Ciao a tuti! ...or as you would say... Hello everyone!
Welcome to Venetian 4 English Friends,
the blog dedicated to Venetian language...in English language!
Whether you are just curious to know the origin of the greeting ciao, looking for some local language tip before leaving for Venice, searching for useful tools to learn the Most Serene Republic's language and literally speak as the famous Casanova did, or already ready to practice Venetian, you're in the right place!
This blog aims to be a linguistic support for all those who are interested in the Venetian language in general and in learning it in particular, and offers several useful tools and interesting links!
The Venetian (vèneto) is a Romance language similar to Italian and Spanish, but equally different from both of them. It originated from the patavinitas of Livy's Latin. It , then it gave birth to a rich literature as the official language of the more lasting republic in human history, the Venetian Republic, being also the main language of commerce in the Mediterranean for centuries.
Nowadays, about 4 million people speak Venetian in the upper Adriatic, in Istrian, Dalmatian and Greek coasts and islands and 4 million more speakers are in Brazil, where half of the Venetian population was forced to emigrate from the 1850s to the early 1960s.
Although having been recognized by UNESCO with ISO code "vec" since 1999, and therefore having become a world heritage that must be protected by the law, unfortunately Venetian people still cannot learn their mother tongue at school or use it while working, or with Italian public institutions...
But in the Italian region of Veneto the 70% of the population still speaks Venetian every day with family and friends, and certainly we all would appreciate if a foreigner -or a foresto as we say- on a visit to Verona, Venice, Treviso, Vicenza stopped us to ask for information in our mother tongue! ....the least we could do would be tempting you to an onbreta of wine! :)
I will try to make this blog useful to many learners and I hope it will be, in its small way, an effective tool to enhance and support the use of my mother tongue.
Divertìve! Have fun!
Andrea Lunardon
venetian translator
P.S.: Don't be afraid to comment everywhere! :P
