Niçard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Niçard Nissart/Niçart Niçois/Nizzardo |
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|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation: | [niˈsaʀt] | |
| Spoken in: |  France Monaco |
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| Region: | County of Nice, Monaco | |
| Total speakers: | — | |
| Language family: | Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Western Gallo-Iberian Gallo-Romance Occitano-Romance Niçard |
|
| Writing system: | Latin alphabet | |
| Official status | ||
| Official language in: | ||
| Regulated by: | Conselh de la Lenga Occitana (norme classique) / Félibrige (norme mistralienne) | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | oc | |
| ISO 639-2: | oci | |
| ISO 639-3: | oci | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Niçard (Classical orthography), Nissart/Niçart (Mistralian orthography), Niçois (French), or Nizzardo (Italian) is a distinct subdialect of the Occitan language (Provençal dialect). Spoken in the city of Nice (Niçard: Niça/Nissa) and in the historical County of Nice (the main part of the current French département of Alpes-Maritimes), Niçard is also traditionally spoken in Monaco, in addition to Monégasque.
Most residents of Nice and its region do not speak Niçard, and those who do are bilingual in French. In spite of this, the local television news is presented in Niçard (with French subtitles) and street signs in the old town of Nice are written in the dialect. Lately there has been a Niçard revival, and it is popularly studied at the University of Nice. The Niçard song Nissa La Bella is often regarded as the "national anthem" of Nice.
[edit] Writing System
Niçard is written using two different forms:
- Classical orthography. Preferring the native traditions of the language, this form was developed by Robert Lafont (Phonétique et graphie du provençal, 1951; L'ortografia occitana, lo provençau, 1972) and Jean-Pierre Baquié (Empari lo niçard, 1984). It is regulated by the Conselh de la Lenga Occitana.
- Mistralian orthography. Closer to written French, this form owes its existence to the historic joining of the County of Nice to France in 1860. It is codified by Félibrige (although there also exists an Acadèmia Nissarda).
- An Italian orthography also existed but was abandoned when Nice joined the French empire in 1861 (but was reinstated briefly in 1942/3 when Italy occupied and administered the city).
| Orthography Comparison (from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) | ||
|---|---|---|
| English | Classical | Mistralian |
| All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. | Toti li personas naisson liuri e egali en dignitat e en drech. Son dotadi de rason e de consciéncia e li cau agir entre eli emb un esperit de frairesa. | Touti li persouna naisson libri e egali en dignità e en drech. Soun doutadi de rasoun e de counsciència e li cau agì entre eli em' un esperit de frairessa. |
[edit] Occitan and Ligurian influences
Standard Occitan recognises regional differences. It has been written that Niçard has kept some of the oldest forms of Occitan, other dialects (such as Provençal) having been more "frenchified" by their history.
The original dialect of "Nissa la Bella" (as was called Nice) has strong ties with Monegasque (Ligurian), due to the geographical proximity of the two languages. Giuseppe Garibaldi, born in Nice, promoted the union of Nice to the Kingdom of Italy.
The French scholar Bernard Cerquiglini pinpoints in his Les langues de France the actual existence of a ligurian minority in the Roya Valley (near Tende), in the westernmost part of the County of Nice.
[edit] See also
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