152. THE LINGUISTIC IDENTITIES OF BOTH FÆR ØER ISLANDS (NORTHERN ATLANTIC) AND FRIULAN CARNIA (ALPS, NORTH-EASTERN ITALY). FROM: ARCHIPELAGOS AND ISLANDS AT THE MIRROR. SEA-ONES (FAROE and MYKINES, DENMARK), LAND-ONES (CARNIA and SAURIS, ITALY)

 

Tórshavn's inner harbour is mostly intended for small fishing boats (© Franco Pelliccioni)

The numerically modest communities of the Fær Øer islands and of Carnia show strong cultural linguistic identities. Rooted themselves through the centuries, not only because of a more than secular isolation. Speaking about the Carnian territory, this has counted remote villages, therefore of difficult access (like Sauris, of which I will discuss in a while).

Carnia has represented to a great extent a zone of transit and connection between the sea and the interior, between the Latin world and the Germanic-one, between the plains and the mountain alpine world.

 From the linguistic point of view, both languages, Foroyskt and Carnian (dialect form of the Friulan language) didn't had, up to not long time ago, a standardized orthography (for the Faroese language we can go back to the end of the XIX century, with some previous attempts), 

Foroyskt as medium of teaching was acknowledged in schools only in 1938. Since 1948 is the archipelago National Language.

Both, the Faroe islanders and the Carnians are, besides, bilingual.  

Faroese language has considerably developed the terminology of typical aspects of its own habitat and economy: breeding of sheep, capture of birds, fishing, topography, weather, climate. 

Only for the movements of the oceanic waters (waves, surf, stream, etc.), the folklorist and philologist Jakob Jakobsen (1864-1918) singled out 44 different terms (for him it was not even an exhaustive number!).

Speaking about the Carnian dialect, "the Friulan language doesn't have a standard handwriting accepted by all and, unlike the Italian, it is not the language of the public education”. 

Here a difference with the Danish islands!

Carnia: Fornu di Sopra (© Franco Pelliccioni)

In some churches, it is used in the religious functions. 

At times the people prefer to speak Italian. So, they don't close themselves towards the outside, due to the presence of tourists and of not Friulan residents. 

And people tend, anyhow, to identify themselves with the local community and with the nation at large.  

Finally, I remind that already of the regional law 22 March 1996, n.1540, provided the creation of a scientific Committee to propose "univocal solutions to the residual divergences between the handwriting of the Friulan Philological Society and the "unitary normalized handwriting."

So, it was created the OLF: “Osservatorio regionale della lingua e della cultura friulane e di una unità amministrativa specifica per le comunità linguistiche” (Regional Observatory of Friulan Language and Culture).  

In 2004, OLF has been substituted from ARLeF, “Agenzia Regionale per la Lingua Friulana” (Regional Agency for the Friulan Language). In 2007 a Regional Law approved the "Norme per la tutela, valorizzazione e promozione della lingua friulana" (Standards for the protection, enhancement and promotion of Friulan language), which replaced and integrated the previous regional regulations.

 The informal inculturation, that is the intergenerational and face to face transmission of values and knowledges, in the family and domestic sphere of the two cultures, met its apotheosis in the evenings, close to the fireplace. 

When the extended family had the chance to meet and were handed down, from mouth to mouth, from father to child, "stories", facts, events, values.

 The oral tradition, which has played a very first rate rôle in the two communities, seems today to have lost importance with the advent of the planetary and homologating medium, above all television. 

As the General Manager of the SVF, the Faroese Television, underlined to me, he was trying to utilize the powerful formative function of the medium to replace, also if partially, the traditional oral transmission in the roykstova.

 Something analogous started in Friuli, thanks to the regional law quoted before. To develop the Friulan language and culture, the law provided the creation of an agreement with RAI (Italian Radio and Television) for the realization of Friulan language television programs. 

So, Rai Friuli-Venezia Giulia has: Un program di atualitât, costum, culture e societât [A program of news, costumes, culture, society] broadcasted from Monday to Friday in the morning and in the afternoon (30 minutes in all).

From: ARCHIPELAGOS AND ISLANDS AT THE MIRROR. SEA-ONES (FAROE and MYKINES, DENMARK), LAND-ONES (CARNIA AND SAURIS, ITALY)

E-Book, paper version in colour, I and II ed., and in black and white, 111 pages, 90 notes, 105 images (66 belong to the Photo Library of the A.)

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