Niçard

Niçard
Nissart/Niçart
Niçois/Nizzardo
Pronunciation [niˈsaʀt]
Spoken in  France
 Monaco
Region County of Nice, Monaco
Language family
Writing system Latin
Official status
Regulated by Conselh de la Lenga Occitana (norme classique) / Félibrige (norme mistralienne)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 –
Linguist List oci-nic
Linguasphere 51-AAA-gd

Niçard (Classical orthography), Nissart/Niçart (Mistralian orthography), Niçois (French, IPA: [ni.swa]), or Nizzardo (Italian, IPA: [niˈtsːardo]) is considered 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 (since 1860 the main part of the current French département of Alpes-Maritimes). In addition to Monégasque, Niçard is also spoken by some in Monaco. However some authors, like Francesco Barberis, believe original Nissart was more closely related to the Gallo-Italian languages (Ligurian) than to the Occitan, until it was annexed to France in 1860.[1]

Most residents of Nice and its region no longer speak Niçard, and those who do are bilingual in French. Nonetheless, today there is a developing revival of the use of the language. Some local television news is presented in Niçard (with French subtitles) and street signs in the old town of Nice are written in the dialect. The Niçard song Nissa La Bella is often regarded as the "anthem" of Nice.

Contents

Writing system

Niçard is written using two forms:

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.

Example of Nissart and similarity with Italian, according to Barberis:

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 Nice was called) had strong ties with Monégasque language (Ligurian), due to the geographical proximity of the two languages, and showed strong similarities to the Ligurian language until the middle of the 19th century.[2]

Giuseppe Garibaldi, born in Nice, defined his "Nizzardo" as an Italian dialect with very strong influences from Occitan and French, and - even for this reason - promoted the union of Nice to the Kingdom of Italy. Italian Giulio Vignoli wrote in his book about the "Nizzardo Italian" minority that, after Garibaldi's failed attempt, 11,000 of his supporters (nearly 1/3 of the population of Nice in the 1860s) were forced to move to Italy from Nice and were substituted by the French government with people from nearby Occitan areas: this changed the characteristic of Nissart that started to have many loanwords from Occitan (a language that now it is predominant in the Nissart dialect).[3]

Even today some scholars (like the German Werner Forner, the French Jean-Philippe Dalbera and the Italian Giulia Petracco Sicardi) agree that Niçard has some characteristics (phonetical, lexical and morphological) that are typical of the western Ligurian language.[4]

The French scholar Jean-Philippe Dalbera (in Bernard Cerquiglini's report) pinpoints in his Les langues de France[5] the actual existence of a Ligurian dialect, called Royasque, in the Roya Valley (near Tende), in the westernmost part of the County of Nice. Royasque, which is a Ligurian variety, should not be confused with Niçard.

However many French specialists of Romance linguistics see Niçard as a variety of Occitan. Some statements saying that Niçard would be a Ligurian or Italian dialect[6] are not supported by some specialists (see especially Dalbera 1984).[7] Indeed, French scholar Bernard Cerquiglini wrote in his book on the languages of France about the actual existence of a Ligurian minority in Tende, Roquebrune and Menton, a remnant of a bigger medieval "Ligurian" area that included Nice and most of the coastal County of Nice.

References

  1. ^ (Italian) Nizza Italiana' by Francesco Barberis
  2. ^ Poems in Nissart from Francesco Barberis: "Nizza Italiana" (Google Book)
  3. ^ Vignoli, Giulio Gli Italiani Dimenticati. Minoranze Italiane In Europa. p. 85-98
  4. ^ Petracco Sicardi, Giulia. L'amfizona Liguria-Provenza. p 107
  5. ^ DALBERA Jean-Philippe (2003) “Les îlots liguriens de France” [in: CERQUIGLINI Bernard (2003) (dir.) Les langues de France, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France / Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication-DGLFLF, p. 125-136]
  6. ^ Beyond Boundaries: Language and Identity in Contemporary Europe, Chapter Seven
  7. ^ DALBERA Jean-Philippe (1984) Les parlers des Alpes Maritimes: étude comparative, essai de reconstruction [PhD thesis], Toulouse: Université de Toulouse 2 [ed. 1994, London: Association Internationale d’Études Occitanes]

Bibliography

See also
Italics indicate extinct languages; bold indicates languages with more than 5 million speakers; languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left.