Niçard, Nissart/Niçart, Niçois, or Nizzardo is considered by French a distinct subdialect of the Occitan language spoken in the city ofNice and in the historical County of Nice, although it is much more similar to ItalianLigurian dialect. In addition to Monégasque, Niçard is also spoken by some in Monaco. Most residents of Nice and its region no longer speak Niçard, and those who do are bilingual in French. Nonetheless, today there is a developing revival of the use of the language. Some local television news is presented in Niçard and street signs in the old town of Nice are written in the dialect as well as in French. The Niçard song Nissa La Bella is often regarded as the "anthem" of Nice.
Writing system
Niçard is written using two forms:
Classical orthography. Preferring the native traditions of the language, this form was developed by Robert Lafont and Jean-Pierre Baquié. It is regulated by the Conselh de la Lenga Occitana.
Mistralian orthography. Closer to written French, it was invented by the Félibrige.
Standard Occitan recognises regional differences. It has been written that Niçard has kept some of the oldest forms of Occitan, other dialects having been more "frenchified" by their history. Giuseppe Garibaldi, born in Nice in 1807, defined his "Nizzardo" as an Italian dialect with some influences from Occitan and French, and for this reason promoted the union of Nice to the Kingdom of Italy. Nice, in fact, had been part of the County of Savoy since 1388, and was given to France in exchange for the help lent in the second independence war against Austria in 1860. Italian Giulio Vignoli wrote in his book about the "Nizzardo Italian" population that, after Garibaldi's failed attempt in 1871, 11,000 of his supporters were forced to move to Italy from Nice and were substituted by the French government with people from nearby Occitan areas. The revolts began after the elections in 1871, in which the pro-Italian party received 26,534 votes out of 29,428. The French government decided to send 10'000 men to end the rebellion, to close the Italian journals and to imprison many of the pro-Italian demonstrators; this changed the characteristic of Nissart, which started to have many loanwords from Occitan. Even today some scholars agree that Niçard has some characteristics that are typical of the western Ligurian language. The French scholar Jean-Philippe Dalbera pinpoints in his Les langues de France the actual existence of a Ligurian dialect, called Royasc, in the Roya Valley, in the westernmost part of the County of Nice. Royasc, which is a Ligurian variety, should not be confused with Niçard. However most experts in Romance linguistics see Niçard as a variety of Occitan. Statements saying that Niçard is a Ligurian or Italian dialect are not supported by these experts. Indeed, French scholar Bernard Cerquiglini wrote in his book on the languages of France about the actual existence of a Ligurian minority in Tende, Roquebrune and Menton, a remnant of a bigger medieval "Ligurian" area that included Nice and most of the coastal County of Nice.
