120-418: Haute-Corse ( French: [ot kɔʁs] ; Corsican : Corsica suprana [ˈkorsiɡa suˈprana] , Cismonte [tʃiˈzmɔnte] or Alta Corsica ; English: Upper Corsica ) is a department of France, consisting of the northern part of the island of Corsica . The corresponding departmental territorial collectivity merged with that of Corse-du-Sud on 1 January 2018, forming
240-637: A government in exile by the United Kingdom took place on 6 January 1941; recognition by the Soviet Union was published in December 1941, by exchange of letters. Winston Churchill suggested that de Gaulle create a committee, to lend an appearance of a more constitutionally based and less dictatorial authority and on 24 September 1941 de Gaulle created by edict the French National Committee as
360-721: A "definitely endangered language." The Corsican language is a key vehicle for Corsican culture, which is notably rich in proverbs and in polyphonic song. When the French Assembly passed the Deixonne Law in 1951, which made it possible for regional languages to be taught at school, Alsatian , Flemish and Corsican were not included on the ground of being classified as dialectes allogènes of German, Dutch and Italian respectively, i.e. dialects of foreign languages and not languages in themselves. Only in 1974 were they too politically recognized as regional languages for their teaching on
480-526: A : i letta , i solda , i ponta , i foca , i mura , i loca , i balcona ; imperfect tense like cantàiami , cantàiani ). Sassarese derives from the Italian language and, more precisely, from ancient Tuscan, which by the 12th century had slowly grown to become the parlance of the commoners, at a time when the bourgeois and nobles still spoke Logudorese Sardinian. During the age of the Free Commune (1294–1323),
600-588: A Nazi client state . France was still nominally independent, with control of the French Navy , the French colonial empire , and the southern half of its metropolitan territory. France could tell itself that it still retained some shreds of dignity. Despite heavy pressure, Vichy never joined the Axis alliance and remained formally at war with Germany. The Allies took the position that France should refrain from actively helping
720-667: A casa che il sole era già calato, all'ora di cena. Quando faceva buio noi ragazzi ci mandavano a fare granchi, con la luce, che serviva per mettere l'esca agli ami per pescare. Ne raccoglievamo in quantità poi in casa li mettevamo in un sacchetto chiuso in cucina. Una mattina in cui ci eravamo alzati che era ancora buio, quando siamo andati a prendere il sacchetto era vuoto e i granchi giravano per tutte le camere e c'è voluta più di mezz'ora per raccoglierli tutti. Sò nato in Corsica e c'hajo passato li méglio anni de la mi' giovinezza. Mi mentovo quand'èremo bàmboli che le nosse ma' ci mandàveno da ssoli
840-624: A central role in the creation or operation of them all. On 26 June 1940, four days after the Pétain government requested the armistice, General de Gaulle submitted a memorandum to the British government notifying Churchill of his decision to set up a Council of Defense of the Empire and formalizing the agreement reached with Churchill on 28 June. The formal recognition of the Empire Defense Council as
960-439: A fa' 'l bagno. Allora la piaggia era piena di rena, senza scogli né greppe e stàvemo in mare fino a quando ingrozzichiti c'andàvemo a rivorta' 'n chidda rena bollente dal sole. Poi l'urtimo ciutto pe' levacci la rena attaccata a la pella e tornàvemo 'n casa che 'l sole era già ciuttato, a l'ora di cena. Quando veniva buio a no' bàmboli ci mandàveno a fa' granchi, colla luce, che ci voléveno pe' mette' l'ami pe' pescà. Ne aricogliévemo
1080-466: A fa' u bagnu. Allora la piagghia ère piena di réna, senza scógghi né rocce e ci stève in mare dill'òre finu a quandu paunazzi da u freddu po' ci andèvami a rivòrtule in quella réna bullènte da u sole. Po' l'urtimu ciuttu pe' levacci la réna attaccata a la pella e riturnèvamì in casa chi u sole ère ghià calatu, a l'ora di cena. Quandu fève bugghiu a no'zitèlli ci mandèvani a fa' granchi, cu la lusa, chi ci vulèvani pe' annésche l'ami pe' pèsche. Ne ricugghièvami
1200-400: A fatzi lu bagnu a la sora. Tandu l'ippiaggia era piena di rena, chena ischogliu né rocca e si isthazìa a mogliu ori fintz'a candu, biaìtti da lu freddu, andàziami a rudduratzi in chidda rena buddendi da lu sori. A dabboi l'ùlthimu cabutzoni pa bugganni la rena attaccadda a la peddi e turràbami a casa chi lu sori era già caraddu, a l'ora di tzinà. Candu si fazìa buggiu a noi pitzinni tzi mandàbani
1320-928: A fàcci lu bagnu . Tandu la spiagghja era piena di rena, senza scogli né rocchi e si sthaggia ori finz'a candu, biàtti da lu freddu andagiami a vultulacci in chidda rena buddendi da lu soli. Dabboi l'ultima cabucina pà buggacci la rena attaccadda a la pèddi e turravami in casa chi lu soli era ghjà caladdu, a l'ora di cena. Candu fagia bughju à noi piccinni ci mandavani a fà ganci, cù la lugi chi vi vulia pà inniscà l'àmi pà piscà. Ni pigliavami assai e daboi in casa li mittìami drent'a un saccheddu sarraddu in cucina. Un mangianu chi ci n'erami pisaddi chi era sempri bugghju, candu semmu andaddi à piglià lu sacchettu era boiddu é li ganci ghjiràvani pàl tutti li càmmari è v'é vuludda più di mezz'ora pà accuglinnili tutti. Soggu naddu in Còssiga e v'aggiu passaddu l'anni più beddi di la pitzinnìa mea. M'ammentu, cand'érami minori, chi li mammi nosthri tzi mandàbani
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#17328446774181440-467: A fàcci lu bagnu. Tandu la piaghja éra piena di rèna, senza scóddi e né ròcchi e si stagghjìa in mari ori fin'a candu, biaìtti da lu fritu andaghjìami a vultulàcci in chidda rèna buddènti da lu soli. Dapoi, l'ultima capuzzina pa' bucàcci la réna attaccata a la péddi e turràami in casa chi lu soli éra ghjà calatu, a l'ora di cena. Candu facìa bugghju a noi stéddi ci mandàani a fa' granchi, cù la luci, chi vi vulìa pa' accindì(attivà) l'ami pa' piscà. N'accapitàami
1560-800: A fàcci u bagnu. Tandu a piaghja ghjéra piena di rèna, senza scódda né ròcchi è si staghjìa in mari ori fin'a quandu, viola da u fritu andàghjìami a vultulàcci in quidda rèna buddènti da u soli. Dapo', l'ultima capuzzina pa' livàcci a réna attaccata a à péddi e turràiami in casa chì u soli era ghjà calatu, à l'ora di cena. Quandu facìa bughju à no' zitéddi ci mandàiani à fà granci, cù a luci, chi ci vulìa par inniscà l'ami pà piscà. N'arricuglivàmi à mandili pieni è dapoi in casa i mittìami drent'à un sacchettu chjusu in cucina. Una matìna chì ci n'érami pisàti chi ghjéra sempri bughju, quandu sèmu andati à piddà u sacchéttu iddu éra biotu è i granci ghjiràiani pà tutti i càmari e ci hè vuluta più di méz'ora pà ricapizzulàlli tutti. Socu natu in Corsica è v'aghju passatu i megliu anni di
