latin, possibly influenced by the Venetic substratum and by the languages of the Germanic tribes (Visigoths, Ostrogoths and Lombards) that invaded northern Italy in the 5th century. The earliest texts that can be recognized as "Venetian" date from the 13th century. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2576 × 1932 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2576 × 1932 pixel, file size: 1. ... Vulgar Latin, as in this political graffito at Pompeii, was the speech of ordinary people of the Roman Empire — different from the classical Latin used by the Roman elite. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... A votive crown belonging to Reccesuinth (653–672) The Visigoths (Latin: ) were one of two main branches of the Goths, an East Germanic tribe, the Ostrogoths being the other. ... This article deals with the continental Ostrogoths. ... The Lombards (Latin Langobardi, whence comes the alternative name Longobards found in older English texts), were a Germanic people originally from Northern Europe that entered the late Roman Empire. ...

The language enjoyed substantial prestige in the days of the Venetian Republic, when it attained the status of a lingua franca in the Mediterranean. Notable Venetian-language authors are the playwrights Ruzante (1502–1542) and Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793). Both Ruzante and Goldoni, following the old Italian theater tradition (Commedia dell'Arte), used Venetian in their comedies as the speech of the common folk. They are ranked among the foremost Italian theatrical authors of all time, and Goldoni's plays are still performed today. Other notable works in Venetian are the translations of the Iliad by Casanova (1725–1798) and Francesco Boaretti, and the poems of Biagio Marin (1891–1985). Notable also is a manuscript titled "Dialogue ... on the New star" attributed to Galileo (1564–1642). The Republic of Venice was a city-state in Venetia in Northeastern Italy, based around the city of Venice. ... Lingua franca, literally Frankish language in Italian, was originally a mixed language consisting largely of Italian plus a vocabulary drawn from Turkish, Persian, French, Greek and Arabic and used for communication throughout the Middle East. ... The Mediterranean Sea is an intercontinental sea positioned between Europe to the north, Africa to the south and Asia to the east, covering an approximate area of 2. ... Angelo Beolco (Padua, 1502–1542), better known by the nickname il Ruzzante or el Ruzante, was an Italian actor and playwright. ... Carlo Goldoni Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni (25 February 1707 - 6 February 1793) was a celebrated Italian playwright, whom critics today rank among the European theatres greatest authors. ... Commedia redirects here. ... title page of the Rihel edition of ca. ... “Casanova” redirects here. ... Biagio Marin (Grado, 1891–Grado, 1985) was an Italian poet, best known from his poems the Venetian language. ... The Dialogo de Cecco da Ronchitti da Bruzene in perpuosito de la stella Nova (Dialogue of Cecco da Ronchiti of Bruzene relative to the New star) is a manuscript in the Venetian language about a nova and other astronomical subjects, especially the heliocentric system. ... Galileo redirects here. ...

However, as a literary language Venetian was overshadowed by the Tuscan "dialect" of Dante, and by the French languages like Provençal and the Oïl languages. After the demise of the Republic, Venetian gradually ceased to be used for administrative purposes; and when Italy was unified, in the 19th century, the Tuscan language was imposed as the basis of the national language of Italy. Since that time Venetian, deprived of any official status, has steadily lost ground to Italian. At present, virtually all its speakers are bilingual, and use Venetian only in informal contexts. A literary language is a register of a language that is used in writing, and which often differs in lexicon and syntax from the language used in speech. ... For other uses, see Tuscany (disambiguation). ... Dante in a fresco series of famous men by Andrea del Castagno, ca. ... There are a number of languages of France. ... Provençal (Provençau in Provençal language) is one of several dialects spoken by a minority of people in southern France and other areas of France and Italy. ... The langue doïl language family in linguistics comprises Romance languages originating in territories now occupied by northern France, part of Belgium and the Channel Islands. ... Italian unification (called in Italian the Risorgimento, or Resurgence) was the political and social process that unified different states of the Italian peninsula into the single nation of Italy. ... A national language is a language (or language variant, i. ... The term bilingualism (from bi meaning two and lingua meaning language) can refer to rather different phenomena. ...

On the other hand, Venetian was spread through the world by the massive emigration from the Veneto region between 1870 and 1905. Those migrants created large Venetian-speaking communities in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Romania, where the language is still spoken today. Internal migrations under the Fascist regime also sent many Venetian speakers to other regions of Italy. Fascism is an authoritarian political ideology (generally tied to a mass movement) that considers individual and other societal interests subordinate to the interests of the state. ...

Presently, some firms have chosen to use the Venetian language in advertising as a famous beer did some years ago (Xe foresto solo el nome - only the name is foreign). In other cases Italian advertisings are given a "Venetian flavor" by adding a Venetian word: for instance an air company used the verb "xe" (Xe sempre più grande - Is bigger and bigger) into an Italian sentence (the correct Venetian rendering being xe senpre pi grande) to advertise new flights from Venice airport.

