Istriot Language - Classification

Classification

Istriot is a Romance language related to the Ladin populations of the Alps. According to the Italian linguist Matteo Bartoli, the Ladin area extended until 1000 CE, from southern Istria to Friuli and eastern Switzerland.

Its classification remains unclear, due to the specificities of the language, which has always had a very limited number of speakers. Istriot can be viewed:

• as an independent Northern Italian language, belonging neither to the Venetian language nor to the Gallo-Italic group (opinion shared by linguists Tullio De Mauro and Maurizio Dardano);
• as a transitional variety between the Northern Italian Venetian language and the now extinct Dalmatian language;
• as an independent language of the Italo-Dalmatian group;
• as an independent Romance language.

When Istria was a region of the Kingdom of Italy, Istriot was considered by the authorities as a sub-dialect of Venetian.

Its speakers never referred to it as "Istriot". Traditionally, it had six names after the six towns where it was spoken. In Vodnjan it was named "Bumbaro", in Bale "Vallese", in Rovinj "Rovignese", in Šišan "Sissanese", in Fažana "Fasanese" and in Galižana "Gallesanese". The term Istriot was coined by the 19th century Italian linguist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli.

There are about 1,000 speakers left making it an endangered language.