Pramzan/Parmigiano dialect of western Emilia

Angela

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Pramzan is Parma city, usually, and Parmigiano surrounding areas, including my dad's Apennine mountains.

I'm learning about it academically for the first time. I understand most of it, but far less in terms of percentages than I understand of Lunigianese and even Spezzino. I don't speak any of these dialects As I've said before, my dad only allowed me to speak "standard" school Italian.

Parmigiano is a dialect of Emiliano/Romagnolo, and not of Italian.



It now lies somewhere between Western Emilian, which includes Piacentino, and Central Emilian, which includes Reggiano and Modenese. Like the other Emilian dialects, it has fewer speakers than ever because of political, social and economic factors, but La Repubblica has suggested that it is changing.[2] It is still declining but more slowly, as parents are keen to preserve their ancestral roots.[3]
Its origins are with Gauls, who occupied the Parma area in around 400 BC, who had stayed there after the invasion of the Romans. The lexicon was therefore a type of Latin influenced by Gaulish. The Gauls, or Celts, left their mark on modern Parmigiano in some words today, such as gozèn "pig", scrana "chair" and sôga "rope". As a result of Spanish and especially French invasions, Parmigiani began to use words which came from a French language that had Latin roots. That is seen in tirabusòn "corkscrew" (similar to Modern French's tire-bouchon) vert "open" (French: ouvert), pòmm da téra "potato" (French: pomme de terre) and many other words.


Parmigiano subdialects have three forms:

  • Low Parmigiano, which is native to a northern part of the province that lies between the Po and the Via Aemilia and whose largest town is Colorno.
  • Western Parmigiano, which is heard around Fidenza and Salsomaggiore Terme and has been strongly influenced by Piacentino, another Emilian language.
  • High Parmigiano, which has been affected by Ligurian and is spoken in the Apennine region to the south.
An example of the variation is the word bombèn "very well". In 1861, the popular forms were moltbein and monbén, but it has also taken these forms: montben, mondbén, moltbén, moltbein, monbén, and mombén.[2][4]

I think you can see the similarities, and differences, with standard Italian in this example.



LanguageSample
EnglishThe crow stole from the window a piece of cheese; perched on a treetop, he was ready to eat it when a fox saw him; he was absolutely starving.
ItalianIl corvo aveva rubato da una finestra un pezzo di formaggio; appollaiato sulla cima di un albero, era pronto a mangiarselo, quando la volpe lo vide; era davvero affamato.
ParmigianoAl corv l'äva robè da 'na fnéstra 'n tòch äd formàj; pozè insimma a 'na pianta, l'éra lì lì par magnärsol/magnärsel, quand la volpa l'al vèdda; al gh'äva fama dabón.
This is a fun video which shows that even foreigners learn Parmigiano. The "r" if you notice, is not the rolling "r" of other dialects or of standard Italian. Don't tell my family, but standard Italian, Tuscan in a Roman mouth, as they say, is more beautiful to me. :) No offense, Stuvane. They're my people too. :)



This is a nice youtube clip which provides audio examples of Italian dialects. The variety is extraordinary.

First is a beautiful rendition of the standard Italian of newscasts etc.

At 1:15 Fiorentino.

12:05 Ligurian. I've said before I see a faint resemblance to Portuguese pronunciation, and I definitely see similarities to Occitan and Catalan.

14:09 Emiliano/Romagnolo


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEEPyE-nR58
 

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