Geographic distribution

Venetian is spoken mainly in the Italian regions of Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia and in both Slovenia and Croatia (Istria, Kvarner Gulf and Dalmatia). Smaller communities are found in the provinces of Lombardy, Trento, Emilia (in Mantova, Rimini, and Forlì), Lazio (Pontine Marshes), and in Romania (Tulcea). It is also spoken in North and South America by the descendants of Italian immigrants. Notable examples of this are the city of Chipilo, Mexico or the Talian dialect spoken in Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. Veneto or Venetia, is one of the 20 regions of Italy. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Istria (Croatian and Slovenian: Istra, Venetian and Italian: Istria), formerly Histria (Latin), is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. ... Map of the Kvarner Gulf The Kvarner Gulf (Croatian: Kvarnerski zaljev, Italian: Golfo del Quarnero/Quarnaro/Carnaro; sometimes also Kvarner Bay) is a bay in the northern Adriatic Sea, located between the Istrian peninsula and the northern Croatian seacoast. ... Dalmatia, highlighted, on a map of Croatia. ... For the village of the same name in Ontario, Canada, see Lombardy, Ontario. ... Trento (Italian: Provincia autonoma di Trento, German: Autonome Provinz Trient) is an autonomous province in the autonomous Trentino-South Tyrol region of Italy. ... Emilia Jager, daughter of Cathy and John Jager, has been aproved that her French Rose has been awarded painting of the year. The Centre house, Lane Cove community have been very proud of this young 14 yr old girl. ... Mantua (in Italian Mantova) is a city in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province with the same name. ... Rimini is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and capital city of the Province of Rimini. ... Forlì is a comune and city in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, famed as the birthplace of the great painter Melozzo da Forlì and of Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, at the nearby comune of Predappio. ... For the football club, see S.S. Lazio Lazio (Latium in Latin) is a regione of central Italy, bordered by Tuscany, Umbria, Abruzzi, Marche, Molise, Campania and the Tyrrhenian Sea. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... County Tulcea County Status County capital Mayor Constantin Hogea, Democratic Party , since 2004 Population (2002) 91,875 Geographical coordinates , Web site http://www. ... Chipilo is a small city in the state of Puebla, Mexico. ... Talian (Brazils Italian/o italiano do Brasil) is a variety of Italian spoken mainly in the wine-producing area of the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. ... Flag of Rio Grande do Sul See other Brazilian States Capital Porto Alegre Largest City Porto Alegre Area 282,062 km² Population   - Total   - Density 10. ... Capital Florianópolis Largest city Joinville Demonym catarinense or barriga-verde Government  -  Governor Luiz Henrique  -  Vice Governor Leonel Pavan Area  -  Total 95. ...

Classification

Venetian descends from Vulgar Latin — like all other Romance languages, including Italian and the other Italian dialects. However, in the traditional classification of Romance languages, Venetian and Italian belong to different sub-branches of the Italo-Western branch: Venetian is a member of the Gallo-Iberian group, which also includes Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese and French, among others; whereas Italian is a member of the Italo-Dalmatian group. More precisely, Venetian belongs to the Gallo-Romance sub-branch of Gallo-Iberian, which includes French and Catalan but not Spanish. In that classification, therefore, Venetian is more closely related to Catalan, French and Spanish (in that order) than to Italian. Vulgar Latin, as in this political graffito at Pompeii, was the speech of ordinary people of the Roman Empire — different from the classical Latin used by the Roman elite. ... Italo-Western is the largest sub-group of Romance languages. ... Gallo-Romance languages Gallo-Italian languages Lombard Piedmontese Emilian-Romagnol Venetian Ligurian Gallo-Rhaetian languages Oïl languages(including French) Burgundian Champenois Franc-Comtois French Gallo Lorrain Norman Anglo-Norman Channel Island Norman Auregnais Dgèrnésiais Jèrriais Sercquiais Picard Poitevin-Saintongeais Walloon Rhaetian languages Friulian Ladin Romansh *Franco... Catalan IPA: (català IPA: or []) is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia, and in the city of LAlguer in the Italian island of Sardinia. ... The Gallo-Romance branch of Romance languages includes French, Oïl languages, Catalan, and Occitan, among other languages. ... Gallo-Romance languages Gallo-Italian languages Lombard Piedmontese Emilian-Romagnol Venetian Ligurian Gallo-Rhaetian languages Oïl languages(including French) Burgundian Champenois Franc-Comtois French Gallo Lorrain Norman Anglo-Norman Channel Island Norman Auregnais Dgèrnésiais Jèrriais Sercquiais Picard Poitevin-Saintongeais Walloon Rhaetian languages Friulian Ladin Romansh *Franco...

On the other hand, although French and Venetian are now mutually intelligible only to a small degree (mostly due to major changes in French pronunciation over the last few centuries), Spanish and Venetian are mutually comprehensible to some extent.

Regional variants

The main regional variants and sub-variants of Venetian are

• Central (Padua, Vicenza, Polesine), with about 1,500,000 speakers.
• Eastern/Coastal (Venice, Trieste, Grado, Istria, Rijeka).
• Western (Verona, Trento).
• North-Central (Treviso, parts of Pordenonese).
• Northern (Belluno, comprising Feltre, Agordo, Cadore, Zoldo Alto).

