CorsicaCorsica (ˈkɔrsɪkə , Upper ˈkorsiɡa, Southern ˈkɔrsika, ˈkɔrsika; Corse kɔʁs; Còrsega) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the French mainland, west of the Italian Peninsula and immediately north of the Italian island of Sardinia, which is the land mass nearest to it. A single chain of mountains makes up two-thirds of the island. , it had a population of 351,255. The island is a territorial collectivity of France.
Italian languageItalian (italiano itaˈljaːno or lingua italiana ˈliŋɡwa itaˈljaːna) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 85 million people (2022), Italian is an official language in Italy, San Marino, Switzerland (Ticino and the Grisons), and is the primary language of Vatican City. It has official minority status in Croatia and in some areas of Slovenian Istria.
Romance languagesThe Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are numerous modern languages that evolved from Late Latin and its spoken form, often called Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages branch of the Indo-European language family. The five most widely spoken Romance languages by number of native speakers are Spanish (489 million), Portuguese (283 million), French (80 million), Italian (67 million) and Romanian (24 million), which are all national languages of their respective countries of origin.
SardiniaSardinia (sɑrˈdɪniə ; Sardegna sarˈdeɲɲa; Sardigna saɾˈdiɲːa) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the 20 regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia and immediately south of the French island of Corsica. It is one of the five Italian regions with some degree of domestic autonomy being granted by a special statute. Its official name, Autonomous Region of Sardinia, is bilingual in Italian and Sardinian: Regione Autonoma della Sardegna / Regione Autònoma de Sardigna.
Sardinian languageSardinian or Sard (sardu ˈsaɾdu, limba sarda ˈlimba ˈzaɾda or lìngua sarda ˈliŋɡwa ˈzaɾda) is a Romance language spoken by the Sardinians on the Western Mediterranean island of Sardinia. Many Romance linguists consider it the language that, together with Italian, is the closest to Latin among all its genealogical descendants. However, it has also incorporated elements of a Pre-Latin (mostly Paleo-Sardinian and, to a much lesser degree, Punic) substratum, as well as a Byzantine Greek, Catalan, Castilian, and Italian superstratum.
ItaliansItalians (Italiani, itaˈljaːni) are an ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common culture, history, ancestry and language. Their predecessors differ regionally, but generally include native populations such as the Etruscans, the Rhaetians, the Ligurians, the Adriatic Veneti, and the Italic peoples, including the Latins, from which the Romans emerged and helped create and evolve the modern Italian identity.
AjaccioAjaccio (ˈaɪətʃoʊ, UKalsoəˈdʒæ(k)sioʊ, USalsoɑːˈjɑːtʃ(i)oʊ; French: aʒaksjo; Aiaccio or Ajaccio aˈjattʃo; Aiacciu aˈjattʃu, locally: Aghjacciu aˈɟattʃu; Adiacium) is a French commune, prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud, and head office of the Collectivité territoriale de Corse (capital city of Corsica). It is also the largest settlement on the island. Ajaccio is located on the west coast of the island of Corsica, southeast of Marseille.
FranceFrance (fʁɑ̃s), officially the French Republic (République française ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz), is a country located primarily in Western Europe. It also includes overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, giving it one of the largest discontiguous exclusive economic zones in the world. Its metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean.
Language shiftLanguage shift, also known as language transfer or language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceived to be higher status stabilise or spread at the expense of other languages that are perceived by their own speakers to be lower-status. An example is the shift from Gaulish to Latin during the time of the Roman Empire. For prehistory, Forster et al.
DialectDialect (from Latin dialectus, dialectos, from the Ancient Greek word διάλεκτος, 'discourse', from διά, 'through' and λέγω, 'I speak') can refer to two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. Under this definition, the dialects or varieties of a particular language are closely related and, despite their differences, are most often largely mutually intelligible, especially if geographically close to one another in a dialect continuum.