1680-571: A government in exile and in a series of radio appeals exhorted the French to fight back. Some historians have called the first, his appeal of 18 June on the BBC, the beginning of the French Resistance . In fact the audience for that appeal was quite small, but more and more listened as de Gaulle obtained Britain's recognition as the legitimate government of Free France and obtained their agreement to finance
1800-415: A guaro, po' 'n casa li mettévemo in de 'n sacchetto chiuso 'n cucina. Una matina che c'èremo levati ch'era sempre buio, quando simo andati a piglià 'l sacchetto era voto e li granchi giràveno pe' ttutte le càmmere e c'è voluto più di mezz'ora ad aricoglieli tutti. Sigghi natu in Corsica e g'hagghi passatu li mégghiu anni di la me ghiuvinézza. Ricordu quandu èrami zitèlli chi le nosse ma' ci mandèvani da ssòli
1920-669: A key role Vichy French colonial forces were reduced under the terms of the armistice. Nevertheless, in the Mediterranean area alone, Vichy had nearly 150,000 men under arms. There were about 55,000 in French Morocco , 50,000 in Algeria , and almost 40,000 in the Army of the Levant . Refusing to accept his government's armistice with Germany, Charles de Gaulle fled to England on 17 June and exhorted
2040-650: A language existed only in Sardinia; in fact, the existence of Corsican as the island's native vernacular did not take anything away from Paoli's claims that Corsica's official language was Italian. Today's Corsican is the result of these historical vicissitudes, which have morphed the language to an idiom that bears a strong resemblance to the medieval Tuscan once spoken at the time of Dante and Boccaccio , and still existing in peripheral Tuscany ( Lucca , Garfagnana , Elba , Capraia ). The correspondence of modern Corsican to ancient Tuscan can be seen from almost any aspect of
2160-721: A leader, but Churchill's envoys had tried and failed to establish contact with French leaders in North Africa, so on 28 June, the British government recognized de Gaulle as the leader of the Free French , despite the FO's reservations. De Gaulle also initially had little success in attracting the support of major powers. While Pétain's government was recognized by the US, the USSR, and the Vatican, and controlled
2280-504: A line uniting the villages of Piana , Vico , Vizzavona , Ghisoni and Ghisonaccia , and also covering the subgroups from the Cap Corse (which, unlike the rest of the island and similarly to Italian, uses lu , li , la , le as definite articles), Bastia (besides i > e and a > e, u > o: ottanta , momentu , toccà , continentale ; a > o: oliva , orechja , ocellu ), Balagna, Niolo and Corte (which retain
2400-498: A luci, chì ci vulìa par inniscà l'ami pà piscà. N'arricugliìami à mandigli pieni è dopu in casa i mittìami drent'à un sacchettu chjusu in cucina. Una matina chì ci n'erami pisati chì era sempri bughju, quandu semu andati à piglià u sacchettu era biotu è i granci ghjiraiani pà tutti i cammari e ci hè vulsuta più d'una mez'ora pà ricapizzulà li tutti. Sòcu natu in Còssiga e v'agghju passatu li mèddu anni di la mè ciuintù. M'ammentu candu érami stéddi chi li nostri mammi ci mandàani da pal noi
2520-443: A mandilate piene po' in casa li mettivami in de un sacchéttu chiòsu in cusina. Una matìna chi c'èrami orzati chi ère sempre bugghiu, quandu simmi andati a pigghie u sacchéttu ère vòtu e li granchi ghirèvani pe' ttutte le càmmare e c'è vulutu più di mezz'ora a ricugghiàli tutti. Sò natu in Corsica è c'aghju passatu i più belli anni di a mio giuventù. M'arricordu quand'èramu zitelli chì e nostre mamme ci mandavanu soli à fà u bagnu. Tandu
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#17328446774182640-447: A mandili pieni e dapoi in casa li mittìami indrent'a un sacchéddu chjusu in cucina. Una matìna chi ci n'érami pisàti chi éra sempri lu bugghju, candu sèmu andati a piddà lu sacchéddu iddu éra bòitu e li granchi ghjràani pa' tutti li càmbari e v'è vuluta più di mez'ora pa' accapitàlli tutti. Soggu naddu in Còssiga e v'agghju passaddu li megli'anni di la mè ghjuivintù. M'ammentu cand'èrami piccinni chi li nosthri mammi ci mandavani da pal noi
2760-467: A me ghjuvantù. Mi rammentu quand'erami ziteddi chì i nosci mammi ci mandaiani da par no à fàcci u bagnu. Tandu a piaghja era piena di rena, senza scogli nè rocchi è si staia in mari ori fin'à quandu, viola da u fretu andaiami à vultugliàcci in quidda rena buddenti da u soli. Dapoi, l'ultima capuzzina pà livàcci a rena attaccata à a peddi è turraiami in casa chì u soli era ghjà calatu, à l'ora di cena. Quandu facìa bughju à no ziteddi ci mandaiani à fà granci, cù
2880-696: A military efforts against Nazi Germany. De Gaulle also tried, in vain initially, to gain the support of French forces in the French colonial empire. General Charles Noguès , Resident-General in Morocco and Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Africa refused his overtures, and forbade the press in French North Africa to publish the text of de Gaulle 's appeal. The day after the armistice was signed on 21 June 1940, de Gaulle denounced it. The French government in Bordeaux declared de Gaulle compulsorily retired from
3000-407: A number of speakers between 86,800 and 130,200, out of a total population amounting to 309,693 inhabitants. 28% of the overall population was able to speak Corsican well, while an additional 14% had a capacity to speak it "quite well." The percentage of those who had a solid oral understanding of the language varies between a minimum of 25 percent in the 25–34 age group and the maximum of 65 percent in
3120-490: A pesca. N'arricuglìamu à mandilate piene po' in casa i punìamu nu un sacchéttu chjosu in cucina. Una mane chì c'èramu arritti ch'èra sempre bughju, quandu simu andati à piglià u sacchettu ellu èra biotu è i granchi giravanu per tutte e camere è ci hè vulsuta più di méz'ora à ricoglieli tutti. Sòcu natu in Còrsica e v'agghju passatu i mèddu anni di a me ghjuvintù. M'ammentu quand'érami zitéddi chì i nosci mammi ci mandàiani da par no'
3240-424: A piaghja era piena di rena, senza scogli né cotule é ci ne stàvamu in mare per ore fin'à quandu, viola per u freddu, dopu ci n'andavamu a vultulàcci in quella rena bullente da u sole. Po' l'ultima capiciuttata per levacci a rena attaccata à a pelle è vultavamu in casa chì u sole era digià calatu, à ora di cena. Quand'ellu facìa bughju à noi zitèlli ci mandàvanu à fà granchi, cù u lume, chì ci vulìa per innescà l'ami per
3360-428: A piglià granchi, cu' la luzi chi vi vurìa pa innischà l'amu pa pischà. Ni pigliàbami unbè e dabboi in casa li punìami drentu a un sacchettu sarraddu i' la cuzina. Un manzanu chi tzi n'érami pisaddi chi era ancora buggiu, candu semmu andaddi a piglià lu sacchettu eddu era bioddu e li granchi giràbani pa tutti l'appusenti, e v'è vurudda più di mez'ora pa accuglinniri tutti. The situation of Corsican with regard to French as
