Corsican language

Corsican, also called corsu and lingua corsa, is a Romance language closely related to the Tuscan varieties of central Italy and therefore to standard Italian. It is spoken and written on the island of Corsica (France) and in northern Sardinia (Italy). Italian had an official status in Corsica from the Middle Ages until 1859. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the use of French grew to the extent that, by 1945, all islanders had a working knowledge of French. By the 1960s, there were no monolingual speaker of Corsican left. In 1995, around 65% of the islanders had some degree of fluency in Corsican with only 10% having Corsican as their first language. The language is considered definitely endangered by the UNESCO, meaning that it is in danger of becoming extinct. It is estimated that there is around 200,000 native speakers. Gallurse and Sassarese, two languages considered to be of Corsican origin, are recognized as an official minority language in Sardinia.

Dialects

The Corsican language has two main dialects: Northern Corsican and Southern Corsican.

Gallurese, spoken in the region of Gallura in the northeastern part of Sardinia, and Sassarese, are often considered transitional languages between Corsican and Sardinian.

Lessons

• Corsican I - Greetings

External resources

• Corsican phrasebook on Wikivoyage
• Corsican language, alphabet and pronunciation on Omniglot