The Italo-Dalmatian languages, or Central Romance languages, are a group of Romance languages spoken in Italy, Corsica (France), and formerly in Dalmatia (Croatia).
Italo-Dalmatian can be split into:[1]
- Italo-Romance, which includes most central and southern Italian languages.
- Dalmatian Romance, which includes Dalmatian and Istriot.
The generally accepted four branches of the Romance languages are Western Romance, Italo-Dalmatian, Sardinian and Eastern Romance. But there are other ways that the languages of Italo-Dalmatian can be classified in these branches:
- Italo-Dalmatian is sometimes included in Eastern Romance (which includes Romanian), leading to: Western, Sardinian, and Eastern branches.
- Italo-Dalmatian is sometimes included in Western Romance (which includes the Gallic and Iberian languages) as Italo-Western, leading to: Italo-Western, Sardinian, and Eastern branches.
- Italo-Romance is sometimes included in Italo-Western, with Dalmatian Romance included in Eastern Romance, leading to: Italo-Western, Sardinian, and Eastern branches.
- Corsican (from Italo-Dalmatian) and Sardinian are sometimes included together as Southern Romance, or Island Romance, leading to: Western, Italo-Dalmatian, Southern, and Eastern branches.
. . . Italo-Dalmatian languages . . .
Based on criterium of mutual intelligibility, Dalby lists four languages: Italian (Tuscan and Central Italian), Corsican, Neapolitan–Sicilian, and Dalmatian.[2]
- The Dalmatian language was spoken in the Dalmatia region of Croatia. It became extinct in the 19th century.
- The Istriot language is a moribund variety spoken in the southwestern part of Istrian peninsula in Croatia.
The Venetian language is sometimes added to Italo-Dalmatian when excluded from Gallo-Italic, and then usually grouped with Istriot. However, Venetian is not grouped into the Italo-Dalmatian languages by Ethnologue[3] and Glottolog,[4] unlike Istriot.[5][6]
- Tuscan–Corsican: group of dialects spoken in the Italian region of Tuscany, and the French island of Corsica.
- Northern Tuscan dialects:
- Florentine is spoken in the city of Florence, and was the basis for Standard Italian.
- Other dialects: Pistoiese; Pesciatino or Valdinievolese; Lucchese; Versiliese; Viareggino; Pisano-Livornese.
- Southern Tuscan dialects:
- Dialects of Aretino-Chianaiolo, Senese, Grossetano.
- Corsican, spoken on Corsica, is thought to be descended from Tuscan.[7]
- Northern Tuscan dialects:
. . . Italo-Dalmatian languages . . .