3480-649: A second offensive force, including French Army B , from the département of Algeria into southern France. City after city in France was liberated, and even Paris was liberated on 25 August 1944. As the liberation progressed, resistance groups were incorporated into the Allied strength. In September, under threat of the Allied advance Pétain and the remains of the Vichy regime fled into exile in Germany . The Allied armies continued to push
3600-459: A strong proponent of collaboration, arranged a meeting between Hitler and Pétain. It took place on 24 October 1940 at Montoire on Hitler's private train. Pétain and Hitler shook hands and agreed to co-operate. The meeting was exploited in Nazi propaganda for the civilian population. On 30 October 1940, Pétain made a policy of French collaboration official, declaring in a radio statement: "I enter today on
3720-547: A voluntary basis. The 1991 Joxe Statute, in setting up the Collectivité Territoriale de Corse, also provided for the Corsican Assembly , and charged it with developing a plan for the optional teaching of Corsican. The University of Corsica Pasquale Paoli at Corte, Haute-Corse took a central role in the planning. At the primary school level Corsican is taught up to a fixed number of hours per week (three in
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3840-494: Is a group typologically different from Sardinian, it has long been a subject of debate whether the two should be included as dialects either of Corsican or of Sardinian or, in light of their historical development, even considered languages of their own. It has been argued that all these varieties should be placed in a single category, Southern Romance , but such classification has not garnered universal support among linguists. On 14 October 1997, Article 2 Item 4 of Law Number 26 of
3960-472: Is an uninflected chì in Corsican. The only unifying, as well as distinctive, feature which separates the Corsican dialects from the mainland Tuscan ones, with the exception of Amiatino, Pitiglianese, and Capraiese, is the retention of word-final o - u . For example, the Italian demonstrative pronouns questo "this" and quello "that" become in Corsican questu or quistu and quellu or quiddu : this feature
4080-438: Is assimilated to ⟨m⟩ before ⟨p⟩ or ⟨b⟩ ) and the palatal nasal consonant represented by ⟨gn⟩ . The nasal vowels are represented by the vowel plus ⟨n⟩ , ⟨m⟩ or ⟨gn⟩ . The combination is a digraph or trigraph indicating the nasalized vowel. The consonant is pronounced in weakened form. The same combination of letters might not be
4200-505: Is considered a part of Tuscan varieties , from that part of the Italian peninsula , and thus is related to the Florentine -based standard Italian . Under the long-standing influence of Tuscany's Pisa , and the historic Republic of Genoa , over Corsica, the Corsican language once filled the role of a vernacular , with Italian functioning as the island's official language until France acquired
4320-553: Is not mutually intelligible), but rather the Extreme Southern Italian dialects like Siculo - Calabrian . It has been theorised, on the other hand, that a Sardinian variety, or a variety very similar to Sardo-Romance, might have been originally spoken in Corsica prior to the island's Tuscanisation under Pisan and Genoese rule. The matter is controversial in light of the historical, cultural and particularly strong linguistic bonds that Corsica had traditionally formed with
4440-463: Is not straightforward. As in Italian, the grapheme ⟨i⟩ appears in some digraphs and trigraphs in which it does not represent the phonemic vowel. All vowels are pronounced except in a few well-defined instances. ⟨i⟩ is not pronounced between ⟨sc/sg/c/g⟩ and ⟨a/o/u⟩ : sciarpa [ˈʃarpa] ; or initially in some words: istu [ˈstu] Vowels may be nasalized before ⟨n⟩ (which
4560-539: Is quite typical of the Mainland Italian dialects. Italian was perceived as different from Corsican, but not as much as the differences between the two main isoglosses of Northern and Southern Corsican, as spoken by their respective native speakers. When Pasquale Paoli found himself exiled in London, he replied to Samuel Johnson 's query on the peculiar existence of a "rustic language" very different from Italian that such
4680-639: Is the most widespread on the island and standardised as well, and is spoken in North-West Corsica around the districts of Bastia and Corte. The dialects of Bastia and Cap Corse belong to the Western Tuscan dialects; they being, with the exception of Florentine , the closest to standard Italian. All the dialects presenting, in addition to what has already been stated, the conditional formed in -ebbe (e.g. (ella) amarebbe "she would love") are generally considered Cismontani dialects, situated north of
4800-632: The British Empire and the United States of America would support them militarily and economically in an effort to retake France from the Germans. Few actually heard the speech but another speech, heard by more people, was given by de Gaulle four days later. After the war, de Gaulle's radio appeal was often identified as the beginning of the French Resistance, and the process of liberating France from
4920-625: The Empire Defense Council in Brazzaville , which became the capital of Free France . Allied military efforts in north western Europe began in summer 1944 with two seaborne invasions of France. Operation Overlord in June 1944 landed two million men, including a French armoured division, through the beaches of Normandy , opening a Western front against Germany. Operation Dragoon in August launched
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5040-534: The Etruscans , who asserted their presence on the island in as early as 500 BC. In 40 AD, the natives of Corsica reportedly did not speak Latin. The Roman exile, Seneca the Younger , reported that both coast and interior were occupied by natives whose language he was not able to understand. More specifically, Seneca claimed that the island's population was the result of the stratification of different ethnic groups, such as
5160-515: The Free French , with the costs to be settled after the war (the financial agreement was finalized in March 1941). A separate letter guaranteed the territorial integrity of the French colonial empire. The French Resistance was a decentralized network of small cells of fighters with the tacit or overt support of many French civilians. The various resistance groups by 1944 had an estimated 100,000 members in France. Some were former Republican fighters from
5280-533: The Gravona area, Bastelica (which would be classified as Southern, but is also noted for its typical rhotacism: Basterga ) and Solenzara, which did not preserve the Latin short vowels: seccu , peru , rossu , croci , pozzu . The Southern Corsican macro variety ( Suttanacciu , Suttanu , Pumuntincu or Oltramontano ) is the most archaic and conservative group, spoken in the districts of Sartène and Porto-Vecchio. Unlike
