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Concept
Corsican language
Summary
Corsican (corsu ˈkorsu, ˈkɔrsu; full name: lingua corsa ˈliŋɡwa ˈɡorsa, ˈliŋɡwa ˈɡɔrsa) is a Romance language constituted by the continuum of the Italo-Dalmatian dialects spoken on the Mediterranean island of Corsica (France) and on the northern end of the island of Sardinia (Italy). Corsican is related to the Tuscan varieties from the Italian peninsula, and therefore also to the Florentine-based standard Italian.
Under the long-standing sway of Tuscany's Pisa and Republic of Genoa over Corsica, Corsican used to play the role of a vernacular in combination with Italian functioning as the island's official language. In 1859, Italian was replaced by French, owing to the French acquisition from the Republic of Genoa in 1768. Over the next two centuries, the use of French in the place of Italian grew to the extent that, by the Liberation in 1945, all the islanders had a working knowledge of French. The 20th century saw a language shift, with the islanders changing their language practices to the extent that there were no monolingual Corsican speakers left by the 1960s. By 1995, an estimated 65 percent of islanders had some degree of proficiency in Corsican, and a minority amounting to around 10 percent used Corsican as a first language.
As for Corsican, a bone of contention is whether it should be considered an Italian dialect or its own language, even while by French law it is a regional language. While there is near universal agreement that Corsican is typologically and traditionally Italo-Romance, its specific position therein is more controversial. Some scholars argue that Corsican belongs to the Centro-Southern Italian dialects, while others are of the opinion that it is closely related to Italy's Tuscan varieties, if not reputed to be part thereof. Mutual intelligibility between Italian and the dialects of Corsican is in fact very high, with particular reference to Northern Corsican.
Official source
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