Phonology
Long vowels are typical of the Friulan language and this has a great influence also on Friulan pronunciation of Italian.
Friulan distinguishes between short and long vowels, e.g. in the following minimal pairs (long vowels are marked in the official orthography with a circumflex accent):
- lat (milk)
- lât (gone)
- fis (fixed, dense)
- fîs (sons)
- lus (luxury)
- lûs (light n.)
The Friulan dialects differ in their treatment of long vowels. In certain dialects, some of the long vowels are actually diphthongs. The following chart shows how four words (sêt thirst, pît foot, pôc (a) little, fûc fire) are pronounced in four dialects. Each dialect uses a unique pattern of diphthongs (yellow) and monophthongs (blue) for the long vowels:
| West | Codroipo | Carnia | Central | |
| sêt | ||||
| pît | ||||
| pôc | ||||
| fûc |
The double consonants (ll, rr, and so on), used frequently in Italian, are nearly absent in Friulan.
Read more about this topic: Friulian Language