All these variants are mutually intelligible, with a minimum 92% between the most diverging ones (Central and Western). Modern speakers reportedly can still understand to some extent Venetian texts from the 1300s. Padua (It. ... Vicenza (It. ... Rovigo (It. ... Venice (It. ... Trieste (It. ... Grado (Gravo in the local Venetian dialect, Grau in Friulian, Gradež in Slovenian) is a town in the north-eastern Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located on a peninsula of the Adriatic Sea between Venice and Trieste. ... Istria (Croatian and Slovenian: Istra, Venetian and Italian: Istria), formerly Histria (Latin), is the largest peninsula in the Adriatic Sea. ... Rijeka (in local Croatian dialects Rika and Reka; Fiume in Italian and Hungarian. ... Verona (It. ... Trento (Italian: Provincia autonoma di Trento, German: Autonome Provinz Trient) is an autonomous province in the autonomous Trentino-South Tyrol region of Italy. ... Treviso (It. ... Pordenone (It. ... Belluno (It. ... Feltre is a town and comune of the province of Belluno in Veneto, Italy. ... Country Italy Region Veneto Province Province of Belluno (BL) Mayor Elevation 611 m Area 23. ... Cadore, a town and contado (countship) of in the North Italian region of Friuli, is a barren and poor district, watered by the Piave torrent poured forth from the Carnic Alps, and is at no great distance from Tirol. ... Zoldo Alto is a town in the province of Belluno, Veneto, Italy. ...

Other noteworthy variants are spoken in

• Chioggia,
• Pontine Marshes,
• Dalmatia, Croatia,
• Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, Brazil ("Talian"),
• Chipilo, Mexico,
• Tulcea, Romania,
• Peripheral creole languages along the southern border (nearly extinct).

Chioggia is a coastal town and comune of the province of Venice in the Veneto region of northern Italy, 45°13N 12°17E, situated on a small island at the southern entrance to the Lagoon of Venice about 25 km south of Venice (50 km by road); causeways connect it... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Dalmatia, highlighted, on a map of Croatia. ... Flag of Rio Grande do Sul See other Brazilian States Capital Porto Alegre Largest City Porto Alegre Area 282,062 km² Population   - Total   - Density 10. ... Capital Florianópolis Largest city Joinville Demonym catarinense or barriga-verde Government  -  Governor Luiz Henrique  -  Vice Governor Leonel Pavan Area  -  Total 95. ... Talian (Brazils Italian/o italiano do Brasil) is a variety of Italian spoken mainly in the wine-producing area of the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. ... Chipilo is a small city in the state of Puebla, Mexico. ... County Tulcea County Status County capital Mayor Constantin Hogea, Democratic Party , since 2004 Population (2002) 91,875 Geographical coordinates , Web site http://www. ... A creole is a language descended from a pidgin that has become the native language of a group of people. ...

Language features

Familial attributes

Like most Romance languages, Venetian has mostly abandoned the Latin case system, in favor of prepositions and a more rigid subject-verb-object sentence structure. It has thus become more analytic, if not quite as much as English. Venetian also has the Romance articles, both definite (derived from the Latin demonstrative ille) and indefinite (derived from the numeral unus). In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns and adjectives to indicate such features as number (typically singular vs. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with adposition. ... In linguistic typology, subject-verb-object (SVO) is the sequence subject verb object in neutral expressions: Sam ate oranges. ... An analytic language is any language where syntax and meaning are shaped more by use of particles and word order than by inflection. ... An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. ...

Venetian also retained the Latin concepts of gender (masculine and feminine) and number (singular and plural). Nouns and adjectives can be modified by suffixes that indicate several qualities such as size, endearment, deprecation, etc. Adjectives (usually postfixed) and articles are inflected to agree with the noun in gender and number: In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ... In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. ...

• el gato graso, the fat (male) cat.
• ła gata grasa, the fat (female) cat.
• i gati grasi, the fat (male) cats.
• łe gate grase, the fat (female) cats.

• el gatòn graso, the fat big (male) cat.
• ła gatòna grasa, the fat big (female) cat.

• un bel gateło, a nice small (male) cat.
• na bea gateła, a nice small (female) cat.

Some pronouns retain a neuter form reserved for abstract nouns (par questo "for this reason" , de queło "about that fact" n.) different from the masculin (par 'sto qua "for this boy/dog" , de queło là "about that man/book" m.) while in Italian masculine forms also work for the neuter (per questo="for this boy/reason"; di quello="about that man/fact").

Specific attributes

Sound system

Venetian has some sounds not present in Italian, an interdental voiceless fricative [θ] spelled ç or z(h) and similar to English th in thing and thought, to Castilian (not Latin-American) Spanish c(e, i)/z (as in cero, cien, zapato), Modern Greek θ (theta), and Icelandic Thorn þ/Þ and Eth Ð/ð; it occurs, for example, in çena/zhena (supper), which sounds the same as Castilian Spanish cena (same meaning). However this sound, which is present only in some variants of the language (Bellunese, north-Trevisan, some Central Venetian rural areas around Padua, Vicenza and the mouth of the river Po), is considered provincial with most variants using other sounds instead such as [s], [z], and [ʃ]. Some variants also present an interdental voiced fricative written "z" (el pianze=he cries) but this often turns into voiced-S, i.e. [z] (written x: el pianxe) or into dental D (el piande). The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... This article is about the international language known as Spanish. ...

