User:Garygo golob/Resian dialect/sandbox

The Resian dialect or simply Resian (self-designation Standard Rozajanski langäč / Rozojanski langäč, Bila Rozajanski langäč / Rozojanski langäč, Osoanë Rozoanske langäč, Solbica Rozajonski langeč / Rozojonski langeč ; rezijansko narečje, rezijanščina; Dialetto Resiano) is a distinct variety in the South Slavic continuum, sometimes considered to be a Slovene dialect spoken in the Resia Valley, Province of Udine, Italy, close to the border with Slovenia. It is unequivocally one of the most unique and hard to understand dialects, especially because most Resians are not familiar with Standard Slovene. It main characteristic are centralized, breathy vowels. It borders Slovene Torre Valley dialect to the south and Soča dialect to the east, both separated by tall mountain ranges. On the other sides, it mostly borders Friulian, but also Bavarian to the north. It belongs to the Littoral dialect group, although it shows few similarities with other Littoral dialects and evolved from Carinthian dialect plane, northern Slovene, as opposed to other littoral dialects, which evolved either from west or south Slovene. It is spoken by less than a thousand people and is listed as a definitely endangered language according to the UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Despite that, Resians value their language and is being passed down to younger generations.

Geographic extension
Area where Resian is spoken is practically the same as the area of Comune di Resia. It is spoken entirely in northwestern Italy, region Friuli Venezia Giulia, province of Udine, making it the only Slovene dialect that is spoken in Italy only. Speakers are settled in villages in Resia/Rezija Valley, along river Resia/Rezija, as well as upper Uccea/Učja Valley on the Italian side. This includes several villages, including (from west to east): San Giorno/Bilä/Bela, Prato di Resia/Ravanca/Ravanca, Gniva/Njïwa/Njiva, Criacis/Krïžaca/Križeca, Oseacco/Osoanë/Osojane, Carnizza/Karnïca/Karnica, Stolvizza/Solbica/Solbica, Coritis/Korïto/Korito and Uccea/Učja/Učja. Resia Valley is open to the west, where Friulian is spoken, while being separated by tall mountains in other directions. There is a road connecting it to Uccea Valley, reaching an altitude of more than 1100 m above sea level and is further connected to Torre and Soča Valleys, where Slovene is spoken. In the south, it is surrounded by Musi/Mužci mountains, east by Canin/Ćanen/Kanin and north by Mont Sard/Žard, therefore limiting possible connections with neighbouring dialects and languages, which in turn led to so many distinct features of Resian dialect.

The area was settled by Slovenes from the north, area of nowadays Gail Valley dialect. Both areas stayed connected until the 14th century, when sparsely populated Slovenes living in Raccolana and Dogna Valleys became romanized. There is no Slovene-speaking minority in that area today as it is populated mainly by Friulians and Germans.

Standard Resian
Standard Resian was developed by Han Steenwijk from University of Padua and his colleagues Alfonso Barazzutti, Milko Matičetov, Pavle Merkù, Giovanni Rotta and Willem Vermeer in 1990s and continuing today. Until now, they have standardized the writing, pronunciation and declension. At first it was suggested to base standard language on a central microdialect, particularly that from Gniva/Njïva/Njiva, but later decided to allow four forms of standard Resian, based on four microdialects from four bigger villages: San Giorno/Bila/Bela, Gniva/Njïwa/Njiva, Oseacco/Osoanë/Osojane and Stolvizza/Solbica/Solbica. For other areas of grammar, only microdialect of San Giorno/Bila/Bela can be used as it is the only detailed enough, thanks to Steenwijk's extensive research.

Characteristics
Resian is an Indo-European language belonging to the Western subgroup of the South Slavic branch of the Slavic languages, together with Slovene, Natisone Valley dialect and Serbo-Croatian. It represents the far northwestern part of the dialect continuum. The closest written language is Natisone Valley dialect and the closest Standard language is Slovene. Closest (other) Slovene dialect is Torre Valley dialect, another dialect known for little mutual intelligibility with other dialects. Written Resian can be understood by most Slovenes, partially also to similar writing. Spoken Resian, however, is much more difficult to understand, with the main reason being centralization of vowels, making them harder to distinguish. Speakers of Torre Valley and Natisone Valley dialects, as well as other dialects in Littoral dialect group can understand spoken Resian the easiest as they have the most common features and all have extensive vocabulary from Friulian and Italian.

Inteligibility with other South Slavic languages is even more difficult, although Resian has undergone *sěnȏ > *sě̀no accent shift, so these words are now accented on the same syllable as in Serbo-Croatian, as opposed to most Slovene dialects.

