ABSTRACT
The lexical, phraseological, and, to a lesser extent, morphosyntactic influence of French on the local languages is very strong. Breakdown in language transmission and use occurred much later, especially after the Second World War. In the case of Piedmont, as elsewhere in Europe, language loss has involved the shift from a multilingual and multidialectal competence to basically Italian monolingualism. What were the linguistic correlates of "becoming a dialect" in the case of Piedmontese? As anticipated earlier, literature in Piedmontese, though never massive, was especially abundant in the 18th and 19th centuries. Modern printed literature in Piedmontese comes to grips with previously unexplored genres, from crime novels to science fiction. In the case of Piedmontese, the lexicon resorts as usual to the revitalization of inherited but long-forgotten or local words and expressions, but also to French or French-like borrowings and to outright creation.
