Gallo-Italic languages
Sub-family of Romance languages spoken in Northern Italy / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Gallo-Italic, Gallo-Italian, Gallo-Cisalpine or simply Cisalpine languages constitute the majority of the Romance languages of northern Italy: Piedmontese, Lombard, Emilian, Ligurian, and Romagnol.[3] In central Italy they are spoken in the northern Marches (Gallo-Italic of the Marches);[4] in southern Italy in some language islands in Basilicata (Gallo-Italic of Basilicata) and Sicily (Gallo-Italic of Sicily).[5]
| Gallo-Italic | |
|---|---|
| Gallo-Italian Gallo-Cisalpine Cisalpine | |
| Geographic distribution | Italy, San Marino, Switzerland, Monaco, France |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
| Subdivisions |
|
| Glottolog | gall1279 |
 Geographic distribution of undisputed Gallo-Italic varieties | |
Although most publications define Venetian as part of the Italo-Dalmatian branch, both Ethnologue and Glottolog group it into the Gallo-Italic languages.[6][7]
The languages are spoken also in the departement of Alpes-Maritimes in France and in Ticino and southern Grisons, both in Switzerland, and the microstates of Monaco and San Marino. They are still spoken to some extent by the Italian diaspora in countries with Italian immigrant communities.
Having a Celtic substratum and a Germanic, mostly Lombardic, superstrate, Gallo-Italian descends from the Latin spoken in northern part of Italia (former Cisalpine Gaul). The group had for part of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages a close linguistic link with Gaul and Raetia, west and north to the Alps. From the late Middle Ages, the group adopted various characteristics of the Italo-Dalmatian languages of the south.
As a result, the Gallo-Italic languages have characteristics of the Gallo-Romance languages to the northwest (including French and Arpitan), the Occitano-Romance languages to the west (including Catalan and Occitan) and the Italo-Dalmatian languages to the north-east, central and south Italy (Venetian, Dalmatian, Tuscan, Central Italian, Neapolitan, Sicilian). For this there is some debate over the proper grouping of the Gallo-Italic languages. They are sometimes grouped with Gallo-Romance,[8][9][10][11] but other linguists group them in Italo-Dalmatian.[12][13][14][15][16]
Most Gallo-Italic languages have to varying degrees given way in everyday use to regional varieties of Italian.[citation needed] The vast majority of current speakers are diglossic with Italian.
Among the regional languages of Italy, they are the most endangered, since in the main cities of their area (Milan, Turin, Genoa, Bologna) they are mainly used by the elderly.