lingvo.wikisort.org - Language

Vastese (Vastese: Lu Uâʃtaréule or Lu indialett di lu Uašt, meaning "the dialect of Vasto") is a Romance language spoken in the town of Vasto. It is considered its own language based upon the mutual unintelligibility^{[citation needed]} of it and Italian.[1]^{[unreliable source?]} It is not spoken by any other town, even the nearby town of Cupello, which is only 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) away.[2]

This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (September 2020)

Vastese
Lu Vastarol
Lu Uâʃtaréule
Region	Italy
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Italo-Dalmatian Neapolitan Vastese
Language codes
ISO 639-2	nap
ISO 639-3	nap (Neapolitan)

History

Vastese's endonym — the name its speakers use for the language — is Lu Uâʃtaréule. This term is known to have originated in the sixth century AD.[1]

Demography

Today Vastese is spoken monolingually only by residents of Vasto in their 80s and 90s, bilingually by many residents in their 70s, and many middle-aged residents are passive speakers, while most younger residents have no comprehension.[1]

The Vasto Club in Australia is a club organized for migrants to Australia from Vasto.[2]

Phonology

Vastese has more vowel distinctions than Tuscan, Italy's official and standard language. It has vowels that are not in Italian, such as the open front unrounded vowel /æ/. Vastese uses an open back rounded vowel /ɒ/ for the start of the word uâʃtə. It also uses the mid central vowel /ə/. Vastese also uses several diphthongs not used in italian such as /aʊ/, /eʊ/, and /aɪ/.[1]

The influence of /i/, /u/, /Ī/, or /Ū/ upon /æ/, turns it into either /e/ or /je/.[3]

References

See also

• Central Italian
• Southern Italian
• Languages of Italy
• Abruzzo

---