Cadorino dialect

Cadorino, a dialect of Ladin,^[2] is the language of Cadore, at the feet of the Dolomites in the province of Belluno. It is distinct from neighboring dialects,^[3] and though it has received relatively little attention, it is important to an understanding of the linguistic history of northern Italy.^[4]

Cadorino
Native to	Italy
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Romance Italo-Western Western Romance Gallo-Romance Rhaeto-Romance or Gallo-Rhaetian[1] Ladin Cadorino
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	cado1235
Cadorino dialect

Morphophonology

The principal characteristics of Cadorino are the following:

• Palatalization of *ka, *ga to č, ǧ.
• Retention of final -s in verbal 2nd-person singular.^[5]
• Velarization of *l to u before a consonant.^[6]
• Vowel breaking of "è" in closed syllables.^[7]
• The inflection "òu" of the passive participle of verbs of the first conjugation.
• Retention of a case distinction in 1sg and 2sg pronouns (ió and tū in the nominative, compared to mi and ti in Venetian).^[8]

These are all characteristics of Ladin dialects.^[9]

Influences

Il dialetto cadorino è un misto di etrusco, di latino, di greco, di slavo, di longobardo, di celtico-friulano, di tedesco, di francese: tutti regali che hanno fatto a noi, come all’altre parti d’Italia, quei graziosi nemici che sono venuti di quando in quando a visitarci.

— Antonio Ronzon, Almanacco Cadorino 1873–1874

Cadorino is spoken in what had once been Paleo-Venetian territory. Toponyms show a strong Celtic presence.^[10] There was a Friulian presence around 500 CE, and Cadorino preserves various particularities of Friulian.^[4] Over the centuries (Modern) Venetian has expanded into the Cadorino area. While other Ladin varieties were profoundly influenced by Tyrolian dialects of German, these had relatively little influence on Cadorino, which was much more affected by Venetian.^[5][11]

Recognition

Thanks to legislation on the recognition of historical linguistic minorities (Law 482/1999), Cadore is recognized by the province of Belluno along with the dialects of Comelico, Agordino, the high valley of Cordevole, and the Val di Zoldo.