Bolognese dialect

Bolognese (in Bolognese: bulgnaiś [bulˈɲaiz]) is a dialect of the Emiliano language, spoken in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy and along the border of Tuscany to the south.

Terminology

Although the term dialect is commonly used in reference to all minority languages native to Italy, most of them are not mutually intelligible with Standard Italian and have developed independently from Vulgar Latin. Bolognese is no exception and so is a dialect of Emiliano-Romagnolo, not Italian.

Classification

Bolognese is a dialect of Emiliano-Romagnolo, one of the Gallo-Italic languages of the Romance family. It shares many common features with other Gallo-Italic languages such as Piedmontese, Lombard, Venetian, and Ligurian, and it is closer to them than to Italian.

History

Middle Ages

Bolognese evolved a group of Gallo-Romance languages sharing features with neighbouring northern Italian languages. It developed more distinctly into the Middle Ages as a dialecy of the Emiliano-Romagnolo language. During the High Middle Ages, a number of troubadours composing lyrical poetry were active in Bologna, especially during the 13th century. That served to raise cultural awareness to the possibility of composing songs, poems and other works in vernacular languages. One of the first references to Bolognese as a distinct language was made by Dante Alighieri, in his De Vulgari Eloquentia, written in the beginning of the 14th century.

Modern

During the boom of interest in linguistic diversity during the 19th century, a number of efforts were made to create vocabularies, grammars, and collections of axioms, folk tales, and literature. The first dictionary was compiled in 1901 by Gaspare Ungarelli, who also attempted to create a writing system using the Italian alphabet. A period of stigmatisation followed in the 20th century, where children were punished for speaking the dialect in school, as it was considered to be a sign of poor education and etiquette.

In 1964, Alberto Menarini proposed an alphabet with many of the same letters still used. In recent times, Bolognese has enjoyed a period of rebirth.

Phonology

Here are some prominent features of Bolognese phonology:

• Central vowels
• A phonemic distinction between short vowels and corresponding diphthongs
• Nucleus vowel and coda consonant length having an inverse relationship
• Realisation of labio-alveolar consonants
• Syncopation resulting in complex consonant clusters
• Frequent slacking of word-final voiceless obstruents
• More exaggerated intonation than in Italian

The phonemes of Bolognese are realized phonetically very differently depending on the area in or around Bologna. Much free variation occurs in words from complex phonological processes.

Consonants

Bolognese has 22 consonant phonemes:

References