Talk:Cimbrian language

Dialect or language?
It is not unusual that a German dialect be unintellibible for speakers of standard German only. This argument alone does not qualify for it not a dialect of German.

Another argument often used in order to identify a certain variety of German as a German dialect is whether it is culturally embedded within the German language. In the case of the Alsatian language, for instance, this is not the case for many speakers, since they use rather the French language as written language and do not master standard German. The is (or was) true for the speakers of Walser German in Northwestern Italy (which is also totally unintelligible to speakers of standard German only).

Does anybody know how this is in the case of Cimbrian? If I have the time, I'll try to figure it out. -- j. 'mach' wust &#712;t&#688;&#596;&#797;&#720;k&#865;x 09:16, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

german speaking people in italy
i'm curious as to how long their have been germanic speaking people in italy. i plan to do some research on this, but right now i'm busy just simply trying to document german dialects and their relationships to each other.

Gringo300 10:24, 25 October 2005 (UTC)

Map: "13 komoinen" and "7 komoinen" have to be reversed
The labels "13 comoine" (which I would more likely write "13 komoinen", but it seems to fit anyway) and "7 comoine" (same comment as before) in the map on the right must be reversed. So, we would have "13 comoine" (which are Velo Veronese (Vellje-Feld), Roverè Veronese (Roveràit) Erbezzo, (gen Wiese), Selva di Progno (Prugne and Ljetzan), Bosco Chiesanuova (Nuagankirchen), Badia Calavena (Kalwein, Kam'Abato), Cerro Veronese (Silva Hermanorum), San Mauro di Saline (San Moritz), Azzarino, San Bortolo, Val di Porro (Porrental), Tavernole, Camposilvano (Kampsilvan)) near Verona, and "7 comoine" (which are Asiago (Sleghe), Roana (Robaan), Rotzo (Rotz), Gallio (Ghel), Enego (Ghenebe), Foza (Vuesche), Lusiana (Lusaan), Conco (Kunken)) near Vicenza. The "7 comoine" are actually 8, because Kunken has divided from Lusaan some time ago.

Origins
see also de:Langobardentheorie des Zimbrischen

It appears there is a quotable minority position attempting to derive the Zimbren from the Lombards. This appears to be also the preferred narrative among the population itself. It turns out that these people were actually named for the Cimbri in the 14th/15th century in Italian humanism, so that they take their name from the 2nd century BC tribe without being descended from them in any way. --dab (𒁳) 17:09, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

How many speakers?
This link suggests only 300 or so native speakers: http://www.cimbri.org/download/coluzzi2004.pdf best, 78.105.71.70 (talk) 19:55, 13 July 2013 (UTC)

Walser German
During World War II the German troops stationed in the Walser speaking parish of Formazza/Pomatt nr.Domodossola, Italy (mostly from Tyrol and the Salzburg region) soon learned to understand each other's language fairly fluently.Their officers,who only spoke Standard German,feared that they were conspiring against them ,although the local Walser speakers, most of which didn't know Standard German ,could get themselves to some extent understood by the officers, which proves that (uncorrupt) Walser is not totally unintelligible to (willing) speakers of Standard German.As far as the Cimbrian variety spoken in Luserna is concerned I know, by having frequent intercourse with the villagers, that the same thing that happens in Formazza applies to Luserna. Things are more complex with the virtually extinct, much more archaic, dialect of Roana whose speakers were much less exposed to contacts with people North of the Alps.I must finally add that the dialects spoken in Sappada,Sauris and Timau are not Cimbrian but just marginal varieties of East Tyrollean/Upper Carinthian. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:B07:6463:99D:7454:8394:938A:A124 (talk) 15:31, 10 January 2020 (UTC)