In some varieties the intervocalic L turns into a soft "evanescent" L (this alternation is often represented with one spelling ł). The pronunciation of this phoneme varies from an almost e in the region of Venice, to a partially vocalised l further inland, to void in some mountainous areas. Thus, for example, góndoła may sound like góndoea, góndola or góndoa. In the latter variants, the "ł" spelling prevents possible confusion between pairs like scóła/skóła ("school") and scóa/skóła ("broom"). Standard Italian had this type of L in more limited conditions, but changed the spelling to i (bianco, chiamare from earlier blancus, clamare). In linguistics, Alternation is when a set of morphosyntactic properties is phonologically expressed in two or more different ways in different words. ...

Venetian does not have the doubled consonant sounds characteristic of Tuscan and many other Italian dialects: thus Italian fette, palla, penna ("slices", "ball", and "pen") are fete, bała, and pena in Venetian. The masculine singular ending, which is usually -o / -e in Italian, is often voided in Venetian, particularly in the countryside varieties: Italian pieno ("full") is pien, and altare is altar. Also, the masculine article el is often shortened to 'l.

Lexicon

The Venetian lexicon has a large number of original word forms, such as tosàt ("lad", in Italian ragazzo), técia ("pan", pentola), caréga ("chair", sedia), còtoła ("skirt", sottana), bìsi ("peas", piselli), sgorlàr ("to shake", scuotere), and many more.

Redundant subject pronouns

It has been suggested that some sections of this article be split into a new article entitled Venetian grammar. (Discuss)

A peculiarity of Venetian grammar is a "semi-analytical" verbal flexion, with a compulsory "clitic subject pronoun" before the verb in many sentences, "echoing" the subject as an ending or a weak pronoun. Independent/emphatic pronouns (e.g. ti), on the contrary, are optional. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... In linguistics, a clitic is an element that has some of the properties of an independent word and some more typical of a bound morpheme. ...

• Italian: (Tu) eri sporco ("You were dirty").
• Venetian: (Ti) te jèra sporc or even Ti te jèri/xeri sporco (lit. "(You) you were dirty").

• Italian: Il cane era sporco ("The dog was dirty").
• Venetian: El can 'l jèra sporc[o] (lit. "The dog he was dirty").

• Italian: (Tu) ti sei domandato ("You have asked yourself").
• Venetian: (Ti) te te à/gà/ghè domandà (lit. "(You) you yourself have asked").

The clitic subject pronoun (te, el/ła, i/łe) is used with the 2nd and 3rd person signular, and with the 3rd person plural. This feature may have arisen as a compensation for the fact that the 2nd- and 3rd-person inflections for most verbs, which are still distinct in Italian and many other Romance languages, are identical in Venetian. (The Piedmontese language also has clitic subject pronouns, but the rules are somewhat different.) Piedmontese (also known as Piemontèis, and Piemontese in Italian) is a language spoken by over 2 million people in Piedmont, northwest Italy. ...

Indeed, the verbal forms requiring subject clitics can often change or even drop their endings without problems of confusion because the clitic itself provide the necessary information (in Piedmontese and Milanese the clitic is not sufficient to mark the verb and often requires the cooccurence of a specific ending).

The clitics are the same in whole Veneto with two exceptions: te becomes ti in Venice (but is different from emphatic TI!) and becomes tu in some bellunese areas. El becomes Al in bellunese.

2nd singular person present indicative of "magnar" -----------

• Venetian in Venice: (TI) ti magni (=lit." (You) you eat")
• Venetian in Padua-Vicenza-Rovigo-Verona: (TI) te magni (=lit. "(You) you eat")
• Venetian in Treviso-Belluno: (TI) te magna (=lit. "(You) you eat")

2nd singular person imperf. indicative of "magnar" -----------

• Venetian in Venice: (TI) ti magnavi (=lit. "(You) you used to eat")
• Venetian in Pad-Vic-Rov-Ver: (TI) te magnavi (=lit. "(You) you used to eat")
• Venetian in Treviso-Belluno: (TI) te/tu magnava/magnéa(=lit. "(You) you used to eat")

2nd singular person present indicative of "sentir" -----------

• Venetian in Venice-Verona: (TI) te/ti senti (=lit. "(You) you hear=you feel")
• Venetian in Vic-Pad-Rov: (TI) te sinti (=lit. "(You) you hear=you feel")
• Venetian in Treviso: (TI) te sente (=lit. "(You) you hear=you feel")
• Venetian in Belluno: (TI) te/tu sent (=lit. "(You) you hear=you feel")

3rd singular person present indicative of "sentir" -----------

• Venetian Ven-Ver-Vic-Pad-Rov: (EL CAN) el sente (=lit. "(The dog) he hears=he feels")
• Venetian Trev-Bell: (EL CAN) el/al sent (=lit. "(The dog) he hears=he feels")

Such variations in last and internal vowels do not block reciprocal comprehension between people in Veneto because what is felt as important to mark the verb is the clitic ("te, el").