5400-682: The Greeks , the Ligures (see the Ligurian hypothesis ) and the Iberians, whose language had long since stopped being recognizable among the population due to the intermixing of the other two groups. The occupation of the island by the Vandals around the year 469 marked the end of authoritative influence by Latin speakers. (See Medieval Corsica .) If the natives of that time spoke Latin , they must have acquired it during
5520-517: The Sardinian language , are spoken in the neighbouring island of Sardinia . Gallurese is spoken in the extreme north of the island, including the region of Gallura , while Sassarese is spoken in Sassari and in its neighbourhood, in the northwest of Sardinia . Their geographical position in Sardinia has been theorised to be the result of different migration waves from the already tuscanized Corsicans and
5640-815: The Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers , Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance . Nazi Germany invaded France in May 1940. Their rapid advance through the almost undefended Ardennes caused a crisis in the French government; the French Third Republic dissolved itself in July, and handed over absolute power to Marshal Philippe Pétain , an elderly hero of World War I. Pétain signed an armistice with Germany with
5760-550: The Spanish Civil War ; others were workers who went into hiding rather than report for the mandatory Service du travail obligatoire (STO) to work for German arms factories. In the south of France especially, Resistance fighters took to the mountainous brush ( maquis ) that gave them their name, and conducted guerilla warfare on the German occupation forces, cutting telephone lines and destroying bridges. The Armée Secrète
5880-512: The Teatru Paisanu , which produced polyphonic musicals, 1973–1982, followed in 1980 by Michel Raffaelli's Teatru di a Testa Mora , and Saveriu Valentini's Teatru Cupabbia in 1984. Modern prose writers include Alanu di Meglio, Ghjacumu Fusina, Lucia Santucci, and Marcu Biancarelli. There were writers working in Corsican in the 1700s and 1800s. Ferdinand Gregorovius , a 19th-century traveller and enthusiast of Corsican culture, reported that
6000-519: The Tuscan Italo-Dalmatian dialects spoken on the Mediterranean island of Corsica , a territory of France , and in the northern regions of the island of Sardinia , an autonomous region of Italy . Corsica, the island proper, is situated approximately 123.9 km (77.0 miles; 66 nautical miles ) off the western coast of Tuscany ; and with historical connections, the Corsican language
6120-460: The acute accent is sometimes found on stressed ⟨e⟩ , the circumflex on stressed ⟨o⟩ , indicating respectively ( /e/ ) and ( /o/ ) phonemes. Corsican has been regarded as a dialect of Italian historically, similar to the Romance lects developed on the Italian peninsula, and in writing, it also resembles Italian (with the generalised substitution of - u for final - o and
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#17328446774186240-420: The single territorial collectivity of Corsica, with territorial elections coinciding with the dissolution of the separate councils. However, even though its administrative powers were ceded to the new territorial collectivity, it continues to remain an administrative department in its own right. In 2019, it had a population of 181,933. The department was formed on 1 January 1976, when the department of Corsica
6360-480: The 17th century. An undated corpus of proverbs from communes may well precede it (see under External links below). Corsican has also left a trail of legal documents ending in the late 12th century. At that time the monasteries held considerable land on Corsica and many of the churchmen were notaries . Between 1200 and 1425 the monastery of Gorgona , which belonged to the Order of Saint Benedict for much of that time and
6480-423: The 1960s. By 1995, an estimated 65% of islanders had some degree of proficiency in Corsican, and a minority of around 10% used Corsican as a first language. Corsican is classed as a regional language under French law. It is almost universally agreed that Corsican is typologically and traditionally Italo-Romance , but its specific position therein is more controversial. Some scholars argue that Corsican belongs to
6600-642: The Army with the rank of colonel, on 23 June 1940. Also on 23 June, the British Government denounced the armistice and announced that they no longer regarded the Bordeaux government as a fully independent state. They also noted a plan to establish a French National Committee in exile, but did not mention de Gaulle by name. The armistice took effect starting at 00:35 on 25 June. On 26 June de Gaulle wrote to Churchill about recognition for his French Committee. The Foreign Office had reservations about de Gaulle as
6720-519: The Autonomous Region of Sardinia granted "the Sassarese and Gallurese dialects" (« al dialetto sassarese e a quello gallurese ») equal legal status with the other languages indigenous to Sardinia . Thus, even though they would technically not be covered by the national law pertaining to the historical linguistic minorities, among which is Sardinian, Sassarese and Gallurese are nonetheless recognized by
6840-480: The Centro-Southern Italian dialects, while others are of the opinion that it is closely related to, or as part of, Italy's Tuscan dialect varieties. Italian and the dialects of Corsican (especially Northern Corsican) are in fact very mutually intelligible . Southern Corsican, in spite of the geographical proximity, has as its closest linguistic neighbour not Sardinian (a separate group with which it
6960-525: The Corsican language in French public offices and the regional parliament was legally banned, the existence of the "Corsican people" was also deemed unconstitutional. According to the anthropologist Dumenica Verdoni, writing new literature in modern Corsican, known as the Riacquistu , is an integral part of affirming Corsican identity. Some individuals have returned from careers in continental France to write in Corsican, including Dumenicu Togniotti, director of
7080-418: The Corsican language." In 1990, out of a total population of about 254,000, the percentage had declined to 50 percent, with 10 percent of the island's residents using it as a first language. The language appeared to be in serious decline when the French government reversed its unsupportive stand and initiated some strong measures to save it. The January 2007 estimated population of Corsica was 281,000, whereas
7200-455: The Corsicans knew how to write correctly in Corsican, while about 60 percent of the population did not know how to write in Corsican. While 90 percent of the population was in favor of a Corsican-French bilingualism, 3 percent would have liked to have only Corsican as the official language in the island, and 7 percent would have preferred French to have this role. UNESCO classifies Corsican as
