Corsican language

Information about Corsican language

Corsican
Corsu
Spoken in:Corsica, France, Italy
Total speakers:402,000 (dubious; more probably ca. 100,000)
Language family:}}}
 Italic
  Romance
   Southern Romance
    Corsican}}}
Language codes
ISO 639-1:co
ISO 639-2:cos
ISO 639-3:cos


Corsican (Corsu or Lingua Corsa) is a Romance language spoken on the island of Corsica (France), alongside French, which is the official language. A similar language to Corsican is also spoken to some extent in Sassari and in the Gallura area of Sardinia (Italy). It has strong similarities to Italian and in particular the dialects of Italian from Tuscany.

According to Ethnologue[1] Corsican is a Southern Romance language, akin to Sardinian.

According to its UNESCO classification, the Corsican language is currently in danger of becoming extinct. In recent years, greater protection for the language has been discussed as part of proposals for the increased autonomy of the region of Corsica from France.

The language has several dialects including Northern Corsican, spoken in the Bastia and Corte area, and Southern Corsican, spoken around Sartene and Porto-Vecchio. The dialect of Ajaccio has been described as in transition. The dialects spoken at Calvi and Bonifacio are closer to the Genoa dialect, also known as Ligurian.

In the Sardinian region of Gallura, including the town of Tempio Pausania, and on the island of La Maddalena "Gallurese" is spoken. This is a transitional dialect with many similarities to Southern Corsican.

The Corsican language is a key vehicle for Corsican culture, which is notably rich in proverbs. Corsica also has a tradition of polyphonic singing that dates back to the 16th century and is thought to have evolved from similar traditions on the Italian mainland.

Alphabet and pronunciation

See also

External links

References

Bibliography

  • Marcel Peres, Le Chant religieux corse
 •  • [ e]
Romance languages
Aragonese Aromanian Astur-Leonese (Asturian, Leonese, Mirandese) Catalan (Balearic, Valencian) Ladin Ladino (Haketia, Tetuani) Champenois Corsican (Gallurese, Sassarese) Dalmatian Eastern Lombard Emiliano-Romagnolo Fala Franc-Comtois Franco-Provenal French (incl. Zarphatic) Friulian Galician Gallo Istriot Istro-Romanian Italian (Central Italian, Florentine, Tuscan, Romanesco, Judeo-Italian) Ladin Ladino (Haketia, Tetuani) Ligurian (Genoese, Mongasque) Lorrain Megleno-Romanian Mozarabic Neapolitan Norman (Anglo-Norman, Auregnais, Guernsiais, Jrriais, Sercquiais) Occitan (Auvergnat, Aupenc, Gascon (Aranese), Languedocien, Limousin, Provenal (Niard, Shuadit)) Picard Piedmontese Poitevin-Saintongeais Portuguese Romance Pannonian language Romanian (Moldovan, Vlach) Romansh Sardinian Sicilian (Calabrian) Spanish (Castilian) Venetian (Talian) Walloon Western Lombard
Collectivité territoriale de Corse

Territorial Collectivity flag (Région logo)

Location

Administration
Capital Ajaccio
Arrondissements 5
Cantons 52
Communes 360
Statistics
Land area1 8,680 km²
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Motto
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
Anthem
"La Marseillaise"


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Anthem
Il Canto degli Italiani
(also known as Fratelli d'Italia)


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A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language. As with biological families, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics.
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Italic subfamily is a member of the Centum branch of the Indo-European language family. It includes the Romance languages (including Italian, Catalan, Occitan, French, Corsican, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish), and a number of extinct languages.
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Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family that comprisies all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire.
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The Southern Romance languages are a sub-group of the family of Romance languages that includes the Sardinian, the Corsican language and the diasystems Sassarese and Gallurese.
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ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. It consists of 136 two-letter codes used to identify the world's major languages. These codes are a useful international shorthand for indicating languages.
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ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. The three-letter codes given for each language in this part of the standard are referred to as "Alpha-3" codes. There are 464 language codes in the list.
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ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. It extends the ISO 639-2 alpha-3 codes with an aim to cover all known natural languages. The standard was published by ISO on 5 February 2007[1].
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Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family that comprisies all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire.
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Collectivité territoriale de Corse

Territorial Collectivity flag (Région logo)

Location

Administration
Capital Ajaccio
Arrondissements 5
Cantons 52
Communes 360
Statistics
Land area1 8,680 km²
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Motto
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
Anthem
"La Marseillaise"


..... Click the link for more information.
French (français, pronounced [fʁɑ̃ˈsɛ]) is a Romance language originally spoken in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, and today by about 300 million people around the world as either
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Country Italy
Region Sardinia
Province Sassari (SS)
Mayor Gianfranco Ganau (since May 2005)

Area km
Population
 - Total (as of December 31, 2005)
 - Density /km

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Gallura is a geographical and cultural region in northern Sardinia, Italy. In the Middle Ages, it formed it was one of the four giudicati of the island.

The main towns and villages are Olbia , Tempio Pausania , La Maddalena , Arzachena and Calangianus.
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Regione Autonoma della Sardegna
Regione Autònoma de sa Sardigna


Map highlighting the location of Sardegna in Italy

Capital Cagliari
President Renato Soru
(Independent
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Anthem
Il Canto degli Italiani
(also known as Fratelli d'Italia)


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Italian}}} 
Official status
Official language of:  European Union
 European Union
 Switzerland
 San Marino
Vatican City
Sovereign Military Order of Malta

The template is . Please use instead.

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Regione Toscana


Map highlighting the location of Toscana in Italy

Capital Florence
President Claudio Martini
(DS-Union)
Provinces 10
Comuni 287
Area 22,990 km
 - Ranked 5th (7.6 %)
Population (2006 est.
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Sardinian}}} 
Official status
Official language of: Sardinia
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: sc
ISO 639-2: srd
ISO 639-3: variously:
srd  — Sardinian (macrolanguage)
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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNESCO flag
Org type: Specialized Agency
Acronyms: UNESCO
Head: Director General of UNESCO
Koïchiro Matsuura
 Japan
Status: Active

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Commune of
Bastia

Location



Coordinates
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Commune of
Corte

Image of Corte

Location

Coordinates

Administration
Country  France
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Commune of
Sartène

Image of Sartène

Location

Coordinates

Administration
Country  France
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Commune of
Porto-Vecchio

View of the commercial harbor and a SNCM ferry

Administration
Country  France
Arrondissement Sartène
Canton Porto-Vecchio
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Commune of
Ajaccio

The port of Ajaccio

Location

Coordinates

Administration
Country  France
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Commune of
Calvi

View of Calvi

Location
Longitude 08° 45' 25" E
Latitude 42° 34' 07" N

Administration
Country  France
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Commune of
Bonifacio
View of the harbor of Bonifacio

Administration
Country  France
Arrondissement Sartène
Canton Bonifacio
Mayor Jean-Baptiste Lantieri
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Comune di Genoa

Coat of arms

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