Also general Venetian forms exist with no endings:

• Venetian (in whole Veneto): te vien / ti vien ("you come")
• Venetian (in whole Veneto): el vien (lit. "he come" as there was no -s)
• Venetian (in whole Veneto): i vien ("they come")

Note that when the subject is postverbal (motion verbs, unaccusative verbs) the clitic is banned and the past participle of compound forms (if any) is invariably masc.singular, yielding a semi-impersonal form which does not exist in Italian:

Normal form

• Italian: Le mie sorelle sono arrivate ("[as for] My sisters have arrived-f.pl.")
• Venetian: Mé sorełe łe xe/è rivàe (lit."[as for] My sisters they-cl.f.pl. have arrived-f.pl.")

Impersonal form (only in Venetian)

• Italian: Sono arrivate le mie sorelle (hey, the news! "my sisters have arrived")
• Venetian: Xe/Gh'è rivà mé sorełe (lit. "(there) has arrived-m.sg. my sisters") --- no clitic and an invariable m.sg. past participle

In Italian the past participle is always inflected while in the Venetian in the impersonal form it is invariable and the verb has no plural (fem.) clitic, differently from the normal flection.

Interrogative inflection

Venetian also has a special interrogative verbal flexion used for direct questions, which also incorporates a redundant pronoun:

• Italian: (Tu) eri sporco? ("Were you dirty?").
• Venetian: (Ti) jèritu sporc? or even (Ti) xèrito sporco? (lit. "You were-you dirty?")

• Italian: Il cane era sporco? ("Was the dog dirty?").
• Venetian: El can jèreło sporc[o]? (lit. "The dog was-he dirty?")
• or even: Jèreło sporc[o] el can ? (lit. "Was-he dirty the dog ?")

• Italian: (Tu) ti sei domandato? ("Have you asked yourself?").
• Venetian: (Ti) te àtu/gatu/ghètu/ghèto domandà? (lit. "You to-yourself have-you asked?")

Auxiliary verbs

Reflexive tenses use the auxiliary verb aver ("to have"), as in English, German, and Spanish; instead of essar ("to be"), which would be normal in Italian. The past participle is invariable, unlike Italian:

• Italian: (Tu) ti sei lavato (lit. "(You) yourself are washed").
• Venetian: (Ti) te te à/ga/ghè lavà (lit. "(You) you yourself have washed").

• Italian: (Loro) si sono svegliati (lit. "(They) themselves are awakened").
• Venetian: (Luri) i se ga/à svejà (lit. "(They) they themselves have awakened").

Continuing action

Another peculiarity of the language is the use of the phrase drìo (a) (literally, "behind to") to indicate continuing action:

• Italian: Mio padre sta parlando ("My father is speaking").
• Venetian: Mé pare 'l e drìo parlàr (lit. "My father he is busy speaking").

Indeed the word drio=busy/engaged also appears in other sentences:

• Venetian: So' drio i mistieri lit. means "I am busy doing the housework" (=I'm doing it)
• Venetian: Vo drio i mistieri lit. means "I go busy with the housework" (=I'm going to do it)
• Venetian: Mé pare l'è in leto drio dormir lit. means "My father is in bed, busy sleeping" (=My father is sleeping in bed)

Another progressive form uses the construction "essar là che" (lit. "to be there that"):

• Venetian: Me pàre 'l è là che 'l parla (lit. "My father he is there that he speaks").

The use of progressive tenses is more pervasive than in Italian; E.g.

• English: "He wouldn't possibly have been speaking to you".
• Venetian: No 'l sarìa mìa stat/stà drìo parlarte (lit. "Not-he would possibly have been behind to speak-to-you").

That construction does not occur in Italian: *Non sarebbe mica stato parlandoti is not syntactically valid.

Subordinate clauses

Subordinate clauses have double introduction ("whom that", "when that", "which that", "how that"), as in Old English: Old English redirects here. ...

• Italian: So di chi parli ("(I) know about whom (you) speak").
• Venetian: So de chi che te parla (lit. "(I) know about whom that you-speak").

Spelling systems

Traditional system

Venetian does not have an official writing system, but it is traditionally written using the Latin alphabet — sometimes with the addition of a couple of letters and/or diacritics for the sounds that do not exist in Italian, such as ç/zh for /θ/ or (recently) ł for the "soft" l. Otherwise, the traditional spelling rules are mostly those of Italian, except that x represents /z/, as in English "zero". This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

As in Italian, the letter s between vowels usually represents [z], so one must write ss in those contexts to represent a voiceless /s/: basa for /'baza/ ("he/she kisses"), bassa for /'basa/ ("low"). Also, because of the numerous differences in pronunciation relative to Italian, the grave and acute accents are liberally used to mark both stress and vowel quality:

à /a/, á /ɐ/, è /ɛ/, é /e/, ò /ɔ/, ó /o/, ù /u/

Venetian allows the consonant cluster /stʃ/ (not present in Italian), which is usually written s-c or s'c before i or e, and s-ci or s'ci before other vowels. Examples include s-ciarir (Italian schiarire, "to clear up"), s-cèt (schietto, "plain clear"), and s-ciòp (schioppo, "gun"). The hyphen or apostrople is used because the combination sc(i) is conventionally used for /ʃ/ sound, as in Italian spelling; e.g. scèmo (scemo, "stupid"); whereas sc before a, o and u represents /sk/: scàtoa (scatola, "box"), scóndar (nascondere, "to hide"), scusàr (scusare, "to forgive"). In linguistics, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. ...

