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D a | els, theater, poetry, magazinesandoffi region. Lastly, itpossessesahugeliterature ofmanygenres —nov- common languageoverarching thevariousdialects spokeninthe to theromance reference idioms.Second,ithasa morphology andlexiconare suffi not adialectforatleastthree reasons. First ofall,thephonetics, much diffi text written400years ago,sheorhecanunderstand itwithout the samemanner. ThismeansthatwhenaPiedmontesereads a four centuriesPiedmontesehasbeenwrittenmore orlessin Biblioteca NazionaleUniversitaria ofTurin, and overthelast the languagewehaveiscalled form atleastfrom thetwelfthcentury. Thefi from French, Provençal andGerman. Ithasbeenusedinwritten western neo-Latinlanguage,withlateradditionsofwords taken but meaningfuldifferences. Here are afewrevealing examples: v A Column i c MultiLingual o ■ It isimportanttopointoutthatPiedmontesealanguageand The Piedmonteselanguagederivesobviouslyfrom Latin,asa from 30to300different languagesspokentoday. noted that,dependingondefi in Italypernumberofspeakers. Ithas alsotobe placing itinthefi 100,000 people.Theseare actuallyhugenumbers, cise number, butmyguessisafi read andwriteitare fewer. There isn’tapre- normal foraminoritylanguage,thepeoplewho million peoplecanunderstand itatleast abit.As stood byovertwomillionpeople,whileanother area ofItaly—isspokenoratleastwell under- guage ofPiedmont,aregion inthenorthwestern public research institute),Piedmontese—thelan- The spelling of the language is quite similar to Italian, with small The spellingofthelanguageisquite similartoItalian,withsmall

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2 6 an endangered language Piedmontese, eebr20 [email protected] December2009 rst spotsinregional languages ciently differentiated withrespect Sermon Subalpin cial documents. nitions, Italyhas gure ofaround rst evidenceof koiné , todayinthe , that is, a , thatis,a that ; Translation Industry in 1995.In2005hepublished Gianni DavicofoundedtheItalian translationagencyTesi &testi to thevowelinEnglish case, thesound,thoughitvariesfrom region toregion, issimilar cated withthedieresis, asin — toil)orwhatiscalled in thiscaseitisusuallymarkedwithagrave accent,asin there isalsothe lish Italian. Example: (Center forPiedmonteseStudies,www.studipiemontesi.it). ties ofthisculture. ThemainoneistheCadëStudiPiemontèis associations organize recognition ofPiedmonteseonageneral level.Also,many in thestreets, forexample.Thisisanimportantstepthe euros toeachvillagethatwillputPiedmontesetoponymy that contributestoprotect Piedmontese,givingupto5,000 ment andpromotion ofthelinguisticheritagePiedmont) patrimonio linguisticodelPiemonte April 7,2009)called mon peopledoingregarding thismatter? casual users. So,whatare governments,associationsandcom- among theseendangered languagesdespitethenumbers ofits efforts —bytheendofcentury. Clearly, Piedmonteseis these willfalloutofuse—withoutsustainedconservation 6,000 languagesexistingintheworldtoday, halformore of is quitecommonlyacceptedinlinguisticsthatoftheroughly neo-Latin language. guage, whichmakesitquitedifferent from Italian,aneastern because, asalready mentioned,itisawesternneo-Latinlan- ■ ■ ■ On thelegislativelevel,there isanewregional law(dated An importantpointregarding thefuture ofthislanguage:it In general, PiedmonteseisquitesimilartoFrench. Thisis girl Next tothenormal The faucalorvelar Next tothenormal (example: u lun (likeinFrench, forexample, reusa ), abookonthetranslationmarket inItaly. - a Tutela, valorizzazioneepromozione del —moon. courses andeventstoenhancethebeau- —rose); mesmuta n o u -, aconsonantthatdoesn’texistin , there isalsothe (marked the ghërsin L’industria dellatraduzione ; (literally “halfmute,”indi- Gianni Davico o —breadstick). Inthelatter forhistoricalreasons), (Protection, enhance- eu likeintheEng- cun - a —cradle); ( tèila The 1 1

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Barba Tòni and real Piedmontese

