Northern ItalyNorthern Italy (Italia settentrionale, Nord Italia, Alta Italia or just Nord) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions: Aosta Valley, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy, Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige. As of 2014, its population was 27,801,460. Rhaeto-Romance and Gallo-Italic languages are spoken in the region, as opposed to the Italo-Dalmatian languages spoken in the rest of Italy.
Cisalpine RepublicThe Cisalpine Republic (Repubblica Cisalpina; Emilian-Romagnol: Repóblica Ciṣalpèina; Republica Cisalpina) was a sister republic of France in Northern Italy that existed from 1797 to 1799, with a second version until 1802. After the Battle of Lodi in May 1796, Napoleon Bonaparte organized two states: one to the south of the Po, the Cispadane Republic, and one to the north, the Transpadane Republic.
Friulian languageFriulian (friˈuːliən ) or Friulan (natively or marilenghe; friulano; Furlanisch; furlanščina) is a Romance language belonging to the Rhaeto-Romance family, spoken in the Friuli region of northeastern Italy. Friulian has around 600,000 speakers, the vast majority of whom also speak Italian. It is sometimes called Eastern Ladin since it shares the same roots as Ladin, but over the centuries, it has diverged under the influence of surrounding languages, including German, Italian, Venetian, and Slovene.
Piedmontese languagePiedmontese (ˌpiːdmɒnˈtiːz ; autonym: piemontèis pjemʊŋˈtɛjz or lenga piemontèisa; piemontese) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, a region of Northwest Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regarded as an Italian dialect. It is linguistically included in the Gallo-Italic languages group of Northern Italy (with Lombard, Emilian, Ligurian and Romagnolo), which would make it part of the wider western group of Romance languages, which also includes French, Occitan, and Catalan.
LombardyLombardy (Lombardia; Lombardia) is an administrative region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 million people, constituting more than one-sixth of Italy's population. Over a fifth of the Italian gross domestic product (GDP) is produced in the region. The Lombardy region is located between the Alps mountain range and tributaries of the river Po, and includes Milan, the largest metropolitan area in the country, and among the largest in the European Union (EU).
GrisonsThe Grisons (ɡriːˈzɒ̃, ɡʁizɔ̃) or Graubünden (ɡraʊˈbʏndn̩), more formally the Canton of the Grisons or the Canton of Graubünden, is one of the twenty-six cantons of Switzerland. It has eleven districts, and its capital is Chur. The German name of the canton, Graubünden, translates as the "Grey Leagues", referring to the canton's origin in three local alliances, the Three Leagues. The other native names also refer to the Grey League: Grischùn in Sutsilvan, Grischun in the other forms of Romansh, and Grigioni in Italian.
Mutual intelligibilityIn linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an important criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, although sociolinguistic factors are often also used. Intelligibility between languages can be asymmetric, with speakers of one understanding more of the other than speakers of the other understanding the first.
Proto-Indo-European languageProto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. Far more work has gone into reconstructing PIE than any other proto-language, and it is the best understood of all proto-languages of its age.
PiedmontPiedmont (ˈpiːdmɒnt ; Piemonte pjeˈmonte; Piemont pjeˈmʊŋt) is a region of Northwest Italy, one of the 20 regions of Italy. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the northwest; it also borders Switzerland to the north and France to the west. It has an area of making it the second largest region of Italy after Sicily; as of 31 January 2021, the population was 4,269,714.
TicinoTicino (tᵻˈtʃiːnoʊ), sometimes Tessin (tɛˈsiːn,_tɛˈsæ̃), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eight districts and its capital city is Bellinzona. It is also traditionally divided into the Sopraceneri and the Sottoceneri, respectively north and south of Monte Ceneri. Red and blue are the colours of its flag. Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland.