Page 25 - Mediterraneo e dintorni - nr 12

1921 e l’altro nel 1947, ma tenta- ben si adatta all’emorragia dalma- ne censita, ma la percentuale di chi
rono sempre di difendere la loro ta: Persa a lingua, persu u populu. comprende la nostra lingua sale
italianità. Esiste un proverbio in Per gli appassionati di lingue c’è addirittura all’83%, evidenziando
Corsica che esprime una verità che anche da dire che la lingua autoc- altresì che fino al 1934 l’italiano era
tona dalmata sparì del tutto dalla lingua co-ufficiale.
regione alla fine del 1800. Ancora Eccoci approdati infine sull’isola
più a sud non dimentichiamo la della Corsica, dove la lingua italia-
popolazione costiera dell’Albania na è stata abolita per legge nel 1859
che parla e comprende l’italiano dall’amministrazione francese.
molto bene. Navigando e uscendo La lingua còrsa è da considerarsi
dal mare Adriatico, approdiamo a uno dei dialetti più puri d’Italia:
Sud sull’isola di Malta, lontana lin- ad oggi, degli oltre trecentomila
guisticamente da noi ma non trop- abitanti della regione, solo una
po, e vicina alla nostra penisola per piccola parte è in grado di parlare
tanto altro. Qui il numero di ita- correttamente il còrso, il quale si
lofoni dichiaratisi tali nell’ultimo divide in oltramontano e cismon-
censimento è di ben ottomila locu- tano, ossia due varianti dello stes-
tori, ovvero il 2% della popolazio- so idioma.

italoPhony with the German and Romansh. south on our journey along the
in the mediterranean Only 12% of Italian speakers are shores of the Mediterranean, we
present and almost all of them are find the region of Dalmatia where,
he Italian-speaking area refers in the Valposchiavo. Leaving the up until a hundred years ago, the
Tto all countries and people who Swiss land, we head to the Istrian Italian language had an important
speak Italian as a mother tongue or coast, today a small part of Slove- administrative and political role.
official language or as a second lan- nia and all the rest of Croatia. Un- In Dalmatia, a land of sublime fi-
guage. The Italian language made til 1947 the cities on the coast were gures such as Niccolò Tommaseo,
its debut in the thirteenth century mostly Italian, namely the dialect Antonio Bajamonti and Pope John
up to the present day with remar- “veneto de mar”, better known as IV, Italian-speaking speakers suf-
kable evolutions. How far was it? the Istroveneto. The Italian lan- fered two important exoduses: one
The natural linguistic boundaries guage, therefore, has always been in 1921 and the other in 1947, but
were in Nice until 1860, since then hegemonic in this land, especially they always tried to defend their
French territory: in the French Ri- on the coast where the censuses of Italian character. Further south we
viera one could hear above all Ita- 1900, 1910 and 1921 confirmed do not forget the Albanian coastal
lian speaking, then the Parisian that the Italian dialect reigned over population that speaks and under-
politics no longer allowed Italian the seaside towns of the Istrian pe- stands Italian very well.
speakers to have newspapers in Ita- ninsula. Sailing and leaving the Adriatic
lian. And yet Giuseppe Garibaldi The same fate for the islands of Sea, we arrive to the south of the
was born in Nice in 1807! Let’s Quarnaro and Quarnarolo where island of Malta, linguistically di-
move on to Switzerland: far from the fishermen of these aricipelagos stant from us but not too much,
the Mediterranean, the Italian spe- were almost always all Italian-spe- and close to our peninsula for much
akers in the Canton of Valais are, aking, because they are accustomed more. Here the number of Italian
according to the last census, 3.8% to sailing by sea as traditional- speakers declared as such in the last
of the population. ly learned from the Serenissima. census is eight thousand speakers,
How many of them are autochtho- Speaking instead of the city of Ri- or 2% of the census population, but
nous? Less than half; their presen- jeka, today’s Croatian city, capital the understanding of our language
ce is rooted in the migratory flows of European culture in 2020, we rises to 83%, also highlighting that
of the 50s of the last century. The must highlight that the majority until 1934 the Italian language
situation is different for the Canton has always spoken Italian since was co-official. Finally we arrived
Ticino and for the Canton of Grau- the time before the annexation to on the island of Corsica, where the
bünden which has been full of nati- the kingdom of Italy took place in Italian language was abolished by
ve Italians for at least six hundred 1924. City always multicultural - law in 1859 by the French admi-
years. Around the lakes of Lugano where they lived together Italians, nistration. The Corsican language
and Maggiore, there are over three Croats, Slovenes, Hungarians, is to be considered one of the most
hundred thousand people and Ita- Germans, Rumanians - Rijeka to- pure dialects of Italy: to date, of the
lian is the official language since day has one hundred and thirty more than three hundred thousand
1803; as well as to the east in the thousand residents but unfortuna- inhabitants of the region, only a
neighboring Canton of Graubünd- tely, due to the notorious dramatic small part is able to speak correctly
en, where the population is almost events of the Titina era, only 2% the Corsican, which is divided into
two hundred thousand inhabitants, have expressly declared themsel- pumontincu and cismontincu, or
our idiom is official in cohabitation ves Italian speakers. Continuing two variants of the same idiom.

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