7320-485: The Free French forces in the fight against Germany, which most of them did by 1943. On 26 August, the governor and military commanders in the colony of French Chad announced that they were rallying to De Gaulle's Free French Forces . A small group of Gaullists seized control of French Cameroon the following morning, and on 28 August a Free French official ousted the pro-Vichy governor of French Congo . The next day
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#17328446774187440-517: The French fleet and military in all the colonies, de Gaulle 's retinue consisted of a secretary, three colonels, a dozen captains, a law professor, and three battalions of legionnaires who had agreed to stay in Britain and fight for him. For a time the New Hebrides were the only French colony to back de Gaulle . De Gaulle and Churchill reached agreement on 7 August 1940 that Britain would also fund
7560-411: The French to resist occupation and to continue the fight. Reynaud resigned after his proposal for a Franco-British Union was rejected by his cabinet and De Gaulle facing imminent arrest, fled France on 17 June. Other leading politicians, including Georges Mandel , Léon Blum , Pierre Mendès France , Jean Zay and Édouard Daladier (and separately Reynaud), were arrested while travelling to continue
7680-715: The Germans back through eastern France and in February and March 1945, back across the Rhine into Germany. A few pockets of German resistance remained in control of the main Atlantic ports until the end of the war on 8 May 1945. Immediately after liberation, France was swept by a wave of executions, assaults, and degradation of suspected collaborators, including shaming of women suspected of relationships with Germans . Courts set up in June 1944 carried out an épuration légale (official purge) of officials tainted by association with Vichy or
7800-527: The Germans, but distrusted its assurances. The British attacked the French Navy at anchor in Mers-el-Kébir , to keep it out of German hands. Charles de Gaulle had been since 5 June the Under-Secretary of State for National Defence and War and responsible for coordination with Britain. Refusing to accept his government's position on Germany, he escaped back to England on 17 June. In London he established
7920-594: The Germans. The British recognized and funded de Gaulle's Free French government in exile based in London. Efforts to liberate France began in the autumn of 1940 in France's colonial empire in Africa, still in the hands of the Vichy regime. General de Gaulle persuaded French Chad to support Free France, and by 1943 most other French colonies in Equatorial and North Africa had followed suit. De Gaulle announced formation of
8040-399: The Interior (FFI), as de Gaulle came to call Resistance forces inside France, were an uneasy alliance of several maquis and other organizations, including the Communist-organized Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP) and the Armée secrète in southern France. In addition, escape networks helped Allied airmen who had been shot down get to safety. The Unione Corse and the milieu ,
8160-409: The Italian Mainland from the Middle Ages until the 19th century: in contrast to the neighbouring Sardinia , Corsica's installment into a diglossic system with Italian as the island's prestige language ran so deep that both Corsican and Italian might be even, and in fact were, perceived as two sociolinguistic levels of a single language. Corsican and Italian traditionally existed on a spectrum, and
8280-429: The Low Countries beginning on 10 May 1940. German forces split the French from their British allies by striking through the lightly defended Ardennes , whose topography French strategists had considered prohibitively difficult for tanks. The invaders forced the British Expeditionary Force to evacuate, and defeated several French divisions before they advanced to Paris, and down the strategic Atlantic coast. By June,
8400-435: The Northern varieties and similarly to Sardinian, the group retains the distinction of the Latin short vowels ĭ and ŭ (e.g. pilu , bucca ). It is also strongly marked by the presence of the voiced retroflex stop , like Sicilian (e.g. aceddu , beddu , quiddu , ziteddu , famidda ), and the conditional mood formed in -ìa (e.g. (idda) amarìa "she would love"). All the Oltramontani dialects are from an area located to
8520-483: The Pacific islands, and territories in North and South America. France retained control of its colonial empire, and the terms of the armistice shifted the power balance post-armistice of France's reduced military resources away from France and towards the colonies, especially North Africa. By 1943, all French colonies, except for Japanese-controlled Indochina, had joined the Free French cause. The colonies in North Africa and French Equatorial Africa in particular played
8640-534: The Sardinian government on a regional level. Sono nato in Corsica e vi ho passato gli anni migliori della mia giovinezza. Ricordo, quando eravamo ragazzi, che le nostre mamme ci mandavano da soli a fare il bagno. Allora la spiaggia era piena di sabbia, senza scogli né rocce e si stava in mare delle ore fino a quando, paonazzi dal freddo poi ci andavamo a rotolare in quella sabbia bollente dal sole. Poi l'ultimo tuffo per levarci la sabbia attaccata alla pelle e ritornavamo
8760-522: The Sassarese dialect was nothing more than a contaminated Pisan, to which Sardinian, Corsican and Spanish expressions had been added; it is therefore not an indigenous dialect, but rather a continental one and, to be more specific, a mixed Tuscan dialect with its own peculiarities, and different from the Corsican-imported Gallurese. Some Italo-Romance languages that might have originated from Southern Corsican, but are also heavily influenced by
8880-591: The South of Porticcio, Bastelica , Col di Verde and Solenzara. Notable dialects are those from around Taravo (retroflex - dd - only for historical -ll- : frateddu , suredda , beddu ; preservation of the palatal lateral approximant : piglià , famiglia , figliolu , vogliu ; does not preserve the Latin short vowels: seccu , peru , rossu , croci , pozzu ), Sartène (preserving the Latin short vowels: siccu , piru , russu , cruci , puzzu ; changing historical -rn- to -rr- : forru , carri , corru ; substituting
9000-594: The Tuscans, who then proceeded to settle in Sardinia and slowly displace the indigenous Logudorese Sardinian varieties spoken therein (at present, Luras is the only town in the middle of Gallura that has retained the original language). On the Maddalena archipelago , which was culturally Corsican but had been annexed to the Savoyard Kingdom of Sardinia a short while before Corsica was ceded by Genoa to France in 1767,
