Niçard dialect

Niçard
niçard/nissart/niçart
Pronunciation
Native toFrance, Monaco
RegionCounty of Nice, Monaco
Language familyIndo-European
Writing systemLatin
Official status
Regulated byConselh de la Lenga Occitana (classic orthography) / Félibrige (Mistralian orthography)
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolognica1249
Linguasphere51-AAA-gd
IETFoc-nicard
  Niçard in today's Alpes-Maritimes department, according to Dalbera

Niçard (Classical orthography), nissart/Niçart (Mistralian orthography, IPA: ), niçois (/niːˈswɑː/ nee-SWAH, French: ), or nizzardo (Italian: ) is the dialect that was historically spoken in the city of Nice, in France, and in a few surrounding communes. Niçard is a subdialect of Provençal, itself a dialect of Occitan. Some Italian irredentists have claimed it as a Ligurian dialect, on false grounds.

Most residents of Nice and its region no longer speak Niçard, and the very few who do are fully bilingual in French as Nissard has lost its function of a vernacular language decades ago. 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 as well as in French. The Niçard song Nissa La Bella is often regarded as the "anthem" of Nice.

Writing system

Niçard is written using two forms:

An Italian orthography was abandoned when Nice joined the French Empire in 1861. It was briefly reinstated in 1942 and 1943 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 persona 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 lib(e)ri e egali en dignità e en drech. Soun doutadi de rasoun e de counsciència e li cau agì entre eli em' un esperit de frairesa.

Classification

The classifications of Occitan in dialects hesitate between defining Niçard as a specific dialect or including it in Maritime Provençal. Niçard is sharing some phonetical archaisms with Occitan areas as distant as Aranese, which is also using proparoxytone words. It is also sharing with Aranese a quite heavy influence of a neighbouring language (Catalan for Aranese, Italian for Niçard). Regional differences are broadly accepted by linguists and French national education authorities in Occitan. Domergue Sumien defined in his PhD thesis Occitan as a pluricentric language, and included Niçard among the seven regional standards to be taught. The French Ministry of National Education uses either “nissart-langue d’oc” or “occitan-langue d’oc nissart”.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Some Iberian scholars may alternatively classify Occitan as Iberian Romance.

References

  1. ^ a b Jean-Philippe Dalbéra. Les parlers des Alpes Maritimes: étude comparative, essai de reconstruction. London: Association Internationale d’Études Occitanes, 1994.
  2. ^ Perala-Torriatte, Maiju Johanna; Sardou, Antoine-Léandre; Calvino, Jean-Baptiste (July 2019). BookPDF Available Grammaire de l'Idiome Niçois : accompagnée de nombreux éclaircissements historiques sur cet important dialecte de la langue d'Oc et précédée d'un exposé du vrai système orthographique de ce dialecte. Authentic Vegan Publishing. ISBN 978-952-69265-1-3.
  3. ^ Maiju, Johanna (July 2019). "Grammaire de l'Idiome Niçois : accompagnée de nombreux éclaircissements historiques sur cet important dialecte de la langue d'Oc et précédée d'un exposé du vrai système orthographique de ce dialecte".
  4. ^ Gubbins, Paul; Holt, Mike, eds. (2002). Beyond Boundaries: Language and Identity in Contemporary Europe. Multilingual Matters. ISBN 1-85359-555-1.
  5. ^ Panicacci, Jean-Louis (1986). "Un journal irrédentiste sous l'Occupation : Il Nizzardo". Cahiers de la Méditerranée. 33 (1): 143–158. doi:10.3406/camed.1986.990.
  6. ^ Barberis, Francesco (1871). Nizza italiana di Francesco Barberis: raccolta di varie poesie italiane e nizzarde : corredate di note (in Italian). Tip. Sborgi e Guarnieri.
  7. ^ Domergu Sumien. “Classificacion dei dialèctes occitans”, Lingüistica occitana 7, 2009 "online" (PDF). Archived from the original on July 11, 2015. Retrieved May 18, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  8. ^ Defence in 2004. Published as La standardisation pluricentrique de l’occitan. Nouvel enjeu sociolinguistique, développement du lexique et de la morphologie. Turnhout: Brepols. 2006
  9. ^ See the review of the thesis by Kathryn Klingebiel in Language Problems & Language Planning 32:3 (2008) pp. 293-296 https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/lplp.32.3.13kli#
  10. ^ See another review by Aitor Carrera in Llengua i ús: revista tècnica de política lingüística, 2008, Núm. 42, p. 83-91, https://raco.cat/index.php/LlenguaUs/article/view/128337.
  11. ^ "Arrêté du 13 janvier 2004 relatif à la liste des académies et des territoires d'outre-mer dans lesquels peuvent être subies certaines épreuves de langues vivantes à la session 2004 du baccalauréat général et du baccalauréat technologique". Journal officiel de la République française. n°18, 22 January 2004. https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000000600203
  12. ^ "Arrêté du 23 janvier 2006 relatif à la liste des académies et collectivités dans lesquelles peuvent être subies certaines épreuves de langues vivantes à la session 2006 du baccalauréat général et du baccalauréat technologique". Journal officiel de la République française. n°28, 2 February 2006. https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000000635818

Sources