However, the traditional spelling is subject to many historical, regional, and even personal variations. In particular, the letter z has been used to represent different sounds in different written traditions. In Venice and Vicenza, for example, the phonemes /θ/ and /z/ are written z and x, respectively (el pianze = "he cries", el xe = "he is"); whereas other traditions have used ç and z (el piançe and el ze). Vicenza is a city in northern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione. ...

Proposed systems

Recently there have been attempts to standardize and simplify the script, e.g. by using x for [z] and a single s for [s]; then one would write baxa for ['baza] ("she kisses") and basa for ['basa] ("low"). However, in spite of their theoretical advantages, these proposals have not been very successful outside of academic circles, because of regional variations in pronunciation and incompatibility with existing literature.

The Venetian speakers of Chipilo use a system based on Spanish orthography, even though it does not contain letters for [j] and [θ]. The American linguist Carolyn McKay proposed a writing system for that variant, based entirely on the Italian alphabet. However, the system was not very popular. Chipilo is a small city in the state of Puebla, Mexico. ...

Sample texts

Ruzante returning from war

The following sample, in the old dialect of Padua, comes from a play by Ruzante (Angelo Beolco), titled Parlamento de Ruzante che iera vegnú de campo ("Dialogue of Ruzante who came from the battlefield", 1529). The character, a peasant returning home from the war, is expressing to his friend Menato his relief at being still alive:

Discorso de Perasto

The following sample is taken from the Perasto Speech (Discorso de Perasto), given on August 23, 1797 at Perasto, by Venetian Captain Giuseppe Viscovich, at the last lowering of the flag of the Venetian Republic (nicknamed the "Republic of Saint Mark). is the 235th day of the year (236th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1797 (MDCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 11-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Church in Perast The two islands off Perast Perast (Italian: Perasto) is an old town in Boka Kotorska (Bay of Kotor), Montenegro. ... Giuseppe Viscovich was a Venetian count. ...

Francesco Artico

The following is a contemporary text by Francesco Artico. The elderly narrator is recalling the church choir singers of his youth, who, needless to say, sang much better than those of today:

English words of Venetian origin

• Arsenal, ciao, gazette, ghetto, gondola, lagoon, lido, lazareth, pantaloon, zero (from Arabic)
• Montenegro means "black mountain", as does the Montenegrin name for it (Crna Gora).
• Negroponte means "black bridge".
• Regatta from the Venetian word "regata" means a fight/contest.

This article is about armaments factories. ... Look up ciao in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A gazette is a newspaper. ... For the rapper, see Ghetto (rapper). ... A Venetian gondola A gòndola is a traditional Venetian sculling boat. ... This mid bay barrier in Narrabeen, a suburb of Sydney (Australia), has blocked what used to be a bay to form a lagoon. ... Lido and the Venetian Lagoon. ... A lazaretto or lazaret is a quarantine station for maritime travellers. ... A type of pants worn by women, popularized in the early 1800s by their innovator, Mrs. ... Look up zero in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the country in Europe. ... Negroponte can refer to: Nicholas Negroponte, Romanian-Greek-American computer scientist best known as founder and director of Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Media Lab. ... A regatta is a boat race or series of boat races. ...

See also

• Veronese Riddle, the first document in the Venetian and perhaps Italian language
• Papa Nero, a pop song in Venetian

It was probably in the early 9th century that one day a Catholic monk from Verona, in North Italy (Veneto), probably exhausted after a day spent copying Latin manuscripts, wrote a riddle, apparently half-Italian, half-Latin on the margin of a parchment. ... Papa Nero (Black Pope) is a song by the Italian reggae band Pittura Freska. ...

