Talk:Parmesan dialect

Although born in London in the late 40's I spent many summer holidays with my uncle, aunt and cousins in the Northern Appennines in the province of Parma. Then everyone spoke at least two languages; "Dialetto" at home and in the workplace and Italian on official occassions and in schools. The sound of the Parmesan dialect was more like French than Italian. Unfortunately this mini language is in danger of dying out due to the twin effects of travel and education. The mountain communities which were the lifeblood of this dialect are dwindling as hill farming becomes uneconomic in the European Community and farm workers move to the towns and cities to become factory or office workers. Schools do not encourage its speach and people who buy holiday homes in the area now come from other places and are as likely to speak Italian as their day to day language.

All this is a pity. The death of any language is a tragedy for all humanity as it narrows the variety of possible human expression.

Interestingly this dialect was widely spoken in London as many catering workers in the 50's and early 60's were from the mountains of Parma. In fact this dialect was mixed with basic London English to produse an interesting creole tongue "Caterers English". My parents spoke this language at home so in a sense this was the first language which I learned to speak. 124.178.165.149 (talk) 14:17, 20 April 2008 (UTC)