Language vs dialect
There is a discrepancy between the native speakers and linguists when it comes to determining whether Resian is to be considered a separate language or only as a dialect of Slovene. Resians were isolated from other Slovenes since the 14th century, before Standard Slovene was developed and later never had the chance to learn it as there were no Slovene schools in that area and none of the Italian schools taught Slovene, not even as a foreign language. Resians thus not only have hard time understanding Slovene, but also do not feel to be a part of Slovene nation because they were left out and consider themselves as an ethnic group, separate from Slovenes. In 2004, 1,014 out of 1,285 (78.9%) inhabitants of Resia signed a petition declaring that they are not Slovenes. They also have its separate orthography, which existed and was actively used even before standardization. Resian is also used instead of Standard Slovene on bilingual signs and public announcements.

But on the other side, linguists have always treated Resian as a dialect. It does not show any distinct enough features that would qualify it to be a language. To avoid disputes, it is thus often considered to be a Slavic microlanguage.

Accent
Resian dialect, in contrast to neighbouring dialects, does not have pitch accent and seems to have lost differences in vowel length, with the only difference in length being tied to stress (stressed vowels are longer than short) and breathiness (breathy vowels are shorter than non-breathy), although Standard Resian forms still differentiate between length. From historical perspective, Resian has undergone only *sěnȏ > *sě̀no accent shift since Alpine Slovine, making it two accent shifts different from Standard Slovene, which has not undergone *sěnȏ > *sě̀no accent shift, but has undergone *ženȁ → *žèna and optionally *məglȁ → *mə̀gla accent shifts.

Phonology
Due to years of isolated evolution from other Slovene dialects, Resian has developed some iconic features, particularly breathy, centralized vowels that are almost exclusive to Resian, with only some microdialects of Torre Valley dialect also having a similar sound. Consonants are common for Littorral dialects, with retaining palatal sounds.

Conosonants
Han Steenwijk recorded 25 consonant phonemes in San Giorno/Bila/Bela and has then generalized the pronunciation also to other three standard forms, which are definitely similar, except Stolvizza/Solbica/Solbica has a bit different allophones for and. Tine Logar also recorded phoneme.

Vowels
In contrast to consonants, vowels differ quite a lot between the four microdialects, especially the accented syllables. They all have thoroughly researched accented vowels, however, Oseacco/Osoanë/Osojane lacks research about unaccented vowels. This is accent system for San Giorno/Bila/Bela:

Evolution
Evolution of Resian into such a distinct dialect happened gradually, and in three stages: The first stage lasted until the 14th century, and at that time, Resian was mostly influenced by Gail Valley dialect. In the second stage, it acquired many features of Veneitian Slovene dialects and other Littoral dialects. The third stage represent changes, which are unique to Resian and cannot be found elsewhere.

First stage
Until the 13th century, Resian experienced the same evolution as all other Slovene dialects, forming into Alpine Slovene. It was part of the northwestern dialect as long yat diphthongized into *ie and long *ō diphthongized into *uo. It did not experience denasalization of nasal vowels. After further division, it fell into the category of Northern dialect, same as other Carinthian dialects and unlike other Littoral dialects. It thus did not experience lengthening of non-final vowels at that time, because vowel lengthening in norther dialects happened only after the 16th century, well past the point when Resian lost contact with Carinthian dialects and leading to possible different reflexes for formerly long and short vowels. Long *ə̄ also turned into *ē, which is unique to Resian in comparison to other Littoral dialects as there, it turned into *a. The evolution then continued the same as with other Carinthian dialects, leading to Carinthian dialect base. Short non-final *ě̀, *ò, and è evolved differently from long counterparts, into *é, ó and é, respectively. Long *ē turned into *ẹ̄, while nasal vowels stayed intact, only lengthened. Long *ə̄ turned into a very wide ȩ̄ and short non-final vowels lengthened.

Later, Resian followed the same patterns as Juan Valley dialect, such as *ie and *uo simplifying into *iə and *uə, *é and ó turned into *ẹ and *ọ, and *sěnȏ > *sě̀no accent shift, as well as merge of *ē and *ě̄. Long nasal vowels also denasalized and *ę̄ merged with *ə̄, resulting in *ē and *ō.

Second stage
In the second stage, which was influenced primarily by Torre Valley dialect. Wide *ē and *ō became close-mid *ẹ̄2 and *ọ̄2 (in contrast to previously existing *ẹ̄1 and *ọ̄1). Short *ə turned into *a, *ĺ turned into *i̯ and *w started turning into *v before front vowels and *ł turned into *l. This connection also hindered some developments, such as *t’ → č, *ženȁ > *žèna shift, and *məglȁ > *mə̀gla shift, which are today present in Gail Valley dialect, but not in Resian. Final -m in most cases also turned into -n, a feature that also happened in Gail Valley dialect. It also devoiced all final obstruents.

