Friuli - Regional Languages and Dialects

Regional Languages and Dialects

While standard Italian is the primary official language of the region, several other regional languages and dialects are spoken in Friuli.

Friulian is spoken in the provinces of Udine, Gorizia and Pordenone.

Venetian and its sub-dialects are usually spoken (for historical reasons) on the western border regions (i.e. Pordenone), sparingly in a few internal towns (i.e. Gorizia, etc) and historically in some places along the Adriatic coast.

In the southeastern part of Friuli, a Venetian transitional dialect is spoken, called Bisiaco, that has influences of both Slovene and Friulian.

Slovene dialects are spoken in the largely rural border mountain region known as Venetian Slovenia. German (Bavarian dialect) is spoken in Val Canale (mostly in Tarvisio and Pontebba); in some of Val Canale's municipalities (particularly in Malborghetto Valbruna), Carinthian Slovenian dialects are spoken too. Slovene is also spoken in the Collio area north of Gorizia. In the Resia valley, between Venetian Slovenia and the Val Canale, most of the inhabitants still speak an archaic dialect of Slovene, known as Resian. According to the official estimates of the Italian government, between 45,000 and 51,000 Slovene speakers live in Friuli: around 11,000 in the Province of Gorizia, and the rest in the Province of Udine. Due to emigration, most Slovene speakers in the Province of Udine live outside their traditional compact zone of settlement.

German-related dialects are spoken in several ancient enclaves like Timau, Zahre (Sauris) and Plodn (Sappada).

Note: only Friulian, Slovenian and German are allowed to be local secondary official languages in their historic areas, but not their related dialects.