Triestine language

The Triestine dialect ( _it. triestino, Triestine: "triestin") is an Italian dialect local to the city of Trieste. It is a form of Venetian, strongly influenced by a Friulian substrate, mainly due to the existence of the now defunct 'Tergestine' dialect, which was closely related to Friulian.

Many words in Triestine are taken from other languages. As Trieste borders with Slovenia and was under the Austro-Hungarian empire for many years, many of the words are of German, Slovene or Greek origin.

The Development of Modern Triestine

After the expansion of the Republic of Venice, from the Middle Ages onwards, Venetian gradually asserted itself as a lingua franca in parts of the Eastern Mediterranean and in the Adriatic Sea, eventually replacing or strongly influencing several coastal languages such as the dialects of Trieste and Istria and also the Dalmatian dialects of Zara (Zadar) and Ragusa (Dubrovnik). In Trieste, this resulted in the gradual replacement of the former Tergestine dialect (related to Friulian within the Rhaetian subgroup of Romance) and of the neighbouring Slovene dialects by a Venetian-based language. This phenomenon began to take place first among fishermen and sailors, while the traditional bourgeoisie continued to speak Tergestine until the beginning of the 19th century. By that time, Tergestine was virtually a dead language, and the period of Modern Triestine had begun.

Sample Vocabulary of the Triestin Dialect:

External links

* [http://info.babylon.com/gl_index/gl_template.php?id=23013 Cogoy's Triestine-English Dictionary at Babylon]
* [http://www.istrianet.org/istria/linguistics/istroveneto/trieste-carpinteri.htm Ethimological studies of the Triestine Dialect]