Third Stage
Resian lost both tonal, as well as length oppositions, which is unlike any neighbouring dialect. Diphthings *iə and *uə monophthongized into *í2 and *ú2 respectively, forming a vowel system without diphthongs, another feature of Resian not seen in any neighbouring dialects. Vowels *ọ́1 and *ẹ́1 turned into o̤ and e̤, which might have actually happened before *ọ́2 and *ẹ́2. Now only *ọ́ and *ẹ́ turned into *i and *u near a nasal consonant. Other changes did not cover the whole territory. Vowels *í1 and *ú1 from previously longer syllables turned into i̤ and ṳ, except in San Giorno/Bila/Bela, where previously short *í1 and *ú1 turned into centralized vowels, while elsewhere, they turned into e and o. Syllabic *ł̥́ mostly turned into ol, except in Oseacco/Osoanë/Osojane, and Uccea/Učja/Učja, where it turned into ú. Consonant *ɣ then turned into h, or even disappeared. Other changes are specific to each microdialect.

Morphology
Resian retained neuter gender, as well as some dual forms. It uses long infinitive, without the final -i.

Its special feature is distinction between animate and inanimate masculine o-stem nouns in more than just accusative case; distinction is also present in dative and locative case singular. In locative, ending -u can be used for both animate and inanimate, while ending -e̤ is generally reserved for inanimate nouns. In dative, animate nouns have ending -ovi/-evi. Specfic to Resian are also special unstressed forms for pronouns in nominative case, e. g. ja 'I', as well as clitic doubling, e. g. Ja si ti rë́kal tabë́. 'I told you '. It also has two stressed first person singular pronouns: jä́ and jä́s, the second being used to be more conceited. Atypical for a Slavic language, Resian has also a definite article: masculine te, feminine ta (the only standard Slavic languages to contain definite articles are Bulgarian and Macedonian) and undefinite article. It has also retained aorist and imperfect until recently, which is unlike (other) Slovene dialects. Aorist is completely unknown to living generations but was still present in the 19th century, while imperfect is actively used only with a handful of verbs, and is now mostly used as past conditional.

Orthogrpahy
The standard orthography, devised in 1994 by Han Steenwijk, which is still in use today, has 34 letters for Gniva/Njïwa/Njiva and Oseacco/Osoanë/Osojane, while other two standard forms have an additional letter, $\langley\rangle$.

The alphabet contains the letter $\langlew\rangle$, a letter that few Slavic languages use (only Polish, Kashubian and Upper and Lower Sorbian). This grapheme—according to the Italian linguist Bartoli—is characteristic of the Ladin language of the eastern Alps and indicates the autochthonous Neolatin population's strong influence on Resian.

Standard orthography uses only the letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet plus eleven other letters, which are letters from ISO basic Latin alphabet with added acute, caron, or diaeresis: At the beginning, phoneme could optionally also be written with $\langlez\rangle$ (e. g. Ravanza instead of Ravanca), however that is found inappropriate today. Despite the standard orthography, many street signs are still not adapted to the new orthography and have misspelled names on them.

Additionally, acute accent ( ´ ) can be used to mark stress where that cannot be inferred.

Literature
First written text in Resian were already written in the 18th century. First known instances are two manuscripts called Rez’janskij katichizis I and II that are thought to have been written after 1700, but the exact date remains unclear as only copies exist, one of them being dated to 1797. The first manuscript must have been written before the second as it contains archaisms not seen in the second manuscript. Second known manuscript is Passio Domini ec., which was dated between 1830 and 1848, but was probably written by a non-native speaker. The first bigger piece, spanning over 95 pages, was Christjanske uzhilo, dated to somewhere between 1845 and 1850, but was still a manuscript. The first book was To kristjanske učilo po rozoanskeh, written by Giuseppe Cramaro somewhere between 1923 and 1933. There are also numerous instances of Resian, written by scholars that researched the dialect.

Literature written in Resian is still being published; for instance, in 2021 Silvana Paletti and Malinka Pila published a Resian translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince.

Research
Notable linguists who have studied the dialect include Jan Niecisław Baudouin de Courtenay, Eric Hamp, Milko Matičetov, and Roberto Dapit.

Encoding
The IETF language tags have registered:
 * sl-rozaj for the dialect in general.
 * sl-rozaj-1994 for text in the 1994 standard orthography.
 * sl-rozaj-biske for the subdialect of San Giorgio/Bila.
 * sl-rozaj-biske-1994 for text in the 1994 standard orthography.
 * sl-rozaj-lipaw for the subdialect of Lipovaz/Lipovec.
 * sl-rozaj-lipaw-1994 for text in the 1994 standard orthography.
 * sl-rozaj-njiva for the subdialect of Gniva/Njiva.
 * sl-rozaj-njiva-1994 for text in the 1994 standard orthography.
 * sl-rozaj-osojs for the subdialect of Oseacco/Osojane.
 * sl-rozaj-osojs-1994 for text in the 1994 standard orthography.
 * sl-rozaj-solba for the subdialect of Stolvizza/Solbica.
 * sl-rozaj-solba-1994 for text in the 1994 standard orthography.