Everything about Dalmatian Language totally explained
Dalmatian is an extinct
Romance language formerly spoken in the
Dalmatia region of
Croatia, and as far south as
Kotor in
Montenegro.
The Dalmatian speakers lived in the coastal towns:
Zadar,
Trogir,
Split,
Dubrovnik and
Kotor (
Iadera, Tragurium, Spalatum, Raugia and
Cattaro), each of these cities having a local dialect, and also on the islands of
Krk,
Cres and
Rab (
Vikla, Crepsa and
Arbe)
Dialects
Almost every city developed its own dialect; however, most disappeared before they were recorded, so the only trace of these ancient dialects is some words borrowed into Croatian local dialects.
Ragusan
Ragusan is the Southern dialect. Its name is derived from the Italian name of Dubrovnik,
Ragusa. It was discovered in two letters, from
1325 and
1397, and other medieval texts, which show a language influenced heavily by
Venetian. The available sources include hardly 260 Ragusan words. Surviving words include
pen (bread),
teta (father),
chesa (house) and
fachir (to do), which were quoted by an Italian, Fillipo Diversi, the rector of Ragusa in the
1430s.
The
Republic of Ragusa had at one time an important fleet, but its influence decreased. The language was in trouble in the face of
Croatian expansion, as the Ragusan Senate decided that all debates had to be held in
lingua veteri ragusea (ancient Ragusan language) and the use of the
lingua sclava (
Croatian) was forbidden. Nevertheless, in the
16th century, Ragusan fell out of use and became extinct.
Vegliot
Vegliot (the native name being
Viklasun) is the Northern dialect and it's derived from the Italian name of
Krk,
Veglia, an island in Kvarner. On the inscription dating from the beginning of the
4th century, Krk is named as "Splendissima civitas Curictarum". The Croatian name derives from the Roman name (Curicum, Curicta), while the younger title Vecla – Vegla – Veglia (meaning "Old Town") was created in the medieval Romanesque period.
The last speaker of any Dalmatian dialect was
Tuone Udaina Burbur (in Italian: Antonio Udina), who was killed by a
landmine on
June 10,
1898. His language was studied by an Italian scholar,
Matteo Giulio Bartoli, who visited him in
1897 and wrote down approximately 2800 words, stories, and accounts of his life, which were published in a book that has provided much information on the vocabulary, phonology, and grammar of the language. Bartoli wrote in Italian and published a translation in German (
Das Dalmatische) in
1906. The Italian language manuscripts were lost, and the work wasn't retranslated into Italian until
2001.
History
The
Romans gradually occupied the territory of
Illyria between
229 BC and
155. The traders and the authorities spoke Latin and the inhabitants mostly abandoned their language for Latin (in fact, the "
Vulgar Latin"). It is noteworthy that there were some Roman Emperors of Illyrian origin; the best known are
Aurelian,
Diocletian and
Constantine I.
After the
fall of the Western Roman Empire, Illyrian towns continued to speak Latin and their language evolved relatively independent from other
Romance languages, progressing toward a regional variant and finally to a distinct language.
The earliest reference on the language dates from the
10th century and it's estimated that about 50,000 people spoke it at that time.
Other languages influenced the Dalmatian, but without erasing its Latin roots (superstrates): the
Slavs, then the Venetians. Several cities of the regions have Italian names, and other mostly the romanized
Illyrian ones.
The oldest preserved documents written in Dalmatian are some
13th century inventories, in the Ragusan dialect. A letter of the
14th century from Zadar shows strong Venetian influence, which was also the cause of its extinction soon after.
Characteristics
Once thought to be a language that bridged the gap between the
Romanian language and
Italian, it was only distantly related to the nearby Romanian dialects, such as the nearly extinct
Istro-Romanian, also spoken in nearby
Istria,
Croatia.
Some of its features are quite archaic; for example, Dalmatian is one of the two Romance languages (the other one is
Sardinian) that didn't palatalise /k/ and /g/ before /e/ and /i/:
Latin cenare > Vegliot: kenur (to dine).
Some of its words have been preserved as borrowings in South Slavic languages, chiefly in
Croatian, and also a few in
Albanian.
