Corsican language

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Corsican Corsu
Spoken in:	Corsica, France, Italy
Total speakers:	402,000 (dubious; more probably ca. 100,000)
Language family:	Indo-European  Italic   Romance    Southern Romance     Corsican
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	co
ISO 639-2:	cos
ISO 639-3:	cos
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Corsican (Corsu or Lingua Corsa) is a Romance language spoken on the island of Corsica (France), alongside French, which is the official language. A similar language to Corsican is also spoken to some extent in Sassari and in the Gallura area of Sardinia (Italy). It has strong similarities to Italian and in particular the dialects of Italian from Tuscany.

According to Ethnologue^[1] Corsican is a Southern Romance language, akin to Sardinian.

According to its UNESCO classification, the Corsican language is currently in danger of becoming extinct. In recent years, greater protection for the language has been discussed as part of proposals for the increased autonomy of the region of Corsica from France.

The language has several dialects including Northern Corsican, spoken in the Bastia and Corte area, and Southern Corsican, spoken around Sartene and Porto-Vecchio. The dialect of Ajaccio has been described as in transition. The dialects spoken at Calvi and Bonifacio are closer to the Genoa dialect, also known as Ligurian.

In the Sardinian region of Gallura, including the town of Tempio Pausania, and on the island of La Maddalena "Gallurese" is spoken. This is a transitional dialect with many similarities to Southern Corsican.

The Corsican language is a key vehicle for Corsican culture, which is notably rich in proverbs. Corsica also has a tradition of polyphonic singing that dates back to the 16th century and is thought to have evolved from similar traditions on the Italian mainland.

Contents 1 Alphabet 2 See also 3 External links 4 References 5 Bibliography

[edit] Alphabet

Majuscule Forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)

A

B

C

CHJ

D

E

F

G

GHJ

H

I

J

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

Z

Minuscule Forms (also called lowercase or small letters)

a

b

c

chj

d

e

f

g

ghj

h

i

j

l

m

n

o

p

q

r

s

t

u

v

z

Names

a

bi

ci

chji

dè

è

èffè

gi

ghjè

acca

i

ji

èllè

èmmè

ènnè

o

pè

cu

èrrè

èssè

ti

u

vè

zèda

[edit] See also

• Languages of France
• Gallurese
• Sassarese language

[edit] External links

• Ethnologue report for Corsican
• Wikiquote: Corsican proverbs

[edit] References

1. ^ Romance Language Family Tree, Ethnologue

[edit] Bibliography

• Marcel Peres, Le Chant religieux corse

v • d • e Romance languages
Southern Romance languages: Corsican (Gallurese)  · Sassarese  · Sardinian (Campidanese, Logudorese)
Eastern Romance languages: Romanian (Moldovan, Vlach) · Aromanian · Megleno-Romanian · Istro-Romanian
Italo-Dalmatian Romance languages: Italian (Central Italian, Florentine, Tuscan, Romanesco, Judeo-Italian) · Calabrian · Dalmatian† · Istriot · Neapolitan · Sicilian
Western Romance languages main: Catalan (Balearic, Valencian) · French (incl. Zarphatic†) · Portuguese-Galician (Fala, Galician, Portuguese) · Spanish (Castilian) (incl. Ladino) other Western Aragonese (Mozarabic†) · Franco-Provençal (Bressan, Dauphinois, Forézien, Franc-Comtois, Genevois, Jurassien, Lyonnais, Savoyard, Vaudois) · Astur-Leonese (Asturian, Cantabrian, Extremaduran, Leonese, Mirandese) · Burgundian (Franc-Comtois) · Emiliano-Romagnolo · Francien · Gallo · Ligurian (Genoese, Monégasque) · Lombard (Eastern, Western) · Lorrain · Norman · Occitan (Auvergnat, Aupenc, Gascon (Aranese, Béarnais), Languedocien, Limousin, Provençal (Mentonasque, Niçard)) · Picard (Champenois, Chti/Chtimi, Rouchi) · Piedmontese · Poitevin-Saintongeais · Rhaeto-Romance (Friulian, Ladin, Romansh) · Venetian  · Walloon
denotes Extinct (†); bolded denotes languages with more than 5 million speakers

af:Korsikaans

als:Korsische Sprache an:Idioma corso frp:Corso ast:Corsu (Llingua) br:Korseg ca:Cors cs:Korsičtina co:Lingua corsa da:Korsikansk (sprog) de:Korsische Sprache es:Idioma corso eo:Korsika lingvo eu:Korsikera fa:زبان کرسی fr:Langue corse it:Lingua corsa ky:Корсика тили ku:Korsîkî lij:Lengua corsa li:Corsicaans hu:Korzikai nyelv ms:Bahasa Corsica nl:Corsicaans ja:コルシカ語 no:Korsikansk oc:Còrs nds:Korsische Spraak pl:Język korsykański pt:Língua corsa ro:Limba corsicană ru:Корсиканский язык sc:Limba corsicana scn:Lingua corsa fi:Korsikan kieli sv:Korsikanska tr:Korsikaca vec:Łéngoa corsa zh:科西嘉语