Italo-Romance: Venetan

Venetan belongs to the group of northern Italian dialects. This group is characterized by the presence of some phonological and morphological features, which do not occur in other Italian dialects, but are present in French dialects: a) weakness of unstressed vowels, b) consonant degemination, c) reduced pronominal strenght for verbal agreement. All the three properties are attributed to the Celtic substratum. The Venetan dialects, nevertheless, share with the other northern Italian dialects only the latter two features, and lack the former one. In Venetan, infact, due to a Venetic substratum, the weakness of unstressed vowels is extremely reduced, especially in the central area (Padua), where unstressed vowels are maintained in both word internal and final positions, and even inserted into consonant clusters. In the linguistic history of the Venetan dialects Venice played an important role. After the acquisition by the Venetian Republic of political power and its commercial expansion in many countries of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean, the Venetian dialect was the basis for the development of a lingua franca. This language, once the most peculiar Venetian features had been eliminated, served as a model for all the other varieties. The 21st century Venetan is spoken in three regions of northeastern Italy (Veneto; the eastern and southern parts of Trentino Alto-Adige; Friuli Venezia Giulia – around Udine, Trieste, Muggia, Grado, Marano Lagunare, Bisiaco), in Istria and in Dalmatia. The Venetan dialects largely preserve their vitality in the Italian regions, while abroad they are in sharp decline.