Padania

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Padania is an alternative name for Northern Italy. It was sparingly used until the early 1990s, when the Lega Nord political party proposed the term as a possible denomination for an autonomous Northern Italy. Since then, the term has carried strong political connotations.

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[edit] Territory

Map of Italy; the highlighted area indicates a definition of Padania based on the historical regional languages
Map of Italy; the highlighted area indicates a definition of Padania based on the historical regional languages

In the true geographical sense, Padania refers to the valley of the Po river, Padus in Latin. The term has been rarely used, as the terms pianura Padana or Val Padana have been preferred in geography textbooks and atlases.

Since the 1960s, the journalist Gianni Brera used the term Padania for Cisalpine Gaul. The Lega Nord political party later used the term for a similar geographical range, but with political conotations. Since the early 1990s, therefor, Padania's boundaries are usually defined according to the Italian regions which approximate the historical regional languages which divide northern Italy from central-southern Italy along the La Spezia - Rimini line.

Another definition of Padania's boundaries is based on Harvard University political scientist Robert Putnam's Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy', in which Italy's "civic North" is defined according to the inhabitants' civic traditions and attitudes, which has been related to the historical emergence of the free Medieval communes since the 10th century[1]. This definition includes Tuscany, Marche, Umbria, and parts of Lazio, although these regions are linguistically a part of Central Italy.

[edit] Languages

See also: Northern Italian language and List of Languages of Italy

The dominant language in the area is standard Italian. French, Franco-Provençal, Occitan, German, Friulian, Ladin and Slovenian are spoken close to the border areas and are officially recognized by the State as minority languages.

The various vernaculars or local Italian languages are not in common use except in isolated contexts (eg., families, acquaintances who speak the same vernacular, etc.); Nonetheless, the situation varies depending on the Region and the age group. Veneto is generally considered to be the Region where the local language continues to be used most[citation needed]. Older people are more likely to speak the local language than younger people, and also use a less Italianized version. These so-called dialects are considered to be regional minority languages by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of Europe, by the Red Book on Endangered Languages of UNESCO and by Ethnologue. The various local Northern Italian languages (Lombard, Ligurian, Emiliano-Romagnolo, Piedmontese and Venetian) are more or less mutually intelligible with each other[citation needed].

Linguist Geoffrey Hull has shown the original unity of the Padanese group of languages in his thesis entitled: The Linguistic Unity of Northern Italy and Rhaetia (1982). His findings are confirmed by most experts today, which use the term Rheto-cisalpine in place of Padanese. Hull divides the Padanese group into two sub-groups: highland and lowland. The highland group includes Friulan, Ladin and Rumantsch. The first two have achieved official recognition in Italy, whilst Romansch, in the form of Rumantsch Grischun, a compromise variety, is the fourth official language of Switzerland. This sub-group of languages is better known as Rhaeto-Romance languages.

[edit] Lega Nord

The Sun of the Alps, the proposed flag for Padania by Lega Nord
The Sun of the Alps, the proposed flag for Padania by Lega Nord
Main article: Lega Nord

Since about 1989, the Lega Nord political party has promoted either secession or larger autonomy for Padania, proposing also a flag and a national anthem. In 1997, the Lega Nord also created an unofficial Padanian "parliament" in Mantua, and held unofficial elections.

As national anthem, the Lega Nord chose the Va' Pensiero chorus from Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco. In the Va' Pensiero chorus, the exiled Hebrew slaves lament for their lost homeland. Most Italians dispute this choice because of Verdi's role in the Risorgimento.

According to the Padania Declaration of Independence given on September 15, 1996[2], the Lega Nord party includes in Padania exactly all the Italian regions Robert Putnam includes in the "civic North" of Italy, according to their civic traditions (see above). In some cases, some indirect and not explicit recognition is given to the linguistic definition of Padania by mentioning that Toscana, Umbria and Marche should be considered "Nord non padano" (non-Padanian North).

While support for a federal system, as opposed to a centrally administered State, receives widespread consensus within Padania, support for independence is less favoured. One poll[3] estimated that 52.4% of Padanians north of the Po river consider secession advantageous ("vantaggiosa"), and 23.2% both advantageous and convenient ("auspicabile"). Another poll[4] estimated that about 20% Padanians (18.3% in north-west Italy, 27.4% in north-east Italy) support secession in case Italy is not reformed into a federal State.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ L. Guiso, P. Sapienza, L. Zingales (2007). "Long Term Persistence". Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
  2. ^ (Italian) Dichiarazione di indipendenza e sovranita' della Padania. Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
  3. ^ (Italian) I.Diamanti. "Il Nord senza Italia? (North without Italy?)", Limes (Italian bimonthly magazine), 1996-01-01. 
  4. ^ (Italian) "poll on Padania's secession", Indipendente (Italian daily newspaper), 2000-08-23. 

[edit] External links