9120-405: The articles u and a for il/lo and la respectively; however, both the dialect of Cap Corse and Gallurese retain the original articles lu and la ). On the other hand, the phonemes of the modern Corsican dialects have undergone complex and sometimes irregular phenomena depending on phonological context, so the pronunciation of the language for foreigners familiar with other Romance languages
9240-558: The broader Italian sphere, considering Corsican "one of the lowest, impure dialects of Italy". It was the Italian Fascist aggressive claims to the island in the 20th century, followed by their invasion , that provoked a popular backlash, estranging the native islanders from standard Italian and, if anything, only accelerated their shifting to the French even further. By the Liberation of France , any previously existing link between
9360-438: The country's national language is analogous to that of many other French regions and provinces, which have or used to have a traditional language of their own, even though the islanders' switch from their local idiom to regional French has happened relatively later and the presence of Corsican, albeit declining, is still strongly felt among the population. In 1980, about 70 percent of the island's population "had some command of
9480-690: The criminal underground of Marseilles, gleefully provided logistical escape assistance for a price, although some such as Paul Carbone instead worked with the Carlingue , French auxiliaries to the Gestapo SD and German military police. France's colonial empire at the start of World War II stretched from territories and possessions in Africa, the Middle East ( Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon ), to ports in India, Indochina,
9600-417: The department are called Supranacci . Most people of the department lives on coastal areas throughout highway. The current prefect of Haute-Corse is François Ravier, who took office on 3 June 2019. Corsican language Corsican ( corsu , pronounced [ˈkorsu] , or lingua corsa , pronounced [ˈliŋɡwa ˈɡorsa] ) is a Romance language consisting of the continuum of
9720-524: The digraph or trigraph but might be just the non-nasal vowel followed by the consonant at full weight. The speaker must know the difference. Example of nasal: ⟨pane⟩ is pronounced [ˈpãnɛ] and not [ˈpanɛ] . The Northern and central dialects in the vicinity of the Taravo river adopt the Italian seven-vowel system, whereas all the Southern ones around the so-called "archaic zone" with its centre being
9840-551: The dire French military situation had French politics revolving around whether the Third Republic should negotiate an armistice, fight on from North Africa, or just surrender. Prime Minister Paul Reynaud wanted to keep fighting, but was outvoted and resigned. The government relocated several times ahead of advancing German troops, ending up in Bordeaux. President Albert Lebrun appointed 84-year-old war hero Philippe Pétain as his replacement on 16 June 1940. Within six weeks of
9960-507: The direct orders of an enemy who will one day be driven from the soil of France. Then I will submit myself willingly to the people's judgment." Pétain signed the Armistice of 22 June . Its terms left the French Army under Vichy France a rump Armistice Army . The naval fleet, although disabled, remained under Vichy control. In the colonial empire, the armistice terms permitted defensive use of
10080-493: The dividing lines between them were blurred enough that the locals needed little else but a change of register to communicate in an official setting. "Tuscanising" their tongue, or as the Corsican elites would have once said, parlà in crusca ("speaking in crusca ", from the name of the Academy dedicated to the standardisation of the Italian language), allowed for a practice not of code-switching , but rather of code-mixing which
10200-438: The effort once Germany invaded the Soviet Union. French prisoners of war were held hostage against the French government meeting their quota of workers. When the mass impressment of able-bodied civilians began, French railway workers ( cheminots ) went on strike rather than allow the Germans to use the trains to transport them. The cheminots eventually formed their own organization, Résistance-Fer . The French Forces of
10320-497: The evolution of Corsican starting from about the year 1950, whereas "distanciated Corsican" refers to an idealized variety of Corsican following linguistic purism , by means of removing any French-derived elements. The two most widely spoken forms of the Corsican language are the groups spoken in the Bastia and Corte area (generally throughout the northern half of the island, known as Haute-Corse , Cismonte or Corsica suprana ), and
10440-521: The figure for the March 1999 census, when most of the studies—though not the linguistic survey work referenced in this article—were performed, was about 261,000. Only a fraction of the population at either time spoke Corsican with any fluency. According to an official survey run on behalf of the Territorial Collectivity of Corsica which took place in April 2013, in Corsica, the Corsican language had
10560-607: The first step in his decentralization policies. On 1 January 2018, Haute-Corse's administrative powers were partly ceded to the new territorial collectivity of Corsica. The department is surrounded on three sides by the Mediterranean Sea and on the south by the department of Corse-du-Sud. Rivers include the Abatesco , Golo and Tavignano . The most populous commune is Bastia , the prefecture. As of 2019, there are 7 communes with more than 5,000 inhabitants: The people living in
10680-495: The general Corsican traits: distinu , ghjinnaghju , sicondu , billezza , apartu , farru , marcuri , cantaraghju , uttanta , mumentu , tuccà , cuntinentale , aliva , arechja , acellu ). Across the Northern and Southern borders of the line separating the Northern dialects from the Southern ones, there is a transitional area picking up linguistic phenomena associated with either of
10800-478: The governor of Ubangi-Shari declared that his territory would support De Gaulle. His declaration prompted a brief struggle for power with a pro-Vichy army officer, but by the end of the day all of the colonies that formed French Equatorial Africa had rallied to Free France, except for French Gabon . A series of organizing bodies was created during the war, to guide and coordinate the diplomatic and war effort of Free France, with General Charles de Gaulle playing
10920-515: The groups spoken around Sartène and Porto-Vecchio (generally throughout the southern half of the island, known as Corse-du-Sud , Pumonti or Corsica suttana ). The dialect of Ajaccio has been described as in transition. The dialects spoken at Calvi and Bonifacio ( Bonifacino ) are dialects of the Ligurian language . This division along the Girolata-Porto Vecchio line was due to