References

The Capitoline Temple. ... To the ancient Greeks, Paideia (παιδεία) was the process of educating man into his true form, the real and genuine human nature. ... The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ... Aragonese redirects here. ... Aromanian (also known as Macedo-Romanian, Arumanian or Vlach in most other countries; in Aromanian: limba armãneascã, armãneshce or armãneashti) is an Eastern Romance language spoken in Southeastern Europe. ... Astur-Leonese is a Romance language group of the West Iberian group, spoken in the Spanish provinces of Asturias (Asturian Language, asturianu, or Bable), León, Zamora and Salamanca (Leonese language, Llïonés). ... Asturian, Leonese, Astur-Leonese or Bable (Asturianu in Asturian, Llïonés in Leonese) is a Romance language spoken in some parts of the provinces of Asturias, León, Zamora and Salamanca in Spain, and in the area of Miranda de Douro in Portugal (where it is officially recognized as... Extremaduran is a Romance language spoken by some thousands in Spain, most of them in the autonomous community of Extremadura and the province of Salamanca. ... The Leonese language (Llïonés in Leonese) was developed from Vulgar Latin with contributions from the pre-Roman languages which were spoken in the territory of the Spanish provinces of León, Zamora, and Salamanca and in some villages in the District of Bragança, Portugal. ... The Mirandese language (Lhéngua Mirandesa in Mirandese; Língua Mirandesa or Mirandês in Portuguese) is spoken in northeastern Portugal. ... Catalan IPA: (català IPA: or []) is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia, and in the city of LAlguer in the Italian island of Sardinia. ... Balearic is the Catalan variant spoken in the Balearic Islands (Spanish las Islas Baleares), Spain. ... Valencian (valencià) is the historical, traditional, and official name used in the Valencian Community (Spain) to refer to the language spoken therein, also known as Catalan (català) in the Spanish Autonomous Communities of Catalonia, Aragon and the Balearic Islands; in the country of Andorra; in the southern French region of... Champenois is a language spoken by a minority of people in France and in Belgium. ... Corsican (Corsu or Lingua Corsa) is a Romance language spoken on the island of Corsica (France), alongside French, which is the official language. ... Gallurese (gadduresu) is a diasystem of the Sardinian language, spoken in the Gallura (Gaddura), north-eastern part of Sardinia including the town of Tempio Pausania (Tempiu). ... Dalmatian is an extinct Romance language formerly spoken in the Dalmatia region of Croatia, and as far south as Kotor (Cattaro) in Montenegro. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Areas where Emiliano-Romagnolo is spoken Emiliano-Romagnolo (also known as Emilian-Romagnolo) is a Romance language mostly spoken in Emilia-Romagna. ... Fala language (SIL Code: FAX; ISO 639-2 code: roa) is a Romance language from the Portuguese-Galician subgroup spoken in Spain by about 10,500 people, of which 5,500 live in a valley of the northwestern part of Extremadura near the border with Portugal. ... Franc-Comtois is a language spoken by a minority of people in Franche-Comté. It is one of the langues doïl and is a regional language of France. ... Franco-Provençal (Francoprovençal) or Arpitan (in vernacular: patouès) (in Italian: francoprovenzale, provenzale alpina, arpitano, patois; French: francoprovençal, arpitan, patois) is a Romance language with several dialects in a linguistic sub-group separate from Langue dOïl and Langue dOc. ... Zarphatic or Judæo-French (Zarphatic: Tsarfatit) is an extinct Jewish language, formerly spoken among the Jewish communities of northern France and in parts of what is now west-central Germany, in such cities as Mainz, Frankfurt-am-Main, and Aachen. ... This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Galician (Galician: galego, IPA: ) is a language of the Western Ibero-Romance branch, spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community with the constitutional status of historic nationality, located in northwestern Spain and small bordering zones in neighbouring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castilla y León. ... Gallo is a regional language of France, traditionally spoken in Eastern Brittany. ... Istriot is a Romance language spoken in the Western Region on the coast of the Istrian Peninsula, especially in the towns of Rovinj (Rovigno) and Vodnjan (Dignano), on the upper northern part of the Adriatic Sea, in Croatia. ... Istro-Romanian is a Romance language - more specifically, an Eastern Romannce language - that is today still spoken in a few villages in the peninsula of Istria, on the northern part of the Adriatic Sea, in what is now Croatia, but which was spoken in a substantially broader part of the... Italiano centrale is a group of dialects of Italian spoken in Lazio and areas East of Lazio in Italy. ... The Florentine language was the language spoken in the Italian city of Florence. ... The Tuscan dialect is a dialect spoken in Tuscany, Italy. ... Romanesco is a group of Romance dialects spoken in Rome and most of the surrounding regions of Lazio, Umbria, central Marche and extreme southern Tuscany in central Italy. ... Judeo-Italian is a term referring to Italo-Romance linguistic varieties used between the 10th and the 20th centuries in Rome and in central and northern Italy. ... Ladin (Ladino in Italian, Ladin in Ladin, Ladinisch in German) is a Rhaetian language spoken in the Dolomite mountains in Italy, between the regions of Trentino-South Tyrol and Veneto. ... Not to be confused with Ladin. ... Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Tetauni (Tetuani) is a dialect of Judaeo-Spanish, a Romance language that was spoken in the city of Oran in Algeria. ... Ligurian is a Romance language, consisting of a group of Gallo-Italic dialects currently spoken in Liguria, northern Italy, and parts of the Mediterranean coastal zone of France, and Monaco. ... Genoese (Zeneize) is the variety of the ligurian language spoken in Genoa, the capital city of Liguria (Italy) . The Ligurian is listed by Ethnologue as a language in its own right (not to be confused with the ancient Ligurian language). ... Street sign in French and Monégasc in Monaco-Ville Monégasque (natively Munegascu) is a Romance language and a dialect of the modern Ligurian language. ... Lorrain is a language spoken by a minority of people in Lorraine in France and in Gaume in Belgium. ... Megleno-Romanian (known as VlăheÅŸte by speakers and Moglenitic, Meglenitic or Megleno-Romanian by linguists) is a Romance language, similar to Aromanian, and Romanian spoken in the Moglená region of Greece, in a few villages in the Republic of Macedonia and also in a few villages in Romania. ... Mozarabic was a continuum of closely related Iberian Romance dialects spoken in Muslim dominated areas of the Iberian Peninsula during the early stages of the Romance languages development in Iberia. ... Neapolitan (autonym: napulitano; Italian: ) is a Romance language spoken in the city and region of Naples, Campania (Neapolitan: Nàpule, Italian: Napoli); close dialects are spoken throughout most of southern Italy, including the Gaeta and Sora districts of southern Lazio, parts of Abruzzo, Molise, Basilicata, northern Calabria, and northern and... Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Auregnais or Aurignais was the Norman dialect of the Channel Island of Alderney (French:Aurigny, Auregnais:Aoeurgny/Auregny). ... Guernésiais, also known as Dgèrnésiais, Guernsey French, Guernsey Norman French, is the variety of Norman language spoken in Guernsey. ... Jèrriais is the form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, in the Channel Islands. ... Sercquiais also known as Sarkese or Sark-French is the Norman dialect of the Channel Island of Sark. ... Occitan (IPA AmE: ), known also as Lenga dòc or Langue doc (native name: occitan [1], lenga dòc [2]; native nickname: la lenga nòstra [3] i. ... Auvergnat (French name) or Auvernhat (native name) is one of several dialects of the Occitan language spoken in Auvergne, which is a historical province in the northern part of Occitania. ... Vivaro-Alpine (English name) or Vivaroalpenc, Vivaroaupenc (native name) is the northeastern dialect of the Occitan language. ... Gascon (Gascon, ; French, ) is a dialect of the Occitan language. ... Aranese (aranés in Occitan/Gascon/Aranese) is a variety of Pyrenean Gascon (a dialect of the Occitan language), spoken in Val dAran, in northwestern Catalonia (Spain), where it is one of the three official languages besides Catalan and Spanish. ... Languedocien is a Romance language akin to Provençal spoken by some people in the part of southern France known as Languedoc. ... The Limousin dialect is a Romance language akin to Provençal spoken or understood by about 400 000 people in the part of southern France known as Limousin. ... Provençal (Provençau in Provençal language) is one of several dialects spoken by a minority of people in southern France and other areas of France and Italy. ... Nicard (Niçois - French, Nissart - Niçard) is a distinct dialect of the Provençal language spoken in and around the city of Nice, or Nissa in Niçard, and the historical region Le Comté de Nice/Lou Coumtat de Nissa which is almost equivalent to the current French d... Shuadit, also spelled Chouhadite, Chouhadit, Chouadite, Chouadit, and Shuhadit is the extinct Jewish language of southern France, also known as Judæo-Provençal, Judéo-Comtadin, Hébraïco-Comtadin. ... Picard is a language closely related to French, and as such is one of the larger group of Romance languages. ... Piedmontese (also known as Piemontèis, and Piemontese in Italian) is a language spoken by over 2 million people in Piedmont, northwest Italy. ... Poitevin (Poetevin) is a language spoken by the people in Poitou. ... The Romance Pannonian language is an extinct language that was spoken in the romanized Pannonia after the fall of the Western Roman empire, until the X century. ... Romanian (limba română, IPA: ) is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people[1], primarily in Romania and Moldova. ... Not to be confused with Romand which is one of the names for the Franco-Provençal language. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Sardo Campidanese is a diasystem of the Sardinian language primarily spoken in the Province of Cagliari. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Sassarese is a diasystem of the Sardinian and Corsican languages, spoken in some areas of the north-western part of Sardinia, in Italy, such as Sassari and a few other places, such as Porto Torres and Sorso. ... Sicilian (, Italian: ) is a Romance language. ... Calabrian language is the name given to a number of Dialects spoken in parts of the Calabria region in Italy. ... This article is about the international language known as Spanish. ... Talian is a dialect of the Venetian language spoken mainly in the wine-producing area of the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. ... Walloon (Walon) is a regional Romance language spoken as a second language by some in Wallonia (Belgium). ... Western Lombard is a Romance language spoken in Italy, in the Lombard provinces of Milan, Monza, Varese, Como, Lecco, Sondrio, a little part of Cremona (except Crema and its neighbours), Lodi and Pavia, and the Piedmont provinces of Novara, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and a small part of Vercelli (Valsesia), and... Milanese (milanes, milanées, meneghin, meneghìn) is a variety of Western Lombard spoken in the city of Milan and in its province. ...

External links

Venetian language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Sitoveneto — information on the language, in Venetian, Italian, and English. Advocates a unified script. Venetian Keyboard Layout for Windows
• Brief description
• Tornén un pas indrìo! — samples of written and spoken Venetian by Francesco Artico
• Text and audio of some works by Ruzante at www.liberliber.it
• Vèneto Arkìvio
• Description of the Venetian dialect of Chipilo, in Spanish.
• General Grammar of Veneto-language and its varieties
• Review of a Goldoni play in Italian and Venetian performed in July 2005 at the Lincoln Center, New York.
• Quatro Ciàcoe — Venetian language magazine
• Perasto 1797, a song by Luciano Brunelli on the Discorso di Perasto (sample, MP3)
• Text of the Perasto Speech
• Webster's Venetian-English Dictionary
• Dizsionario.orgDictionary of Venetian language and its varieties
• Raixe Venete Venetian site in Venetian Language