Monégasque dialect
Monégasque (munegascu, pronounced [muneˈɡasku]; French: monégasque, pronounced [mɔneɡask] ; Italian: monegasco) is the variety of Ligurian spoken in Monaco. It is closely related to the Ligurian dialects spoken in Ventimiglia and is considered a national language of Monaco, though it is not the official language of the country, which is French. Monégasque has been officially taught[4] in the schools of Monaco since 1972 and was made a compulsory subject in 1976,[5] but is the native language of only a handful of people.
Classification[edit]
Monégasque shares many features with the Genoese dialect and is closely related to the dialect of Ventimiglia. Despite earlier attempts to link it to Occitan, Monégasque is a Ligurian dialect with Occitan contributions while the nearby Menton dialect is an Occitan dialect with Ligurian features.
Monégasque, like all other Ligurian language variants, is derived directly from the Vulgar Latin of what is now northwestern Italy and southeastern France and has some influence in vocabulary, morphology and syntax from French and related Gallo-Romance languages.[13]
Speakers[edit]
The sole official language of Monaco is French as stated in their constitution with Monégasque being used informally. As Monégasques are only a minority in Monaco, the language was threatened with extinction in the 1970s. In a nation with 130 different nationalities, Monégasque struggles in a time of globalisation. Despite being compulsory in education, it is not common for students in Monaco to use it outside the classroom or to take their bachelor's degree in the Monégasque option. Adult education and lessons to foreign residents are carried out and there is an annual language competition for schoolchildren over which the Prince presides.
Beginning with Louis Notari’s A Legenda de Santa Devota. Any semblance of written Monégasque was usually referred to as Ligurian, Genoese, Italian, and sometimes even French.
Other authors in Monégasque also include:
Spelling standard[edit]
The modern spelling standard has had some adjustments, but remains close to the system imagined by Louis Notari who wanted to be as transparent as possible while taking into account the etymology of words. Thus, in literature, it is necessary to write qatru and not catru because the word comes from the Latin quattŭor; çento and not sento for the same reasons (centum).