11040-450: The initial German assault, an overwhelmed French military faced imminent defeat. The cabinet agreed to seek peace terms and sent the Germans a delegation under General Charles Huntziger , with instructions to break off negotiations if the Germans demanded excessively harsh conditions such as the occupation of all of metropolitan France, the French fleet, or any of the French overseas territories. The Germans did not, however. Pierre Laval ,
11160-475: The island from the Republic of Genoa (1768); by 1859, French had replaced Italian as Corsica's first language so much so that, by the time of the Liberation of France (1945), nearly every islander had at least a working-knowledge of French. The 20th century saw a vast language shift , with the islanders adapting and changing their communications to the extent that there were no monolingual Corsican-speakers left by
11280-465: The language, ranging from the phonetics, morphology, lexicon to the syntax. One of the characteristics of standard Italian is the retention of the - re infinitive ending, as in Latin mittere "send"; such infinitival ending is lost in Tuscan as well as Corsican, resulting in the outcome mette / metta , "to put". Whereas the relative pronoun in Italian for "who" is chi and "what" is che / (che) cosa , it
11400-530: The late empire. Modern Corsican has been influenced by the languages of the major powers taking an interest in Corsican affairs; earlier by those of the medieval Italian powers, such as the Papal States (828–1077), the Republic of Pisa (1077–1282) and the Republic of Genoa (1282–1768), and finally by France which, since 1859, has promulgated the official Parisian French. The term " gallicised Corsican" refers to
11520-475: The local dialect (called isulanu or maddaleninu ) was brought by fishermen and shepherds from Bonifacio over a long period of immigration in the 17th and 18th centuries. Though influenced by Gallurese, it has maintained the original characteristics of Southern Corsican. In the dialect of maddalenino , as it is known in Italian, there are also numerous words of Genoese and Ponzese origin. Although Gallurese and Sassarese both belong to Italo-Dalmatian , which
11640-473: The massive immigration from Tuscany which took place in Corsica during the lower Middle Ages: as a result, the northern Corsican dialects became very close to a central Italian dialect like Tuscan, while the southern Corsican varieties could keep the original characteristics of the language which make it much more similar to Sicilian and, only to some extent, Sardinian . The Northern Corsican macro variety ( Supranacciu , Supranu , Cismuntincu or Cismontano )
11760-582: The military occupation. Some defendants received death sentences, and faced a firing squad. The first elections since 1940 were organized in May 1945 by the Provisional Government ; these municipal elections were the first in which women could vote. In referendums in October 1946, the voters approved a new constitution and the Fourth Republic was born 27 October 1946. Nazi Germany invaded France and
11880-431: The monastery closed its doors and were published there. Research into earlier evidence of Corsican is ongoing. Corsican is written in the standard Latin script , using 21 of the letters for native words. The letters j, k, w, x, and y are found only in foreign names and French vocabulary. The digraphs and trigraphs chj , ghj , sc and sg are also defined as "letters" of the alphabet in its modern scholarly form (compare
12000-482: The naval fleet. In metropolitan France, forces were severely reduced, armored vehicles and tanks prohibited, and motorized transport severely limited. In July, the National Assembly of the French Third Republic dissolved itself and gave absolute power to Pétain , who was to set up a constituent assembly and constitutional referendum. The "French State" created by this transfer of power was commonly known after
12120-786: The north and west of France under German military occupation . Pétain, charged with calling a Constitutional Authority, instead established an authoritarian government in the spa town of Vichy , in the southern zone libre ("free zone"). Though nominally independent, Vichy France became a collaborationist regime and was little more than a Nazi client state that actively participated in Jewish deportations and aided German forces in anti-partisan actions in Occupied France as well as in combat actions in Africa. Even before France surrendered on 22 June 1940, General Charles de Gaulle fled to London, from where he called on his fellow citizens to resist
12240-510: The over-65 age group: almost a quarter of the former age group reported that they were not able to understand Corsican, while only a small minority of the older people did not understand it. While 32 percent of the population of Northern Corsica was reported to speak Corsican quite well, this percentage dropped to 22 percent for Southern Corsica. Moreover, 10 percent of the population of Corsica spoke only French, while 62 percent code-switched between French and at least some Corsican. 8 percent of
12360-449: The path of collaboration." General De Gaulle , sentenced to death in absentia by the Vichy régime , escaped and created a government in exile for Free France in London. Of the sentence, he said: "I consider the death sentence by the men of Vichy entirely void, I shall settle accounts with them after victory. The sentence is that of a court largely under the influence and possibly under
12480-458: The preferred form of the literary tradition of his time was the vocero , a type of polyphonic ballad originating from funeral obsequies. These laments were similar in form to the chorales of Greek drama except that the leader could improvise. Some performers were noted at this, such as the 1700s Mariola della Piazzole and Clorinda Franseschi. However, the trail of written popular literature of known date in Corsican currently goes no further back than
12600-404: The presence of ch or ll in the old Spanish alphabet) and appear respectively after c , g and s . The primary diacritic used is the grave accent , indicating word stress when it is not penultimate . In scholarly contexts, disyllables may be distinguished from diphthongs by use of the diaeresis on the former vowel (as in Italian and distinct from French and English). In older writing,
12720-603: The rediscovery of Corsican culture. Nationalist calls for Corsican to be put on the same footing as French led the French National Assembly, in 1974, to extend the 1951 Deixonne Law, which initially recognized only a few languages ( Breton , Basque , Catalan and Occitan ), to including Corsican as well, among others, not as a dialect of Italian, but as one of France's full-fledged regional languages.(See governmental support .) The common relationship between Corsica and central Italy can be traced from as far back as
