The Gallo-Italian, Gallo-Italic, Gallo-Cisalpine or simply Cisalpine languages constitute the majority of the Romance languagesof northern Italy. They are Piedmontese, Lombard, Emilian-Romagnol and Ligurian. Although some publications define Venetian as part of the Italo-Dalmatian branch, both Ethnologue and Glottolog group it into the Gallo-Italic languages. The Gallo-Italian languages have characteristics both of the Gallo-Romance languages to the northwest and the Italo-Dalmatian languages to the south. Examples of the former are the loss of all final vowels other than -a; the occurrence of phonemicized diachronic lenition; the development of original to ; and the development of front rounded vowels. Examples of the latter are the use of vowel changes to indicate plurals in place of ; the widespread occurrence of metaphony of stressed vowels, triggered by original final ; and the development in some areas of instead of as the result of palatalisation of original before e and i. As a result, there is some debate over the proper grouping of the Gallo-Italic languages. They are sometimes grouped with Gallo-Romance, but other linguists group them in Italo-Dalmatian.
Geographic distribution
Traditionally spoken in Northern Italy, southern Switzerland, San Marino and Monaco, most Gallo-Italian languages have given way in everyday use to regional varieties of Standard Italian. The vast majority of current speakers are bilingual with Italian. These languages are still spoken by the Italian diaspora in countries with Italian immigrant communities. The variety of Ligurian spoken in Monaco is formalised as Monégasque.
The Gallo-Italian languages differ somewhat in their phonology from one language to another, but the following are the most important characteristics, as contrasted with Standard Italian:
Vowels
Most Gallo-Italian languages have lost all unstressed final vowels except, e.g. Lombard òm "man", füm "smoke", nef "snow", fil "wire", röda "wheel". They remain, however, in Ligurian, with passage of -o to -u, except after n; e.g. ramu, rami, lüme, lümi "branch, branches, light, lights", but can, chen "dog, dogs".
u tends to evolve as ü, as in French and Occitan, as in Lombard füm and Ligurian lüme, Piedmont lüm. In some parts, e.g. southern Piedmont, this has further developed into, e.g. fis, lim. In some mountainous parts of Piedmont, however, this development was blocked before final, leading to masculine crü but feminine crua.
Metaphony is very common, affecting original open stressed è and ò when followed by or sometimes . This leads at first to diphthongs ie and uo, but in many dialects these progress further, typically to monophthongs i and ö. Unlike standard Italian diphthongization, this typically operates both in open and closed syllables, hence in Lombardy quest vs. quist.
Stressed closed é and sometimes ó, when occurring in an open syllable often diphthongized to and, as in Old French; e.g. Piedmont beive, teila, meis. In some dialects, developed further into either or, e.g. tèla < *teila , sira, mis .
Stressed in an open syllable often fronts to ä or è.
Consonants
Lenition affects single consonants between vowels. and drop; becomes or drops; and become and, or drop; becomes,, or drops. between vowels voices to. between vowels sometimes becomes, and this sometimes drops. Double consonants are reduced to single consonants, but not otherwise lenited. becomes velarized to. These changes occur before a final vowel drops. After loss of final vowels, however, further changes sometimes affect the newly final consonants, with voiced obstruents often becoming voiceless, and final sometimes dropping. Liguria, especially in former times, showed particularly severe lenition, with total loss of intervocalic,,,,,, in Old Genoese, hence müa, a éia e âe?. In Liguria and often elsewhere, collapse of adjacent vowels due to loss of an intervocalic consonant produced new long vowels, notated with a circumflex.
and preceding, or often assibilitated historically to and, respectively. This typically does not occur in Lombardy, however, and parts of Liguria have intermediate and, while Piemontese varieties typically have differential developments, with assibilating, but retaining palatalization.
Latin palatalized to ; similarly from Latin develops as. In Liguria, and from Latin and are affected in the same way, e.g. Ligurian cian and giancu.
Varieties of Gallo-Italian languages are also found in Sicily, corresponding with the central-eastern parts of the island that received large numbers of immigrants from Northern Italy, called Lombards, during the decades following the Norman conquest of Sicily. Given the time that has lapsed and the influence from the Sicilian language itself, these dialects are best generically described as Gallo-Italic. The major centres where these dialects can still be heard today include Piazza Armerina, Aidone, Sperlinga, San Fratello, Nicosia, and Novara di Sicilia. Northern Italian dialects did not survive in some towns in the province of Catania that developed large Lombard communities during this period, namely Randazzo, Paternò and Bronte. However, the Northern Italian influence in the local varieties of Sicilian are marked. In the case of San Fratello, some linguists have suggested that the dialect present today has Provençal as its basis, having been a fort manned by Provençal mercenaries in the early decades of the Norman conquest. Other dialects, attested from 13th and 14th century, are also found in Basilicata, more precisely in the province of Potenza, Trecchina, Rivello, Nemoli and San Costantino.
Comparisons of the sentence, "She always closes the window before dining," between different Gallo-Italic languages
