Intemelio dialect explained

Intemelio
Nativename:intemelio
States:Monaco, France, Italy
Speakers:approximately 10,000
Date:no date
Familycolor:Indo-European
Fam2:Romance
Fam3:Western
Fam4:Gallo-Romance
Fam5:Gallo-Italic
Fam6:Ligurian
Isoexception:dialect
Glotto:none
Lingua:51-AAA-ohb (Imperia)

Intemelio is a Ligurian dialect spoken historically from the Principality of Monaco to the Italian province of Imperia.

History

Since the Renaissance the Ligurian language was spoken in all the territories of the Republic of Genoa; in the western area of the Republic one of its groups (spoken mainly on the coast between Monaco and Sanremo) was called Intemelio and was centered on Ventimiglia.[1]

In the actual Italian area of Ventimiglia there is the most renowned Intemelio: the "Ventimigliese", that stretches from the coast until Piedmont.

The Royasc dialect is connected to the "Ventimigliese", as a mountainous version of the Intemelio that has some Occitan influences.

In Sanremo the local intemelio dialect is heavily influenced by the Genoese dialect.

Current use

Intemelio is used by nearly 10,000 people in the area of Ventimiglia of the province of Imperia, but other 40,000 are able to understand it and speak a few sentences of this dialect in western Liguria.

A few thousand speak fluently the local variants of Intemelio in France and Monaco: Monegasque, and Brigasc.

Anecdote

The Ligurian area of Seborga speaks the "Ventimigliese" dialect Intemelio and the so-called Principality of Seborga considered the possibility of using this dialect as the official language.[2]

See also

References

  1. Web site: The counts of Ventimiglia (in Italian) . 2009-12-26 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110722040026/http://www.intemelion.it/ascheri.pdf . 2011-07-22 . dead .
  2. Web site: Seborga official site . 2009-12-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100128102202/http://www.seborga.homeip.net/seborga_menu_UK.html . 2010-01-28 . dead .

Bibliography

External links