Extreme Southern Italian
The Extreme Southern Italian[1][2][3] dialects are a set of languages spoken in Salento, Calabria, Sicily and southern Cilento with common phonetic and syntactic characteristics such as to constitute a single group. These languages derive, without exception, from Vulgar Latin but not from Tuscan; therefore it follows that the name "Italian" is a purely geographical reference.
Extreme Southern Italian
4.7 million (2002)
-
Italic
- Latino-Faliscan
- Latin
- Romance
- Italo-Western
- Italo-Dalmatian
- Italo-Romance
- Extreme Southern Italian
- Italo-Romance
- Italo-Dalmatian
- Italo-Western
- Romance
- Latin
- Latino-Faliscan
–
Today, Extreme Southern Italian dialects are still spoken daily, although their use is limited to informal contexts and is mostly oral. There are examples of full literary uses with contests (mostly poetry) and theatrical performances.
Background[edit]
The territory where the Extreme Southern dialects are found roughly traces the Byzantine territory in 9th century Italy. In this territory the spoken language was Greek, which still survives in some areas of Calabria and Salento and is known as Italiot Greek (see Greek linguistic minority of Italy).[4]
The main characteristics that the extreme southern dialects have in common, differentiating them from the rest of the southern area dialects are[6]