Friulian

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A language of Italy

ISO 639-3
fur
Alternate Names
Frioulan, Frioulian, Friulano
Autonym
Furlan, Marilenghe
User Population

600,000 (2014 Agjenzie Regjonâl pe Lenghe Furlane), decreasing. 420,000 regular speakers, 180,000 occasional speakers (2014 Agjenzie Regjonâl pe Lenghe Furlane).

Location

Friuli-Venezia Giulia autonomous region except Trieste province and western and eastern border areas; Veneto region: Venezia province, Portogruaro area.

Language Status

6b (Threatened). Statutory language of provincial identity in Friuli-Venezia Giulia autonomous region (2007, Regional law no. 29).

Classification
Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Western, Gallo-Iberian, Gallo-Romance, Gallo-Rhaetian, Rhaetian
Dialects

Eastern Friulian, Western Friulian, Carnic Friulian, Central Friulian. Friulian, Ladin [lld] and Romansh [roh] are separate languages (1978 R. Hal). Reportedly more similar to Italian than Romansh [roh] (1981 F. Agard).

Typology

SVO; prepositions and prepositional locutions; most attributive adjectives come after noun, number and possessives before noun; question word at the beginning; gender (masculine/feminine); definite and indefinite articles; 2 forms of plural (sigmatic and palatal); verb affixes mark person, number, object; passives; tense; analytical verbs; comparative shown lexically; 21 consonants, 10 vowels (5 long vowels and 5 short vowels), 2 semivowels, 18 diphthongs, 7 digraphs; 3 diacritical marks; non-tonal; stress on last (most frequent) and on penultimate syllable.

Language Use

Children who stop using Friulian, after having learned it at school, normally shift to Italian [ita]. All domains. Some young people, all adults. Positive attitudes. Most also use Italian [ita]. Used as L2 by Italian [ita], Slovene [slv], Standard German [deu].

Language Development

Literacy rate in L1: Low. Taught as subject in primary schools in Udine, Gorizia, and Pordenone provinces. Periodicals. Radio. TV. Dictionary. Grammar. Texts. NT: 1972. Agency: Agjenzie Regjonâl pe Lenghe Furlane (Regional Friulian Language Agency).

Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Friulian
Writing

Latin script [Latn].