Faetar dialect
| Faetar | |
|---|---|
| Faetar and Cellese Francoprovençal | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈfajdar] |
| Native to | Italy |
| Region | Foggia |
|
Native speakers
|
< 1,000 (2010) |
| Latin (no official orthography) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | faet1240 |
Faetar, fully known as Faetar and Cellese (Cigliàje), is a Franco-Provençal language spoken in two small communities in Foggia in south Italy: Faeto and Celle di San Vito, and in emigre communities such as Toronto and Brantford, one hour west of Toronto. Although it shares many similarities with both Franco-Provençal and Italian, it is distinct from both. These two small communities have been isolated from the rest of Italy by mountains, and so Faetar has evolved and changed over the centuries into a distinct language.
After a large wave of emigration from Italy after the Second World War, many Faetano and Cellese settled in North America; with a relatively large group immigrating to Toronto, Canada. The language has been studied both in its native Italy, and in Toronto, because of its small number of speakers, its unique blend of Italian and Franco-Provençal features, and its changes brought on by language contact.
Although not given a distinct language code from Franco-Provençal, it is listed by UNESCO as "definitely endangered".
The Faetar language has its beginnings in the 13th century. A Franco-Provençal group of soldiers was sent to the Puglia region to fight the battle of Benevento of 1266. After the battle, some soldiers stayed and set up communities in the region. Celle di San Vito was founded as a monastery on the mountainside to avoid an outbreak of malaria down the mountain, and Faeto was founded either on the 8th of July, 1268, or the 20th of October, 1274 by an edict from Charles of Anjou.
In the 20th century, hundreds of Faetano and Cellese people left Italy and settled in the Toronto area of Canada, and in small pockets of the United States, such as upstate New York (The demonyms for the people from Faeto and Celle di San Vito are Faetani and Cellese, respectively). The Toronto community has been studied recently to examine the effects of language contact, and to look at the differences between the language in Toronto and in its native Italy.
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Wikipedia