Similarities to Romanian
Among the similarities with Romanian, there are some consonant shifts that can be found among the Romance languages only in Dalmatian and Romanian:
| source |
destination |
Latin |
Vegliot |
Romanian |
Italian |
Meaning |
| /kt/ |
/pt/ |
octo |
guapto |
opt |
otto |
eight |
| /ŋn/ |
/mn/ |
cognatus |
comnut |
cumnat |
cognato |
cognate |
| /ks/ |
/ps/ |
coxa |
copsa |
coapsa |
coscia |
thigh |
Vocabulary
Dalmatian kept
Latin words related to urban life, present too in Romanian, such as
čituot (city), (in Romanian
cetate). The Dalmatians retained an active urban society in their city states, whereas most Romanians were driven into small mountain settlements during the
Great Migrations of the
Dark Ages.
Also, unlike Romanian, Dalmatian didn't keep any substrate words of Thracian or Illyrian origin, as the speakers are considered to have initially been colonists, not a Romanized population.
Venetian became a major influence on the language as Venice's commercial influence grew. The
Chakavian dialect and
Dubrovnik Jekavian dialect in
Croatia, which was spoken outside the cities since the
Slavs migrated, gained importance in the cities by the
16th century, and it eventually completely replaced Dalmatian as a day-to-day language.
Grammar
An
analytic trend can be observed in Dalmatian: nouns and adjectives began losing their gender and number inflections, the noun declension disappeared completely and the verb conjugations began to follow the same path; however, the verb maintained a person and number distinction, except in the third person (in common with Romanian and several dialects of Italy).
The
definite article is used as a preposition, unlike the
Eastern Romance languages (like Romanian) which have it postposed to the noun.
Language sample
Here are examples of the
Lord's prayer in
Latin, Dalmatian,
Italian,
Istro-Romanian and
Romanian:
| Latin |
Dalmatian |
Italian |
Istro-Romanian |
Romanian |
Pater noster, qui es in caelis:
|
Tuota nuester, che te sante intel sil, |
Padre nostro, che sei nei cieli, |
Ciace nostru car le şti en cer, |
Tatăl nostru care eşti în ceruri, |
| sanctificetur Nomen Tuum; |
sait santificuot el naun to. |
sia santificato il tuo nome. |
neca se sveta nomelu teu. |
sfinţească-se numele tău. |
| adveniat Regnum Tuum; |
Vigna el raigno to. |
Venga il tuo regno. |
Neca venire craliestvo to. |
Vie împărăţia ta. |
| fiat voluntas Tua, sicut in caelo, et in terra. |
Sait fuot la voluntuot toa, coisa in sil, coisa in tiara. |
Sia fatta la tua volontà, come in cielo così in terra. |
Neca fie volia ta, cum en cer, aşa şi pre pemânt. |
Facă-se voia ta, precum în cer, aşa şi pe pământ. |
| Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie; |
Duote costa dai el pun nuester cotidiun. |
Dacci oggi il nostro pane quotidiano |
Pera nostre saca zi de nam astez. |
Pâinea noastră cea de toate zilele, dă-ne-o nouă astăzi. |
| et dimitte nobis debita nostra, |
E remetiaj le nuestre debete, |
E rimetti a noi i nostri debiti, |
Odproste nam dutzan, |
şi ne iartă nouă păcatele noastre, |
| Sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris; |
coisa nojiltri remetiaime a i nuestri debetuar. |
come noi li rimettiamo ai nostri debitori. |
ca şi noi odprostim a lu nostri dutznici. |
precum şi noi le iertăm greşiţilor noştri. |
| et ne nos inducas in tentationem; |
E naun ne menur in tentatiaun, |
E non ci indurre in tentazione, |
Neca nu na tu vezi en napastovanie, |
Şi nu ne duce pe noi în ispită, |
| sed libera nos a Malo. |
miu deleberiajne dal mal. |
ma liberaci dal male. |
neca na zbăveşte de zvaca slabe. |
ci ne mântuieşte de cel rău. |
Parable of the Prodigal Son
...E el daic: Jon ciairt jomno
ci avaja doi feil,
e el plé pedlo de louro
daic a soa tuota: Tuota
duoteme la puarte de moi luc,
che me toca, e jul spartait
tra louro la sostuanza
e dapù pauch dai, mais toich
indajoi el feil ple pedlo andait a
la luorga, e luoc el dissipuat
toich el soo, viviand malamiant.
Muà el ju venait in se stiass,
daic:
quinci jomni de journata
Cn cuassa
da me tuota i ju bonduanza de
puan e cua ju muor de fum.
Further Information
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