ABSTRACT
The relatively clearly-defined geographical and historical profile of Piedmont is not matched linguistically, since not only does the border between Gallo-Italian and the rest of Gallo-Romance (Occitan, Franco-Provençal and French) lie inside its northern and western boundaries, but the dialects of the province of Novara in the north-east are Lombard and, further south, transitional dialects exhibiting varying degrees of Lombard and / or Ligurian features are spoken (Grassi (1965), Berruto (1974) and Telmon (1988a)). The label ‘Piedmontese’ is used both for the group of dialects spoken in central Piedmont and the Turinese-based koine that evolved from the late seventeenth century. The latter’s growth in prestige, accompanying that of the capital chosen by the House of Savoy, and followed by gradual standardization through literary, grammatical and lexicographical publications, was such that it came to be, and still is, considered a ‘language’ by some of its speakers (see Clivio (1987), Parry (1994a)). In terms of Muljačić's relativistic sociolinguistic model (see Ch. 45) Piedmontese is a ‘Middle language’, High vis-à-vis other Piedmontese varieties, but Low vis-à-vis Italian, lacking the functional diversity and vitality associated with a fully-fledged language and nowadays influenced increasingly by Italian in its direction of change. Current efforts to promote the use of Piedmontese in all spheres of activity find difficulty in counteracting in the community at large the decline in status occasioned by the universal acquisition of Italian. Parents in the Alpine valleys who spoke Piedmontese rather than patois to their children until a generation ago, now use Italian (Telmon (1989)), and provincial dwellers who in the past made adjustments in the direction of Turinese when addressed in that variety, nowadays tend to reply in their local dialect (Telmon (1988b)).