In order to better understand the structures Piedmontese, this would have been a feminine of Piedmontese, along with the philosophy noun (le paròle), but as happens most of all of the only way to truly keep it and other in the Piedmontese spoken in vast regions of languages like it alive, let’s examine a piece Piedmont, the feminine plural article is not of poetry. The author Barba Tòni (1921–1999) used, substituted by the masculine one (ël, has written one of the best poems, diffi cult contracted in ‘l when the previous word ends and easy at the same time, in our language. with a vowel). The poem is diffi cult because of the use of As previously mentioned, Tòni was a master some quite refi ned nouns, some of them of his craft. We can fi nd an example in the nonexistent in Piedmontese but borrowed following line: from Latin, Provençal, French and who knows Vòle ‘d giòle, sgajòle dë ‘l viòle a baticòle which other languages. Tòni was indeed where the exact signifi cance of the words a master at playing with words. The title (“Flocks of pilot lights, shouts of joy piggy- itself, Ël Pì-a-mont-tèis, it is a pun between backing grannies”) is not so important, the Piemontèis (Piedmontese) and Pì a mont tèis importance being the assonances and the (more at tense mountain), with reference to rhythm of words. Piedmont lies “at the foot of the the fact that Piedmont etymologically means mountains” of northwestern Italy. “at the foot of the mountains.” But this is Për mostrejlo a coj-lì ch’a l’han ël gran’ maleur also an easy poem for native speakers to ëd pa savilo, ahi Dé, argalejne ‘l boneur. Here is a crucial concept to be pointed comprehend because it can be read with the To teach it to the unfortunates who sadly out: the idea that to understand a language heart more than with the mind. It is a laud do not know it, oh God, a gift of good luck. and a culture fully you have to read all kind of love for a mother tongue or, better yet, we of documents, from the bus ticket to a letter may say a “father tongue.” A venta scrivlo, òh già, e pì da-bin ch’as peul, of condolence, from children’s schoolwork to a scòla dl’arsigneul, un reul d’an pare an fi eul, the most epic poems. Ël piemontèis a venta dissionari a la man, sacrelo con la rima, parlelo. Che meisin-a. Mej che la revalenta. sima dla gòj, la prima. A venta ‘dcò subielo: ti canta e mi i subij, Piedmontese has to be It has to be written, oh yes, as best you can, d’àutri an compagneran, ciulucrìe e ciusij. spoken. What fi ne medicine. Better than a It also has to be whistled: you sing and I cure-all. learning from the nightingale, an aura of father to son, whistle, Here a very interesting feature of this holding a dictionary, consecrating it with others will accompany us, birdsong and language has to be noted. The personal rhyme, whispers. pronoun (a in this case) indeed must come a peak of joy, the fi rst. before the verb: a venta = you have to. Another good idea: if you believe in A venta bisodielo: something, begin today to do something ‘Dcò parlelo ‘n pioranda, sangiutenda j’orassion ant la lenga dj’ëstrachin, dij about it. Then if your idea is sound, other (da ràir), crasà, people will naturally join you. con l’ës-ciandor ancreusa dij sant, lus ëd a valo tant ëd pì, an modelo, arnovelo, j’euj ciàir dë-dsà për ël dë-dlà. A venta ‘dcò balelo, tërlelo: tërla e bala Even speaking it crying, hiccupping It has to be whispered: chè l’angel at argala l’ala, al cel at trambala. (sometimes), prayers in the tongue of the poor, the It has to be danced, skipping with joy: with the profound splendor of the saints, oppressed, skip and dance light in bright eyes. are worth much more, they model us, until the angel offers you a wing that takes renewing us you to heaven. An giuganda a ‘l paròle here for the beyond. Playing with words It doesn’t matter which language you A venta leslo, e tant, dai paco ai dissionari speak. The important thing is to speak it Here the masculine gender of the noun It has to be read, a lot, from country folk to the best you can and as often as you can in paròle (words) has to be noted. In standard dictionaries order to let it prosper and survive.

But the real responsibility is with the people. The Piedmontese The natural complement to inclusion is music. Piedmont has language will survive only if Piedmontese people speak to their a large number of groups playing folk music and a long children — and, as a matter of fact, to their neighbors — in their tradition of songs, the main one being La bela bergera (The natural language, every time this is possible. What is indeed, in Beautiful Shepherdess). A good performance can be found at extreme essence, a language? A language is a bridge, a means to www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFwV3SsU9Bg. No other ways to include people who want to be in on the joke or the conversation survive and prosper are possible. The only alternative, of or the information sharing. It is not supposed to exclude all others course, is that this language will become a mere intellectual who are different. pursuit, an esoteric game in the minds of too few people. M

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