12840-659: The stop for the palatal lateral approximant: piddà , famidda , fiddolu , voddu ; imperfect tense like cantàvami , cantàvani ; masculine plurals ending in a : l'ochja , i poma ; having eddu/edda/eddi as personal pronouns), the Alta Rocca (the most conservative area in Corsica, being very close to the varieties spoken in Northern Sardinia), and the Southern region located between the hinterlands of Porto-Vecchio and Bonifacio (masculine singulars always ending in u : fiumu , paesu , patronu ; masculine plurals always ending in
12960-524: The successor organization to the smaller Empire Defense Council. According to historian Henri Bernard, De Gaulle went on to accept his proposal, but took care to exclude all his adversaries within the Free France movement, such as Émile Muselier , André Labarthe and others, retaining only "yes men" in the group. The committee was the coordinating body which acted as the government-in-exile of Free France from 1941 to 1943. On 3 June 1943 it merged with
13080-700: The town of Sartène (including the Gallurese dialect spoken in Northern Sardinia) resort to a five-vowel system without length differentiation, like Sardinian . The vowel inventory, or collection of phonemic vowels (and the major allophones), transcribed in IPA symbols, is: Liberation of France Allied victory [REDACTED] French Resistance (until 1944) Luxembourg The Netherlands Belgium France Britain 1941–1943 1944–1945 Germany Strategic campaigns The liberation of France ( French : libération de la France ) in
13200-859: The two groups, with some local peculiarities. Along the Northern line are the dialects around Piana and Calcatoggio , from Cinarca with Vizzavona (which form the conditional as in the South), and Fiumorbo through Ghisonaccia and Ghisoni, which have the retroflex [ɖ] sound (written -dd- ) for historical -ll- ; along the Southern line, the dialects of Ajaccio (retroflex -dd- , realized as - ghj -, feminine plurals ending in i , some Northern words like cane and accattà instead of ghjacaru and cumprà , as well as ellu / ella and not eddu / edda ; minor variations: sabbatu > sabbitu , u li dà > ghi lu dà ; final syllables often stressed and truncated: marinari > marinà , panatteri > panattè , castellu > castè , cuchjari > cuchjà ),
13320-432: The two linguistic varieties and with Italy altogether had been severed; any promotion of Corsican, which had been politicized by the local collaborators with the regime, would be met with popular criticism and even suspicion of potentially harboring irredentist sentiments. From then on, Corsican would grow independently of Italian to become, later in the 1970s, a centerpiece of the Riacquistu ("reacquisition") movement for
13440-422: The war as the "Vichy régime". Pétain did nothing about a constitution however, and established a totalitarian government at Vichy in the southern zone. The Vichy régime nominally governed all of France, but in practice the zone occupée was a Nazi dictatorship and the Vichy government's power was limited and uncertain even in the zone libre . Vichy France became a collaborationist regime , little more than
13560-545: The war from North Africa. De Gaulle obtained special permission from Winston Churchill to broadcast a speech on 18 June via Radio Londres (a French language radio station operated by the BBC) to France, despite the Cabinet's objections that such a broadcast could provoke the Pétain government into a closer allegiance with Germany. In his speech, de Gaulle reminded the French people that
13680-594: The year 2000) and is a voluntary subject at the secondary school level, but is required at the University of Corsica. It is available through adult education. It can be spoken in court or in the conduct of other government business if the officials concerned speak it. The Cultural Council of the Corsican Assembly advocates for its use, for example, on public signs. In 2023, in a judgement initiated by local prefect and going in opposite direction of recent trends, usage of
13800-554: The yoke of German occupation. {{{annotations}}} De Gaulle's support grew out of a base in colonial Africa. In the summer of 1940, the colonial empire largely supported the Vichy regime. Félix Éboué , governor of Chad, switched his support to General de Gaulle in September. Encouraged, de Gaulle traveled to Brazzaville in October, where he announced the formation of an Empire Defense Council in his " Brazzaville Manifesto ", and invited all colonies still supporting Vichy to join him and
13920-490: Was a French military organization active during World War II. The collective grouped the paramilitary formations of the three most important Gaullist resistance movements in the southern zone: Combat, Libération-sud and the Franc-Tireurs. Some organizations grew up around one of the many clandestine presses of the time, such as Combat , founded by Albert Camus , to which Jean-Paul Sartre also contributed. Stalin supported
14040-639: Was also typical of the early Italian texts during the Middle Ages. Even after the acquisition of Corsica by Louis XV , Italian continued to be the island's language of education, literature, religion and local affairs. The affluent youth still went to Italy to pursue higher studies. (It has been estimated that Corsican presence in Pisa amounted to a fourth of the University 's total student body in 1830.) Local civil registers continued to be written in Italian until 1855; it
14160-509: Was divided into Upper Corsica ( Haute-Corse ) and Southern Corsica ( Corse-du-Sud ). The department corresponds exactly to the former department of Golo, which existed between 1793 and 1811. On 6 July 2003, a referendum on increased autonomy was voted down by a very thin majority: 50.98 percent against to 49.02 percent for. This was a major setback for French Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy , who had hoped to use Corsica as
14280-449: Was in the territory of Pisa , acquired about 40 legal papers of various sorts related to Corsica. As the church was replacing Pisan prelates with Corsican ones there, the legal language shows a transition from entirely Latin through partially Latin and partially Corsican to entirely Corsican. The first known surviving document containing some Corsican is a bill of sale from Patrimonio dated to 1220. These documents were moved to Pisa before
14400-592: Was on 9 May 1859, that Italian was replaced by French as the island's official language, although the latter would start to take root among the islanders from 1882 onwards, through the Jules Ferry laws aimed at spreading literacy across the French provinces. Even so, a specifically homegrown Corsican (rather than Italian) literature in Corsica only developed belatedly and, in its earliest phase, there were no autonomous cultural instances; Corsican writers, such as Salvatore Viale, even prided themselves on their affiliation to
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